Gentrification: A Vast Top-Down Conspiracy?
That’s the take of the president of the Harlem Tenants Council, quoted in a New America Media story titled “Gentrification Pushing African Americans Out of Cities:” What that says to me is this is about much more than just gentrification…It seems it’s all but become a matter of public policy, one mandated by the big-time…
That’s the take of the president of the Harlem Tenants Council, quoted in a New America Media story titled “Gentrification Pushing African Americans Out of Cities:”
What that says to me is this is about much more than just gentrification…It seems it’s all but become a matter of public policy, one mandated by the big-time real estate, insurance and finance companies that now govern the economies of cities and truly pull all the strings. Among them, the consensus seems to be that black people don’t have the right to live in prime sectors and on high-valued, expensive land.
Brooklyn City Council Member Charles Barron has similar thoughts. “The development should be from the bottom up, from the people up, not from the top down, from rich white developers and the city planning commission,” he said in the same article.
How about you? Do you think the gentrification in Brooklyn and the rest of the city is such a top-down phenomenon. Aside from a couple of high-profile rezonings like the Williamsburg waterfront (which had almost no black residents but quite a high number of Latinos) and Downtown Brooklyn, where a few dozen residents (we’re guessing), many of them black, were likely displaced, we’d argue that gentrification is more of an organic process that is fairly bottom-up. Or at least, that’s where it starts. If you look at the standard lifecycle (pioneering artists and students followed by an upscale coffee shop or two followed by young families), the changes are already in motion before the politicians and developers get the memo. And while zoning changes are one way politicians can have a direct top-down impact on how a neighborhood evolves, the ramifications of other changes are more complicated. Take, for example, a politician who allocates money to clean up and beautify a long neglected public space in an area like Bed Stuy: On the one hand, this should be greeted by residents as a great thing, right? But it has the perverse consequence of making the area more attractive to new, possibly more affluent, residents. Likewise, should long-time residents bemoan the opening of a fantastic, mid-priced restaurant like Saraghina or an organic food market because these places will attract people of different races and income levels? Complicated stuff.
In a neighborhood like Bed Stuy, the main driver of gentrification has most certainly not come from developers and politicians, though a handful of new condo buildings have been built to appeal to more affluent buyers in recent years. (In some of these cases, no residents end up being displaced–instead vacant and derelict properties are invested in and new housing stock created.) The main driver of gentrification in Bed Stuy in recent years has been (1) families attracted to the housing stock and and community scaled who, compelled by higher housing prices in Fort Greene and subsequently Clinton Hill, keep looking further and further east for their dream home and (2) a wave of upwardly-mobile black twenty- and thirty-somethings who are both attracted to the sense of pride and history and appreciate being able to get a latte or some decent sushi.
If you’re interested in this topic and specifically how it relates to Brooklyn, the film makers behind a documentary-in-progress called My Brooklyn (trailer embedded above) have ten days to go in their Kickstarter fund drive.
Quote from Mr. B:
we’d argue that gentrification is more of an organic process that is fairly bottom-up. Or at least, that’s where it starts. If you look at the standard lifecycle (pioneering artists and students followed by an upscale coffee shop or two followed by young families), the changes are already in motion before the politicians and developers get the memo.
I moved to Clinton Hill in 1989 and I thought I was a pioneer. I was very embarrassed to learn that the neighborhood I moved to was just fine without any “pioneers,” thankyouverymuch. There were mostly working class families raising their kids the best they could. Most of them (me too!) have been priced out of my old block. I moved to Bed-Stuy; not sure about them.
Quote from Mr. B:
we’d argue that gentrification is more of an organic process that is fairly bottom-up. Or at least, that’s where it starts. If you look at the standard lifecycle (pioneering artists and students followed by an upscale coffee shop or two followed by young families), the changes are already in motion before the politicians and developers get the memo.
I moved to Clinton Hill in 1989 and I thought I was a pioneer. I was very embarrassed to learn that the neighborhood I moved to was just fine without any “pioneers,” thankyouverymuch. There were mostly working class families raising their kids the best they could. Most of them (me too!) have been priced out of my old block. I moved to Bed-Stuy; not sure about them.
It was my understanding that in the 1920’s and especially 30’s BedStuy and neighboring portions of Crown Heights went from being upper-middle class waspy to middle-class mixed (as in jewish and Catholic) and then to working class mixed. After the WWII, the move was on for the burbs, as Black families started to move in to certain blocks, the banks pulled the plug on mortgages and the residents panic-sold and literally ran away almost overnight. It was an extremely racist era. The change happened quickly aided by the redlining of banks and the GI benefits offering very low interest payments on home mortgages in the “right neighborhoods” meaning the lily-white suburbs. History is not politically correct.
It must have been amazing to witness the rapid change in the 1950’s and early 60’s of Bed-Stuy from a Jewish and White-ethnic neighborhood to an almost solidly Black neighborhood. There are still beautiful churches in that large area that were originally built as synagogues. It is wrong to think of demographic shift as something new.
It must have been amazing to witness the rapid change in the 1950’s and early 60’s of Bed-Stuy from a Jewish and White-ethnic neighborhood to an almost solidly Black neighborhood. There are still beautiful churches in that large area that were originally built as synagogues. It is wrong to think of demographic shift as something new.
real estate prices in large areas of Brooklyn have gotten ridiculous. It is beyond gentrification. Everyone is being pushed out not just certain ethnic groups.
I honestly do not know how this will end. Will brownstone Brooklyn be the new Beverly Hills? Are there that many high-wage earners in the metro area who are willing to pay top-dollar to live in an ancient rowhouse in Brooklyn? Part of the draw for the previous generation was that although a bit inconvenient, these old places were cheap. Now they’re cool, but that sort of thing comes and goes with the whims of fashion and caprice.