Category: Weekly Responses

This course has really taught me a lot about what is going on in New York. To be honest, I didn’t know much about the issues New York faces before I took this class. In previous Macaulay seminars we learned about the art and history of New York, but never leaned about present day New York and its happenings.

I got to learn about the affordable housing crisis more in-depth than I ever had. Also, while doing research for my group’s final presentation about local shopping streets, I learned a lot about the dangers they face with the new generation and chain stores, and how we can try to help the local shop owners. But the topic I think interested me most was talking about technology in the workforce. I had always been a techno-pessimist when it came to technology and machinery in businesses. I always thought they were going to replace human workers and widen the gap between the rich and the poor who would not be able to find jobs. But while doing the reading I learned a lot more on the topic, not enough to change my perspective just yet, but enough to make me consider rethinking certain things. Also, I really liked the trip we took to Civic Hall. It opened my eyes to the benefits of technology and how it can be used to make people’s lives easier and better, such as the Benefits Kitchen app. I think this is a must-see for future classes.

The other students’ presentations at the Macaulay common event were not quite like ours and they didn’t hesitate to point that out. Most of their presentations were very factual, using a flood of numbers, percentages, and statistics but it made them less captivating. One group even proposed a new form of currency (I think it was virtual currency, like BitCoin) so that banks would not be needed anymore. But while our group was taking questions and comments, we got comments that the students liked our presentation because it was unlike the others and more relatable and heartfelt. It really got them thinking about what they could do to preserve local shopping streets.

Before this class, I knew about the housing crisis in New York City, but I did not know about it in great detail, nor did I know about shift from finance to technology or the crisis facing local shopping streets. This class has taught me to ask questions like: what should public housing look like, who should be eligible for public housing, should there be rent control, what are community boards, should they get more power, how has New York City shifted from a finance dependent sector to a technology dependent sector, what are the benefits of New York City becoming technology, what are employment prospects for New York City, what are problems facing local shopping streets, and many more questions that arose during this course. What is even more amazing is that I know how to answer these complicated questions with regards to zoning, affordability, gentrification, local city government, and many more themes that we discussed in class. All this is so relevant because I live in New York City and this is the city I hope to one day live, work, and shop in. This class taught me the importance of keeping up with local government, the importance of my vote, and that if we want to see a change in our city, we have to be the change. We (Macaulay and all other New York City college students) are the future of our city and if we hope to see a change in our home, we have to be that change. We have to get involved in our local community boards, pay attention to what our mayor purposes for the city, and the effects of those actions. And the only way we can do that is by being educated first. The things I learned in this class will absolutely play a roll in how I view our local political leaders and therefore, the vote I have to elect them. The issues and themes in this class are so vital because these issues are happening right where I live and affecting many others and myself. In addition, an important part of a being in a democracy is knowing the issues facing others and what can be done to alleviate or solve these issues.

During our discussion about the umbrella concept of diversity, the other students taught me the importance of being educated about other cultures and religions other than my own, and more importantly, being respectful of them. I know that might seem like something that is already known, but to discuss such an important topic in a college setting, in a respectful way, and proposing ideas and possible solutions to prevent terrorist attacks with my peers made me feel a part of a larger conversation happening. Being educated about such an important topic and ways to be respectful of people that are different than you just seems like something all adults should know, and something members of a functioning society should know.

A major theme (to me) in this class was society, and how housing, the economy, and shopping affect our society. However, this class taught me about the responsibilities I have to my society. It feels like it is my civic duty to know about the issues, cultures, religions, and government happening in my society. This came threw in my fellow Macaulay students’ presentations at the common event. Unfortunately, the session I was in seemed more applicable to the “How we work” team. They spoke about the city’s shift from finance to technology, Silicon City, and Silicon Valley (though they didn’t speak about Civic Hall). It was very interesting to see what my fellow Macaulay students thought about the city’s dependence on the tech sector via Bloomberg’s administration (if I remember correctly) and how this would affect New York City’s future. They predicted an increase in tech jobs. However, I don’t mean to brag about our class in particular, but I believe we talked about how this will affect the city’s future more in depth. We talked about what this will mean for people working outside tech jobs, coding, specialized intense classes to teach people how to code, and the program that might take effect in grades K – 12 to teach students how to code, and Civic Hall as a collaborative workspace. I think the other Macaulay students would have benefited from our trip to Civic Hall, to see how technology is affecting how we work today.

I can go on for pages talking about what this class taught me, and I’m afraid no matter how much I write, I won’t be able to do it justice. This class really taught me about responsibilities as a young adult, a member of a functioning society, and the importance of understanding the current events around me. I wouldn’t change a thing about the class. I hope that the future Macaulay students will be able to go on the same trips and do the interviews as well. I also really appreciated the way the course was split into how we live, how we work, and how we shop, and that each group still needed to keep up with the material covered by the other groups. However, I wish that we were able to discuss topics such as the environment (maybe not so much because this is discussed in seminar III), diversity, and urban terrorism more in depth. I really appreciated that my group stood out of the other groups presenting during my session, but incorporating the environment, diversity, and urban terrorism would set our class so far apart from the others and really make us unique.

From this class and my classmates as well as the article and experiences we analyzed in class taught me so much about the problems we face in New York as residents. We learned so much about the affordable housing crisis and how low income people are being pushed out of New York City by the forces of gentrification. Also what I found extremely interesting was the idea of the global North vs. the global south and the lack of social mobility in our society. Also learning about how the local government subsidized housing for lower income people by negotiating with developers to build new building and leave a certain number of those new apartments for low income housing. I loved how all what we talked about for the living in New York City section of the course and how it directly pertains to our lives in New York City.

The how we work section of the course was also extremely interesting. Learning about the effects of technology in New York City. Learning about how advancement of technology has destroyed some sectors of the New York City economy and grew others. For example one sector of the New York City economy that was decimated by the growth of technology is the production sector that employed low-level unskilled workers in New York. With the growth of technology more high-income jobs have been created leading to an influx of money into NY. This leads to gentrification and the increase of housing prices. This interconnection is what I feel is the basis of the class and learning about how we work and how that affects how we live and how it affects how we shop. Each section of the class plays into the other and the issues for one area maybe caused by another. That is what I liked the most about this course; it illustrated the complexities of a society such as our own and illustrated the issues that we will all have to face.

The interview for the how we shop team were extremely enlightening for life in New York City and how it is continually changing. Learning about the role local shopping streets play in a community and the benefits they offer. The Interviews we did with local shop owners taught me a lot about the real lives of these people and how they are real people with real problems. Also presenting at the common event really opened up my eyes to the many different problems affecting New York City. I learned a lot from how transportation in New York is extremely slow to how many lower income people aren’t provided with affordable healthy alternatives. However I thought that 10 minutes to present a semester long project was much too short and if all the different groups could have presented together or at least in the same session then our presentations would have illustrated a more comprehensive portrait of the problems in New York City.

Take Back NYC’s opening webpage states, “These small businesses – hard working New Yorkers who form the heart and soul of the greatest city on earth – are being replaced by the highest bidder, big box stores and chains whose only motivation is greater profits.” I think it is important to note the passion behind Take Back NYC. They feel that New York City has been taken from them by big businesses. They feel that “the heart and soul” of New York City is being lost. And although I agree with them in worrying what New York City will look like in 5, 10, or 20 years. I do not fully agree with everything that mention in SBJSA.

As a possible solution to sustain local businesses, The Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA) is a bill that has been introduced in the NYC City Council that would give commercial tenants three specific rights:

1. A minimum 10-year lease with the right to renewal, so they can better plan for the future of their business.
2. Equal negotiation terms when it comes time to renew their lease with recourse to binding arbitration by a 3rd party if fair terms cannot be found.
3. Restrictions to prevent landlords from passing their property taxes on to small business owners.

