Author Archives: Javier

Javier A Zavaleta – Blog 2

Section in the Designation Report that talks about industrial and residential growth in the area of Vinegar Hill. The reason I choose this was because it’s related to the hypothesis of my focus. What my focus was reading is how can Vinegar Hill repeat and emulate that grow to a much larger scale today in 2017. I see that back then there was a beginning of iron company which was one of the first, it included spice, coffee works, metal stamping , engine works, pain and varnish manufacturing. So from this I concluded that back at the time it seemed like the focus was to grow this area with some new cutting edge factories, which not only brought business and customers but it brought new jobs. From this I concluded that there a lot things that just haven’t been done in vinegar hill in order to justify it’s growth. It’s up to many in that area to see this report and try emulate success if they want this area of Brooklyn to strive again.

JavierZavaleta-Blog1

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-6914-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99Index

Image from 1929 of 82nd street in Queens facing the elevated train station, I.R.T – B.M.T subway lines. A neighborhood that I pass by just about every other day. What I find interesting about the 1929 photo is how empty it looks. When compared to a photo of recent years you can see the amount of people and businesses that have grown in 90 years. The 1929 image was taken by the Brown Brothers and in my opinion it really has nothing special to it. What it does is it reminds me a lot of is how empty and dead Vinegar Hills was in my two visits. I think there always a fine balance between change and no change because you want to keep the identity of an area. Furthermore, based on my past research it seems some people are fearful of a drastic change in Vinegar Hill because of that reason. My advice to improve Vinegar Hill is to take and use some ideas from the 82nd Jackson heights neighborhood to grow because even with 90 years of difference you can still identify the area, yet now the area is blossoming more than ever. Question that always arise is what exactly did 82nd street do to improve and grow while preserving its identity? How much was invested and how would that work with Vinegar Hill.