Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Williamsburg Houses
English answer:
low rent housing / rent controlled housing (Williamburg housing NYC USA)
Added to glossary by
Jenni Lukac (X)
Oct 5, 2009 10:28
14 yrs ago
English term
Williamsburg Houses
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
New York
Bushwick is still the kind of neighborhood where even strong men clutch keys between their knuckles when they walk to the car. Because nobody told the ghetto kids from the Williamsburg Houses that expensive coffee bars down the block means they shouldn’t rob the people coming out of them. They don’t know the good times have come.
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i don't get it. the text makes it sound like the williamsburg houses are the ghetto, but wikipedia says it's on the list of NYC designated landmarks in brooklyn. do WH have a reputation for being home to criminals at some point in history, or something? (this is also confusing because the action takes place nowadays)
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i don't get it. the text makes it sound like the williamsburg houses are the ghetto, but wikipedia says it's on the list of NYC designated landmarks in brooklyn. do WH have a reputation for being home to criminals at some point in history, or something? (this is also confusing because the action takes place nowadays)
Change log
Oct 15, 2009 06:34: Jenni Lukac (X) Created KOG entry
Responses
+5
33 mins
Selected
low rent housing / rent controlled housing (Williamburg housing)
I believe that the Williamburg Housing reference you have is for the "Williamburg Housing Project" - a uptopian dream when it was realized in the late 1930s. It was designed to be managed and maintained by a city authority and to be rent-controlled. When the the white population moved out to the suburbs in the 1960s the poorer population could not economically support local businesses and the neighborhood declined. Eventually "yuppies" and other groups moved in and the neighborhood changed again. The new residents created a very different socio-economic world that often clashed with the reality of long-term residents. (The famous and much-maligned "Bedford Stuyvesant" neighborhood borders Bushwick). Williamsburg has changed many times over the years (as you can see this very good wiki history of the area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Williamsburg,_Brooklyn, another short history with a photo: http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20031101/a-landmark-decis... and a very clear report on ups and downs of Bushwick, with precinct data, transport data - your J line is ther - etc. I would keep the words "Williamsburg housing" adding "low-rent" or "rent-controlled" somewhere. You have an interesting text!
Peer comment(s):
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Henry Schroeder
: Actually, Jenni is totally right, I misread the question. All projects in New York are known to be havens for criminals. Yes, they are dangerous.
46 mins
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I disagree Henry. She is trying to understand the American mentality, and its social consequences, to translate the text well. Rent controlled, city run housing projects have had a very different outcome in other countries.
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George C.
1 hr
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Good afternoon and thanks Solarstone
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Jim Tucker (X)
1 hr
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Thanks and cheers Jim. Questions like this bring out some interesting perceptions and comments...
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Kim Metzger
5 hrs
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Cheers and thanks Kim
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Judith Hehir
1 day 6 hrs
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Good evening and thanks, Judith
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "thanks, everyone! "
+2
8 mins
Yasutomo Kanazawa
Japan
Japan
Works in field
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Native in: Japanese 
Works in: English to Japanese, German to Japanese, Italian to Japanese, and 3 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
40
not a place for rich (people) family to live in
If you read the article in the link below, you will find out that people living in Williamsburg Houses are people of low income.
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/WBG/wbg034.htm
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Note added at 9 mins (2009-10-05 10:38:03 GMT)
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I wouldn't say ghetto, since ghetto could also mean a quarter where certain ethnic people live in.
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Note added at 9 mins (2009-10-05 10:38:31 GMT)
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Low income families=high crime rate.
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/WBG/wbg034.htm
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Note added at 9 mins (2009-10-05 10:38:03 GMT)
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I wouldn't say ghetto, since ghetto could also mean a quarter where certain ethnic people live in.
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Note added at 9 mins (2009-10-05 10:38:31 GMT)
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Low income families=high crime rate.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
foghorn
6 mins
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Thank you foghorn
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Rolf Keiser
49 mins
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Thank you Goldcoaster
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21 mins
Henry Schroeder
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
Specializes in field
United States
20 years of experience, certified, ATA
Native in: English (Variant: US)
Works in: German to English, Russian to English, English
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4
trendy area/gentrification
Manhattan has become too expensive for artists, writers, young adults working outside of finance.
