Category: Student Posts

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Transportation to Hudson Yards

While looking at articles about Williamsburg and its land market prices for my research project, I came across this article about Hudson Yards and how it will be a “transportation torture center.” Right now, the only train that goes directly to the Hudson Yards is the 7 train and this article discusses why the 7 train simply can’t accommodate all the people going to and from Hudson Yards after everything is built. The author, Lois Weiss, writes that an expected amount of 37,335 people will be leaving at a peak hour in year 2025, but as of right now, only an expected 32,670 commuters can be moved each hour on the 7 train. This does not account for the fact that people will already be on the train and that the station can only hold 25,000 at its peak. It is said that by 2025, 170 new buses will be needed to serve Hudson Yards alone.

I find this article really interesting because, as discussed in class, Hudson Yards is the biggest public-private partnership project that is happening right now, but they managed to overlook how transportation will be affected. Many tourists will be visiting this place, and while it does have a lot of attractive sites and will bring in a lot of business, it will create a lot of congestion in both the area and on the 7 train line. The 7 train is not expected to run without any problems, now or even in the future after all the buildings go up in 2025. In the future, unexpected problems and congestion will further affect how people will view Hudson Yards. Similarly, this reminds me of Williamsburg and when it became popular, the L train definitely became more crowded as people started going there. However, when the L train shuts down in 2019, there will be a necessity of more buses or alternative train travel routes. While it seems like a small problem as we all wait for trains and buses that are not overly crowded so we can actually get on, extra money will have to be put into these areas to accommodate for the heavy masses of people travelling in and out of popular neighborhoods. As for the 170 new buses in Hudson Yards, it may cost around $50 million.

You can find the article here.

Weiss, Lois. “Hudson Yards Will Be A Transportation Torture Chamber.” Bisnow. Bisnow, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. Mar. 2017.

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Gentrification in Crown Heights

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/nyregion/gentrification-in-a-brooklyn-neighborhood-forces-residents-to-move-on.html

This New York Times article deals with gentrification in Crown Heights, more specifically, lower income residents being pushed out by raising rent prices and the many ‘immoral’ ways landlords are doing it. I’m not going to go in-depth about how it relates to class because it’s fairly obvious. Instead, I’m going to talk about my ‘favorite’ lines in the article as I found it so ridiculous.

  1. “Cocktail bars are opening where fried chicken used to be sold from behind bulletproof glass.” — God, I hope that’s just an overstatement because I have no words. And if it is in fact true, IT MAKES NO SENSE compared to the rest of the article as it continues to say many residents did not want to move into other neighborhoods as they thought them unsafe. YOUR FRIED CHICKEN PLACE HAS BULLETPROOF GLASS, HOW MUCH SAFER CAN IT BE?
  2. “The monthly rent on Shirley De Matas’s two-bedroom apartment at 1170 Lincoln Place was $800 in 1999, when she, her husband and their three children moved in. By 2014, it had risen to nearly $1,300” — OMG in 15 years your rent went up $500 dollars. Why do people assume that rent will stay the same way forever? That there is no such thing or inflation or GASP raising prices. And $500 in 15 years is not that much in terms of the forever raising prices in NYC. And $1,300 for a three bedroom — in NYC — deal of a lifetime.
  3. “With a backyard and a car, she has found life in Virginia affordable and pleasant, but “extremely boring,” she said.” — This is in relation to someone who moved out of Brooklyn as it was getting too expensive. I’m just going to leave this here…

 

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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.

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Gentrification in an Unhip Place

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/letter-from-flushing-on-gentrification-in-an-unhip-place

Flushing is one of the neighborhoods that I consider myself to be involved in. Over the years, I saw it evolve from a place where only Asian people go to buy groceries, to a place where people would go to experience authentic Asian cuisine. Two of the most prominent changes that comes to mind in the last 10 years is the construction of Skyview shopping center and Citi Field. Skyview draws many brand names such as Uniqlo, Nikes, and Adidas, as well as countless other Asian cosmetic stores. Citi Field draws in many tourists who are baseball fans, and it is also used as a concert venue (notably Beyonce’s Formation Tour). A lot more food market has opened, providing inexpensive and delicious authentic food for all who goes there.

The negative effects of the successful commercial developments in Flushing are also alarming. This summer as part of my campaigning internship, I visited many apartments in Flushing. Although I never thought of the area as a particularly nice residential area, I was surprised to find out that the rent was much higher than what I would expect. Overcrowding is also a serious issue. Flushing High School is consistently ranked the worst high school in Queens because of overcrowding, and has experienced several principal changes over the years. The 7 train, which has its terminal stop in Flushing, is at its 99% capacity and cannot be improved with its current structure.

At the rapid pace that Flushing is developing, I would argue that it would soon become a more “hip” place.

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$9 “Unicorn Latte” from a Williamsburg Cafe

The Unicorn Latte from The End

The End, a cafe that opened up recently in Williamsburg, is the perfect example of a business meant for the “creative class” and hipsters. The article describes the Unicorn Latte, one of the drinks the cafe offers, priced at $9 for a 12oz. cup. The explanation behind the high price is because it is claimed to contain healing ingredients, such as E3 Live, a blue green algae (and probably because it has a unique look and name).

In Sharon Zukin’s “Why Harlem Is Not a Ghetto”, she says that Harlem has been penetrated by many hipster cafes, boutiques, and the like, which attract those from the creative class and those with higher income. Similar to Harlem, Williamsburg has also been dotted with cool new cafes, which is one of the reasons for its gentrification. On another note, I found it entertaining how the author captioned a picture of a different latte, “Some other bullshit” and a picture of the cafe’s menu, “RIP Williamsburg. Again”. Someone doesn’t like gentrification!

Carlson, Jen. “This Williamsburg Cafe Is Selling $9 Unicorn Lattes”. Gothamist. N.p., 2017. Web.

Article can be found here.

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Gentrification in Brooklyn

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/nyregion/cuomos-1-4-billion-plan-in-brooklyn-stirs-fears-of-gentrification.html

This article via The New York Times talks about Cuomo’s proposed 1.4 billion dollar plan to help revitalize poorer areas in Brooklyn. He wants to do this by providing better healthcare and providing jobs for residents.

Reading the proposal initially, I thought the residents would be thrilled because it was something that would benefit them, until I read on. Residents were scared that the new proposal would cause gentrification in their area because now there area would have better ‘resources’ and thus rents and the like would increase.

This relates to our class discussion because we oftentimes talk about increasing rent prices and that it drives residents out of the neighborhood. But, the article relates to class in another way, one I find far more interesting.

In the article, one of the people interviewed stated that they can put a glass door on an old run down building, call it a loft and people will buy it for a crazy high price. I initially thought of Jane Jacobs when this happened, and the ‘preservation’ of old buildings turning into something used for profit.