Is the “New” Brooklyn Economy For Real?
Ashley Zelinskie
The Active Space
Lichens are moss-like organisms that flourish in harsh, bare environments. They are a type of fungi that grow where no other life forms can survive. Lichens are the first to inhabit an environment, and from the second they arrive, lichens begin to change the surrounding landscape. They break apart rock and stone and produce soil capable of supporting life. Grass, trees, and flowers eventually grow in a once-hostile environment.
Artists are lichens. They search out run-down neighborhoods where the rent is cheap. They survive and flourish. They change the landscape with their creative effort. Slowly, businesses start moving in. Coffee shops, bars, and vintage stores arrive in the area. The neighborhood becomes hip. The hip culture draws more people, who have more money. These people with more money spend more money on local businesses. The area grows and grows until the landscape looks nothing like it did when the lichens arrived. And we forget that, underneath the trees and flowers, the previous environment was broken down. The rocks have been pulverized and blown away. Soon the lichens are overtaken as well, and their spores blow in the wind, looking for another barren neighborhood in which to take root.