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Business & Tech

Business Insider Spotlights Gentrification of BoCoCa

Article tracks the area's changing demographics over the last 50 years.

A profile piece that appeared in Business Insider on Friday, March 2, shined a spotlight on ever-evolving BoCoCa—a commonly used catch-all for the Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods. In the piece, writer Eric Goldschein tracked the changing demographics and economic development of the area as a Brooklyn Heights "spillover" destination in the 1960s to "one of the most expensive and highly-regarded areas in all of New York City" today.

Goldschein notes: "Since the 1980s, Smith Street in particular has become the area's 'restaurant row,' with tons of new eateries and bars to satisfy the young professionals and small families that now populate the area. Bar crawls take residents from Irish pubs to tiki huts serving fishbowls full of liquor, making the area a prime destination for locals and even out-of-area drinkers, who can take a quick train ride to the area with ease. And unlike other Brooklyn neighborhoods, Cobble Hill's proximity to Brooklyn Heights and the area's financial district makes it a great destination for work lunches and evening drinks, which has helped enhance the area's reputation as a restaurant haven."

In fact, the combination of brownstone architecture, nightlife and convenience has attacted so many moneyed moms and dads, Cobble Hill has become the wealthiest neighborhood in Brooklyn, with a mean household income of $128,123.

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Owners of and , both on Court Street, were quoted in the article on their opinions of the changing families over the years, which were mostly positive.

But the owner of restaurant expressed a different sentiment. Said Alessandro to Business Insider, "the new money makes things soulless, or it’s heading in that direction. It's getting colder here. I feel I’m almost being pushed out. There’s still a group of people that can embrace the change and respect the old. You can bring in your money and your values as long as you can mingle with the old, but not everyone can do that."

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