Artist Dolphy Hazel on Dumbo Yesterday vs Today

Michael Rundle, the Englishman who sometimes writes about people and things in Dumbo in his well written blog The Heroes of the Revolution has a profile of Dolphy Hazel, an 80-year-old artist who has been in Dumbo since the early 1980s. “Dolphy also stands for Dumbo. He was one of the first to arrive in the early 1980s when heavy industry, which was previously dominant in the area, collapsed and gave way to artists and writers who made homes in the old factories.” He says about Dumbo past:

  • “I got tired of Manhattan,” he explains. “In SoHo the rents skyrocketed and the artists were priced out. When I got to Dumbo it was as dead as a doornail at night. There were no residents here. Instead, there were sweatshops.”
  • “The spaces available to rent at that time were barely livable, Dolphy says. “It was dirty. Filthy. Garbage was piled up three feet in the loft that I rented,” he says.”
  • “And back then, Dolphy says, Dumbo was dangerous.”

And about today’s Dumbo, Dolphy said:

  • “Gentrification has made Dumbo a much safer place today, Dolphy says. But safety comes at a price. Rents are rising, new condos are being built in place of old factories, and the original art community has almost been priced out of the area.”
  • “”These developers totally disregarded the artists that came here looking for a new beginning,” he says. “It makes me sad. And it ain’t about the buildings. It’s about the people. The people that originally came here, and their little dream. They didn’t even stand a chance.””
  • “”It’s just gonna get more crowded,” he says. “You’ll see those people running off early in the morning to work, running back at night. I don’t have no love for those kinds of people. They’re not artists. They just want to come and live next to them. It makes them feel special. But we created this.””

It must’ve been an interesting time back when Dumbo had no ‘corporate’ people living in the area and was no man’s artists land.

{nyc profile: Dolphy Hazel, The Heroes of the Revolution}

16 Comment

  • thanks for the profile! the original interview mentions that Dolphy is having a show soon in Dumbo. Any idea where and when?

  • thanks for the profile! the original interview mentions that Dolphy is having a show soon in Dumbo. Any idea where and when?

  • These artists have to get over themselves. We don´t necessarily want to live near them. We are looking for value just like they are only at a different price point. I´m sure there are people that moved there just because it is cool. Me, I moved because I see a growing, improving neighborhood that has everything going for it. In 10 years it will be akin to the wharf in London with prices hopefully to match.

  • These artists have to get over themselves. We don´t necessarily want to live near them. We are looking for value just like they are only at a different price point. I´m sure there are people that moved there just because it is cool. Me, I moved because I see a growing, improving neighborhood that has everything going for it. In 10 years it will be akin to the wharf in London with prices hopefully to match.

  • It’s these whining, hater “artists” who are the elitists in this scenario, not the new neighborhood money. The new residents embrace diversity and cultural evolution, not some artificial stasis based on one glorious moment in time. And just because I leave in the morning and come back at night, and ply my craft and creativity for commercial purposes, doesn’t make me any less of artist than you. Like Lou said: Get over yourselves.

  • It’s these whining, hater “artists” who are the elitists in this scenario, not the new neighborhood money. The new residents embrace diversity and cultural evolution, not some artificial stasis based on one glorious moment in time. And just because I leave in the morning and come back at night, and ply my craft and creativity for commercial purposes, doesn’t make me any less of artist than you. Like Lou said: Get over yourselves.

  • I believe Dolphy is merely mourning the loss of a neighborhood he helped pioneer. It happened to SoHo, Greenwich Village, The East Village, Williamsburg and now here. Artists and musicians don’t make much money, yet they need space to hone their craft. To find that space at a rent they can afford they have to move to places that are not very desirable to most other people. They settle in and create a cool little community and all of a sudden it becomes desirable to others. Everyone wants to move to said neighborhood until finally all the artists and musicians are priced out and forced to pioneer yet another neighborhood. What’s left in the wake is a bunch of people, who spent way to much money on their apartments, scratching their heads and looking at each other like “Where did all the cool go?”
    It was cool because you weren’t here, unless of course you’re like Lou who’s obviously just looking for a high return on his investment and no better than Mr. Gutman himself

  • I believe Dolphy is merely mourning the loss of a neighborhood he helped pioneer. It happened to SoHo, Greenwich Village, The East Village, Williamsburg and now here. Artists and musicians don’t make much money, yet they need space to hone their craft. To find that space at a rent they can afford they have to move to places that are not very desirable to most other people. They settle in and create a cool little community and all of a sudden it becomes desirable to others. Everyone wants to move to said neighborhood until finally all the artists and musicians are priced out and forced to pioneer yet another neighborhood. What’s left in the wake is a bunch of people, who spent way to much money on their apartments, scratching their heads and looking at each other like “Where did all the cool go?”
    It was cool because you weren’t here, unless of course you’re like Lou who’s obviously just looking for a high return on his investment and no better than Mr. Gutman himself

  • Cool is only part of the equation of a great neighborhood. Lou has it exactly right. I have great respect for artists but my non-artist vocation is no less deserving of respect.

