Gentrifying Poland and Polonia
Jerome Krase, Murray Koppelman and Professor Emeritus
Sociology Department, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York.

Abstract
Gentrification is generally described as the process by which higher status residents displace those of lower status ones in neighborhoods which, by definition, are contested. Originally considered as a uniquely English and then a related urban American phenomenon of the middle class moving into poor and working class urban areas, today gentrification is recognized in virtually every corner of the global. This essay considers the interesting cases of gentrification in the Polish American neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and in Krakow, Poland. The author has observed transnational ethnic connections and photographed indications of the process of gentrification in the two different venues and at two different times. It is argued that although the direct causes of gentrification in the different locations are historically different, there is something about (je ne sais quoi) gentrification as a symbolic or semiotic activity that can best be grasped via the use of image-based research and consideration of contrasted streetscapes as spatial semiotic examples of Pierre Bourdieu' s Taste of Necessity and the Taste of Luxury. These ideas will be illuminated by a selection of photographs taken by the author in both locations.

Introduction

Most research and writing about gentrification is as a problem of housing and commercial displacement, and the injury to the less affluent residents and proprietors who are removed in the process. My scholar-activism in the 1970s focused on urban blight and its symbolic relationship to white flight. I worked on preventing or reversing the stigmatization of inner city neighborhoods because of the in migration nonwhites. This was done, in part, by promoting a positive image of the areas through the visible expression of middle-class American values seen in architectural styles and local history. (Krase, 1982)

Although concerned with the concrete objective consequences of the phenomenon, my own special interest in gentrification is as a visible style or perhaps as "taste." There is a great deal of discussion in the professional and lay literature about what exactly constitutes gentrification, but it appears to me that gentrification is like the proverbial duck: if it looks like it, it is it. Even before the census figures might show changes in tenancy, the patient observer can sense that something qualitative is happening on the scene such as the up-scaling of storefronts and homes.

Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction between the taste of "necessity" and the taste of "luxury" might help us to understand how spaces become more attractive to gentry and therefore more attractive to more advantaged consumers of housing, goods, and services.

"Taste is the practical operator of the transmutation of things into distinct and distinctive signs, of continuous distributions into discontinuous oppositions; it raises the differences inscribed in the physical order of bodies to the symbolic order of significant distinctions. It transforms objectively classified practices, in which a class condition signifies itself (through taste, into classifying practices, that is, into a symbolic expression of class position, by perceiving the in their mutual relations and in terms of social classificatory schemes. Taste is thus the source of the system of distinction features which cannot fail to be perceived as a systematic expression of a particular class of conditions of existence, i.e., as a distinctive life-style, by anyone who possesses practical knowledge of the relationships between distinctive signs and positions in the distributions -- between the universe of objective properties, which is brought to light by scientific construction, and the no less objective universe of life-styles, which exists as such for and trough ordinary experience." (1984: 174-5)

We can think of gentrification then as a shift in semiotics or the meaning of the space/place changes as opposed to merely the physical alteration in the space/place. It is a movement from a taste of necessity to a taste of luxury. It should be noted that in some cases the vernacular of ethnic or working class neighborhoods, the patina, or ambiance if you will, is commodified but at the same tamed or domesticated, i.e. "themed."

Country House, Krakow, Poland

Country-style House, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Bourdieu goes on to say: "As can be seen whenever a change in social position puts the habitus into new conditions, so that its specific efficacy can be isolated, it is taste -- the taste of necessity or the taste of luxury -- and not high or low income which commands the practices objectively adjusted to these resources. Through taste, an agent has what he likes because he likes what he has, that is, the properties actually given to him in the distributions and legitimately assigned to him in the classifications." (175)

Perhaps we need here an example of how taste is either explicitly or implicitly part of the discourse of gentrification in both the scholarly and popular media. I first came across the idea of a specific type of commercial establishment, the coffee shop, as a semiotic of gentrification when reading Rowland Atkinson's "Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space?," which owes at least part of its title to Sharon Zukin's sarcastic description of the design-led strategy of revitalization for Bryant Park, New York City as "domestication by cappuccino." (2001: 4) (Note: See "The Diner" as a semiotic of middle-American vernacular commercial architecture.) A recent New York Times article by John Leland, "A New Harlem Gentry in Search of Its Latte," adds support to the notion of "exotic" coffee as gentrification cache. He writes:
"What is the relationship between home and a good cup of coffee? On first reckoning, coffee (or tea) organizes space and movement; in the brewing of a serviceable cup, a house becomes a home.