Last week we discussed the importance of local business, and this week has confirmed that when local businesses are forced to close because they can’t afford rent anymore, and a big chain store takes its place, it introduces gentrification in that area and although I think SNJSA is a great start to protecting local business owners, I’m afraid that a more efficient bill should be introduced to the NYC Council. What I mean is that I would like to see a bill that regulates property taxes, or introduces rent-controlled priced for local businesses, and possibly even rent-frozen prices for start-ups. I say this because local business owners can’t predict the economy or what NYC will look like in 2 years, let alone 10 years. If the economy had a pretty devastating year, and that year is enough to drive a small business to close, that local business will have been cheated a longer life because their weren’t enough laws put in place to protect it. In addition, when the economy fluctuates, people cannot afford to spend, which is why business owner Avi Saks does no want to pass his business down to his son. “Saks knows it’s not possible to raise a modern family on the revenue the once-thriving shop is now producing.” There could also be a bill that offers landlords incentives to keep the price of rent low for local businesses.

I agree with Tim Laughlin, executive director of the BID, in saying that, “If the goal is to preserve affordable housing and at the same time to protect independent businesses,” Laughlin argued, “we need to provide incentives for property owners to continue to operate their buildings.” How brilliant would it be if a bill or law gave incentives to tenants to keep the rents low for home-renters and business-renters? This could help people who can’t afford to live and people who can’t afford to work in NYC. Laughlin explains that offering tenants lower tax rates could do this. I think this brilliant! It would be able to keep people living in an area as well as working in an area as well. I see this as a potential tool against gentrification as well as protection.

I also think that community boards, and specifically local business owners, should be able to voice their thoughts when a big brand chain is introduced in their area. Giving them a voice would better represent what that neighborhood wants. If a bodega goes out of business in a particular neighborhood and a Key Foods is going to open in its place, what are the people in that neighborhood going to do if they can’t speak English or find the things they need. There needs to be more power allocated to community boards because it is their community that is changing, and unfortunately, most of the time their vices aren’t heard. Community boards need to be able to give more influence when a big business is going to come into the area because like Elisa Maldonado said, ‘“I feel [The Cast] is representative of the culture that was the Lower East Side,” she explained. “It’s about keeping that spirit, identifying with it and [making a statement that] “we do belong there!”’ So when a local business closes, the culture, spirit, or even authenticity of that area changes, and that directly affects the people living there.

Three Questions for Local Business Owners:

• How has the neighborhood/area changed since your business has been here?
• How do you see the neighborhood/area changing in the future?
• What do you wish you had known before opening a business here?

The best singular approach to keeping small businesses alive is giving them power in the lease negotiation process. It deals directly with the problem of increasing rents as opposed to the other two options mentioned in the article.

The first proposed solution, giving businesses a property tax credit, would not have as big an effect as other solutions because not all tenants pay a large cut of the tax. While this would certainly not be harmful in any way and would indeed allow owners to keep the rent reasonable, this does not prevent owners from increasing rent prices. The second approach, special zoning laws, would also be incredibly helpful but still does not directly address the problem of current renters being driven out. Zoning laws could prevent chain stores and other bigger retailers from attracting customers away from their businesses which would be helpful, but still the rent would probably increase due to other factors such as gentrification.

Ideally, the best way of tackling the problem of disappearing mom-and-pop shops is a combination approach with a heavy focus on media outreach. Small businesses need to make a name for themselves through word of mouth from generation to generation and the media. Their goal should be to market themselves to the current shopper without giving up their identity. Places such as Junior’s have become incredibly famous both within and outside of NYC, partially due to their media presence. Yelp reviews, Times articles, websites and any sort of online attention will help to draw a younger crowd. Most people I know look at Yelp before picking a place to eat. A business that has no online presence in this age is most likely doomed to fail.

My current place of employment, Ample Hills Creamery has recently been named as having the “Best Ice Cream in America” by Food Network. They now have six locations across Brooklyn and Manhattan and one opening up in Disney World. I have watched their business grow during my time working there and I have to contribute a huge portion of their success to their media presence. They have had extensive news coverage, been featured on Oprah, Good Morning America, and the list goes on and on. They update their Instagram and Facebook daily and work incredibly hard to collaborate with successful bakeries. In my opinion (keep this on the DL) Ample Hills’ ice cream is not that good. It’s really sweet, packed with other sweet things, and leaves you feeling like you need a nap. However, the owners hired some very bright, technologically savvy people and are now sitting pretty.

I know that small businesses owners generally do not have the time, money, and/or skill to invest in creating an online presence. However, if every small business were to hire a moderately priced web designer and ask their friends and family to rate them on Yelp, that might really make a difference.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How did you get started in this business?
2. How do you feel about gentrification? How does it affect you?
3. Where do you see yourself in the next year? Ten years? Do you plan on passing this business to your children?

Small businesses are facing enormous problems in their fight to survive. It seems to me that the biggest problem that they face, one that each storeowner that we read about mentioned, is the rising rents. This is a major problem in today’s economy and market. If the rents keep rising, storeowners are forced to sell their businesses to people who can pay those rent prices but then went the rent goes up again, that owner cannot afford to keep his shop open in that location and has to sell to someone else until it happens again. It’s an ongoing circle that will continue until a big business who can afford the higher rents buy up properties and storefronts in a neighborhood comes in, thus leading to gentrification through down-up development and also leads to big businesses monopolies since small mom-and-pop stores may not be around and the big retail stores may be the only places to go to for the things you need.
I think that the Small Business Jobs Survival Act taken on by the organization Take Back NYC is a good start to fighting against the problems faced by local shop owners. It attempts to tackle the need for fair negotiations in commercial lease renewal between landlords and shop owners. For starters, there would be a ten year minimum on lease renewals. The landlord and tenant have 90 days to negotiate the terms and conditions on the new lease and if one party still does not agree to the new terms, a mediator or arbitrator is brought in to settle the dispute, hopefully without any biases toward landlord or tenant and he shall decide the rent price. This act seems pretty fair to me and I hope that this bill will pass so that tenants, shop owners, and landlords as well, can obtain the rights they need to fair prices and negotiations and that there can be less ill will between them.

As for 3 questions that I have for store owners:
1. Who are your customers? People from the neighborhood your store is in or perhaps people from other neighborhoods? People from the same community or ethnicity perhaps? It would be interesting to see how the storeowner would classify his customers.
2. Has rising rent prices affected your business? If so, what have you done to try to combat them and help your business stay afloat?
3. Are you aware of or do you take part in any organizations that try to help small shop owners maintain their businesses such as the ones mentioned in the articles we read? Do you think these organizations can have an impact on the problems your shop is facing today?

The number of local businesses in New York City has been steadily declining in part due to the forces of gentrification. What has been happening is that areas that used to house lower income people are now housing wealthier people. These wealthier people do not frequent local businesses and instead choose to go to more upscale businesses. Along with the decreased income these local businesses also face increased rent. Landlords who want to drive out these local businesses to make way for more profitable businesses increase the rent tremendously and these businesses have no alternative but to leave the place they have working for so long. As professors Zukin stated in her interview local government also plays a part in destruction of local shopping streets. While gentrification raises the rents that shop owners must pay the local government also raises the property taxes for single landlords to raise the rents higher. This affected David Owens a vintage shop owner on the lower East side when his landlord gave him a bill for $40,000 in property taxes. Instead of pay David Owens moved his shop a few blocks down the street where he can manage to pay the rent. While lower East side of New York has been subject to increasing rents for retail shops it’s still not nearly as high as places like the meatpacking district and Soho. While local shopping streets aren’t dying breed many people have been fighting for their existence and trying to ways awareness for the problem facing local shopkeepers. One such movement that is trying to raise awareness about the problems facing local shops is the take back to New York movement. This movement argues that it is not fighting for nostalgia it is only fighting for the right of successful local businesses to exist, employ people, and be a part of the community. While this is A good start for helping sustain local businesses it will not be enough. I believe the most important thing for local businesses to survive is the adoption of new technology to reach more customers. While people enjoy visiting local businesses they usually only visit businesses with an online presence. These local businesses can take advantage of the growing hipster movement that seeks to move away from produced products and consume new and creative ideas such as those offered by local business.

