Author: Melissa Duchan

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Hudson Yards’ New Competitor: Manhattan West

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/realestate/hudson-yards-meet-your-new-neighbor-manhattan-west.html?_r=0

Manhattan West is a new emerging set of towers that rivals Hudson Yards in luxury and scale. The project is located on 9th Av between West 31st and 33rd. The chairman of Brookfield Property Partners, the company behind the project, said that it’s like “creating a new neighborhood.” This hints at what Sharon Zukin discusses in Naked City. She talks about the quest for “authenticity” in neighborhoods. Companies like Brookfield want to create manufactured, corporatized neighborhoods and sell them as authentic lifestyle experiences, not simply places to live.

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What happens when a neighborhood reaches peak gentrification?

http://ny.curbed.com/2016/8/1/12342638/bedford-avenue-williamsburg-brooklyn-gentrification

Williamsburg has become the icon of what gentrifications means in Brooklyn, and for cities in general. However, the arrival of Whole Foods and Apple on Bedford Av have sounded a death knell for small businesses on the main drag. And now, as the MTA prepares for the L train shutdown, small businesses are even more imperiled. The reckoning that Williamsburg is facing in the coming year poses several questions: is it possible for a neighborhood to reach peak gentrification? Will the real estate bubble in the area collapse? What happens in the aftermath of gentrification?

There is little literature on post-gentrification, so finding out what happens after Williamsburg’s looming potential demise is a study in progress.