DUMBO

Was out shooting all day yesterday in Brooklyn with a young band - Kaiser-Cartell. The session was near Red Hook, Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and The Brooklyn Bridge. We had lunch at what is arguably the best pizza in New York, (which I assume means the world to most New Yorkers), at Grimaldi's which is located on Old Fulton and Front street under the Brooklyn Bridge. I would highly recommend this pizza if you are in the neighborhood. Here is an image I made several years back showing the area we were working in, including Grimaldi's Pizza (formerly called Patsy's).

I would highly recommend a visit to this area of Brooklyn if you ever find yourself in New York. This New York neighborhood is located under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge. In times gone by this was a manufacturing district with warehouses and factories that made paper boxes and machinery. In the 70's it became residential when artists and younger individuals moved into the mostly abandoned and inexpensive loft apartments, using them for living-working artist spaces. There is a NY legend that the term DUMBO was coined by these new residents to make the area sound unattractive to developers. This worked until the turn of the century as now DUMBO has become gentrified.

The area was designated the 90th historic district in 2007 and has become a premier arts district with many studios, galleries and various other arts institutions located there.

The image below shows a view of Manhattan captured at the foot of Old Fulton Street under the bridge  - an area no longer accessible to the public since 9-11.

The Brooklyn Bridge

I had the pleasure of living under The Brooklyn Bridge for almost 6 years during the 1990's. While we could see the financial district from the east side of the Hudson River, it always felt like we were looking from past history at the new world - Manhattan. This area was called DUMBO, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, a name coined, some will say, too make it sound unattractive to developers. In years past it was mostly a manufacturing district, which, due to the changing economic situation turned into low cost loft apartments with a great deal of space, used primarily by arts organizations and artists.

This all started in the 1970's and lasted until the late 90's when developers finally started buying and renovating the area into expensive apartments with the appropriate consumer services that turned this into a more residential family area. Being only one stop from Manhattan also helped to facilitate the change in DUMBO.

This photograph is from the base of Old Fulton Street looking toward the financial district.

PS: As a side note DUMBO has fabulous pizza on Old Fulton Street - used to be Patsy's and now called Grimaldi - amazing thin crusted pizza with very fresh mozzarella cheese.