Three questions I would ask a local businesses owner would be:

1. Why did you choose to open a business and why did you choose this location?
2. What are the major problems facing local businesses like yours?
3. How has the community you working in affected your business?

The decline of small businesses is a widely overlooked consequence of gentrification despite the fact that their loss is just as impactful as the loss of low-income residents. Small businesses not only provide places shop and work, but are direct products of the cultural makeup of neighborhoods. Their loss and replacement by higher-income businesses also plays a role in accelerating gentrification by increasing the cost of living. Take Back NYC’s Small Businesses Jobs Survival Act is an attempt to stem the tide against small businesses.

However, despite the organization’s good intentions, the language of the act makes me concerned as to the impartialness of the organization and whether or not they are truly looking at every facet of the issue. My concerns are mainly focused on the language specifically targeting landlords, calling for laws that prohibit what Take Back NYC describes as “landlord abuses.” Certainly many of the things they listed as abuses are definitely horrible and should be prohibited. However, I think that the loss of small businesses is caused by more than just landlord abuses. The problem is systemic in that a lot of the change has been and is currently being propagated by the city government. It also does not help that the global economy has been suffering as of late. Foreign investors are looking for sure things to keep their money safe and that place is New York City real estate. Besides, some of the things that Take Back NYC describes as abuses such as passing on property taxes onto tenants seem to me as natural things to do. Property taxes are rising due to the rising property values. In both Small Business Survival articles, local property owner Michael Forrest argues against the popular point of view that most landlords are simply out to make money. He argues that like small businesses he values long-term customers and that he does try to accommodate them, but rising property taxes and other costs forces landlords like him to raise rents. Landlords have bills to pay too. Landlords make their money by owning land and renting it out while small businesses provide goods and services for profit. It isn’t unreasonable that landlords would want to pass on their costs to their customers as all businesses do.

Overall, Take Back NYC falls into the trap of targeting an easily-identifiable enemy and pushing its greater message on the back of attacking that enemy. While the intentions may be good and the technique is effective in gaining the most passionate supporters, like many causes that have employed this technique, the main goal and message will get lost in translation. Not to mention the act does little in actually solving the issue.

Solutions:

Finding an effective long-term solution to this problem will be tough, but I believe we can make great progress by being pragmatic and controlling the things we can control now. One thing we can control is property taxes. One solution that we can implement is property tax reform in that property taxes should be both progressive and based more on income rather than market value. Thus, landlords who own land with high value on the free market, but charge low rents will not be saddled with high property taxes. We can also provide incentives for landlords who intend to keep their rents low by paying for the difference in market value and current value in exchange. Also, since the tax is progressive it can decrease the amount of realtors attempting to gentrify the city. Those who wish to invest in city real estate are looking at a large tax bill.

Questions to Ask Shop Owners:

1. How long have you’ve been in the neighborhood? How involved are you in the neighborhood?
2. Who are your customers? Are most of them long-term customers or are they short term? Do you know many of your customers personally?
3. How has increasing rents/property taxes/cost of business affected your business? Have you had to increase your prices?

Many cities around the world are experiencing the same phenomenon where the face of the neighborhood, the local shopping street, slowly change to a more homogenous appearance due to growing chain stores. Such changes prime the neighborhood for “gentrification by hipster” as new art galleries, boutiques, and cafes, the ABC’s of gentrification, spring up. Eventually, as evidently seen in many of the current neighborhoods today, immigrants from various parts of the world attract to these neighborhoods to start up business such as retail and restaurants in search of more affordable rent and potential customers, instead of starting up in their ethnic neighborhoods. These three factors begin to reshape the local shopping streets in many global cities.

New York City, in particular, is an excellent example because unlike other cities such as Shanghai which has been experiencing gentrification due to local and national migration, it attracts millions of immigrants from various parts of the globe and this international migration seems to create super-diverse neighborhoods in many parts of NYC. Local shopping streets of NYC began to grow as numerous “mom and pop” retails have established since late 19th century, beginning with the Germans and then Jews that gradually settled in until the 1980s. There used to many authentic local retail stores on Orchard street, but many have long disappeared due to rising rent costs. One solution to sustain small business would be giving business Lease Renegotiation Rights. One of the main causes for closures of many small businesses is the failure of the commercial lease renewal process.  The grassroots advocacy organization such as Take Back NYC is actively supporting the bill, Small Business Jobs Survival Act. Under the bill, businesses have the right to negotiate terms when it comes to a renewal of their lease, and it also guarantees a minimum 10- year lease so that the businesses can prosper by expanding their business without worrying about the next lease renewal.

Decades ago, these local shopping streets were bustling with foot traffic which helped local stores sell many products, however with the advent of technology, old stores are losing customers to new stores that strategically have online stores. I think that bringing back the foot traffic will help improve these businesses. Such event can occur if the street can host a street party or a fair where they hold events and let the customers experience the lively feel of the authentic local shopping streets. We can perhaps also help old businesses catch up to current advances in technology. They don’t necessarily need to provide online shopping, but they should at least create websites that lay out their items, feature deals and sales, and present short business histories.

In the article, Small Business Survival: Government Gridlock Stymies Solutions, the author discusses several potential solutions to help small businesses thrive. One method that I think would be great is setting a tax rate. By doing so, incentives will be given away to landlords who provide rent relief to small businesses. If the owners agree to preserve affordable housing and to protect independent businesses, incentives like setting a tax rate will be provided. Although it is a complicated process and Mayor de Blasio has said the proposal will “not happen quickly or easily,” it will greatly benefit those landlords who wish to protect mom-and-pop stores because Michael Forrest, a local property owner, mentioned that there is “zero support for owners of tenements to preserve existing affordable housing. “

Interview Questions:

1. Who are your customers and where do they come from?
2. How has the neighborhood around your store changed ever since you began?
3. Do you incorporate technology like websites to your business? If not, are you willing to?

Rising rents in New York City are now not only affecting residential parts of various neighborhoods, but it is also affecting small businesses that are important to the history and character of New York. When property tax rates increase for landlords, they tend to place this burden mainly on the shoulders of small business owners who rent their spaces, resulting in tremendous rent increases when the tenants leases expire. For many small business owners, this eliminates any and all profit to the point where they are unable to support their business and are required to close down the business that they may have spent almost their entire lives nourishing. The SBJSA or the Small Business Jobs Survival Act is aiming to help long time businesses survive by giving rights of renewal to the business tenant when their lease expires and it “levels the playing field” for landlords and business owners by giving the tenants the same rights as landlords in negotiating fair lease terms. The act also says that if the two parties cannot agree, the matter goes to a procedure of arbitration in which a dispute is submitted to an arbitrator who make a binding decision on the dispute. I think that this plan is effective in allowing for more control to be given to small business owners over their rent regulations and the process of arbitration would provide for more fair grounds in the event that the landlords and renters cannot come to any sort of agreement. I think that another thing that should be targeted is the tax incentive that landlords have for refusing to renew leases and having empty space. These landlords are able to use the spaces left empty after a business closes down as a tax write off, and so they’d rather have the business close down. Something should be done to lower or completely diminish this ability of landlords to benefit off of having empty space present on their properties.

Three Questions:

Are a majority of your customers locals, or are they from outside of the neighborhood?

Has the rate of increase in rent been affecting your business profits, or the ability for your business to survive? Have you had to cut back on certain portions of your business in order to make ends meet?

How do you handle big chain brands that move into the neighborhood? Do you employ any tactics to keep customers coming to your store?

Change in general is an inevitable process. Everything and everyone is constantly evolving and adapting to external and internal pressures, which sometimes creates a positive outcome and other times not so much. In the case of local shopping streets, change cannot be stopped. Technology is constantly evolving and continuously becoming a more central part of our lives. As we learned a couple of weeks ago in our trip to Civic Hall, services are being created that simply did not exist before. Along with high tech products comes a change in aesthetic. As described in Global Cities, Local Streets, “cheap” stores that once were popular on Orchard Street were replaced with “vintage” shops with exposed brick walls. Rents are increasing due to a variety of factors, leading to the closing of many immigrant shops.

