The Community and Small Businesses: A Vital Relationship

This week’s readings focused on a segment of gentrification that is often overlooked — the implications this urban change projects on small businesses, and industrial centers. Winifred Curran provides an interesting take on the situation, as she begins by stating that she began the research as a way to hone in and highlight the displacement of many small manufacturers, the difficulty of zoning and building violations, and the legality of residential housing surrounding areas that are predominantly industrial based (e.g. Williamsburg, Long Island City, early SoHo). However, through her research, she finds that business owners often tell her about the, “remarkable adaptability, creativity and resistance to the prevailing economic order” (Curran, 875). She mentions important details about the ties that many small businesses and manufacturers have to their community — this results from historical development and the long established social ties they have with members of the community, as well as other business owners they are able to work with locally. It is important to acknowledge these neighborhoods in thriving and economically growing areas such as New York City because they are central to many other big businesses, and help to maintain economic vitality. The article mentions that many businesses are able to carry out their daily needs and duties without complaints from the nearby residents who live near there because they either form close relationships over the many years they have lived here with business owners and are adjusted to this noise and way of life, or because most of the residents are in fact these local business owners.

 

Part of small businesses are Mom and Pop shops. These are predominantly family run businesses that serve a much greater purpose than selling goods — they serve as communication gateways for people of the community, long lasting relationships, connections, economic stability, and more. They are fundamental to any close knit community. In the video I have chosen to represent the reading this week, we can see many residents preaching the need and pure goodness of a Mom and Pop shop, as they can always rely on these shops to not increase their prices, or fall under the whim of displacement and increasing price of goods as all the areas around them tend to be doing.

An interesting concept with these Mom and Pop shops, as well as other small  manufacturing and local businesses that we see in areas that are undergoing gentrification is that most of them seem to be benefitting from the change. When our group members went to visit Long Island City for our own project, many of the owners have claimed that they had great love for their community, and do not find an issue or have not considered moving out of their area. They appreciate the influx of residents, and have adapted readily. However, it is important to notice that this situation with local businesses must be taken on by a case by case basis, as the situation did not treat local businesses in Harlem this kindly, before the upper income entrepreneurs arrived.