Brooklyn's Relentless Changes, As Told By a Single Street Corner

The peppy red-and-white Lululemon Athletica billboards showed up at the construction site in my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, confirming the rumors that had been percolating for more than a year. It won’t be much longer before a full selection of yoga and running gear, such as the company's $88 "post restorative sweatpant," will go on sale at this location.

The arrival of Lululemon is a fitting apotheosis of gentrification for a corner that has been morphed beyond recognition since I moved to this part of Brooklyn almost 13 years ago. Back then, the storefront in this spot – in a building owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, whose subway tracks run underneath the street — was a branch of the Texas-based retailer Rent-A-Center, which offers a “rent to own” option on furniture and electronics to people who can’t afford to pay for them outright. (That company, which has 3,000 outlets around the country, has faced repeated charges of price-gouging over the years, and in 2010 reached a $343,000 settlement with the Washington state attorney general’s office over allegations of harassment and inflated prices).