Technology has caused a shift in the appearance and operation of physical stores. Many companies are labeling themselves as “tech companies” instead of traditionally labeling themselves after what they actually produce, such as pizza. However, technology (the internet) has created an entirely online shopping street where products are often offered for cheaper. This obviously does not bode well for store keepers as they are competing with global companies that have more resources. The only real ways a business can compete with such an entity is to offer a completely unique product, experience or environment or enter the online realm as well. Yelp as well as Twitter and Instagram can be vital for a business. These platforms can be used to gain a following and hopefully make the store more hip and trendy, creating more revenue.

Retail chains are another huge factor in the decrease of “mom-and-pop” shops. Due to changes in zoning laws and the allowance of government Kmart and Target have infiltrated the city. I usually avoid these chains like the plague but I have to own up to occasionally buying a pint of “Ben and Jerry’s” at Target when it is five dollars. The price is too good to pass up, but everytime I make this choice instead of going to a local ice cream shop I support a corporation with a vast amount of resources and connections and the ability to drive local businesses out of the neighborhood.

Overall, the future is not looking very bright. Some hope lies in the willingness of shoppers and storeowners to work with each other. This can be difficult as many people, especially immigrants, are distrustful of the government (rightly so) and sometimes each other. Perhaps if the BID (business improvement district) focused more on the preservation of local landmark businesses instead of trying to transform a neighborhood into the next Orchard Street, the “authenticity” of NYC would not disappear so quickly.

Local shopping streets are usually the face of a neighborhood. Local shopping streets some see as a relic of a past age that has been made obsolete with the advancement of technology and the growing popularity of online shopping. With the forces of gentrification in full swing and more and more ethnic communities being forced out due to gentrification many local shops have since followed suit and have closed down. While more and more local businesses close down, big chain stores have been expanding. While these big chain stores offer their customers more convenience and lower prices local customers feel a sense of lose with this change.

In Global Cities, Local Streets: Everyday Diversity from New York to Shanghai, the authors state “ When local shops change from one type to another, longtime residents and user experience a wrenching sense of loss. They have lost their “moral ownership” of the street, a sense of belonging that goes beyond legal property rights, and is based on a deep identification with culture of the space”. Local long time customers feel comfortable in their local shops because its all they know and when they see the local shops they care for so deeply being taken away and the changing neighborhood, they feel as though they are being pushed out of their own city. The city their parents and grandparents grew up in and they are being forced out and replaced.

I personally don’t feel that local businesses will not die out because they offer something that chain stores and online shopping don’t and that is human interaction. I believe with local businesses lagging far behind the chain store’s in terms of adapting and applying new technology they have lost a lot of business. However with the increasing technological proficiency of each new generation local businesses will adapt to the new technology and gain a lot of ground. Especially because they actually care about there customers and their customers care about them. While technology continues to advance and destroy the normal person-to-person interactions that permeated our society I believe local businesses become a bastion for human social interaction.

In the past, local shopping streets have always been epicenters of every neighborhood. It was where people went for their everyday needs and it was where people socialized, whether it was just a good morning to an acquaintance met in a local cafe or talking about the weekly gossip with a friend while browsing over the fruit at a grocery store. Shopping streets were not just places where people ran their errands and went home. Local shopping streets “bring together in one compact physical space the networks of social, economic, and cultural exchange created every day by store owners, their employees, shoppers, and local residents” (Zukin, page 4). They are usually safe places where people can interact and feel at home with the people of their neighborhood and are not excluding of outsiders. It’s also usually eco-friendly, with shops being close to residents’ homes and allowing them to walk or bike through the market place and carry their bags home.

The types of stores on local shopping streets usually indicates the class of people that live in the area. Working class neighborhoods usually has small immigrant-owned shops with bright displays and affordable merchandise at low prices to cater to the people who live there while higher end neighborhoods will have more upscale and trendy stores with merchandise of higher prices that entices the more affluent. Changing storefronts is usually a good indicator of gentrification.

Change on local shopping streets is almost always inevitable. Local shopping streets can go through the process of ethnic succession. When a group of one ethnicity starts moving out of a neighborhood, they take their goods with them, leaving the space to the new group of a certain ethnicity that moves in after them, just as the Russian and Eastern European Jews did when the earlier German immigrants moved out of the neighborhood in the Lower East Side. A new ethnic group moving into a neighborhood with stores that represent their ethnicity can also push out a different ethnic group. However, just as you’ve mention in your book, Professor Zukin, sometimes, rarely but sometimes, neighborhoods retain their ethnicity and their charm, such as New York’s Little Italy and Chinatown.

In a similar process, local shopping streets can change through gentrification. As more upscale stores open in a neighborhood, more affluent people are attracted to the area, thus allowing the rents to rise and forcing small shopkeepers to close their stores because they cannot afford to pay the rent to keep their stores open anymore. These shopkeepers have to move their businesses to a different neighborhood with lower rent prices while more upscale stores move into the neighborhood, making the neighborhood more upscale and allowing gentrification to continue.

Just as Professor Zukin wrote in her book, Global Cities, Local Streets: Everyday Diversity from New York to Shanghai, the stability of the local shopping streets depends on the supply chains that bring merchandise to the stores, the demographics of the neighborhood, laws and policies of the state, and media image contributing to a street’s “brand”. A disruption in any one of these can lead to store closings and new store openings, thus changing the local shopping streets. Technological innovation such as online commerce and retail chains has a major impact in all of these aspects. Although there can be some benefits to shopkeepers such as good online reviews bringing in new customers and using technology to manage their inventory, technological innovation has many downsides for small shopkeepers. The ability of resident’s to get all their needs online diminishes the need for many neighborhood stores. Instead of walking over to get a newspaper from a corner newsstand, people can get the news online in their own homes. With huge online clothing retailers, people don’t need to go to clothing stores and can have clothes shipped to their doors. Some grocery stores allow you to order online or call in an order for groceries and have it delivered to your door without even having to leave your house. People don’t have to get their needs locally anymore either. You can order what you want from overseas online and have it shipped to you in a couple of days. One of the benefits of people going to local shopping streets is that the money stays in city. However, with all of this technological innovation, money is leaving the country and going elsewhere to different countries supplying the merchandise. This is a big problem for America that gets a lot of its merchandise from industrial countries like China.

Overall, online retailers who work out of huge warehouses of merchandise can really have negative effects on local shopping centers, especially small mom-and-pop stores. In this day and age, people are having less human interaction and more screen-time. I think that many retailers may have to start moving some of their business online if they want to keep up with the fast-moving, tech-based generation. Those memories of going to a familiar shopping street and feeling at home with shoppers and shopkeepers who know their customers by face if not by name may become just that: memories, a thing of the past.

It is difficult to say that gentrification is evitable because the demographics and the cultural and social makeup of a neighborhood is dynamically changing. It may first begin with a group of immigrants starting up a store in a low-income community, both benefiting by lower rents and catering to working class shoppers. As time goes by owners will have children, who will then grow up and climb the social ladder by going to colleges. As children leave, owners have no one else who can take over and the ethnic cluster of parents shops will disappear. Then another ethnic immigrant groups succeed the previous group, creating a different ethnic cluster. However, in recent years, as mentioned in Global Cities, Local Streets: Everyday Diversity from New York to Shanghai, the authors highlight a trend called “super-diversity.” Many neighborhoods no longer cater to the specific group of ethnic community, rather the local shopping street, both shop owners, and its customers, is made up of a diverse group of mostly immigrant individuals. As the neighborhood become more diverse, artist, writers, and other hipsters are attracted to such community. Migration of these groups of people effectively causes development of “Art galleries, boutiques, and cafes,” the ABSs of gentrification as noted in Professor Zukin’s book.
Local shopping streets provide a natural community center for nearby residents, engaging in social interactions as they shop. Nearby stores also provide a convenient place to quickly get things they need either by a walk or bicycle. Most things the residents need – Grocery, dry cleaners, hair salons – are all within minutes away from the residents’ home. However, due to technology, people are more willing to buy cheaper goods from elsewhere with more variety. With the development of e-commerce, such as Amazon, people can order goods that their local shopping stores do not have. With cars, some people are willing to drive to chain retail stores that offer goods that are cheaper prices than their local stores. New York, with its many crowded streets, helped slow down the development of large chains stores because these needed routes for trucks. It was also because New Yorkers lived in smaller apartments with smaller refrigerators that didn’t require bulk purchase for weekly or monthly stock up. But still, large chain stores started making its way into New York City, starting with Kmart and Target. Many large discount chain stores like Target also allow “one-stop shopping” where customers can shop for grocery, school and office supplies, clothes, furniture, and electronics all at once. Whereas individual small stores require their customers to shop regularly, chain stores can afford some loss, buffered by other stores in its chain, as long as they can attract few customers away from local stores. In doing so, slowly but eventually local stores cannot sustain without the few customers and ends up closing down.

