by Emma Davey Though Twitter is slowly falling apart thanks to the diabolical whims of Elon Musk, the social media hub keeps chugging along, sustained in part by #thediscourse that keeps us all sucked into our phones, armchair refereeing the drama. And this weekend’s #discourse involves North Brooklyn.
I say North Brooklyn instead of specifying a neighborhood because it’s precisely these geographic borders that has Twitter in a tizzy. Well, geography and the NYC dating scene.
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Greenpointers has covered Greenpoint & Williamsburg since 2007 — community boards, rezoning fights, local businesses, and the people whose lives and work give the neighborhood its character. Local news is collapsing across the country, but we're still here: independently owned, no corporate backing, no paywall. 18+ years, 280k+ monthly readers and followers, funded by the community we serve.
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The present East Williamsburg is an artificial designation created by realtors and developers in the ’90s by appropriating the name of a former neighborhood of the same name to make this particular post-industrial area of Williamsburg, Brooklyn more attractive and marketable for residential construction. It has no historical connection with the actual neighborhood of East Williamsburgh (with an “h”), which didn’t even border Brooklyn, and was located in Queens between Ridgewood Heights, Maspeth, Nassau Heights and Middle Village. You can see this by viewing the map at the link below.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3804n.ct006608/?r=0.119,0.83,0.372,0.143,0
A similar situation existed in the early ’60s when realtors wanted to attract an earlier generation of gentrifiers into what was the northern part of Red Hook by renaming it Carroll Gardens. Red Hook, then as now, had the reputation as a run down, dangerous neighborhood.
I lived in Williamsburg “proper” for seven years (on Bedford Ave) and have lived in Greenpoint for five years (near McGolrick Park). Fourfivesix in unfortunately just plain ole Williamsburg. The person who said it was located in East Williamsburg probably doesn’t know the neighborhood well. Can someone ask how long he has been living there?
Excepting old timers who have lived in the area their entire lives, most, if not all, current residents don’t know anything about the history of the neighborhood and surrounding areas. being long established residents for about twenty minutes, they don’t want. nor care, to be bothered with such ephemera. Zei gesunt, their loss.
Also, HE probably lives in East Williamsburg since Woodpoint Road is one block away and he lives a two blocks away. Honest mistake really (for someone who probably hasn’t lived there long).
This is from the Atlas of Long Island, New York. From recent and actual surveys and records [1873]
Notice that East Williamsburgh At the left side of the map) is definitely within Queens County, not Brooklyn:
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-633f-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99