Changing Neighborhoods
Both articles focus on a similar theme of changing neighborhoods. In the article about Chinatown, the main focus is on whether or not Chinatown can continue to exist in New York City with current residential trends. All throughout Manhattan neighborhoods are being gentrified and longtime residents are being pushed out. Chinatown, in fact, was itself established via gentrification. Before large numbers of Chinese immigrants had settled in what is now known as Chinatown, the area was actually dominated mainly by Irish immigrants. The question now, however, is how long do the current Chinese residents have before the same happens to them and how has it not happened already considering that Chinatown borders some of the most expensive, gentrified neighborhoods in the city. According to the author, Chinatown will not be going by anywhere anytime soon thanks largely in part to everything it has to offer to all kinds of people. Chinatown isn’t just a residential neighborhood for Chinese immigrants, it’s a cultural hub, and popular designation for tourists amongst other things. Obviously no area is completely safe from change as change is ultimately inevitable, but Chinatown seems to be doing a good job so far. Still, as the author mentions, Chinatown has continuously been changing on a smaller scale. Though Chinatown is likely to continue to thrive in the future, future Chinatown will likely be very different from the one we know today.
Unfortunately, many other neighborhoods aren’t as resilient to gentrification. Reading through the various stories in the other article, it almost makes you feel that practically all small businesses are doomed from the start. It’s only a matter of time before the neighborhood changes to the point where these stores become obsolete or just straight out unwanted. The only ones that manage to continuously succeed, as pointed out by the author, are the ones that are capable of changing with the neighborhood. Doing gentrification research in Washington Heights, we saw a bit of this evident through the people we interviewed. One particular person, a young convenience store clerk, explained to us just how susceptible these stores can be to change. Stores that had been there his whole life are shut down overnight, block by block, as rent goes up and business goes down due to a change in targeted shoppers. Though the people were changing, the businesses were not and that ultimately lead to their downfall. On a more encouraging note, it’s not impossible for a business to adapt and thrive. The most encouraging story front the article I felt was the one about Michael’s Prime Meats in Flatbush. Originally catered towards the Irish/Italian Jewish neighborhood, the shop had to adjust to the rapid influx of Caribbean residents. Foods that would never have even been considered earlier are now being sold regularly. Now the family owned shop has been in business for nearly one hundred years and if it maintains its ability to adapt, then it’ll likely be around for another hundred.
It really is a frightening thought to see that entire neighborhoods can be overhauled so drastically and quickly. But if these articles are showing us anything, it’s that change cannot be stopped. The stubborn will not survive. Only those who can adjust to and embrace the changing times will be able to maintain their current residential lives. The rest, unfortunately, seem destined to be pushed out.
2 Comments
tanvirislam7
March 31, 2016I agree your notion that it seems that small business are doomed from the start. I was reading a stat that 1 in 3 restaurants close down in urban areas like in NYC and in London. Often it is not because of the heavy taxes that they must pay the government but the inability to cater to a community, especially when it is changing. People often complain about how difficult it is for start-ups to succeed. In NYC, start-ups fail often because they focus on ideas that have been done before, or because of their lack in quality to compete with competitors that offer similar products. A start-ups’ biggest risk is often the competition. However, a small business like a restaurant, that is subject to the communities’ changing interests, faces more of a risk especially in a gentrifying community.
Michael
April 1, 2016One of the differences I noticed between the chinatown shops and those that we studied in Washington Heights was that chinatown was more flexible with change. Unlike in Washington Heights, where the mom and pop stores stayed largely the same as a new wave of customers began to appear in their shops, chinatown’s shops started changing naturally as the younger generation overtook their parent’s property and updated it for the new age; like the traditional tea store from the Chinatown Article. When the shockwave of gentrification inevitably came to chinatown, the shops weren’t so quick to cave in and the culture didn’t wash out like it did in Washington Heights because those stores were so adept to change.
That isn’t to say that the Chinatown shops had better buisness practices then the Washington Heights shops however. One big reason that the shops in chinatown were able to adapt was because of the political leaders chinatown has in place fighting for them in city hall, preventing gentrification from happening too quickly. At the rate its going now, gentrification is happening slowly enough that it can be controlled. In this way, chinatown may well be a model for how to handle gentrification in future neighborhoods.