Closing Bell: There IS Someplace Like Home
Behold a snippet of the video chronicling the fight against gentrification in downtown Brooklyn, Some Place Like Home. Families United for Racial & Economic Equality, a Brooklyn-based group made up mostly of women of color, is behind the movie, which “tells the stories of community residents and small businesses that are displaced to make way…
Behold a snippet of the video chronicling the fight against gentrification in downtown Brooklyn, Some Place Like Home. Families United for Racial & Economic Equality, a Brooklyn-based group made up mostly of women of color, is behind the movie, which “tells the stories of community residents and small businesses that are displaced to make way for high-end retail and luxury condominiums to the area,” and chronicles the impace of the Downtown Brooklyn plan.
It depicts the pulling out of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene’s legacy of being a once-forgotten neighborhood built from the ground up by generations of low-income and working families from all walks of life. Small business owners that have helped to make the area the 3rd largest retail district in New York City talk about the deferment of their dreams as entrepreneurs. It reveals practices and policies used to support massive real estate projects as the historical, economic and cultural fabric of the area is torn apart. It follows the battle of community residents and small businesses as they fight for some place like home.
The film will premier on December 5th at Medgar Evers College. More info here.
MM, great post – you’re all aces – MM for Mayor! THAL get the asshat gold ribbon prize for the day.
Listen PS, after recent/ongoing events here, I think What has a right to a certain amount of discomfort and sensitivity.
“The people who live in this community want to be here when things get better and not priced out the neighborhood.”
On this very topic: Vinca had an excellent post in the Forum today for the local teacher/ renter losing his/her apt after 17 years in CG. I’m pretty sure you could substitute BedStuy, Cobble Hill, or Fort Greene, pick a neighborhood. [Again, Thank you Vinca]
“Do you even understand that the people who have lived here the longest are the ones that made Brooklyn what it is, the neighborhoods so “prime” and so attractive to you? That we far preferred our butchers, bakers and stoop-sitting neighbors to the endless rows of restaurants and realtors lining our avenues? That we loved living here during the days when you probably still described Brooklyn as godforsaken and dangerous and when you wouldn’t have been caught dead crossing a bridge to visit your friends? Do you understand that the majority of oldtimers do NOT charge market value? That market value has been entirely skewed by the new generation of owners who gleefully indulged the twisted run-up, and who both believe it’s their “right” as well as have the NEED to squeeze every dollar out of their rentals to barely cover costs? Yes, there’s certainly “more to life than Carroll Gardens,” but I suspect for you that’s just a throwaway line.
Posted by: vinca at November 24, 2008 9:59 AM”
I feel for elderly residents kicked out of apartments but I don’t feel for these whiney “entrepreneurial” businesses. They don’t exhibit any kind of entrepreneurial spirit in complaining about new arrivals to the neighborhood, that’s absurd. A true entrepreneur would be glad about more disposable income in the neighborhood. Successful people use their money to make more money and constantly reinvest in their own businesses. These old Brooklyn businesses need to do a little renovating. Be more clean. Get a new awning. Ask customers what kinds of products they’d like to see in the store. Walk into other stores that are doing well, make note of their product lines and order some of those too. It’s basic good business sense.
Mopar,
The What is immeasurably insecure and pathologically disturbed.
Too bad; I agree with a great deal of his opinions on the state of the economy and RE.
Huh? Agree completely with Montrose Morris. And The What, we weren’t “partying” and “laughing” at you. Don’t be so paranoid. We were simply meeting each other.
Hey The What…
Now that a black man is our president, you’ll have fewer reasons to blame whitey for everything. Talk about perpetuating a stereotype.
Yawn.
If by those people, you mean the 80-year old grandmothers who are being kicked out of their rent-controlled apartments, then by all means, continue to pontificate. I’m sure your grandmother is just fine.
You know something? Brownstoner hides behind a keyboard and does not interact with his community. He hides in his house all day and comes out gets into a car/cab and goes to Park Slope or Williamsburg. If Brownstoner was sensitive to the people in his community, he would not post inflammatory garbage like this. The people who live in this community want to be here when things get better and not priced out the neighborhood.
This post showed me o’lot about you Brownstoner. Post Charles Barron and presto hits on my Blog. I have some bad news: The fuel for the Mutant Asset Bubble is gone. This is the only way for this thing to stop.
To the covert Racist posters. You live among the people you hate. There is such a price for that and Karma will root you out. Someday you will have to “Deal” and I hope you have some room in your “Hate Tank” because you will need it.
Now you can start talking about Mourning Teens and Homeless Black women dumping on “your” stoop.
Note: MM I like to see your “response” to this post. These are the same people you partied with laughing at me. You must understand they are your enemy and want to see you gone…
The What (No Keyboard)
Someday this war is gonna end,,,
“These people put no money into the area, vandalize the area, keep the area dirty, but dont want change they want to live in a mess. Now developers are building new buildings, getting a new type of person to the area and everyone is bitter becasuse: a)they cant afford it and b) its not affordable housing or something for free…”
Ummmm, THAL – “these people”??? Not once but three times?
First of all, “these people” put plenty of money into the area. 98% of the stores downtown are doing well because “these people” spend their money there. If they didn’t, the area would really be a ghost town. That ain’t welfare money, either, most of “these people” work, and work hard. ABC store on Fulton Street is not ABC Carpet and Home on Broadway, but it serves the needs of its customers. You don’t have to like it for it to succeed quite well without your patronage.
I don’t agree with all of the positions taken by the group. Change is inevitable, and I think the best position to take is to work with the changers to make sure your concerns, commercial and housing needs are addressed. It’s not enough to picket outside the meeting room. There needs to be representation at the meeting, and not just one person, either. If that is not possible, then start working on making it so, and in the meantime, then start picketing.
I think the worst mistake is for the powers that be to ignore these concerns. A successful project in a major economic and social hub is a mixture, reaching as many as possible, not the favored few. Metrotech is a prime example of that premise not being considered. It is a cut-off fortress that is there in spite of the larger community, not for it, or with it.
Metrotech is hideous — full of suburban office workers who flee Brooklyn at 5 on the dot, leaving an empty wasteland behind. In the meantime, it has done nothing for surrounding business, which remain a mix of nail salons, cell phone stores, etc. The Marriott (not part of Metrotech) has helped some, inlcuding the recent opening of Mortons (although why Brooklyn needs a spinoff of a Chicago restaurant is beyond me), but Metrotech is an abomination, chiefly rented out to NYS and NYC government offices at above-market rents (your tax dollars at work) to make up for the below-market rents offered to corporate tenants. Another scheme of Bruce Ratner, lining his pockets at our expense.