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%u2018Artists began moving into vacant industrial lofts near the waterfront and betweenbridges, and other artists began occupying the brick rowhouses along Hudson andPlymouth Avenues, Gold, Water and Front Streets.%u2019rebuild the Pine Street block devastated by fire in Brooklyn%u2019s Cypress Hills section, will aid the homeowners of Vinegar Hill with the repair and improvement of their property.Like the new wave of immigrants, Vinegar Hill%u2019s settlers were also escaping a costly fate%u2014the British, and the potato famine of the late 1840%u2019s. Coming to %u201cthe hill%u201d (once farmland, the site does slope) in the 1850%u2019s and 60%u2019s, the Irish named it in honor of a battle they won in a generally unsuccessful war against the British. The hill late became Irishtown (for obvious reasons), and then Farragut. Shortly after it retreived its acetic title (the latest immigrants paying heed to history), residents and local politicans fought their own war with City Hall and Con Ed.Dwarfed by the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, Con Ed smokestacks and the 21-story Farragut Houses (public housing), Vinegar Hill was dwindling in size as Con Edison bought up land and tore down buildings for substations and parking lots. Artists seeking low rents and space turned out to be the secret weapon in the struggle for real estate.Bob Strong, an eight-year resident, explained how the new immigration began.%u201c I would start out with artists interested in renting apartments and try to talk them into buying houses,%u201d Strong recalled, standing behind the bar of Hudson Avenue%u2019s Vinegar Hill General Store, a former speakeasy and now a combination coffee house, restaurant, and meeting place for the Hill%u2019s 400 inhabitants. Buying houses, said Strong, was also an effective way of removing the less tranquil elements inhabiting a few of the 45 small brick buildings.%u201c At one time, one of the Hudson Avenue blocks had two social clubs selling hard drugs, and a Pentecostal church that beat sinning members with baseball bats to rid them of their sins. After buying the buildings, we were able to encourage them to leave.%u201dArtists were already moving into vacant industrial lofts near the waterfront and between the bridges, and other artists began occupying the brick rowhouses along Hudson Avenue and Plymouth, Gold, Water and Front Streets. O/ie of the newcoming artists is Basil King, an emigre from SoHo and Manhattan%u2019s waterfront.CAFE AU VINEGAR: Where once there were vending stations for drugs and violence, Vinegar Hill%u2019s new residents havefound expansive artist%u2019s retreats, an ethnically diverse neighborhood and %u201c space, trees and birds singing.%u2019 %u2019 %u201c It%u2019s astrange feeling down here,%u201d says resideni Bob Strong, %u201c but it works.%u201dKing%u2019s ground floor studio was once Joe%u2019s Bar%u2014and more recently, a set for the gangster film \King and large landscape paintings are there now. King calls the place his %u201c farmhouse.%u201d%u201cThis is a way to be with yourself and work. All I%u2019ve been doing is studying trees from Prospect Park and I can bring my sketches right here and it%u2019s easy to paint.%u201d Guyer Salles, a Brazilian watercolorist, used to live on Manhattan%u2019s Upper WestSide and in SoHo. He was attracted to Vinegar Hill after a hiatus in Brazil because it is a %u201c quiet neighborhood with space, trees, and birds singing.%u201d Upstairs from King%u2019s studio, Jerry Mosher is busily renovating an apartment, and, taking a break in King%u2019s studio, he agreed: \don%u2019t even know it%u2019s here.%u201d But Mosher may change that situation because he and director Gardner Compton plan a video documentary on their neighborhood.%u2018Dwarfed bythe Manhattanand BrooklynBridges, Con Edsmoke stacks andthe 21-storyFarragut Houses,Vinegar Hilldwindling in sizeas Con Edbought up landand tore downbuildings for substationsand parkinglots.%u2019Mosher feels cheap rents are %u201c one of the biggest reasons for artists here%u201d but that their influx (they are now half of the population) has not offended oldtimers.%u201cYou have families who have lived here for five generations%u2014Irish, Ukrainian, Eastern European, all kinds of ethnics%u2014 and there%u2019s not too much conflict between us here,%u201d Mosher said.Night visitors to Strong%u2019s store play everything from Lithuanian folk songs to disco on the grand piano up front. The village atmosphere makes him think he%u2019s got an %u201c extended family.%u201d\works,%u201d Strong said. He related how residents banded together to keep building inspectors, claiming her home to be unsafe, from evicting longtime resident Della Alchunas. She is 84.%u201c We also got the city to agree to shore up the foundation of her building,%u201d Strong said.Most area foundations were shook by summer demolition work inside the navy yard to construct a sewage control plant\Residents and locally-elected officials convinced the contractors to stop: and, after some lobbying, convinced the mayor%u2019s office to include Vinegar Hill in areas marked for low-interest federal renovation loans.Councilman Abe Gerges, speaking of the %u201cfascinating, unique community that was being trounced upon by the city,%u201d said the scales have tipped.%u201cThere was no money at first and there was an issue of correcting existing building violations. So we obtained a portion of Section 312 federal loans from the city to bolster the community.%u201dVinegar Hill artists don%u2019t feel they are going to reap immediate benefits from the federal loans since many residents don%u2019t hold %u201c norm . jobs.%u201d And they claim banks are a bit w ry of lending to artists.Still, they put the hill back on the map and the vinegar back in its system.THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: Through the efforts of both new and oldVinegar Hill locals, the neighborhood is on the upswing. Many artists fleeingthe overpriced SoHo, NoHo and Tribeca areas are renovating the Hill'slofts and three- and four-story buildings to create studio space.Noaemhar T HE PHOENIX ,p. ge [3 , %u2022v>**