Local Writes Brownstoner About Gentrification in Bushwick: High Rents Forcing Out Families
A Brownstoner reader and longtime resident of Bushwick sent Brownstoner her thoughts about recent changes and gentrification in Bushwick: “Just a quick email to see if you can help me understand what exactly is occurring in Bushwick. I have lived in Bushwick for what seems like forever and seen the changes that have happened here….
A Brownstoner reader and longtime resident of Bushwick sent Brownstoner her thoughts about recent changes and gentrification in Bushwick:
“Just a quick email to see if you can help me understand what exactly is occurring in Bushwick. I have lived in Bushwick for what seems like forever and seen the changes that have happened here.
Yes I must agree some things are in the best interest of all who reside in this area but then again many of our longtime residents are forced to leave. Why you ask — well the rents are increasing rapidly and it is very difficult for the families to pay this.
All of the brand new apartments that are being constructed are for people with money; Bushwick was the place to go when rent was expensive in Queens, now you can’t even afford an apartment in Bushwick. Why I ask is this happening — new faces at every turn, coffee shops on almost every corner, the local bodega is no longer there as the rent has increased and they lost their lease.
It is as though we, the ones who lived here forever, born and raised, are now having to leave our beloved boro because Gentrification is in full effect and we are left on the bottom of the barrel.
My Brooklyn isn’t the Brooklyn because another townhouse just hit the market with an asking price of $40 million dollars, it is as though we the ones who lived in Bushwick where everyone knew everyone and looked out for them in the only way we knew how are gone. Everything is priced to the max and we cannot afford it anymore.
How can a middle class family afford a rent of $2,000 or even $2,500 when the family consists of three children and a single working parent, when bills need to be paid and food on the table. I find this totally out of control — no one ever wanted to live in Bushwick and now all of a sudden it’s hip to live in Brooklyn, but it is as though the yuppies, yes i said it, are taking over our beloved Brooklyn and we the ones who lived here forever are being pushed out completely because we cannot afford to live here anymore.
At the end of the day we feel as though we are being displaced and no longer have a say. Again I ask where are we going to go when we no longer can afford our rent???”
Sorry to break it to everyone but the Bronx has been over capacity for years now. Stop acting like it’s some secret half empty borough with tons of decent & cheap apartment just sitting empty. The schools are overcrowded, the rents are skyrocketing and the trains are jammed packed. I lived in the South Bronx (Mott Haven) for 5 years and by the time I left 2 years ago it seemed like it was bursting at the seams with people. Where do you think all the people priced out of Harlem, Washington Heights, and the rest of upper Manhattan have been moving to? read real estate news outside of Brooklyn and Manhattan and you’ll see the Bronx will be unaffordable to many within a few years. When I was living there a few years ago we were already seeing “new” faces around the way and not just in Port Morris.
“” the New York we all know and love was built upon rent control and really think stabilized lives ”
Should have read,
“” the New York we all know and love was built upon rent control and rent stabilized lives ”
How was it built with a lower tax base? Well, for one, I think business taxes were higher. For another, there’s more to a city than High Line parks. There’s community. There’s socioeconomic diversity–where people from different walks of life not only co-exist, but are co-dependent. Seriously, I know you think it’s great to import the serfs to do your shit work, but you’ll end up with a hollowed out shell of bank branches, chain stores, and a lot of warehoused real estate.
People have been trying to make St George and Snug Harbor happen longer than they’ve been trying to make “fetch” happen. I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Nice areas, and I’d live there, but…. the ferry is a pita. And crime is no joke.
“I do wonder though as people see neighborhoods around them changing and rent prices rise over the past several years, why they have chosen to stay put”
So… you’re saying they should all leave and not enjoy the nice things about gentrification so many posters here keep yammering about? I don’t care how recently your family immigrated–that’s offensive. (My family, who settled in Jamaica in the late 1600s, sadly, did not stay put. Would that they had.)
The scope changed. Housing prices in bed stuy literally went from 500K to 1MM in less than two years. Bushwick’s trajectory was even more extreme. Whereas a working class family might be able to finance a 500K 3-family in Brooklyn (that was almost a standard price across most of the boroughs for that kind of property–a little less in the Bronx, a little more in more desirable areas… for YEARS. I know, because I spent years plotting to buy one)–they can’t do twice that. They won’t get the jumbo loan. They need to charge a hell of a lot more in rent.
Pay rates weren’t lower. Rents were much, much lower. Housing prices were absurdly lower. But you got the same 10/hour in 1992 to wash dishes that you’d get now. The same 12/hour to work at Dean and Deluca. As an office temp, wages were actually higher–admin jobs seem to pay about 12 now, when they used to pay 20. You don’t know, because it doesn’t affect you. Obviously. But it sure as hell affects the person who could afford their 900/month 2 bedroom, and has no way of affording paying 1800/month for the same thing.
Pierre, we are relatively rich and could easily afford to stay in gentrified Brooklyn. We left more than a year ago and our one child is still bemoaning the loss of her friends, missing her old school, and wishing we had never left. Add to that trauma multiple kids, less income, and worse school options. I knew people who had been displaced at our Clinton Hill school who commuted in from Staten Island so their kids wouldn’t have their lives disrupted. The more common commutes from Bed Stuy and Flatbush hardly bear mention. It is no easy thing to uproot your children.
How are the comments coldhearted when we all pay taxes to subsidize the very poor for housing already? Please explain what is lost because of gentrification? Crime,Neglect,Graffiti , Dirty Sidewalks. In my hood back in the day the only time people came together was for riots. We already have Rent Control that is designed to do just that. So what your saying is that newer residents can’t keep bushwick alive? Please stop shaming people who achieved a piece the american dream.
The North Shore in Staten Island will be the next wave of gentrification. It’s just a matter of time before suits figure out it’s a 20 minute ferry ride to lower Manhattan. The houses on the hill are spectacular with breathtaking views of the harbor and Statue of Liberty and has that weird cool factor hipsters like. My advice? Take a trip over there. Within the next 10 years the area will have increased in value. Or stay on this side of the pond and go to the Rockaways, or Grand Concourse up in the Bronx. Point is, stop complaining and be proactive. The world can be your oyster, but you have to work at it, and change it up every once in a while.