From well-dressed residents idyllically walking their purebred dogs to the superlative customer service Joanne and I were received with at local businesses, Court Street in Carroll Gardens in many ways reminded me of the Upper East Side. Nonetheless, the neighborhood did not reflect a sense of opulence. Instead, the safe, inviting neighborhood on Court Street in Carroll Gardens was a neighborhood which every individual ought to be entitled to live in. Unfortunately, simply maintaining the charm of a neighborhood seemed to dramatically escalate the costs of living, and only doctors, as Eric, manager of Court Pastry Shop, described, would be able to easily afford to pay the rent in the area.
When visiting Court Street, numerous managers from local businesses indicated that 
the paramount obstacle to maintaining their respective businesses was astronomical rent rates. Census data indicates that median household income in 2015 was $145,294. On the contrary, only 2.389% of households made a median income that surpassed $15,000 in 1960 or approximately $123,060 adjusted for inflation. This reflects Eric’s own descriptions of the predominantly Italian immigrant population who lived in the area. Presumably, the Court Pastry Shop reflected the palate of the community, which was tightly embedded in cultural traditions. In 1980, it is evident that Court Pastry Shop was particularly nestled between two distinct income groups with 25.898% of individuals indicating that they were living below the poverty level at the top right area of Court Street. Nonetheless, the surrounding area is predominantly well-off with 11.139% below the poverty line. The census in 1990 further expounds upon an increasingly economically-stratified society with only 4.762% living below the poverty line toward the left of Court Pastry Shop, while 15.718% lived below the poverty line toward the right of the shop. In 2009, 0% of individuals were living under the poverty 
line toward the left of the shop, while 5.872% lived below the poverty line toward the right of the shop. Nonetheless, streets away from Court St, 22.22% of individuals indicated that they were living below the poverty line. Unfortunately, while the economic situation of residents along Court Street has steadily improved with 1.277% of individuals identifying as living below the poverty line on the right side of the shop, the poverty inflicting the concentrated community two blocks from Court Street since 2009 has only further developed increasing from 22.22% to 26.371%. This block is particularly where 33.147%, the largest concentration, of the Black-American community resides. It is important to also recognize that while Asian-Americans encompassed 0.176% of the community in 1960, the number expanded to 11.584% between Carroll Street and Douglass along the right side of Court Street. However, Asian-Americans have also not been able to permeate into the predominantly White-American block nestled on the left side of Court Street where Asian-American encompass only 2.264% of the population.
As Joanne and I interestingly noticed simply upon walking down Court Street, despite serving as a residential sector, Court Street in Carroll Gardens seemed to completely lack a Black-American presence. Interestingly, while the left side of the area near Court Street Pastry Shop is 74.969% white, the left side of the same street has a white population of 92.84% concentrated in a small, square-shaped region. Within this same region, 0% of individuals categorized themselves as living below the poverty line in 2009 as earlier stated. This dark-hued region seemed to envelop the span of the entire community in 1960, which is understandable. I recall the store manager at Court Pastry Shop describing the Italian-American immigrant community living within the area who the bakery would predominantly serve. Nonetheless, the community as a whole seems to have only further regressed regarding segregation between racial communities. While the black community encompassed 1.242% of the population along the left side of President Street and Kane Street according to the 1960 census, it can be assumed that integration would further develop with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nonetheless, the 2015 census indicates that Black-Americans
now total an almost nonexistent 0.763% between both the left and right sides of President Street and Kane Street. While Black-Americans were able to still live in sizable concentrations along Court Street in 1960, the Black-American community has been completely isolated and jostled into a sizable block toward the right of the neighborhood with a population of 33.147% in 2015.
Still, racial populaces have experienced greater diversity since 1960 according to census data. While census data in 1960 did not even acknowledge the existence of mixed racial groups, the 2015 census indicates that 10.274% of residents between Douglass Street and Bergen Street on the rights side of Court Street identify as being “two or more races”. Still, it is important to also recognize that despite the increasing presence of diverse racial groups, the predominantly white-American population between President Street and Kane Street alongside the right of Court Street (which is also where the Court Pastry Shop is located) is insulated between communities that are more racially integrated. Despite the manager of Court Pastry Shop describing having encountered a Black-American woman who reminisced over having visited the bakery as a young girl, the bakery seems to predominantly cater toward a White-American customer base above the poverty line taking into consideration the heavily segregated location of the bakery.