The recent wave of gentrification that has been impacting Brooklyn is not something new to New York or any city. Cities always change. Prosperous cities draw in many immigrants. Immigrants begin making up larger portions of neighborhoods. Current residents feel that their culture and livelihood is being displaced, resulting in them leaving and also causing property values to plummet. Immigrants dominate their respective neighborhoods. Eventually, new immigrants chasing opportunity come in and begin displacing the now entrenched immigrant populations. Decades pass and then eventually, property values plummet so much that it begins attracting hipsters, students, and artists. Hipsters, students, and artists start gentrifying their places of residence. This attracts higher-income residents, raising property values and threatening to displace the immigrants. Though seemingly local in nature, the cycle is part of a much larger global economic cycle that pushes immigrants to certain parts of the world in search of stability and that drives investors to coalesce around certain parts of the world for financial opportunity. Currently, New York City is attracting both large immigration and large gentrification. These conflicting movements are distinguishing themselves in interesting ways.

What is interesting is how differently the movements of the immigrants and the wealthy propagate themselves in cities. As the article Global Cities, Local Streets: Everyday Diversity from New York to Shanghai, puts it: immigrants who come from the Global South populate lower-income neighborhoods while immigrants who come from the Global North populate higher-income neighborhoods. The Global South tends to open businesses built on low-prices and a distinctly ethnic feel, which changes depending on the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood. The Global North tends to open businesses built on high prices and a more homogenized, which is shown in the fact that upscale neighborhoods tend to be similar all around the world. As the article points out, ABCs, or art galleries, boutiques, and cafes, tend to be widespread in Global North neighborhoods.

One can say the Global North is a natural result of globalization and is a representation of multiple cultures, which is why the style is so similar across many borders. However, there is an argument that the Global South better represents globalization in that shops tend to reflect the ethnic character of not only the owner, but the neighborhood and the area around it. For example: the article points out the sandwiches at Ali’s roti shop, which are halal meat wrapped in Indian flat bread, brought to the Caribbean by East Indian migrants. Global South’s shopping streets are unique in each neighborhood, but have their own twists in that they are heavily influenced by their environments. The Global North, on the other hand, tends to force its culture upon places, replacing environments rather than embracing them.

What is also interesting is the somewhat differing and somewhat similar views that both the Global North and the Global South have for the rise of national chain stores. The Global North tends to see these stores as signs of decline since they tend to cater to all income classes, including those with lower income. The rise of these stores in neighborhoods of the Global South tend to be seen as signs of improvement yet at the same time they threaten the livelihood of small businesses who cannot compete with the pricing of the chain stores. The labor practices of these stores tend to be questionable. As a result of these many factors, there is fierce opposition to the proliferation of chain stores in New York from both sides of the aisle. Online stores face similar scrutiny from both sides. Online stores are similar to chain stores in that they typically cater to all incomes for their low prices. Thus, they are looked down upon by the North and are feared by the South. Though the North are generally more accepting of online stores. Online stores are even worse in that they have practically the same negative effects that physical chain stores do just without any possible social interaction.

Overall, I believe change to our shopping streets is inevitable as change to our cities is inevitable. The rise of online stores and more homogenized shopping districts is both unifying the world and isolating those who are not in tune with change.

That the phenomenal world is a constant state of becoming is prima facie– we may reasonably assume that shopping streets will in fact change. However, once we have accepted that shopping streets WILL change, it remains to argue how they will change. In the reading, a historical narrative is built in which local shopping streets have recently restructured due to forces of globalization and gentrification. Districts which were once bastions of ethnic homogeneity have become fragmented and diverse as new, more cosmopolitan immigrants of various backgrounds take up residence wherever it is convenient for them to do so– increasing sophistication in communication and transportation technologies has allowed these prospective residents to be freer in their choice of neighborhood and workplace, and contemporary neighborhood and business demographics reflect this shift. Due to these same technological factors, people have become less reliant on their local communities, further increasing the drive to locate based on pragmatism rather than the consideration of self-same sympathies. This population reshuffling directly affects the businesses in any given neighborhood as new interests develop and capture real estate and old, obsolete business is pushed out. Additionally, as new economic and cultural classes develop and expand, notably the Hipster class, neighborhoods must change to accommodate new ways of living and levels of wealth.

Globalization and Gentrification aside, the continual rise of the digital on-demand market and superstore developments put additional pressures on local businesses, as local services become less desirable in comparison to the former, and viewed as limited in comparison with the latter. Thus, unless local businesses can be savvy enough to appeal to an ever-shifting populace and provide unique services, most will drown and sink amidst a sea of alternative, flashier options.

Based upon current trends, the immediate future of the New York shopping district will entail the dismantlement of local stores in favor of economically and politically powerful superstores, and the dissolution of local service businesses in favor of specialized luxury service businesses and on-demand digital service businesses. In an increasingly connected world, people no longer crave direct community as strongly as they once did, and many (including myself) may indeed prefer impersonal yet reliable and efficient shopping experiences over more personal, unreliable, and ambiguous transactions. It may be tempting to decry this trend as a loss of humanity, yet one must consider the increase in time and cost efficiency, quality control, and innovation as counterpoints worthy of consideration. Additionally, though nostalgia and tradition have their appeal, it is simply the case that the modern human has different and less tribal needs than his predecessors, and thus to insist upon values inconsistent with the current zeitgeist is needlessly atavistic.

Disclaimer!!!: My notes are always all over the place and unorganized, forgive me for that, but they are meant to serve as reference points or thought provoking points that remind you of topics and ideas mentioned in class. I am sorry if they are hard to follow, but nonetheless, I hope they are helpful.

Building Urban Terrorism into the Course Project…

• “not dealing with an army, dealing with an idea and you can’t kill an idea with an army” (I just really liked what Mohammed said and thought it was too special not to write down)

Topics and Ideas Mentioned to Combat Terrorism…

• Somehow incorporating civic hall
• Mental health/talk centers
• Considering the community ecosystem
• Diversity training –> mom meetings
• Using the app to report domestic abuse and tenant violation as a foundation for an app to create communication between different groups
• Change the law (with regards to media representation)
• Cultural fluency courses to combat ignorance
• Film (made available in app, communities, in classes, etc.)
• Advertising agencies promoting diversity in ads
• Public schools are now closed in Muslim holidays –> starting at a city level change

With Regards to the Class Project…

• Building terrorism, security, and diversity into introduction or make it its own unit?
• Use diversity as an umbrella concept
• In the work unit, tech people speak in terms of functional diversity, not necessarily the cultural diversity we expect
• Underrepresentation of women in the tech economy (might be worth mentioning in the work unit)
• In the housing unit, we can speak in terms of economic and social diversity
• Reminder: Housing team needs to build into their presentation the zoning changes/plan under Mayor de Blaiso’s administration approved by the city council
• Introduction –> Links to Diversity –> Conclusion
• Use neighborhood maps
• Shopping team can select 3 maps an do an ethnic analysis/breakdown of each and focus on these three areas in the interviews
• Build diversity into each of 3 units of this course and of the class project

