Bed Stuy Native Laments Dramatic Change in Neighborhood in the Daily News
Did anyone catch this essay in The New York Daily News, called “Goodbye, My Bed Stuy”? The writer, a black man who grew up in Bed Stuy and is a journalism professor at Brooklyn College, laments the growing number of whites moving into Bed Stuy and the rising rents, which are pricing out longtime black…
Did anyone catch this essay in The New York Daily News, called “Goodbye, My Bed Stuy”? The writer, a black man who grew up in Bed Stuy and is a journalism professor at Brooklyn College, laments the growing number of whites moving into Bed Stuy and the rising rents, which are pricing out longtime black renters in the neighborhood.
He mentions that Bed Stuy is mostly townhouses, which means most units aren’t rent regulated. He also says part of the problem is investors who are purchasing homes “as bundles.” We haven’t heard of that, but we think he is referring to investors buying townhouses in the area to rent out. (Incidentally, a building he mentions as an example of landlord harassment is in Crown Heights, not Bed Stuy.)
What do you think of the essay?
People really need to stop with these petty sob story pieces. Lets all just have a good cry about how life changes and then move on.
While I don’t subscribe to the mentality that any one group has ownership of a neighborhood and generally support gentrification (particularly when it leads to safer neighborhoods for those who move in and remain), it does pain me to see good people getting “pushed out” in these instances to the extent that it does happen. After all, as some have alluded to, many of the families who call brownstone Bed Stuy home today are descendants of pioneers who moved into the neighborhood and who remained when whites fled the area for the suburbs (they stayed there when no one else did and when whites didn’t want to live around them). That said, the people who are moving into the neighborhood today had nothing to do with that, and nobody who is trying to make a better life for their families should EVER feel guilty about buying a solid home. Still, for the sake of argument, I find it funny that blame is placed on whites for this change. When I lived in the neighborhood in a beautiful Hancock Street brownstone, nearly every home, brownstone or not, was owned by black landlords. In fact, my block was so black that it was a shock when the first mixed-race Hispanic family moved in towards the late 1990’s. Using the logic pushed forward by some of the anti-gentrification crowd, the “blame” should primarily fall on black landlords who sell their homes to newcomers who want better lives for their families.
I remember when I moved to Clinton Hill a little over 5 years ago from the UWS.. I told my best friends father the streets to where I moved over by Bedford Ave. He was like, Oh yeh, I grew up there, is that neighborhood still all Italian?
I also think Renters have to understand that “You have to be in it to win it!”….
In other words, to win at Gentrification, you have to be an Owner…. Not a renter.
If the Renters became owners, end of Complaints!
I don’t feel sorry for the 470 out of 500 of my students who learned from me how to be a Real Estate Investor and yet never pulled the trigger. That’s their fault. So why protest that they missed out?
You’re absolutely correct.
When race is the writers real issue, they immediately lose the readers’ credibility and I stop reading. So any potentially valid points they may have get ignored. Just does a disservice to the real issue.
I agree with the comment below and really have little sympathy for whining about neighborhoods changing. As a life-long New Yorker, I have seen many neighborhoods change, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. But this dynamism is inevitable in NYC and looking at any historically black neighborhood in the city, you will usually find that it started out as something else.
LOL good call DIBS
well said. The neighborhood was built by whites.
MM thats the best comment Ive seen you write to date.