Yet there is also a public way that coffee shapes the sense of home, even from down the block. If you sketched the foot traffic around a cup of express, for example, you might see the pattern of intersecting lines that Jane Jacobs described in her 1961 book, The Death and Life of great American Cities. (F1) "The appearance of amenities here, similarly, both reflects and facilitates the real estate boom." (F6)

Atkinson, continues, writing about commodification and theming of public spaces which tames them down and erodes the sense that they are open to all. (2001: 4) The contribution of this essay is to think of another dimension of public space as visibly open to all. Just as a scene or a sign invites one inside it also may repel or make the observer feel unwelcome. The simplest analogy for this might be reading the menu posted outside the restaurant before deciding to enter. In deference to " Domestication by Cappuccino" we will see how coffee is displayed in both gentrifying Polish Greenpoint, Brooklyn and gentrifying Krakow, Poland in later pages.

Greenpoint is one of the many Brooklyn neighborhoods that my students and I have been studying for decades. It is a residential, commercial, and industrial waterfront neighborhood in the northwesternmost section of Brooklyn. It has a long history of industrial development, the legacy of which still exists today in the form of abandoned and deteriorating buildings and many

environmental problems. The Community District (Brooklyn # 1) is home as well to power plants, a sewage treatment plant, an incinerator, numerous waste transfer stations, a radioactive storage facility, and polluted waterways. It also has great potential. It is virtually surrounded by waterfront properties, and has easy access to Manhattan by public transportation. Even its local rust belt has provided temptation for artists seeking affordable space, and inspiration. Some local anti-displacement groups see the increased loft conversion threatening the neighborhood with gentrification. Because of its historical undesirability as a residential neighborhood it has maintained a few die-hard ethnic enclaves and attracted immigrants seeking co-nationals, and low rents. The population of the Community District has increased every decade since 1980 and in 2000 was 160,338 and almost evenly divided between white Nonhispanics and Hispanics. About 10 percent of the population is neither Hispanic nor white. Residential mixing of groups is the exception and not the rule in the area and the most visibly diverse areas are also those which show signs of gentrification or other transition.

As reported on the The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance website:

"'Despite challenges, Greenpoint is a diverse and lively neighborhood.' According to Laura Hoffman, a Greenpoint resident and member of the Friends of Newtown Barge Terminal Playground, 'You could be at one end of the neighborhood and think you’re in Poland and walk to the other and think you’re in Asia.' According to Rob Peters of the North Brooklyn Development Corporation, 'In the next five or ten years we are going to see a lot of change along the waterfront. . . It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.' From recent activity it appears that change is already taking place. " (Focus on Greenpoint.)

There are also many excellent publications on Greenpoint from which to drawn upon for the related issues of ethnicity, immigration, and gentrification. Perhaps the best overall assessment is that provided here (paraphrased) by DeSena as in her research she had focused most specifically on the issue of housing and ethnicity. One should note the special irony in the contest of this paper that immigrant Poles were seen as a social resource to prevent the influx of black and Latino renters, only to find themselves later being invaded by gentrifiers in various forms because of its proximity to Manhattan. Even more ominous today after a decade of further de-industrialization for the working class is the proposed rezoning of industrial spaces, and the waterfront.