Quick Recap of Topics Discussed/Should be Mentioned in Class Project

• Umbrella concept of diversity
• Conclusion
• Terrorism
• Housing team must build the new zoning law into their presentation
• Work/economy/tech must use prezi
• Presentation on April 1^st using prezi for the work team

Reflection of Civic Hall

• Civic Hall and 18F?
• Working for the sake of people/society and not just for private companies
• Civic Hall with the advancement of technology –> there will always be new problems that need to be solved and new job opportunities
• Drive, visionaries, “constant symposia of networking”
• Iteration – coming up with an idea, testing it, changing it (testing or experimentation for us)
• Microsoft sells Civic Hall’s ‘products’
• Run a tech academy – trains people for tech jobs/skills
• Corporation still benefits because they are promoting and selling their own products
• Google as well

Talk About the Economy…

• Industry City used to be called Bush Terminal
• Used as warehouses and manufacturing spaces, goods are then shipped out to the city and the rest of the country
• Attracting “gentrifiers” to the food stores on the first floor and then attracting them to the office spaces upstairs
• Industry City will no longer have college dorms
• CUNY and NYU wanted dorm space here
• Local residents don’t want college kids
• Community residents want places that will hire community workers
• Zoning laws
• Tensions between space for housing and work
• Changing the economy from being Wall Street dependent (finance sector) to the tech sector
• Diversity of economic sectors growing at the same time
• Thinking of Civic Tech in this picture of the economy
• Different parts of tech that might want to be mentioned in the class project
• Fashion
• Media
• Civic Hall
• Real Estate (under the umbrella of finance)
• Entertainment (Film and TV production)
• Artisanal food
• ecommerce
• Advertising
• Start-ups in the tech economy using rented offices
• WeWork as an intermediary
• Waterfront (more manufacturing) in Sunset Park
• The entire workforce can change, especially with intentions of building hotels
• Industrial workers will be expected to do different kinds of manufacturing (working with new technology)
• People working in existing manufacturing jobs are likely not to be hired again for jobs as well paid or as well stable (people in their 40s)
• CUNY is active in workforce training (NYC Tech or MOUSE, encouraging the board of education to start computer and coding classes for K-12)
• Financial literacy or cultural literary apps
• Multiplier effect in tech: 1 tech job can create 5 other jobs (reading assignment by Moretti)

The Silicon City exhibit definitely did a wonderful job in displaying the advancements of technology that we have seen involving computer and computer systems. We’ve come a long way from when IBM first created personalized general use computers technologically, and the technological systems get more and more improved each year. One of the things that were noted about the various images featured in the exhibit was the lack of female presence or female acknowledgment. Many of the images featured the team of computer engineers who were almost predominantly men at the time, or if there were women shown they were almost always unidentified. I found this extremely negative but attributed it to the time periods. Then of course, I stumbled upon Grace Hopper’s exhibit and was immediately impressed by her ambition as being one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computers and she taught a new computer language to students called COBOL.

Civic Hall was very different from what i expected. I expected to see a more run down, and basic array of technological innovation. I was quite impressed by the various workers who seemed very enthusiastic and genuinely looking to improve the lives of the masses. The speakers put very much emphasis on the fact that they encouraged people who wanted to get into civic tech, they could do so by “identifying a problem, and working to find a solution”. This is important because it emphasizes that in its purest state, civic tech works to improve the lives of the many, rather than lead to an increase in profits or business. One of the speakers was a woman who created a website to help individuals who were getting any type of federal aid and help them arrange their finances in a matter in which their information and information regarding their situations were laid out for them.

It was mildly intriguing to survey the exhibit at the Historical Society, if only to remind myself of the exponential growth technology has experienced in the past few decades. Far more intriguing however was our foray to Civic Hall, where I immediately felt the energy, altruism, and innovation emanating from the people there. It was clear that this was not a drab, nihilistic office space, but a  hive of ambitious, abstract intellects,  a playground of ideas and a think-tank of real-world progressivism. It was simultaneously refreshing and inspiring to be around so many well educated, skilled, and erudite individuals. Particularly fascinating to me was the inner strength I sensed in their psychological sense of value– these were people directly motivated beyond their egos, sacrificing financial opportunism for the much more savory sensation of practicing the greater moral good. Idealists. However, unlike the little old ladies serving soup in the homeless shelter, these were visionary individuals who had concrete plans for change, and who continuously strive to be architects of human destiny. As a person easily bored by logistics of any sort, it was these radiant qualities which stood out to me amidst the technical rhetoric of their actual projects. Given the opportunity, I would love to examine their psyches: How did they come to view the world the way they do? What are their core values, and do these values have a sound logical basis? What gives them the greatest pleasure in life, and why? How do they derive metaphysical meaning from their mythically heroic activities? Why are they concerned with a human future beyond the (likely) limits of their life span? Do they not, at heart, merely seek to create a world they would want to live in, and is this not inherently selfish? Do they feel that there is a compromise between attempting to master society on the public scale and attempting to master society on the personal scale? Is a lack of one a psychological drive for the other?  etc.

Civic Hall was just inspirational. I am so jealous of the members, their diverse career backgrounds, their skills, the workspace, and most importantly the mission behind Civic Hall. When I think about what I want to do post-college or as a career in the future, I think I am confined to the ordinary expected answers like lawyer, doctor, teacher, etc. I am certain that I want to make the world a better place and I fell that Civic Hall is an unconventional (but will perhaps be conventional in the future) way of making New York City a better place. But what is actually more extraordinary than that is that Civic Hall introduces technologies that make the world a better place. For example, the app that breaks down communication barriers can probably be used by anyone with a phone. One of the speakers also spoke about how soon a technology to help people determine if people are eligible for government assistance and by how much, will soon be available to New Jersey and the goal is to make it available to the U.S., if I understood correctly. The same goes for the technologies they are making to save the government money, as well as other governments. It is just inspirational to think that someone I passed in the city could have indirectly helped parents that do not speak English communicate with their child’s teacher, or help that single mom in New Jersey figure out that she is eligible for food stamps, or help Thailand’s government save money.

Civic Hall was also amazing because of the constant exchange of knowledge. I think Civic Hall can be considered an unorthodox workspace because there is perhaps a web-like exchange of information between a group of collaborators, opposed to a regular office job where knowledge is exchanged one way, usually from boss to employee. I also thought that it is really exciting that someone does not necessarily have to have a background in technology to help work on something that can make someone’s life better. I think that this can contribute to that web-like exchange of knowledge if someone with a mission or idea in mind, who does not have a technology background, can work with someone or even a group, who does know how to code or create new apps, websites, programs, etc. and make something that can help society.

To relate the trip back to the concepts of our class, I definitely think that jobs like or similar to the work done at Civic Hall will become more prominent in New York City’s future. I think that technology is advancing faster than we can imagine, hopefully always with the goal of making the quality of life better, and I think that the members at Civic Hall know this. I think that careers in technology or incorporating technology will drive New York City’s future and Civic Hall seamlessly combines technology with a social cause and produces something that can be used by the average person with a phone. I really hope to one day have a career using a skill I have mastered or enjoy and use it to make the world a better place as eloquently as Civic Hall.

Before the “How we Work” section of this class, we have really only talked about how rezoning affects public housing. Despite the fact that, “The threat of displacement due to rising property values is real not only for industrial businesses but also for the sizable residential population in Sunset Park’s manufacturing zoned area,” I think rezoning affects the economy and job opportunities of an area first, before the residential population. People cannot live or shop in an area where they cannot find work. I have mentioned in previous responses that I think rezoning can be viewed as a temporary fix because it can create job opportunities for the allotted period of time to rezone an area. However, when looking at rezoning long term, it increases the cost of living in that area, it is an effect of gentrification, it displaces large amounts of people, and in terms of the economy or work aspect of this course, rezoning will displace business tenants and their employees which will in fact immediately hurt the economy of the area.