    The haughty “we created this” attitude is just too much. Artists add creative vibrancy to the neighborhood, but residents with money add cleanliness, infrastructure, a diversity of useful stores, city council attention, etc. Neither group is superior, everybody contributes to making this a great neighborhood.

    Moreover, Walentas would never have been motivated to make a purely commercial Dumbo habitable and artist-friendly in the first place if it weren’t for the possibility of selling to us. If I were as haughty as Dolphy, I could even claim WE created this.

  • Cool is only part of the equation of a great neighborhood. Lou has it exactly right. I have great respect for artists but my non-artist vocation is no less deserving of respect.

    The haughty “we created this” attitude is just too much. Artists add creative vibrancy to the neighborhood, but residents with money add cleanliness, infrastructure, a diversity of useful stores, city council attention, etc. Neither group is superior, everybody contributes to making this a great neighborhood.

    Moreover, Walentas would never have been motivated to make a purely commercial Dumbo habitable and artist-friendly in the first place if it weren’t for the possibility of selling to us. If I were as haughty as Dolphy, I could even claim WE created this.

  • Here’s what I don’t get, EVERY neighborhood in Manhattan has been “gentrified” and expensive buildings built and rich people have moved in and poor people who can’t afford the new rents or the new sales prices have been forced out. So why is Dumbo being held to a different standard? The real estate market in NYC has been insane for a few years and if the property was in the right location and had decent buildings, it’s been developed, whether there were artists in residence or not. The question to me should be more focused on whether the gov’t should do more to keep affordable housing & work spaces in NY and less on whether artists are being used and then kicked out.

  • Here’s what I don’t get, EVERY neighborhood in Manhattan has been “gentrified” and expensive buildings built and rich people have moved in and poor people who can’t afford the new rents or the new sales prices have been forced out. So why is Dumbo being held to a different standard? The real estate market in NYC has been insane for a few years and if the property was in the right location and had decent buildings, it’s been developed, whether there were artists in residence or not. The question to me should be more focused on whether the gov’t should do more to keep affordable housing & work spaces in NY and less on whether artists are being used and then kicked out.

  • Just as LE said, EVERY neighborhood in NYC is or will be gentrified/hipsterfied/whatever, and when that happens, naturally rental prices go up. Currently it seems like Brooklyn and now Queens is going through this. I don’t disagree with the artists’ laments, but the people who say that “I’ve lived in xyz neighborhood for 10 years, before it became “cool”” who hate the new neighbors for being able to afford $4000 rents or million dollar lofts can still keep the neighborhood as “cool” as it was 10 years ago. I don’t want to see artists be ‘pushed out’ as much as artists like Dolphy. But at least Walentas is trying to keep the artist community alive in Dumbo.

  • Just as LE said, EVERY neighborhood in NYC is or will be gentrified/hipsterfied/whatever, and when that happens, naturally rental prices go up. Currently it seems like Brooklyn and now Queens is going through this. I don’t disagree with the artists’ laments, but the people who say that “I’ve lived in xyz neighborhood for 10 years, before it became “cool”” who hate the new neighbors for being able to afford $4000 rents or million dollar lofts can still keep the neighborhood as “cool” as it was 10 years ago. I don’t want to see artists be ‘pushed out’ as much as artists like Dolphy. But at least Walentas is trying to keep the artist community alive in Dumbo.

  • It's these whining, hater “artists” who are the elitists in this scenario, not the new neighborhood money. The new residents embrace diversity and cultural evolution, not some artificial stasis based on one glorious moment in time. And just because I leave in the morning and come back at night, and ply my craft and creativity for commercial purposes, doesn't make me any less of artist than you. Like Lou said: Get over yourselves.

  • It's these whining, hater “artists” who are the elitists in this scenario, not the new neighborhood money. The new residents embrace diversity and cultural evolution, not some artificial stasis based on one glorious moment in time. And just because I leave in the morning and come back at night, and ply my craft and creativity for commercial purposes, doesn't make me any less of artist than you. Like Lou said: Get over yourselves.