In 1990, Desena wrote:

Greenpoint's future is very difficult to predict. …Until now, white residents have been able to maintain a predominately white neighborhood. There has been a pool of white individuals who want to rent and buy in Greenpoint, However, as minority populations in New York City and Greenpoint increase, and as old time residents die, the possibility of maintaining a white neighborhood seems unlikely…The influx of Polish immigrants in Greenpoint must also be considered. It is possible for them to displace Hispanics in northern Greenpoint and continue using defensive strategies in the northern and southern sections, especially since they seem to be the neighborhood's major investors. These refugees, some of whom are here illegally, work a number of different jobs and live under substandard conditions in order to save money. Some buy houses with cash and others obtain mortgages from the Polish Slavic Federal Credit Union. One resident remarked that these Poles are presently Greenpoint's power brokers because they have the capital for investment.

Another possibility for Greenpoint's future is gentrification. There are a few streets in Greenpoint which are made up of brownstones and brick townhouses. Gentrification has taken place on many of these streets, and is illustrated by an asking price of $400,000 for one of the brownstones. This is considered an outrageous price for Greenpoint… Residents who grew up in the neighborhood cannot afford to buy homes there. Moreover, the availability of these houses is advertised in the New York Times, waterfront loft space is occupied by artists. An annual house tour in Greenpoint is also held, another hint of gentrification. There rents for commercial property on Manhattan avenue has tripled in some cases and some chain stores have moved in such as Genovese Drugs and Fayva shoes, Greenpoint residents are not defending against gentrification. They don't need to because the housing market in so fierce that most "Yuppies" interested in Greenpoint are white. Like homeowners in Long Island City, Greenpoint homeowners would like the neighborhood to be gentrified. From the point of view of residents, their housing investments would pay off, the neighborhood would be upgraded, and Hispanics would be displaced. Most do not recognize that many other residents such as their tenants, neighbors, the elderly and possibly they themselves could also be displaced. Some residents expressed concern about Greenpoint receiving publicity in the New York Times.

"I'd rather people don't know about us (the neighborhood) because I like it the way it is."

Some realize that people who are attracted to Greenpoint would change the neighborhoods present character. Gentrification by renters is also possible, especially since Greenpoint has been described as an area with "affordable rentals" (Hinds, 1984). And the impact that they redevelopment of Long Island City, which is just across the Creek, will have on Greenpoint remains to be seen. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has proposed an investment of $100 million for infrastructure work and additional $400 million from private investors to construct "offices'", apartment buildings , stores, performing art spaces, and scientific research facilities." (118-120)

She didn't yet see the trend of up-scaled stores and the artists on Bedford Avenue and north Greenpoint where Polish immigrants were displacing and "pre-displacing" Latinos.

Now Poles are losing territory to the gentry as reflected by the store windows and signs of the upscale clothing stores, new bars, dance clubs, restaurants, and of course coffee shops.

Higher income, established professionals are also buying up the stock of historically and architecturally significant residential structures. Even some of the traditional, working class Polish restaurants and food stores are trying to appeal to yuppies by becoming more "international" or "continental" in appearance and offerings.

My own interest in Greenpoint was academic and essentially semiotic, and it was here in 1994 that my first step on the visual comparison between Polonia and Poland was taken. Gentrification was not the focus of my research but rather ethnic vernacular landscapes.

"In Greenpoint, commercial signs in the Polish language had almost disappeared by the 1960s. Only a few enterprises, semiotically adorned with red and white signs, crowned Polish eagles, or Polish place names survived the transitions. In the 1990s, young immigrant Poles fill the spaces left by their assimilated co-nationalists and share the neighborhood with remnants of the older Polonia. Interestingly, many of the newer Polish businesses are not marked by the stereotypical red and white, or eagle motifs of previous generations. Greenpoint is now dotted with signs in Polish announcing everything from food to professional services, multipurpose Agencja, and other work-related signs." (26)

