Shibuya Cast Talk Event "Urban Catalyst Vol.6 Brooklyn Way of Life

This is a report from Urban Catalyst Vol. 6 on December 5, 2018.
We spoke with Brooklyn resident Yumiko Sakuma about New York City today.

Catalyst: Yumiko Sakuma

Introduction of myself and my work

And now we are pleased to announce that "My Little New York Times" will be published in December.
The publisher, NUMABOOKS, is hosted by Shintaro Uchinuma.
The publisher, NUMABOOKS, is sponsored by Shintaro Uchinuma, who has written a book titled "The Book Strikes Back. He asked me, "Why don't you do something that most publishers don't do?" I was asked to participate in this event. At that time, I asked him what I could do. I have never written a diary, and I have never written a book," he said!


My birth.

My birthday is on the morning of July 5. In the U.S. time, that day is Independence Day, the 4th.

That is also why I am someone who took Donald Trump becoming president very personally. In fact, living in New York City, I feel the changes that have occurred since he became president, so I thought I would write about them. Since it is no use writing only about my feelings, I decided to write a series of daily memoirs on my website, connecting them with the world's movements and publishing them. With a major publishing house, the structure is designed to support a large number of people, and as an author, I sometimes only have a small part to play, but by daring to work with an independent publishing house, a lot of interesting things happened. I was involved in this project through sweat and tears with the staff, so if you would like to read about it, please feel free to do so.

Brooklyn culture in my neck of the woods in N.Y.

I'd like to preface this by saying that I live in a place called Greenpoint, NY.
It was originally inhabited by Polish immigrants.
The reason why I dared to move to Greenpoint is because I had been in Manhattan for a few years before, but I found it more interesting there and at the same time my friends moved there.
Myself, I also began to feel a sense of entrapment in high-rise buildings and the like that I had not felt when I was younger, and my interests changed. I had always liked alternative things, but my work for mainstream magazines also started to cover the Brooklyn area. Then, through a chance encounter, I was able to get into my current home and moved there.
The result was that I moved to the same NY City, but in a completely different part of the city than Manhattan.
After living here, the first negative I would say is the inconvenience.
While Williamsburg, which is considered a hip area, can go right into Manhattan, Greenpoint has a subway line called the G line (which goes from Queens to Brooklyn), but it does not go directly into Manhattan. The trains are also not on time, so there is a loss of time.
The plus side is the alternative nature.
It means that I can see things that are not established in Manhattan, but are interesting. I like to discover things that might be major in those things, so it is interesting and nice that it is happening right around my house. The other plus side is something like the warmth of the relationships.
We also have neighbors around our house, and although it is a city, there are warmer relationships than in Manhattan, such as offering each other food when we get sick.

"Why was Brooklyn culture so much fun?"

I am often asked this question in various places, but before the 2008 Lehman Brothers financial crisis, before Williamsburg, Brooklyn, etc. were popular, the cool values were to go to clubs and restaurants with massive, luxurious interiors, etc., and to be allowed in with dress checks, etc. They were judged on whether or not they were allowed in based on a dress code, etc., or they drank champagne in hotel lounges. It was a bubbly atmosphere.
At the time, I also felt a sense of alienation, like I was being left behind in this town.
However, after the financial crisis, the economy seemed to deteriorate, and at the same time, the security situation also seemed to worsen. The shiny values that had been in place until then collapsed, and the creators, designers, and others around me who had been restructured began to do what they could, a little bit each, around themselves.
This is the kind of thing I wrote about in "The Hip Lifestyle Revolution".

Everybody started doing something small with the resources they already had, and the average consumer began to happily accept it. It may be an overstatement to call it a revolution, but such a change in consumer values is also quite significant.
For example, the mobile outdoor food market Smorgasburg.

They were making food alongside the flea market, and it became so popular that it attracted more and more customers, who formed lines, etc. The number of food makers increased, and now it has become a major tourist attraction.
There is an emerging sense of value that it is better to see the face of the creator and have something with warmth than to have something that is mass-produced and made in some other country.

Also, thanks to the development of the Internet, more and more brands have emerged that remove the plus-margin and connect directly with customers. Although many of the brands that emerged at this time did not survive, I believe that they created a new trend and form. Collectively, I call this the "Brooklynization of culture.

Craft culture, or so-called handmade markets, have existed in Japan and the U.S. for some time, but as a consumer culture, this has grown to such a scale that it cannot be ignored.

I think that behind this was the bursting of the bubble, and a change in mood, such as a sense of discomfort with things that are easy to understand and luxurious.

After that, there was a trend toward a more luxurious scale.

After that, there was a trend toward gentrification. Greenpoint is now being developed as an urban area, with some fairly upscale condominiums beginning to be built. Rents are now double what they used to be. There is no legal requirement to evict people who originally live in the area, and the rate of increase in price will not go up within the range set by the government. However, there are some people who try to evict people because they want money and are harassed. I wonder how long I will be able to live here, as the population is said to be 20,000 to 30,000 due to gentrification. Although the number of people living in this way will increase, it is also possible that artists and other people will seek new places to live and the population will flow out.