Winifred Curran in his essay called “From the Frying Pan to the Oven: Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn” discusses the role that gentrification has had in pushing out small businesses in NYC. The above video by TYT Politics Reporter Andrew Jones is an interview discussing how Governor Cuomo is favoring corporations and big businesses over small local businesses and that the rising rental costs along with gentrification in NYC are forcing small businesses to close down and relocate to less suitable areas.
Curran talks about specific instances where small businesses are forced to relocate from Williamsburg due to landowners charging low rents on lease at first and then changing rental agreements when the lease period is over catching businesses by surprise either forcing them to pay the higher lease prices and in turn lose profit or relocate, however since this is an NYC wide problem these relocations usually end up a drastic relocation to areas outside New York such as New Jersey where businesses would not have to worry about high tax rates and increasing lease contracts. Even if some businesses end up benefiting from this relocation, there is a problem in relocating many small businesses who have made their mark in their respective areas and have stayed there for decades only to be removed by the changing New York City and gentrification. The above video talks about the problem this has as small businesses bring culture an diversity into the city and are an integral part of NYC, and that since gentrification and Governor Cuomo’s preference of enacting policy favoring of big corporations instead of small businesses are in turn causing the destruction and relocation of said small businesses, NYC is losing part of it’s culture and it’s diversity. A culture that has been part of the city for decades. A culture that is also being lost by the destruction of blue collar jobs in small factories that Curran also discusses that has led to further displacement and more gentrification as rich white corporation owners and businesses buy out the areas previously occupied by the working class in small businesses. Governor Cuomo has created a system that favors the corporation class and makes it harder for the sustenance of small businesses and it’s working class citizens.
The video asks the important question. What do the small businesses bring to our community? And answers it in that it brings culture. This is a point Curran agrees with in that he also feels displacing businesses that have made their living in parts of Williamsburg and other parts of the city has a negative effect on both the community and the businesses that have been relocated. The interview gives a specific instance of New York City public libraries being bought out by big corporations for real estate and discusses that this buyout brings detrimental effects both to the community and to children and education and kid’s access to books also emphasized with the relocation of Barnes and Nobles’ stores.