Meat Store, Krakow, Poland

Meat Store, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

In 2000, a few months before I left for my second visit to Krakow, the westward expansion of the Polish immigrant community had clearly been checked by the intensified gentrification in the North side of Greenpoint. On the streets the clash could be seen as a battle of signs on local commercial streets where Asian-fusion and other up-scale, chic restaurants shared visual space with working class Polish ones. The contest was reported in New York City newspapers. Writing a few years ago in the Sunday Daily News, Lorraine Diehl. "While the north side is prime -- particularly along Driggs and the busier Bedford Avenue, where cafes, a sushi restaurant and a juice bar stand alongside longtime ethnic establishments -- the grittier south side is starting to come into its own." (3) According to Bourdieu, intellectuals have the - "power to elevate vulgar artifacts to distinctive works of culture." (282) Perhaps artists do as well as indicated by the irony, perhaps even subliminal "Polish Joke," of gentrification in the form of "The Galleries Pierogi." As reported in Diehl's article the gallery is located in a former cork factory. Artists have been going to Williamsburgh/Greenpoint in search of the space they no longer can afford in Manhattan's once gritty now chic SOHO. Gentrification and displacement is an issue which is often found in the Polish-language newspaper Nowy Dziennik ("Polish News") as a major problem for immigrant Poles. There are increasingly stories in Nowy Dziennik about the impact of gentrification and the general housing problems for Poles in both the United States and Poland.

Krakow

In the spring of 1997 I received a Fellowship Award from the Kosciuszko Foundation and Polish Ministry of to "Explore Polish Vernacular Architecture" and lecture on "Multiculturalism in American Urban Life" at the American Studies Center of the Jagiellonian University, in Krakow. My primary interest was in making visual connections between the Polish American neighborhoods I had already photographed such as Greenpoint, and the places in Poland from which residents had emigrated. I was drawn to the issue of displacement and gentrification through my conversations with Krakowians about issues such as the developing housing shortage and related rising rents. Most connected the problem to the increasing number of foreign businesses locating in the city, and the Post Socialist return of properties to Pre-Socialist owners. This transfer included individual property owners and larger institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church. A further complication was property of Jews that had been "transferred" by various, but always questionable, means to non-Jews during the Nazi occupation and subsequently redistributed during the Socialist period. Also, by the 1990s the cities of Poland still lacked a large enough cadre of indigenous entrepreneurs. Most of those who might have filled such economic roles in the past were a missing population cohort, who had been either murdered or fled from Poland after 1939. Those who survived World War II were effectively removed from business by the socialization of the economy.

I interviewed a young couple from the United States who owned an American-style café. They explained that Poland offered greater opportunities for people like themselves, but interestingly had complained to me that they might be forced in the near future to close their business. In Krakow, there is a long tradition of the Austrian Kaffeehauses and outdoor cafes; somewhat subdued however during the Socialist period. As a Post-Socialist city after 1989, cafes have virtually erased the typical "Bar Mleczne" which abounded during the socialist period and by 2000 was an occasional, privatized, relic. These rather echanical and cheap eating palces could be best described as offering adequate food and poor service at reasonable prices. The influx of foreign businesses into the most desirable areas of Krakow, especially the beautifully preserved historic center, (Stare Miasto), had driven rents skyward both in the center, and the neighborhoods close by where their café was located.

At the time of my first visit to Krakow the Polish government had not yet settled the claims of the Catholic Church for the return of the extensive properties it had owned throughout the country. I visited the apartment of a priest I had come to know who lived in a complex of buildings in the Stare Miasto originally owned by the Church and used exclusively for clergy. The Socialist government had forced the church to share the residence with non-clergy renters. My friend was unabashedly looking forward to the time when it would revert to its previous status. Two of my colleagues at the Jagiellonian University had a similar problem, and shared similar anticipation, but at a smaller scale, as their family home was also shared by non-family members at the insistence of the State. My Polish informants also spoke of how Poles, primarily a rural and small town people, first moved into the city, and the Socialist-planned new city of Nowa Huta especially, where they brought their animals with them, and didn't know how to use the "modern" spaces and facilities.

Ethically, legally, and morally the most challenging problem is the properties of Jews forced to abandon or quickly sell their homes and businesses and flee the Nazis. Even more tragic, of course, was the property confiscated after the imprisonment and eventual extermination of Jews in nearby Oswieciem (Auschwitz). Krakow's oldest Jewish neighborhood, Kazimierz, was used as the ghetto staging area for the transportation. During my 1997 visit it had just begun a slow process of "recovery" fueled initially by (post-Holocaust?) tourism, and then by renovations and restorations of properties nonprofit religious and cultural organizations. Several of the students in my American Studies class told me that Kazimierz was a kind of "in" place for the student, artist, and intellectual crowds. This attraction to the neighborhood of bullet-pocked walls, rubble cluttered lots, and crumbling buildings, was described primarily in terms of low rents and cheap food, as well as proximity to the University.

