I can't remember the last time I checked out my old neighborhood website FREEWILLIAMSBURG, but for some reason I did today* and while it's no longer around it was fascinating to read the story of the thing itself since it practically mirrored my years there, both in time and location:
When I first arrived in New York in September of 1996, I rented a sizable two bedroom apartment on 93 Berry Street, just a few blocks from the Bedford Avenue L train stop. It was $900 a month, which made the shared rent of $450 that my roommate and I paid pretty darn affordable.
In 1996, Williamsburg was already changing. North of Metropolitan Avenue was called Northside and was primarily a Polish neighborhood with a scattering of newly-implanted artists. If you ventured south, closer to the Williamsburg bridge, things began to get seedy. Prostitutes would chase after you at night begging for a trick. Cabs did not want to venture anywhere other than Luger’s. Kokie’s was openly selling crappy blow — and getting away with it — because of an alleged police pay-off. In Greenpoint, there was drag racing on secluded West Street by the banks of the East River. Shells of stolen cars, blown up in the night, littered the backstreets of Bushwick.
On the Williamsburg waterfront, due west of the Bedford L train stop, there was an enormous abandoned lot overgrown with weeds and scattered with broken bottles, mufflers, and stray cats. It could be spooky at times, but the New York skyline beyond was spectacular. You’d have it to yourself most days, if you didn’t mind the occasional homeless person asking for change.
Back then, I’d sit on the rocks by the river and write god-awful poetry or share a few tall-boys with friends who would visit. It was a truly cinematic view, unobscured by food festivals, condos, or bearded bros in Allbirds.
The Williamsburg old-timers I met spoke of darker days in the seventies and eighties, but the Northside still seemed pretty gritty to this New York newcomer. It also felt glorious.
*I just remembered it was because the Girls episode The Panic in Central Park was in some article I saw listing "perfect television episodes" and it made me nostalgic for Williamsburg for a minute so hey sue me!!
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