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???”
It is all well and good to say, “move” — and that’s what many people end up doing. But moving with kids means changing schools, possibly losing your extended network of childcare, friends, relatives, etc. It is no small thing–andreplacing a cohesive community of families and small businesses with commuters, transients, students and vanity stores can have a negative effect on a community. Does someone have the “right” to stay in a place where rents have outstripped their income? Perhaps not–but on the other hand, the New York we all know and love was built upon rent control and really think stabilized lives. This created a city where people from all socioeconomic groups could work and coexist. It wasn’t a bad place. However, if you prefer to import serfs from Bayonne and Patterson to mix your lattes, walk your dogs, and watch your children… well, go you. Pat yourself on the back.
It’s not really a matter of “tastemakers”. (Bushwick isn’t Williamsburg, yet.) It’s a matter of proximity to Manhattan.
One day every neighborhood within proximity to the city will be “gentrified”. Look at London. Look at Paris. The wealthy live centrally. The poorer live on the outskirts.
It’s too late to go to Jackson Heights. I live in JH and family size apartments are well past $2k. Rego Park, Kew Gardens – count them out.
I would look at Jamaica, frankly, to get ahead of this curve.
But I doubt this kind of advice feels helpful to the original poster. She’s asking how to stay in the neighborhood she has called home all these years.
Find a landlord who doesn’t have $$ signs in their eyes and dig in for the long haul. There are still families living in Carroll Gardens paying old level rents. It takes neighborhood connections, tenacity, and a whole lot of luck.
To answer the OP’s question of what is happening:
Some building in Manhattan that used to be rentals goes condo and is put on the market and snapped up by a wealthy foreign investor. The ousted renter can’t find anything of that magnificence left in Manhattan at his price moves to Carroll Gardens and bumps out a renter there. That renter looks around and can’t find anything he/she can afford, so they move to Bushwick.
That’s one scenario.
Another is a bunch of students from the Midwest meet at Pratt and decide to share digs to save their parents some money on housing. They look around for a three bedroom or 2 BR convertible to 3 if one sleeps in the living room – for under $2,000 a month. They don’t mind the Bushwick commute – isn’t the subway fun! – and they find the old buildings and bodegas cool. When the new ironic bar with plastic boobs tacked to the wall opens, they are so happy they serve french fries. No cooking!
maybe a family with one working parent shouldn’t have 3 children …
maybe you should remember that couples often split up after having three (or more kids). It’s like you don’t know any families headed by a single parent. How is that even possible?
The point is Bushwick used to be the kind of neighborhood where you can afford to have one parent working and have 3 kids. For many people unless they can get a high wage job it’s actually cheaper to have one stay at home parent since they won’t have to pay for childcare, commuting costs and can spend more time with the kids.
$1600 will get you a studio in Jackson Heights. It might get you a studio in Sunnyside. (And chances are, that studio will be in someone’s basement.) I’m not sure about Woodhaven and Rego Park.
That’s a pretty irrelevant when a single income household is headed by a single parent. It’s like you missed the last 50 years when divorce became commonplace.
Most if not all these neighborhoods are already at $1600 a month for a 1Br, it’s only a matter of time before these places hit the $2k a month level.