My goal was to survey the streetscapes of the widest possible variety of Krakow's neighborhoods. As a result I photographed about a quarter of the residentially developed zones of the city and related convenience and comparative shopping streets. On my first visit I noticed

a great deal of construction, demolition, and renovation activities in what obviously had been physically neglected areas. According to long time Krakow residents, Krakow was experiencing an explosion of commercial and business activity. Shops and restaurants had sprung up all over the city but especially toward the most desirable center.

My second visit to Krakow took place in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America at the Jagiellonian University in June, 2000. At this time I carefully retraced my steps, and looking for changes in the appearance of spaces and places I had photographed in 1997. For signs of gentrification, I focused most attention on the Stare Miasto, and continuous residential zones of Nowy Swiat, Piasek, Nowy Wies, and Kazimierz. Gentrification in Krakow had also been inadvertently stimulated by the upcoming return visit home of the "Polish Pope." In anticipation of the huge crowds the public faces of the municipality had been scrubbed clean and public streets and transportation systems had been greatly improved. As a result of an agreement with the European commission, Poland had also begun a process of reducing the use of soft coal for heating and industry. Gasification of residential heating was a major sign of improvement.

Some indicators of the growing affluence might help explain the changing appearance and related gentrification of the city. According to Aleksander Noworol and Mr. Rafal Serafin,

"Krakow is Poland's historic capital and is one of the country's most important economic centres. As a cultural and academic centre, Krakow is second only to Warsaw. Over 1.2 million live within the urban area of which 740,000 (1996) live in the City of Krakow (including temporary habitants). The city is one of a kind -- the only large population centre not destroyed in World War II. Visitors are struck with how history and tradition intermingle with the move to a market economy and local democracy that have been under way following the collapse of communism. The city with its long traditions of education, commerce and culture is known as the capital of southern Poland." (1997)

They continued by noting that there is a growing private sector coupled with growing disposable income as well as a trend towards privatisation of the state or public sector. Other positive economic signs for the city were that unemployment in the years 1992-95 was much lower that the national average. In Krakow, consumer spending has increased with a related increasing availability, affordability of goods and sophistication of consumer products. By 1996, there were 14,582 retail outlets in Krakow and almost all were in private ownership. This represented a sixfold increase in the number of shops since 1987. As a semiotic of the triumph of Capitalism they noted "For instance computers and cellular telephones have become not just tools but also symbols of fast-approaching consumption-oriented high-tech world. Moreover, growing affordability is accelerating consumer spending." Not unrelatedly it was also reported that "Krakow City's housing needs are enormous: approximately 30,000 families have no self-contained dwelling and several thousand families live in sub-standard housing." (1997)

As to official explanations for Krakow's housing shortage, Ken Kopstein reports that: Under the Communist regime, housing became a social right, not a market-based economic enterprise. The State, through State-owned industry and large cooperatives, became the provider of much of the housing. By 1989, the State controlled about 60% of the housing stock. Individuals continued to construct homes, but from their own resources. By the end of the Communist era, about 40% of the housing stock was privately owned, much of which was in the rural areas. The State produced 7 million apartment units in the post-war period up to 1989. Much of the housing built by the State was in urban areas and was characterized by poor construction quality and suffered from lack of maintenance. There were central heating plants that were inefficient. Utilities were controlled by the State and operated on a non-economic basis. Housing received deep subsidies and residents became accustomed to paying much less than cost recovery for housing, far less than market value. The Communist regime produced more housing units than what was built after the transition because of the substantial subsidies provided to the sector. However, even the State production of housing was not sufficient to supply what was later to be perceived during the transition as adequate numbers of units for a growing population, which contributed to the perception that there was a substantial housing deficit or "gap" in the nation. (2000)

The United States Agency for International Development provides the following scenario for Poland's housing problems:

