BP Eric Adams Proposes Four-Pronged Plan for Gentrification

After confronting problems with bad landlords and tenant harassment, at a pair of hearings earlier this month, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, in an article in City & State, tries to take on gentrification.

For well over a decade people in Brooklyn have been complaining about it, hoping for it, praising it and condemning it — and moving in and out of Brooklyn because of it. Just about everyone has a different definition of what it is, what causes it, how it changes neighborhoods and whether it is good, bad, inevitable or some combination of all of the above.

That’s Adams above, flanked by tenant advocates, announcing the hearings last month. One more is scheduled for July 26 (you can read all about it here).

Adams singles out four issues he says amplify problems associated with gentrification:

Tenant Harassment
The first is criminal harassment of tenants in an effort to empty units so the landlord can take advantage of rising rents. After an outpouring of horror stories from tenants whose landlords had denied them heat, hot water, or sanitary living conditions at the hearings he hosted earlier in the month, Adams is referring cases to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and to the state attorney general’s office for prosecution.

And civil cases against landlords may result as well. Curbing this harassment and illegal evictions, he argues, will help stop the hemorrhaging of affordable housing and rapid change in communities.

Community
Next he addresses one of the less tangible issues surrounding gentrification — the loss of community. New arrivals, he says, often don’t participate in the community the way those who left did. His answer: Get involved in street fairs, sidewalk sales and community gardens, which give neighbors chances to get to know each other.

Invest
He also would like residents in these communities to be better able to buy properties even as they escalate in price. Many residents in neighborhoods such as East New York and Brownsville may have passed up opportunities to buy properties there as prices are now starting to climb — just as many chose not to invest in some neighborhoods that have already skyrocketed in value.

Adams would like to see programs help residents buy properties in the communities where they already live. As readers will recall, this is the approach that allowed Brownstoner commenter fiordiligi and many other Brownstoner readers to stay in Brooklyn.

Change Happens
And, lastly, he embraces change. Brooklyn neighborhoods, Adams points out, have been home to changing populations throughout Brooklyn history. The important thing is to not lose affordable housing as neighborhoods transform.

What are your reactions to his points? Are they adequate to deal with gentrification in your neighborhood? In the borough as a whole?

Opinion: Speaking Plainly About Gentrification [City & State]
Speak out Against Rotten Landlords This Week at “Tenant Harassment Hearings” [Brownstoner]
Historic Preservation Is Not Just for the “Rich” [Brownstoner]
Is Historic Preservation Elitist? [Brownstoner]
Photo by Kathryn Kirk via Brooklyn Borough President website