Seeing Greenpoint Virtually and Actually Change: Polish Americans and Gentrification in Brooklyn

Abstract

Abstract Most studies of socioeconomic changes in urban neighborhoods in America rely on analyses of the demographic characteristics of local residents as reported in the decennial United States Census. This visually enhanced article looks at such transitions as reflected in the vernacular landscapes of local shopping streets as well as how changes in the ethnic and class “character” of the neighborhood are presented in the mass and electronic media. The specific subject for this article is how Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood has changed in response to the overwhelming pressures of gentrification over a period of three decades.