For the last 40 years, any individual that has a pair of eyes will notice the tragic difference and dynamic change between 20th Century New York City and 21st Century New York City. With solely a commercial mindset, the government along with “culture” seeking leeches have infiltrated and annihilated the 5 boroughs. Jeremiah Moss compares this mindset to Manifest Destiny, where settlers continue to justify their placement wherever they desire. Throughout the readings, the gravity of gentrification is demonstrated across New York City using statistics, personal stories, and activism.
The dictionary definition of gentrification is to “renovate” and “improve” districts or areas so that they can adjust to the upper class taste. We begin in Brooklyn in the 20th Century; a place where people from Manhattan never visited, a place for people of color and the working class. Norman Podhoretz, a 1930’s blue-collar worker states, “there were no Americans. There were Jews and Negroes and Italians and Poles and Irishmen.” Brooklyn was never meant to be an Anglo-Saxon borough, then came the 60’s and 70’s. Artists, hippies and mostly white middle class individuals began to filter through the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, rehabbing deteriorating brownstones. These “creative” individuals would enter into “all-negro” neighborhoods in search for the ultimate experience of an authentic community experience. In efforts to create this utopian melting pot, the poor were displaced, but the municipal corruption that existed reduced because the benefits of middle class whites improved the conditions of those areas. The spread of gentrification began with Williamsburg, and expanded because of the Internet and social media.
Not long ago, the waterfront of Williamsburg consisted of nothing but low buildings, factories, church steeples and the famous Domino sugar factory. Now, churches have been changed to condos, glittering glass towers hover over the churches left, and “Williamsburg looks like Miami Beach.” Unfortunately in 1999, Williamsburg was discovered and became the new East village filled with hipsters and with them came their yoga, art books, and record shops. Mark Grief identifies hipsters as a “subculture of people who are already dominant,” “rebel consumer[s],” and artists who create no art. Instead of creating an environment that fosters art, culture and benefit for most, hipsters bring overpriced coffeeshops, rooftops, “neoprimitive” designs and a plethora of chain stores. It is evident that the openings of Starbucks, Duane Reade, and J.Crew in neighborhoods like this, completes a step in the cycle of gentrification. This is because the bodegas, fresh produce carts, and small businesses are wiped out for the fulfillment of the hipster culture. From 2000-2013, the Latino population declined 27% and the white populations increased by 44% in Williamsburg. It did not end in Williamsburg, other neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, Greenpoint, and Crown Heights have become and are becoming victims of gentrification.
In Greenpoint’s Manhattan Avenue, individuals barely used their cellphones, people said “excuse me” and held doors for each other. A block over on Franklin Street, the opposite occurred and the “Manhattan” culture seeped in. In Bed-Stuy, the African American culture used to thrive with roots dating back to the 1830’s. In 2001, it was 75% black and its first gentrifiers were middle class African Americans. Unfortunately, after Bloomberg’s marvelous rezoning of 200 blocks, the black population immediately declined to 60% as the white population between 2000-2010 skyrocketed 633%. Ephraim, an individual who moves rent-regulated African Americans, explains how unwanted they are by the upper class whites. He explains that when people move into the buildings in Bed-Stuy they ask if black people were residing there. “If they see one black person in the building they call him and complain about how they aren’t paying money to have black people in their building.” South of Bed-Stuy lies Crown Heights, a neighborhood that used to be affluent but became a predominantly African-American neighborhood. In 2010, the black population shrank from 79% to 70% and the white population doubled to 16%. Statistics like the ones shown above put numbers to the horrors of gentrification and demonstrate the major effects of it on predominantly colored people.
Massive efforts from local church within the boroughs have attempted and succeeded in the past to slow down and remove the efforts of gentrification. In Jaffe’s chapter “Don’t Move! Improve!,” communities in the Bronx and Brooklyn came together, partnered with churches and organizations, and attempted to higher the standard of living in struggling areas. Organizations like the NBCC, SEBCO, and the East Brooklyn Congregations all decided to stand for their ground and take matters into their own hands.
As people walk through the streets of Brooklyn or Queens in search for their “ultimate culture experience” with their $5 coffee, it’s important to understand the culture that actually resided in those places before; understanding just that is what will provide them with the experience they’re looking for. We should follow the paths of the New Housing Activists and push to preserve communities rather than annihilate and gentrify.
Sarah Shafik
