Reading this article, I noticed many parallels between the real estate industry and the BQX, the proposed streetcar that is to connect Brooklyn and Queens. First off is the idea that real estate can bring money into neighborhoods. Developers felt that the building of large retail and grocery chains in poorer neighborhoods would provide the residents of said neighborhoods with jobs. These jobs, though, were often low paying and had high turnover rates. One of the advertised benefits of the BQX is that it provides a means for people in underserved neighborhoods to reach jobs that they wouldn’t be able to reach easily otherwise. What is not brought up, though, is that many of the available jobs in these neighborhoods around the proposed BQX route are specialized jobs, mostly in the tech industry. In both cases, money isn’t really being brought in; rather, opportunities are being opened for a select few.
Another large parallel is seen when looking at what the Real Estate Board of New York and the BQX hope to bring to the Brooklyn Waterfront. REBNY hopes to rezone industrial sites for manufacturing from the waterfront so that residential and commercial buildings can be developed. The BQX is supposed to provide transportation for many of the residents living in the public housing units along the waterfront while also raising property values along its route. Both can be seen as the beginnings of gentrification along the waterfront, which may only serve to benefit wealthy residents or investors in the area. Though they were probably developed with pure intentions, both ideas don’t necessarily take into consideration future outcomes and repercussions felt by those living in the area.
The final, and what I believe to be the most important parallel, is private funding and intervention in projects that are supposed to benefit the public. Most, if not all, real estate companies are private and are supposed to have their clients’ best interests in mind. Yet, a lot of the time, the real estate industry has other priorities and can serve as another artificial means of segregation in New York City. Many agents often discourage people of color from renting or buying in certain, white neighborhoods. In an effort to keep property values where they are, racial steering keeps people of color in historically black neighborhoods and whites in historically white neighborhoods. Another example on the real estate front is the subsidizing of low-income housing for private investors. Though intentions are well, what these companies often do is use their profits from subsidized housing and invest them in high-risk, commercial ventures. Basically, the rich exploit the city to get richer. To compare this to the BQX, one only has to look at who is currently going to front much of the streetcar’s bill. Private investors who are the driving force behind the organizing and financing of the BQX have other business ventures in neighborhoods along the BQX route that can greatly benefit from a reliable transportation source. To me, this seems like a huge conflict of interest.
