The changes in Williamsburg and Brooklyn over the last 10-20 years have completely changed the needs of many communities. The Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods have been especially effected by these changes. The demands that the community board has laid forth are mostly reasonable and consist of things that i’m sure they have been listing for at least the last five years. Affordable housing, proper maintenance of public space, low zoning laws and accessible transportation are all things that assume most New York neighborhoods would like more of. The gentrification in Community Board 1 is what separates the content of their statement from that of other community boards. The area is transitioning from the gentrification of young people and artists in search of the holy grail of authenticity to a “super gentrification” that will be followed by the rise of condos and luxury oriented businesses. They won’t have to worry about the bars and the public safety after the areas gets inhabited by the super rich. Once the city recognises that the area is full of important citizens transportation will improve. If it doesn’t the influence of those people and their money will change things pretty rapidly. Families will exist there but not the same kind that are there now. Families like those who live on the Upper East Side and compete to send their kids to private school will live there now. The Polish, Italian and Puerto Rican past of the area will slowly fade into history and be replaced by a new narrative until a fresh cycle of crash and flight changes the area completely. The poorer people who live their now should know that they are not safe from an increase in their cost of living. Even if rents are stabilized or more affordable housing built, the area is trending in one direction and will continue going that way until the market is externally influenced. Prices for good and services are just as effective a tool at driving people out as real estate values are.
The kind of affordable housing that has been built in East New York is the kind that New York will have to build to keep some part of the middle class. As long as the economic trends in New York continue and the housing market sustains itself, (the quest for authenticity pushing the pioneers who are followed by those who search for luxury) there will be continued gentrification of any NYC areas within reach. Making middle class enclaves or areas where the poor can try to sustain themselves is important in the coming years. We should not give in to the European way of public housing which involves pushing all undesirables to large housing complexes outsides city limits to continue to attract tourists. New York is a brand but it is also a city full of people who need to survive and have a right to live in nice areas that are not constantly being threatened by the ravenous real estate market.
Benjamin, you are undoubtedly correct that more luxury apartments than middle-class housing units are being built in Greenpoint, especially along the waterfront. Unfortunately or not, only laws can keep lower-income people in rental housing despite the lure of high rents and fancy stores. This is one kind of “external influence” that you call for in your post. You’re also correct that pushing low-income folks and ethnic minorities to public housing projects–in the suburbs of French cities and perhaps along the waterfront historically in New York–is unethical and counter-productive. But what exactly is “the kind of affordable housing that has been built in East New York?” Do you mean public housing projects or Nehemiah Houses or something else?
Professor Zukin