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!
“What does that MEAN????”
Perhaps you wouldn’t really know unless you were a person of color. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. Again, change is coming, regardless. But the fact that you can’t understand the perspective of people with whom you disagree doesn’t make their views less legitimate or yours particularly valid.
“A place where families of color can feel comfortable.”
What does that MEAN????
What feels comfortable to families of color? White families? Asian families? Sounds like gated community suburbia talk. SCARY.
“so 2% white is ok, but more than that is . . . not what the area needs? i’m trying to see it your way but it’s looking really scary.”
I don’t think that’s exactly what rf said….
“What they need is a safe place to raise their kids on working-class salaries, a place where families of color can feel comfortable.”
Chosen makes good points. Change is ongoing and inevitable. There’s no “blueprint” for gentrification. I’m sure we all appreciate positive change. However, it’s naive and smacks of hubris to believe that longtime residents should necessarily “be thankful” for every aspect of change.
Chosen, thanks for that. Why not you? You seem to know quite a bit and I, for one, appreciate you sharing it with me.
A few things: Rosie is around a lot, I see her. The secret of FG is out, with its proximity to Manhattan, great transportation options, nice public spaces, and other things. Any show where the host throws out there that the silver lining of the recession may be that FG goes back to the way it was and the guests don’t call him an idiot indicates the participants in the show are only pretending to have an intellectual discussion.
I don’t think that these businesses rely on being the only ones on the block but if they change to much they lose their old customer base. Duncan’son Myrtle has done a good job of incorporating a new clientele while still serving the needs of the older residents. Other places haven’t fared so well. If the greasy spoon diner now buys grass fed beef for their burgers instead of donkey meat or whatever it was in their burgers, they now have to charge more for that burger possibly making it no longer affordable for their old customers. It is truly a delicate balance.
I grew up in the Ingersoll Houses when they were at their worst. I do go back occassionally to visit the mothers of friends who got “caught up” and find that many of these women, who are getting up in years, have expressed that while they are happy that the crackheads and drug dealers are gone, they can’t afford to shop in the area any longer and that they have to travel further away for basic goods. Some of them are awaiting transfers to other projects and others are heading south or back to the islands.
NYC has been gentrifying from the day that the Europeans “discovered it.” Surely after 400 some odd years and thousands of Urban Planning programs at universities the world over, someone – not me – has got to know of a way to address the issues of gentrification in a way that the benefits most concerned.
rf: so 2% white is ok, but more than that is . . . not what the area needs? i’m trying to see it your way but it’s looking really scary.
“I lived in Clinton Hill (just up the block from Mr. B.) from 1989 to 2007, and I agree with What.”
That was The Who not me ; ^ }! The Who that was well written and well put!
This is another attempt to drive up traffic to a dying website. The collapse of the Mutant Asset Bubble has rendered Real Estate ‘null and void”. Today we are concerned about living and meeting our needs. Let the retards worry about their “Equity” and “Housing Prices”.
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
Chosen, that’s a good point. You do have more to live up to as a beautiful girl, you have to prove yourself worthy DESPITE the DNA. But if you know what you’re worth, you see the attention objectively, you don’t take it personally. However, if you feel inadequate, you feel the attention like an insult. That’s not the attention-giver’s fault; that’s insecurity.
Also, I agree with you that places like Mike’s Diner (mentioned above)get overlooked by the customers who prefer the restaurants either side of it for dinner. I sometimes go to Mike’s just to be alone, when Bonita and the other joint are just too damn hipster-cheesy to deal with. (I mean, we didn’t even get the cool pioneering hipsters that williamsburg once had, FG gets the bland yuppie kids with overpriced jeans and the park slope backwash). So I totally agree that a lot of the people cramming into the limited area are not interested in its inherent and old-school charm, and this just overhwhelms the subtle qualities that were once so obvious.
However, I think if yuo give it time, the buzz will settle down, the NY TIMES will moveon to a new pet area, and I think thepeople who do settle here, settle for life. Those people will be supportive of local businesses, old or new.
But, like the beautiful chick, the old businesses also have to prove themselves and not just rely on the luck of once having been the only diner on the block. It has to be Nice and Dependable — maybe a better quality of beef for that burger? Some thought into the menu and the ingredients wouldn’t hurt.