Category: External Resource Posts

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Understanding Gentrification as a Social Justice Issue

Gentrification is a term that has been used so much that it has lost true meaning. Across all major cities in the United States, gentrification has become a colloquial and normalized term. In her Ted Talk, Stacey Sutton offers a more nuanced definition of gentrification and urges the audience to think more critically about gentrification and its implications. Sutton also draws an important distinction between neighborhood revitalization and gentrification – in movements of revitalization, the neighborhood remains affordable for low-income residents and does not result in their displacement and, in reference to affordable housing, alienation. She asserts the importance of understanding gentrification as a social justice problem and as a “manifestation of inequality.” I think such a perspective is essential to understanding the spatial layout of and the evolution of neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves in New York City. Furthermore, this talk is important for understanding Freeman and Braconi’s research in their article regarding gentrification and displacement. Their research suggests that disadvantaged households would value the improvements of gentrifying neighborhoods. To echo Sutton’s point – do academic statistics really matter if it costs vulnerable communities their social networks and disregards their identities and lived experiences?

This past weekend, I met up with a friend who is studying abroad in New York City as an undergraduate student from NYU Abu Dhabi (her home institution). She told me all about her exciting city experiences – doing the typical touristy things but also the craziness of living in one of the most diverse and most populated cities in the United States. She talked about her newfound love for Brooklyn, specifically the “hipster” parts (i.e. the only part of Brooklyn she visited). When tourists visit New York City (and all of its gentrified neighborhoods), they experience a place that is aesthetically pleasing and what seems like a great community to be a part of. What they miss, however, is how those neighborhoods arrived at their current state and who was affected in the process. I thought about this a lot when I was talking to my friend and also when I watched Sutton’s Ted Talk.

Unrelated: Checkout this article in the NY Times about Governor Cuomo’s plans to demolish Robert Moses’ notorious Sheridan Expressway and replace it with a tree-lined boulevard!

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Williamsburg has the #2 Afghani food in the City?

I was aimlessly scrolling through Yelp searching for where to find the best kinds of food in New York City. I typed in “Afghani Food”, expecting to find the best Afghani food somewhere in New York City where there is a high concentration of Afghani people. I was expecting that these businesses would prefer catering to people of their own nationality, giving the locals a taste of their home cuisine.

However, what I found was that the #2 best Afghani food for cheap near Brooklyn was the Kabob Shack in Williamsburg-South Side. That was something I did not expect, knowing that Williamsburg has been the constant site of gentrification over many years. The two things in particular that shocked me was 1) why is it fairly cheap? and 2) why Afghani food in Williamsburg?. After thinking more into it, it makes sense. This business is in Williamsburg’s South Side, which I learned is considered more residential and less gentrified than the North Side. This business serves both the residents in search of ethnic food and the stragglers of the North Side of Williamsburg who are in the mood for falafel. The “exoticness” of Afghani food also seems to attract customers to this restaurant.

Furthermore, after reading about the zoning changes in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, which allows for more residential developers to come and create housing for both low income and high income families, it is apparent that the location of this business is ideal for those moving in. Because it is ethnic food, rather than something like a restaurant, which can be displaced by Applebee’s or Chipotle for example, it seems to me that the Kabob Shack is here to stay.

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/kabob-shack-brooklyn?osq=afghan+food

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Camilo José Vergara’s Tracking Time (Harlem)

The photos attached are photos taken by Camilo José Vergara for his project Tracking Time. Vergara has been photographing the poorest and most segregated neighborhoods in urban America for more than 40 years. The photos that I have attached onto this post are some, but not all, photographs of two locations in Harlem, the southwest corner of West 125th Street at Malcolm X Boulevard and 65 East 125th Street.

Continue reading “Camilo José Vergara’s Tracking Time (Harlem)”

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Does Gentrification Actually Help the Poor?

Since this week’s readings are centered around possible positive outcomes of gentrification, I thought I’d look for an article that focuses on that as well.

A Business Insider article states that there is little evidence that actually points to gentrification being responsible for displacing the poor and minorities. It also talks about how gentrifiers make life better since “they put pressure on schools, the police and the city to improve.” Here’s my favorite line towards the end: “However annoying they may be, hipsters help the poor.”

We’ve talked about it in class through Alexis’ demos of Social Explorer, but there’s no single statistic that can measure the impact of gentrification. There are the more obvious ones–income breakdown and racial demographics for instance–but more factors may be in play that lead to changes in those statistics. This is why people can argue that there is little to no evidence that indicates gentrification is detrimental to low income citizens and minorities. It’s difficult to claim that gentrification is the sole source of displacing these groups of people.

