A 58-year-old grandmother named Audrey Quantano is refusing to move out of her run-down, unsafe apartment even though the building is greatly in need of renovation. West Harlem Group Assistance, a nonprofit that develops and preserves affordable housing, purchased the building from the city and relocated its residents to structures in upper manhattan – except for Quantano. The other residents left 8 months ago but as a protest against the development in Harlem, Quantano is still staying in the practically uninhabitable building. These relocated residents were promised that they could return once the building is restored, but Quantano’s refusal to relocate is postponing the renovations. She currently has a four-bedroom apartment in which she lives with only her two dogs. She fears that she will receive a smaller apartment once the renovations are complete.
It seems inconsiderate for her not to leave the building just because she may return to find herself in a smaller apartment. The building is moldy, has busted pipes and leaking ceilings; in this case a nonprofit is attempting to fix the building and has even provided temporary housing for its residents in the meantime. It isn’t being turned into a luxury condo, and they are not attempting to kick her out by turning off utilities. Her protest against gentrification is just turning into an inconvenience for many others. 
In an article titled “Brooklyn Gentrification: Spike Lee Has Right Message, But Is The Wrong Messenger“, Palash Ghosh reacts to film director Spike Lee’s profanity-ridden rant on the gentrification of his native neighborhood of Brooklyn. The basis of Lee’s argument is that he grew up at a time when the neighborhood of Fort Greene in Brooklyn was made up of mostly minority groups and lacked good facilities and services. As of late, there has been a huge growth(29.6% from 2000-2010) in the number of middle and upper – class white New Yorkers moving into these previously poor areas. Lee is angered that it took an influx of young, rich people into these places to bring about better policing, sanitation, and schooling.
In his article, Ghosh describes the 70s: “the era of near-bankruptcy, rising violent crime, white flight, a heroin epidemic and relentless danger lurking around every corner.” He remembers the “the grim, decaying neighborhoods replete with garbage-strewn lots, bodegas, liquor stores, check-cashing joints, etc.” of Brooklyn in the 90s. But he also says that it is the deprivation, desolation and violence of NYC neighborhoods that brought about great artists and movements from that time such as the Ramones and the hip-hop movement. Ghosh sees Lee as a hypocrite, saying that Lee has made contributions to these changes in by popularizing Brooklyn in the his films and cashing out on it. Now that these neighborhoods are cleaned-up and more orderly, there is no longer an “edgy” vibe to these places, but they are safer and less dangerous. Ghogh poses his ultimate question about gentrification which is whether we would prefer neighborhoods to be crime-ridden and cheap but interesting and eccentric, or neighborhoods that are rich, dull, and filled with consumerism. However, it isn’t as black-and-white as Ghosh makes it out to be. The biggest issue that I see with the latter option is that the working-class people who live in these neighborhoods are forced out of their homes by landlords, often through unlawful methods, and there is less affordable housing when these places are gentrified. Things may be better for the newcomers, but many of the people who lived there previously do not always benefit in these situations.
Hi, I’m Anna. I am currently a student at Hunter College. I am very much undecided on my major, but recently became interested in learning more about Business, and so I am taking a couple of courses at Baruch College. I hope to find something that I can genuinely be interested in. I spent 18 years on Long Island, NY, but I definitely enjoy the city life over the suburbs. I enjoy learning about fitness and health, swimming, reading, and most of all – eating.
A little bit of family background: Both of my parents are from China. They both immigrated to the United States when they were about 20 years old, just looking to better their lives. They had me and my sister a few years later, and we moved out to Long Island. Although I am not an immigrant, my parents are, and that has had its influences. I speak to them in our FuZhou Chinese dialect at home. They like to stick to the Chinese culture and values, and so at times there is a discord between the ways in which we see things. But I will always appreciate the fact that I have had opportunities in my life that my parents never had.