I think the writers of these readings regarding the rezoning plan for Sunset Park described the predicted consequences of this plan so directly, especially when comparing it to what happened to the Latino population that once resided in the Williamsburg – Greenpoint area. The Latino population would be displaced and forced to move further out, which disrupts the cultural and functional diversity of Sunset Park. One of the readings said, “As one of the speakers noted, the last time a New York City waterfront neighborhood faced a similar scaled development proposal was in 2005, when Greenpoint-Williamsburg was rezoned with devastating consequences for the area’s Latino community.” I am fearful that if this rezoning plan is implemented, “the Williamsburg experience of massive displacement and gentrification” will be repeated. Not to mention that this rezoning plan would obviously affect the future, soul, and authenticity of New York City, especially because Sunset Park is one of the only remaining industrial waterfronts in a working class, Latino-Asian area.

In class, we have also talked about the market versus the state. I am mentioning this because the market and the state were two forces I was thinking about in these readings. “Industry City is a commercial real estate venture and its rezoning proposal will make that crystal clear.” I think that the market has is a huge driving force in terms of rezoning plans, especially in this case because the plan proposed for a hotel, university facility, and retail. It was interesting to see the state (more so city government) “combat” this. One of the readings said that, “Mayor de Blasio is considering a ban on hotels as an “as of right” development in light manufacturing zones is a small but positive step towards protecting Sunset Park’s industrial waterfront.” However, in my opinion, this is not enough. Mayor de Blasio should ban the development of hotels. It is not enough to just “consider a ban on hotels.” Such a rezoning plan in Sunset Park would erase the “lives, experiences, and neighborhood spaces of an everyday public, made up of working-class people and communities of color” in order to make room for market forces and a new “public elite,” as the readings put it. If Industry City succeeds in their plan, they could bring gentrification that would displace many middle-class immigrants who live there. However, the market force can justify the consequences because Industry City believes that an upper-middle, or upper class newcomers will benefit the area. It was really interesting to see how a problem we discussed in the housing section of this class affects the economy section differently.

The Silicon City exhibit and our tour of Civic Hall presented a very different outlook on the rise of tech in city than the one we have been presented in our readings.

Though Silicon City felt more like a presentation on the history of tech rather than one focused on tech in New York, it still touched upon the increasing number of tech companies basing themselves in New York as well as the prospects of more tech-focused education, as shown in the building of Cornell Tech. The theme of Silicon City is a future where most people will be employed in some form of tech.

The Civic Hall tour gave a much deeper perspective in effect of tech on the city. Though the presentation was mainly focused on the firm’s effect on the federal government’s tech policies, the underlying theme was that tech is always presenting new opportunities. The firm based in Civic Hall was basically created to address the inefficiencies of government tech. These inefficiencies are partially the result of poorly-run bureaucracy, but it’s also due to the continuous advancement of technology. Tech that was sufficient for certain responsibilities in the past have to be replaced to address the needs of today and the future. The firm works to recognize these inefficiencies and present solutions whenever possible. In a way, the message of Civic Hall is that tech is always changing and there’s always new problems. As a result, that means that there’s always new opportunities.

The Civic Hall tour reaffirmed my beliefs in tech’s true place in the future global economy. Though it is true that, in terms of employees per firm, tech does hire significantly less people than industries like manufacturing, the idea that that will lead to an overall decline in job opportunities is not proven. In my view, with the rise in problems related to tech, the rise in total number of firms may make up for the loss in employees per firm. Throughout tech’s short history, it always seemed that whenever one problem is fixed, ten more rise out of it. It’s like the rise of new programming languages. The language of C++ was created to address the inefficiencies of its predecessor C. While many new opportunities arose because of it, along came new problems that were simply unforeseen in C. Thus, it is unreasonable to believe that we may one day become so efficient in our tech that we may never need to maintain and upgrade it. Tech as we know it will be very different ten, or even five, years from now. There will be new problems and more problems than ever before. Tech has to be there, ever vigilant, to address them.

The rejected zoning changes in Williamsburg, however, brings me back to what I feel is the biggest issue with the rise of tech. It’s not the lack of job opportunities, though that issue is very real in the short term. It’s the prospect of gentrification and the drastic changing of environment that tech brings. Tech’s prosperity is rooted in its tendency to center itself in few locations. That means that it’s almost impossible for tech to prosper in areas without crowding lower-income people out. This issue is not just short-term, it’s long-term. Unless tech suddenly begins offering more lower-skilled positions, perhaps by dividing responsibilities that higher-skilled positions have, tech will always be a profession with a high skill floor and, as a result, a high income. In order to address this issue, we do need to hold off on completely entrenching areas in tech, perhaps only letting a few at a time. We need to make sure that when do let some in that it does not set precedents for other companies to come in at will, which is a primary issue of the proposed zoning changes. In the mean time, we must focus on educating our current and our future workers in tech so that when the time comes when we absolutely need to begin our full shift, that they will be ready to seize the opportunities as they come.

This week’s trip to the “Silicon City” exhibit was really eye-opening for me, seeing the evolution of technology from the first computer that was invented to solve numerical problems, to computers of today’s day and age. Perhaps my favorite part of the exhibit was reading about IBM’s company motto, “THINK”. Without new ideas and thought, there would be no progression, no innovation. There must have been something really inspiring about that motto or perhaps it was the employees constantly seeing the word “think” everywhere because you can really see how their technology evolved over the years. There was a tremendous amount of technological innovation and I saw that as I made my way from the beginning of the exhibit to the end.

Speaking of tremendous technological innovation, it was amazing to hear about the work that Civic Hall is doing. As much of the techno-pessimist that I am, I must say that our visit to Civic Hall has really shed some light on the positive ways technology can be used and how it can people rather than harm them. I was incredibly intrigued by Melanie’s website/app, Benefit Kitchen, which allows users to put information to see what government benefits they are eligible for and even more so, tells them where they can go to get it. It’s extremely unfortunate how much money that was set aside by the government to help families in need goes unclaimed because families or individuals don’t know they are eligible for it or just don’t know where to go to get it. This one app makes the process so much simpler for these families. It’s technology like this that should get more recognition because up until Friday, I had never known about Civic Hall (besides for what we read and spoke about in class) or the Benefit Kitchen app, which leads me to believe that there are so many more people who don’t know about it but can stand to benefit from it or, if not, at least pass on the information to someone else who can. Civic Hall is an amazing company that deserves much more recognition for their work.

The “Silicon City” exhibition and Civic Hall are definitely connected. I learned quite a bit from both about technology’s role in our lives. “Silicon City” showed the evolution of technology and made me really notice how my MacBook Air is almost an entirely different machine than the first computer. The only real similarity is they can both solve math problems. The video games also stood out to me. “Tennis for Two” is simplistic; the only components being a dial to control the movement of a green ball over the line representing the net. The difference between “Tennis for Two”, which came out in 1958 and “Space Invaders” which was released in 1978 is astounding. Not only do the pixels form distinct aliens but the game has components such as levels and extra lives. In the course of twenty years, even technology which is not really needed progressed quickly.

Civic Hall should have its own display in the exhibit. Civic Hall uses current technologies to create new technologies to solve problems and improve the quality of life overall. From what I learned from the presentation and reading the website, Benefit Kitchen seems to be an excellent app. Not only will this improve quality of life for people who should be receiving federal aid but it helps us move towards government transparency. Continuing in this same trend, 18F works with government agencies to create cheaper and better tools and services. Their ‘open sourcing’ means the code is available for everyone to replicate and create their own version specific to their needs.

I like the idea of CivicTech as I stated in my previous posts. However, I think people’s motives are not always so pure. The speakers, minus the woman who created Benefit Kitchen, work for Microsoft. No matter how much freedom you are given, if you work for a paying corporation you have to deliver a product that they will like. This product may not be the most beneficial to our society. The technologies themselves may be beneficial to people but the result of an increased focus on the innovation industry has been disastrous. Many people can no longer afford to live in Silicon Valley due to the incredibly high rent prices caused by the many people wanting to get involved in the industry. This same problem is now occurring in New York with a similar effect.