Poland entered the 1990s with a stock of housing well below the European standards to which the country aspired, and with a declining rate of housing production. In the early 1990s, there were 296 housing units for every 1,000 people, compared with 334 per 1,000 in Slovakia, 397 in the Czech Republic, 383 in Hungary, and 481 in Western Europe. The housing stock was in an abysmal state of repair: a widely accepted estimate was that 11.4 percent of the stock needed immediate replacement and that 8 percent needed major repairs. Housing production had fallen from 150,000 units in 1989 to a reported 62,000 in 1996. (1997 and 1998 witnessed a small recovery – although we suspect that actual completions are significantly higher than the numbers officially reported.) These conditions were the consequence of a deep recession, a lack of affordable mortgages, lack of confidence in the financial sector, and a poor legal, institutional and regulatory framework.

Although people in the rural areas were somehow building their own housing, the new Poland inherited no institutional infrastructure for urban housing delivery. There was no profession of developer. The only available form of home financing was subsidized but severely restricted credit from the State Savings Bank, PKO BP. There was little ability on the part of local governments to facilitate any form of private housing construction. The public sector had no resources to maintain or renew its housing stock for low-income households, but were maintaining rents of "social housing" at an unsustainably low level. All of these problems were a legacy of central planning. At the same time, popular perception was that housing was a right, a social good to be provided by government. (2002)

From the perspective of tenant organizations in Krakow the "invisible hand" has been more ruthless. For example, Zygmunt R. Kich reports that:

The "Tenants in Defence of the Law" association was founded in Kraków in the late 1999 by the residents of the "no-one" tenement houses that were unexpectedly repossessed by someone who claimed to be the successor or plenipotentiary of the former owner. As a rule such houses were immediately sold for a fraction of their market value. Such a sale is a disaster for the residents. It must be noted here that people in Poland have been rather bound to their houses, mainly because of the mentioned "specific renting mode". Therefore it is quite common that a tenant stays for decades in one flat. During such a long stay he put much labour and money in the maintenance, refurbishing and major investments. The sale usually unleashes the hell: the landlord tries by any measures to get rid of the tenants, he cuts off the water and gas supplies, breaks the electricity, or does other similar nice things. Apart from losing their input to the flat sooner or later the tenants face the eviction. (2000)

Methods:

If we were to suspend our ideological bents for a moment we might find some gross historical similarities between Greenpoint and Krakow. For one they are both places that have which suffered extensive physical deterioration in the 70s and 80s only to find themselves desirable destinations for higher status migrants by the turn of the century. In both Greenpoint and Krakow, my research method was relatively simple. After I designated the area to be visually surveyed and/or documented I proceeded to photograph street by street, the public "faces" of the neighborhood; especially its residences and shops. I tried to get the widest shots of the face-block and then, focus attention on particularly interesting aspects of the scene. I also took field notes to remind myself of things that might not be apparent from the photograph alone. My routes were recorded on city (Krakow) and neighborhood (Greenpoint) map, which made it possible to re-shoot, for comparison, the same scenes at later dates. The camera I used for all the excursions discussed here was a Pentax MG with a 50 mm lens and I used 100 or 200 ASA film.

Some brief notes on Visual Sociology are also in order here. Jon Prosser wrote that "Taken cumulatively images are signifiers of a culture; taken individually they are artefacts that provide us with very particular information about our existence." Photography is an especially valuable tool for qualitative researchers as they result in the creation of a "different order of data, and, more importantly, an alternative to the way we have perceived data in the past.” (1) I must add that visual, photographic, research can enhance quantitative research as well. Another major voice in Visual Sociology, John Grady, describes it is an organized attempt to investigate “how sight and vision helps construct social organization and meaning and how images and imagery can both inform and be used to manage social relations.” Most valuable for us in studying gentrification in urban landscapes is “how the techniques of producing and decoding images can be used to empirically investigate social organization, cultural meaning and psychological processes.”(14). It is obvious in this expression of the methods how it ties in neatly with our introduction to Bourdieu and visible expressions of class and ethnic cultures or "taste." Finally, Jon Rieger noted that among its many other advantages “Photography is well-suited to the study of social change because of its capacity to record a scene with far greater speed and completeness than could ever be accomplished by a human observer taking notes.” (6). This was especially important for me in my second trip to Krakow during which I had much more limited time to re-shoot the cityscapes which I documented in 1997.

