CLINTON HILL — There's the beef.
Gentrification might be responsible for the demise of the slider in Clinton Hill, according to one local artist who can't stomach the changing neighborhood.
Artist Gabriel Specter, 35, changed the former White Castle signage on the now-shuttered burger joint to "White Hassle" to start a conversation around the changing face of the neighborhood, Gothamist first reported.
The small building that housed White Castle for more than 20 years will soon be a five-story, mixed-use building with 27 residential units and retail on the ground floor.
"I've seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood," said Specter, who lives in Clinton Hill. "But people can take from this what they want — it can be about race, gentrification, as long as it starts a conversation."
Specter scaled the green, locked wall that surrounds the site with a ladder around 3 p.m. Monday and, with the help of a friend, lifted a wooden, hand-painted sign onto the site and installed it with screws.
"I scouted out the place first to make sure everything would fit," he said. "Then I literally carried my sign over from my house."
From 2000 to 2010, the black population in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill dropped by 31.4 percent while the white population increased by 18 percent, according to Census data compiled by The New York Times blog The Local.
The neighborhood is also experiencing a boom in new developments with five new buildings planned for a small strip of Myrtle Avenue where White Castle once was housed.