Additionally, after a conversation with a group of people yesterday, the “positive” results of gentrification may end up overshadowing the negative effects of people getting displaced. One acquaintance who lives in Long Island said he doesn’t want to hear anymore about people saying that gentrification is a bad thing, because it’s brought all these Starbucks to his neighborhood and helped reform in his community (and thus, less crime). “And what’s so bad about that?” There were two other people in the group who immediately chimed in, “hello, people lose their homes?” In this case, I could see for myself that this was an attitude of, “if it (gentrification) doesn’t directly affect me in a negative way, then it’s a good thing.”

Source: Economist, The. “Gentrification Is Good for the Poor.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 21 Feb. 2015. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

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The Missing Factor

In “The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City,” Kathe Newman and Elvin K. Wyly discuss displacement within New York City. This paper provides a detailed look at the following question. Does gentrification lead to displacement of low-income families or is that due to “the result of long-term industrial and occupational change” (Hamnett, 2003, p. 182). The paper highlights the multiple factors aside from gentrification that leads to this displacement of lower-income residents within New York. The nature of displacement within New York City is a multi-faceted issue that always comes back to one central theme, corruption.

In New York City, we start with Robert Moses. Moses was a man that was clearly hungry for power, basically monopolizing New York City’s planning department. He shaped New York City into the urban center it is now known as today. But, he did not do this alone. With the help of money-hungry real estate corporations, he built up areas that were “in need” of change. Moses’ plans both benefitted the city, and negatively affected people on an individual level. However, the driving force was always corruption. Moses took advantage of the system and made it so he was of such power that most of his ideas went largely unopposed. The corrupt big real estate players had no intention in mind other than taking advantage of people to make a larger profit.

So to examine the true reason for displacement we need to understand that corruption is inherently part of human nature, whether this has to do with power, money, or any other aspect of life. Based on a purely systematical view of this “problem” using basic principles of logical reasoning, the following could be inferred. Since human nature allows for corruption, and corruption is what caused gentrification of New York City and displacement of lower income families, it can be viewed that human nature is the cause for this displacement. The nature of humans to strive for bettering themselves is what detriments those worse-off. So, while the “quantitative” and “qualitative analysis” that Newman and Wyly reference in their paper does adequately suggest that there are more factors than gentrification that lead to displacement, the one factor that may explain it all goes unmentioned.

Works Cited
Newman, Kathe, and Elvin K. Wyly. “The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City.” Urban Studies 43.1 (2006): 23-57. May 2005. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.
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“Shameless” on Gentrification

Shameless is a comedy/drama TV series about the Gallaghers, an Irish American family, who lives in the South Side projects of Chicago. The show is known for touching upon various “real-life” topics such as the effects of being part of the LQBTQ community to the effects of being out of “the hood”.

The video shown above is a small clip from the second episode of season five in which the father of the Gallaghers, Frank, recognizes the typical and straightforward signs of gentrification in their neighborhood. He is currently in The Alibi, a local bar of the neighborhood. As the show progresses throughout the season, The Alibi becomes “overrun” with hipsters who love the “authenticity” (which in the comedy shows references to the “crazy” Russian bartender and the overall “hood” vibe) of the bar. The Alibi, making more money off of the newcomers, then starts to cater to the new customers leaving the locals without their favorite spot. The show also introduces a lesbian couple, who being the symbol of gentrification, often has conflicts with the surrounding neighbors .

Although the show is a comedy, it manages to condense into a one minute scene how gentrification is perceived in mass society and the negative connotations that it has to those who have seen it for themselves and fear its effects. This fear and understanding is amplified in the show because these words come from the mouth of Frank, who in the show is one the least responsible and most reprehensible characters. Even a character such as this, however, still recognizes the negative effects of gentrification.

I chose this video because it reminds me of the articles Gentrification and Displacement written by Lance Freeman and Frank Braconi and Does Gentrification Harm the Poor? written by Jacob L. Vigdor. These two articles faced and challenged the “typical” perception of gentrification which includes migration of more affluent residents into lower-income neighborhoods thereby displacing the lower-income residents of that area. Although their articles argue and provide evidence that displacement of lower-income residents is not necessary to show the negative effects of gentrification, public perception and understanding of gentrification still might resonate with the typical model.