We shall turn now to a selection of photographs taken in gentrifying neighbohroods in Greenpoint and Krakow. Given the limitation of space I have chosen to show and discuss photos of store windows on commercial streets, and photos of residential changes which I feel have the greatest explanatory as well as documentary value.

1.Greenpoint. "Bean" Coffee shop.

2. Greenpoint. Upscale Clothing shops on Beford Avenue.

3. Greenpoint. Polish vernacular residence. GP: rural-looking home, note here that informants spoke of how the rural Poles first moved into city, Nowa Huta especially, they brought their animals with them, didn't know how to use the space.

4. Greenpoint. Dance Club or upscale, Thai Restaurant. 4a

5. Greenpoint. Polish Delicatessen, Liquor Store, or restaurant

6. Krakow. Naïve Shop window. When stores began opening in Krakow owners with little or no experience in retailing also had little sense of commercial display. Here we see poison displayed with food. Note also religious symbol for Easter and palm Sunday..

7. Krakow. Elegant Shop window. Windows like this are part of the long sophisticated urban history of Krakow and are re-emerging.

8. Krakow. Street with old and new. In 2000 many of the central neighborhoods I revisited showed signs of renovation and restoration.

9. Krakow. Wila Jadwiga- Fryzer. 1997. Beauty parlor on the ground level of an urban mansion.

10. Krakow. Wila Jadwiga. 2000. The beauty parlor is now gone as the handsome homes on the "village" green seem to have been reoccupied by the urban elite.

References

Internet references:

USAID. The United States Agency for International Development, Mission to Poland

SEED Reports, Last updated: Wednesday, 13-Mar-2002 10:46:41 EST

Zygmunt R. Kich. Report on Houisng in Poland. http://www.habitants.de/archiv/cities_for_all/housing_rights/poland1.htm (Knut Unger 2000)

Ken Kopstein. USAID Assistance Program to Poland in Local Government and Housing Sector Reform – A History and Assessment from 1990 – 2000. The United States Agency for International Development. April 16, 2000

Aleksander Noworol and Rafal Serafin. Krakow Towards a Sustainable Urban Life. Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)Workshop on Encouraging Local Initiatives Towards Sustainable Consumption Patterns (2-4 February 1998, Vienna, Austria)

UNITED NATIONS Geneva, 1997 ECE/ENHS/NONE/1997/40GE.97

"Focus on Greenpoint." http://www.waterwire.net/World/Neighborhoods.cf?ContID=1131.

Rowland Atkinson. "Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space." Paper Presented at Institute of British Geographers, University of Plymouth. January 5, 2001.

Pierre Bourdieu. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.

Lorraine Diehl. "Historic Williamsburgh: Brooklyn Bound." Sunday Daily News. Lifeline Section June 20, 1999: 1-3. .

Judith N. DeSena. Protecting One's Turf: Social Strategies for Maintaining Urban Neighborhoods. Lanham, Maryland; University Press of America, 1990.

Jerome Krase. "Polish and Italian Vernacular Landscapes in Brooklyn," Polish American Studies, Volume LIV, Number 1, (Spring) 1997: 9-31.

Jerome Krase. "Traces of Home," Places: A Quarterly Journal of Environmental Design (Summer) Vol. 8, No. 4, 1993: 46 55.

Jerome Krase. Self and Community in the City. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982.

John Leland. "A New Harlem Gentry in Search of Its Latte." The New York Times, August 8, 2003 F1, F6,F7.

Jon Prosser and Donna Schwartz. “Photographs within the Sociological Research Process.” In Image-based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers. Jon Prosser (Ed.) London: Falmer Press, 1998: 115-29

John H. Rieger. “Photographing Social Change”. Visual Sociology. Volume 11, Number. 1996: 5-49.