DUMBO in Brooklyn used to be a popular place to get a photo of the Manhattan Bridge; now it seems like people who live near DUMBO see it as a nightmare and not as a place to get a postcard-like photo.
Residents believe that the problem will only persist and get worse with all of the football fans coming from around the world to attend FIFA World Cup 2026 in New York City.
Millions of football fans will come to the United States for the FIFA World Cup. Approximately 1.2 million are forecasted to come to New York City alone. As such, residents of DUMBO see this number as a reason to be scared; they think that it will only add to the number of tourists visiting what have already been very touristy areas of DUMBO.
The central point of where tourism is highly concentrated in DUMBO is located on Washington Street, where tourists line up each day to take a perfect photo of the Manhattan Bridge, framed between the old brick buildings.
On social media, Washington Street in DUMBO still appears to be very beautiful and stylish.
In reality, residents say that the area is significantly more dense, noisy, dirty, and difficult to live in than in the past.
Those who live near Washington Street have complained about:
- Trash on the streets overflowing into the streets,
- Strong smells during the summer months,
- An increase in the number of rats,
- Non-stop problems with aggressive illegal vendors coming back to the streets, even after the police inspect them.
Local residents and business owners of DUMBO share another common grievance: the fact that their neighborhood is not only one of the most expensive in Brooklyn (renting an apartment in DUMBO will cost you upwards of USD 5,000/month), but also that DUMBO does not have proper infrastructure in place to accommodate all of the visitors to the area on an ongoing basis.
For many residents of DUMBO, the issue is not the presence of tourists themselves; almost all residents understand the desire of so many people to visit this incredibly popular destination. The issue is that DUMBO’s infrastructure cannot accommodate all of the visitors who frequent the neighborhood on a daily basis.
One local resident explained that the situation is comparable to Times Square, except that DUMBO does not have any significant crowd control systems, public facilities, sanitary facility systems and transportation systems like those found in Times Square.
As a result of the significant increase in the number of visitors to DUMBO, many local residents feel that local officials have been very slow to respond to their complaints about street vendors who continue to return to DUMBO only hours after being removed due to the fact that street vendors can make a significant profit by selling goods and services to tourists.
Some local residents are also concerned that emergency vehicles will be unable to gain access to DUMBO during peak tourism periods. With the World Cup expected to coincide with the 250th anniversary celebrations for the United States, there is a growing level of concern regarding safety and the ability to control crowds at DUMBO.
It is interesting to note that the rise of DUMBO’s popularity can primarily be attributed to social media, with one viral photograph of a particular angle in the neighborhood turning a relatively quiet neighborhood in Brooklyn into a major tourist destination for people all around the world.
This phenomenon explains why many non-local tourists visit popular local attractions; they believe those places are just as enjoyable as anyone else who has visited them. They visit popular attractions for the “Instagrammable” photos to show off on their social media, and spend less than one hour taking pictures for this purpose, before they continue with their vacation. Residents of local attractions experience significant challenges as a result, because they are part of a largely unanticipated wave of new tourism in the area causing traffic congestion, repositioning of sidewalks, blocking of streets, and long-term placement of people at all times due to the arrival of large numbers of tourists at any one time.
City officials are aware that there isn’t currently a complete cohesive plan to manage anticipated tourist volumes prior to the scheduled commencement of the World Cups. Ongoing discussions about various tourism regulations are underway, but local residents are unsure as to whether or not they will get effective assistance in a timely manner before the World Cups arrive.
This popularity of the neighborhood is a result of the international community showing an interest in its unique qualities and its amazing community; while at the same time, these very same qualities are now starting to erode due to the increase in popularity of this neighborhood.
It will be interesting to see if anything can be resolved before the start of the FIFA World Cup; but if nothing improves before 2026, New York City could see one of its most photographed places turning into a complete chaos.