I wonder if as more apps like Benefit Kitchen are created, more people will answer “yes” when the website asks if you are homeless.

After reading these articles I am less of a techno-pessimist than I was after reading last week’s. However, I still believe that there are many drawbacks to the advancement of technology. The workforce is changing. In Sunset Park the manufacturing district is disappearing and being replaced by stores and apartment buildings. There is a lot of concern about where these unskilled workers will find jobs in this new environment. Some people believe that they have found the solution to this problem through training. CUNY’s College of Technology is teaching computer and entrepreneur classes for prospective employees. According to Murtha’s article, Industry City already employs “some 4,000 low- and middle-skilled workers—about half of them from the surrounding neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Red Hook”. Businesses are supposedly making a conscious effort to hire people living in the area, although there is no real enforcement of this.

Job training and educational advancement sound excellent but people are still being displaced from their homes at an alarming rate. As new technology-related business settle in Sunset Park, prices will inevitably rise, people will be out of work, and the neighborhood will change. New residents are attracted to the business prospects, high rises and in this case, a hotel. Strangely enough, people are also attracted to the authentic vibe of the neighborhood that existed before their arrival. People want gritty, but not too gritty; “refined gritty” as Schrager says.

In the readings on Sunset Park (specifically, “Industry City”), we are presented with the classic case of a proletariat struggling to stay afloat amidst a juggernautic wave of progressive, plutocratic development. Despite the cynical and sanctimonious protestations of some (i.e. Tarry Hum), who view new luxury residential and retail developments as a mercenary move contra the livelihood interests of the industrial working class, it is apparent from the third reading that steps are being taken by the Jamestown developers to assuage the damage dealt the local job market, namely by uplifting local residents into career-building positions within the new developments, and by offering them  education opportunities to increase their marketability, a project undertaken in collaboration with NYCCT and various non-profits. According to this source, this project has successful historical precedent in similar Navy Yard developments, and the project in itself has seen promising success thus far in both employing and informing Industry City residents.

This type of modus operandi is exactly what is needed in New York City today. It is useless and unrealistic to resist the change in markets that New York is experiencing in hopes of preserving antiquated livelihoods. Rather, it is the obligation of the agents of change to provide ways to uplift a stagnant and unprepared populace, as is the case here. If this dual system of progress and nurturing prevails in the upcoming development of Brooklyn’s neighborhoods, there will be a smooth and ethically sound transition into the new age of technology and prosperity.

As has been discussed in a prior reflection, there are overwhelming pros and cons of a technologically advanced future, and I maintain my techno-fatalism in lieu of an optimism or pessimism. If forced to choose however, pessimism is always a far wiser attitude, as it allows for a more prepared stance in the face of chaotic possibility. As regards the near future however, as long as well intentioned, constructive programs such as the one above continue to allow for humanistic development at a steady and nurturing pace, I anticipate a growth in happiness and prosperity among New York’s citizenry– it is only right that, in this pivotal age, we have a chance to bask in the twilight of our existence.

The “Innovation Lab” is a 7,700 square-foot facility for teaching classes based on prospective employment positions for the businesses that supported its construction. These labs were looking to be introduced in areas with a high population of immigrants that were lacking in formal education, and with high unemployment rates. The businesses would look to employ skilled workers but a majority of the neighbors were not skilled. These facilities would specifically target these workers, and teach them computer and entrepreneurial skills that would allow them to take up these positions. Offering more training helps locals qualify for higher paying jobs and the number of residents being displaced by more skilled newcomers should decrease.
The CEO of Industry City in Sunset Park, Andrew Kimball, is looking to put in place a one billion dollar redevelopment plan to transform the Sunset Park waterfront into a manufacturing and technology hub by creating thousands of new jobs. He claims that this project will create one of the largest centers for the “innovation economy” and one of New York’s biggest engines of job growth. Industry City’s zoning initially prohibited local development for retailers and hotels, but the new development proposal will have a “special innovation zoning district”, in which will be permitted the development of hotels, universities, conference centers, and retail chains. Developers use this method of having zoning rules bent in order to make for more profitable uses, and seek city aid on top of that. These projects are largely funded by public dollars.
Though they are trying to prevent residents from being displaced, this new economic activity definitely affects the popularity surrounding Industry City. The commercial rents rise in response to the popularity of the neighborhood, and this will lead to harassment on the part of property owners trying to get immigrants out of their rent stabilized apartments. They are attempting to bring Industry City up economically, and trying to prevent displacement and gentrification simultaneously, but it just won’t play along together well.

The planned rezoning and renovation on the waterfront of Sunset Park will be a huge change for the residents and workers who live and work there. This deindustrialization will result in major changes to the big businesses that reside there as well as the small businesses that contribute to the economy of Sunset Park. Although the new project promises to supply many new jobs to compensate, it’s not certain just how many jobs that will be and whether it will be enough to supply jobs to the workers it will displace.

The new projects will have a great impact on the social dimensions and demographics on the waterfront neighborhood. As much as people promote innovation and its benefits, the benefits do not reach everyone and even have negative impacts on some people, such as the workers the innovative projects displace. These people will have to find other jobs and maybe even have to move to different neighborhoods as Sunset Park becomes less affordable to them. The new projects will attract more middle and upper class people to the area, thereby causing rents to rise and relocation of people of lower income, thus promoting gentrification. The only people benefiting from these innovation projects are the owners of these new buildings, the higher-income individuals, and perhaps the people who manage to secure jobs working there.

These articles from this week’s readings have not changed my stance on being a techno-pessimist, however, it has opened eyes to many new issues that I hadn’t thought of that come along with innovation.

The readings definitely made me more bearish on the prospects of a tech-dominated New York. I am still skeptical that tech will reduce job opportunities in long run, but I am worried about how the influx of tech is causing a new wave of gentrification and tech’s short-term threat to job opportunities.

The Industry City proposal is seen by some as the future Brooklyn manufacturing sector. Supposedly, the plan will create 20,000 jobs. However, this is also coming at the heels of gentrification in rising property values and living costs. As Hum points out, rising property values in Sunset Park’s manufacturing area may displace both businesses and residents. Considering the nature of tech, it is reasonable to wonder just how many jobs will be created by Industry City. I am also disheartened by the focus that Industry City is putting on innocuous parts of the plan like hotels and bicycle paths; do these parts of the plan also threaten the residents?

Nonetheless, I still firmly believe that in the long run, if we push for standardized computer education, we can see a future where tech does drive job growth. This is shown in the third article where a new business is going out of its way to seek local talent and train them themselves in the Innovation Lab. As important as manufacturing is to the area, the industry’s decline has more to do with the rise of cheap labor in other countries than the rise of tech. I believe that even if this proposal hadn’t been made, the city’s manufacturing sector would’ve eventually died off. We should definitely push our city to adapt to the changing economy rather than slow it down for the sake of keeping some jobs in the short term. However, in the short term with so many tech companies coming in at once, there definitely will be a dip in employment and even residency among older New Yorkers.

This part is a continuation of my previous response. You asked about the $10,000 bootcamps. The $10,000 coding bootcamps are on the extreme end and are inherently designed to make regular people into “fully-qualified” programmers in about 19 weeks of intense training. In theory, investment should be recouped almost immediately after completing the bootcamp by landing a job since demand for programmers is high right now. However, the effectiveness of the bootcamp is questionable and typically not advised for newcomers. Instead what older New Yorkers should do is look to the numerous free web academies and videos online that teach people how to code. The second and third article discusses the Innovation Lab, a public and privately-funded vocational school that provides job training for residents looking for work in the Industry City. Nonetheless, even with all these resources, the older labor force may still not be able to adapt. Thus, it is uncertain what will happen in the short term especially to those living in the proposed Tech Triangle. However, like I said before, I remain bullish on the prospects of New York’s future economy.