LONG ISLAND CITY (WABC) —
It’s a neighborhood just a stone’s throw from Manhattan, undergoing a dramatic revitalization.
Glass towers are going up along the East River, but as Long Island City goes through this transformation, the artisan community that’s called it home for years is now being forced out and residents face new challenges.
“Right now, I’m working on Finding Neverland, which is just opening on Broadway,” said Zoe Morsette. She owns a prop-making company in a small studio in Long Island City, where she designs and builds props for TV shows and Broadway productions.
You don’t know her, but you know some of her work.
“Do you think the city is doing enough to protect you?,” we asked. “Not really,” she said.
It is a great place to live and work. On a clear day you get a beautiful view of Manhattan, and so many artists have come here and made it their home, made it their workspace that Long Island City has become over the years, cool.
So cool that a lot of the artists can’t afford to live and work here anymore.
“Just in the last month, several studios here have emptied out, their leases were up and they just had to get out,” Morsette said. “They couldn’t do it, and I don’t even know what some of them are doing.”
The quiet, quaint neighborhood she and others moved to is being radically reformed with glass towers that are sending local businesses scrambling.
“By the time my lease is up, I won’t be able to stay here,” she said.
“The rent, Rock Rose informed me that they want to raise the rent 40 percent,” said Glenn Marlowe.
He is a sculptor in the community, and his lease is up at the end of April.
“It’s outlandish, it’s way beyond my means,” said Marlowe.
At Krypton Neon, they have made neon signs for 30 years, and they hope to for a while longer. But the owner’s friends and fellow artisans are, one by one, forced out.
“We’re quaint, there are artists here, people all know each other, and then that gets destroyed by the development that goes on here,” said Kenny Greenburg of Krypton Neon.
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