Rosie and Nelson Redux
Did any of you just listen to Rosie Perez and Nelson George discussing the impact of gentrification on the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill? We find Nelson’s nostalgic but realistic take on things quite interesting to hear; he’s clearly thought through a lot of these issues. Rosie’s relatively un-nuanced views, however, rubbed us…
Did any of you just listen to Rosie Perez and Nelson George discussing the impact of gentrification on the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill? We find Nelson’s nostalgic but realistic take on things quite interesting to hear; he’s clearly thought through a lot of these issues. Rosie’s relatively un-nuanced views, however, rubbed us the wrong way. Her main point seems to be that she doesn’t know as many people when she walks down the street but (1) she’s a movie star now, which impacts how people view and interact with you and (2) we don’t get the sense she’s even around very much. In the four years we’ve been taking our kids to school just a few houses away from hers, we’ve never laid eyes on her; in fact, we’re not sure we’ve ever seen the shutters on her house open! (Her house also has the obligatory-for-a-Brooklyn-celeb attached garage.) She was complaining about how people fight over tennis courts in Fort Greene Park now–and then a caller reminded her that she used to have bricks thrown at her by local kids when she was playing tennis. We get how people can miss (and idealize) things from the past, but Fort Greene and Clinton Hill have to be some of the friendliest, most neighborly, streets to walk down in the entire city. How about a little love!
“So as a 20 something gentrifier, what can i do when I move into a neighborhood to not detract from the old charm. Isn’t it your responsibility to welcome me to the neighborhood and show me the ropes?”
I’m not pretending to have all the answers. Yes, it is a good thing for longtime residents to extend a welcome to newcomers, but it works both ways – newcomers should also be open to friendship (or at least acquaintanceship) with longtime residents. It sounds corny, but it all begins with mutual respect and a willingness to try to understand each other. You don’t have to be best of friends. But walking about as though you’re too good to engage anyone other than your “kind” won’t fly, either. A roofrights says, it’s a delicate balance.
ENY, you’ve made some good points. Change can be good, but displacement in your own home feels awful. I am thankful for the handful of establishments in FG where I am seen as a “regular” and not as a tourist. I avoid the places that make me feel like an outsider or that are starting to feel like a tourist trap (think Habana Outpost and Madiba). I dodge the stollers and don’t buy from the stoop sales/flea markets that think they are high priced consignment shops. Just this weekend, I went on to Clinton Ave (after visiting the Flea) and bought some fried chicken and ribs from the Coop who were having their own “stoop sale”. It’s a delicate balance between old and new. . .
Okay – so I understand where you guys are coming from (ramona, ENY)
So as a 20 something gentrifier, what can i do when I move into a neighborhood to not detract from the old charm.
Isn’t it your responsibility to welcome me to the neighborhood and show me the ropes?
ramona, I hear ya… but you were there from the 1980s? I remember back in maybe 1980 or so I was sitting with an African American friend of mine in his home, he bought for 35k in the mid 1970s, and with us were some of his neighbors, elderly Black women probably in their 80s, even back then. I guess they’re gone now..
They were talking about change in the nabe, one of them referred to a neighbor who was a ‘newcomer’, my friend says, hey, she’s been here thirty years, and one of the other old ladies says yeah, but she doesn’t go ‘way back’.
That had me laughing… now my friend is in his eighties, and so it goes…
To guestposter:
-I never needed a bullet proof vest.
-My girls walked 5 blocks to and from Queen of All Saints and Bishop L. (circa 1987-1995) never raped, fondled or shot (at) Oldest girl goes to Hunter College walks home from train at night gets home about 11ish p.m. – no incidents. I’ve been walking thru FG Park to work 15 years – no problems with paranoia about the black men in the nabe
– And…never, never did I have a bedbug or rat problem~!
NYC used to be cool. Now it sucks like every other place, but here you have to wait 2 hours to eat at Egg on the weekend. Which is one of the reasons it sucks cause you have nimrods waiting 2 hours on the weekend to eat BRUNCH, after a night of PBR’s and nerd rock.
Agreed.
It’s not just the old timers who hate being overrun by the lookie-loo’s (mainly bridge-tunnelers from manhattan). I had friends in from the city (artists who’d lived in the dirty, dangerous soho of the “good old days” and saw that overrun and destroyed). And their first reaction to FT Greene was: “EW GROSSSSSS what’s up with all the friggin yuppies? it’s like the hamptons at their worst here.”
BUT their second reaction was, “So, um, how much does a house around here go for?”
So thats your problem, old timers. Your neighb is just too darn cute; not even discerning old time New Yawkers can resist the charm, yuppie infestation notwithstanding.
Agreed