Amy Yedid- Community Board 1

The majority of people living in Greenpoint and Williamsburg are non-hispanic whites who make up about 61% of the population while the rest of the population living there is comprised of different ethnicities. From an economic view, the people living there range from living below the poverty line to the working middle class. I think the main issue they face while living there is affordable housing. As demand for living spaces increased, so did the prices, thereby decreasing affordability for many people. People are being forced to move either to smaller and poorer quality living areas or even forced to move out of the Community Board 1 area completely because they could not afford the rent. Since, around 86% of people living there are renters, this is a major issue for the community living there.

As for your question about whether I would anticipate conflict between the different groups living there, I would say that I do. With the yearly incomes of residents ranging from living below the poverty line to middle class, there are differences in the needs of the residents. The poorer population support lowering prices of rent and would support rent controls while the landowners would fight against this because this would decrease their income from renting out their land. It’s issues like these that the Community Board 1 has to decide on and compromise on.

I think the pressure “from above” is the pressure coming from the the minority, the landowners and people with more money who may have more power over the decisions made in the community while the pressure “from below” is the renters and the people of lower income who are pushing for their needs and interests to be met. It is the job of the Community Board 1 to reconcile between the two pressures in order to make the community they live in the best that it could be and try to compromise between the interests of the two groups.