I spent the day in Dumbo, Brooklyn, the 'most Instagrammable neighborhood in America,' where homes cost around $1.6 million, and I learned that its residents fear it's turning into Times Square
Dumbo, Brooklyn, was named for its location — Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.
It's a tiny neighborhood on the coast of Brooklyn, New York.
The name "Dumbo" was coined by artists in the late '70s in hopes that its odd name would deter developers from the area.
Source: New York Times
Four decades later, Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood is full of high-rise luxury apartment buildings, and thousands of tourists that bustle the streets each day.
Source: New York Times
"I'm glad that people are discovering what an amazing neighborhood it is. We have one of the best views in the city," Dumbo resident activist Andrea Esteruelas told Business Insider.
"But now it's kind of morphing into Times Square, and that's the fear for residents," said Esteruelas. She lives on Washington St., home to the most Instagrammed spot in Brooklyn.
"My favorite part of Dumbo is my street, but late at night when the tourists are gone," Esteruelas said.
I felt Esteruelas's pain when I visited Washington St. on a Tuesday morning in November, and tourists were blocking the cobblestone streets to take photos of the Manhattan Bridge.
But it hasn't always been this way. Esteruelas told Business Insider that she moved to Dumbo eight years ago because it felt like a "little oasis away from New York City."
Restaurant co-owner and visual artist Tanya Rynd has been a resident of Dumbo since 1994, and she felt the same way when she moved in.
"I moved here from New Mexico, and it was the first place in New York that made me feel like I was in the desert. There were things that made me feel the desolateness and solitude that I could walk and not run into somebody," Rynd told Business Insider.
Rynd also said the neighborhood used to feel like a small village.
"I used to feel that I knew everyone in the neighborhood," Rynd told Business Insider. "I have seen kids born in this neighborhood that I've now hired. There's this longevity here."
Dumbo was an industrial neighborhood in the 19th century. Its oldest buildings are converted old industrial warehouses ...
Source: New York Times
... which were taken over by artists in the late 20th century, who repurposed the industrial architecture into lofts and studio spaces.
Source: New York Times
Rynd was one of these artists. "Originally I came here to find a large space that I could paint in," she told Business Insider.
Rynd describes this time as a time when"makers" thrived because creatives were making things for a living. "You could walk down the street from painter to printmaker to sculptor to jewelry maker," she said.
Rynd and other co-owners opened Superfine a month after September 11, 2001, and she says the restaurant quickly became an artist hub during this time when New Yorkers longed for a sense of community.
Rynd told Insider that Superfine was converted into a restaurant and bar at the turn of the century, and before that, it was a boarded-up warehouse full of vacuum cleaners and car parts.
Superfine's story is a perfect example of how the neighborhood of Dumbo is shifting from an industry-oriented neighborhood to a people-oriented neighborhood.
"Dumbo is just rattling with development and change. Everything is just busting open at the seams right now," Rynd told Business Insider.
It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was either construction ...
... or new development.
These buildings are absolutely stunning ...
... and they line Brooklyn Bridge Park, a favorite among locals and tourists alike.
And it's easy to see why. While above-ground trains rumble the streets of Dumbo, at the park, the rumble is faint enough to hear the sounds of the waves and tweeting birds.
And the park is complete with an indoor carousel.
On a Tuesday morning, Brooklyn Bridge Park was filled with tourists posing for photos.
While POWERHOUSE functions mainly as a book store ...
... it's also used as an event space for art exhibitions.
Katie Foster has been working at POWERHOUSE for two months, but she's been attending readings there since 2015.
"During the day there's just a massive influx of tourists," Foster said of her typical workday at POWERHOUSE ...
... "but we do get regular customers who live in these towers around here. They definitely treat this as their neighborhood bookstore," she continued.
While Dumbo shifts from an artist hub to a tourist hot spot, its long-time residents miss the good old days.
"I think there was something really cool about the intimacy of living in a neighborhood that felt really isolated and people felt really bonded to each other," Rynd told Business Insider. "We'll never have that again."
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