Greenpoint’s Housing Landscape Before and After Gentrification

In the three works “New-Build Gentrification and the Everyday Displacement of Polish Immigrant Tenants in Greenpoint, Brooklyn” by Filip Stabrowski, “The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City” by Kathe Newman and Elvin K. Wyly, and “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor?” by Jacob L. Vigdor, Douglas S. Masset, and Alice M. Rivlin, all authors examine the consequences of gentrification upon those of lower-income. Many people visualize gentrification as simply the physical displacement of individuals, families, and communities from their previously-occupied land. However, Stabrowski explains that there are numerous other factors of displacement that contribute to the bigger picture, such as economic, community, and resource displacement (798). By interpreting gentrification as the concept of changing experiences and dynamics of a community, it is easier to digest that it is possible for dislocation to occur whilst remaining on the same property. Conversely, physical dislocation may occur without the feeling of alienation stemming from a shifting neighborhood (Stabrowski). Stabrowski focuses his analysis on the transformation of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which has rapidly gentrified in recent years.

Greenpoint was a Polish enclave in the 1980s; there was an established network of support and connections that Polish immigrants could find when they moved to the United States. The process for housing was casual, with Halina, an employee at a neighborhood market, finding lodging above her place of work without signing a lease. This dynamic remained strong until a rezoning decree became the impetus for drastic change, leading to rent increases. Soon, the original tenants felt alienated by the changing experiences of their communities and the increasing monetary strains that a flourishing speculative market cultivated. Stabrowski considers that low-income occupants are caught in a lose-lose situation – either accepting treacherous and deteriorating living conditions, or speaking up against this, which may result in a steep jump in rent or outright eviction from their homes (813). Gentrification has the power to directly push people out by stimulating rent growth, but it also can instill fear in those who stay in these neighborhoods. According to the author, we must protect these tenants from the abrasive downsides of gentrification by enacting stricter regulations on rent and landlords.

An article entitled “In Greenpoint, 140 Affordable Apartments Up for Grabs from $613/Month” in Curbed New York shows a recent update in the housing market of Greenpoint. The article describes a housing lottery for 140 apartments in a 40-story development. While the project has a beautiful tower facing the East River, the units up for the lottery do not have the same luxury views. Rather, they are located elsewhere in the development. While the lottery promises that tenants “will have access to a community room, an interior courtyard, and several laundry rooms,” it does not include the other services that occupants of the large tower have (Walker).  Not only is this a continuation of the housing landscape of Greenpoint, but it also mimics the housing segregation that we discussed in class two weeks ago; that, as a consequence of the 80/20 program, tenants of some affordable units had to enter through a different entrance: a “poor door.” The latter example and that in Greenpoint show that the goal of mixed-income housing might result in developers instead fostering housing segregation in gentrified neighborhoods.

 

Works Cited

Newman, Kathe, and Elvin K. Wily. “The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City.” Urban Studies, vol. 43, no. 1, 2006.

 

Stabrowski, Filip. “New-Build Gentrification and the Everyday Displacement of Polish Immigrant Tenants in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.” Antipode, vol. 46, no. 3, 2014.

 

Vigdor, Jacob L., Douglas S. Massey, and Alice M. Rivlin. “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor?.” Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, Brookings Institution Press, 2002.

 

Walker, Ameena. “In Greenpoint, 140 Affordable Apartments Up for Grabs from $613/Month.” Curbed New York, 2018 Jan. 17, ny.curbed.com/2018/1/17/16898876/greenpoint-brooklyn-affordable-housing-lottery/.