Over the last 10-15 years, these people have been moving in droves to the Williamsburg area of brooklyn because it is right across the river from downtown manhattan, which maintains its aura of coolness (although it may have lost it to Berlin). Nonetheless, my friends from high school, my friends from College all found apartments in the Williamsburg area - either because it was cool or trendy or simply affordable and close to downtown manhattan.
Before this migration of "yuppies" took place, the area was fairly poor, certainly not a preferred location and thus it was home to seedier, poorer people. And these people are still in the neighborhood. Today, you see various "gangster"-looking kids who completely jar with the "alternative" new arrivals. This is presumably what your text is referring to. The area does not feel completely safe like Manhattan, nothing happens, it is fine, like Moscow at night, but there is a slight sense of uncertainty - it is darker, few people on the street, etc.
Hope that helps you. I know the area very well, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate.
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Note added at 27 mins (2009-10-05 10:56:19 GMT)
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Almost exactly the same thing happened on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. That was, so to say, the first stage in this process. The Lower East Side used to be very poor, with lots of homeless people, drug addicts, etc. In my childhood, the eighties and nineties, these people were gradually replaced by artists and then later by an even wealthier clientel. Now this gentrification is taking place in the Williamsburg area, in part because the "L" train that connects it to downtown Manhattan, means that it is very accessible.
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Note added at 29 mins (2009-10-05 10:58:30 GMT)
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It is almost identical to what the Moscow government is trying to do with your "Little Soho" behind Курский вокзал. The Williamsburg area is also very similar to that area of Moscow.
Over the last 10-15 years, these people have been moving in droves to the Williamsburg area of brooklyn because it is right across the river from downtown manhattan, which maintains its aura of coolness (although it may have lost it to Berlin). Nonetheless, my friends from high school, my friends from College all found apartments in the Williamsburg area - either because it was cool or trendy or simply affordable and close to downtown manhattan.
Before this migration of "yuppies" took place, the area was fairly poor, certainly not a preferred location and thus it was home to seedier, poorer people. And these people are still in the neighborhood. Today, you see various "gangster"-looking kids who completely jar with the "alternative" new arrivals. This is presumably what your text is referring to. The area does not feel completely safe like Manhattan, nothing happens, it is fine, like Moscow at night, but there is a slight sense of uncertainty - it is darker, few people on the street, etc.
Hope that helps you. I know the area very well, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 27 mins (2009-10-05 10:56:19 GMT)
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Almost exactly the same thing happened on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. That was, so to say, the first stage in this process. The Lower East Side used to be very poor, with lots of homeless people, drug addicts, etc. In my childhood, the eighties and nineties, these people were gradually replaced by artists and then later by an even wealthier clientel. Now this gentrification is taking place in the Williamsburg area, in part because the "L" train that connects it to downtown Manhattan, means that it is very accessible.
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Note added at 29 mins (2009-10-05 10:58:30 GMT)
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It is almost identical to what the Moscow government is trying to do with your "Little Soho" behind Курский вокзал. The Williamsburg area is also very similar to that area of Moscow.
Reference comments
36 mins
Kathryn Litherland
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
Works in field
United States
Versatile technical translator/editor
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, Portuguese to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
36
Reference:
"Housing Authority" and "Public Housing"
To make fuller sense of the wikipedia article, you need to know that in the U.S., a "public housing project" (or even just "housing project" or "the projects") essentially means housing for low-income people and that the "housing authority" is the government agency responsible for such low-income housing. There are a few exceptions, but public housing projects are generally associated with poverty and hence criminal activity.
Peer comments on this reference comment:
| agree |
Jenni Lukac (X)
: Thanks for contributing the reference.Tomes have been written about the sucess and failure of US public housing projects. What is certain is that they cannot be easily compared to the role and reality of "public housing" initiatives in other countries.
41 mins
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Discussion
A lot of Williamsburg consists of brownstones. I don't know the Bushwick avenue area very well, but "the Williamsburg Houses" sounds like a typical name for a large, multistory "project". The area is still, almost certainly, all brownstones with a few exceptions.
"East Williamsburg", Bushwick, is now undergoing the same process as "West Williambsburg", which I primarily described below. BE CAREFUL WITH WIKIPEDIA.