Jeffries v. Broker on Neighborhood Names
Today The Brooklyn Paper ran an op-ed from Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries about why he’s introducing a bill to formalize the process of naming neighborhoods as well as one from a Rapid Realty broker named Lanishia Goodwin about why she supports new neighborhood handles. From Jeffries’ piece: “The consequences of realtors providing misleading information are broad….
Today The Brooklyn Paper ran an op-ed from Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries about why he’s introducing a bill to formalize the process of naming neighborhoods as well as one from a Rapid Realty broker named Lanishia Goodwin about why she supports new neighborhood handles. From Jeffries’ piece: “The consequences of realtors providing misleading information are broad. Working families are pushed out of rebranded neighborhoods as housing prices soar. Newer residents pay more to rent or buy, largely as a result of the deceptive marketing. This is why I plan to introduce the Neighborhood Integrity Act. This bill will require the city to develop a community-oriented process before brokers can rebrand a neighborhood or redefine its boundaries simply for commercial purposes. These new names rarely result from community input and are often disconnected from a neighborhood’s history, culture or tradition.” Meanwhile, Goodwin has this to say, in part: “In Brooklyn, even familiar names are nicknames for other neighborhoods. Prospect Lefferts Gardens was borrowed from a group of buildings in the Prospect Heights neighborhood, What about Ocean Hill and Kensington? They’re really Flatbush. And what about Stuyvesant Heights? Most of the owners of the million-dollar real estate in this historical area grew up there won’t argue that it’s Bedford-Stuyvesant…Brooklyn as a whole has also become such prime real estate—there are so many people moving farther and farther into Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and Bushwick—that it can no longer defined by just prime neighborhoods.”
Jeffries: Neighborhood Integrity Matters [BK Paper]
Goodwin: New Names Help Brooklyn Grow [BK Paper]
“So where do I live when I’m priced out of Williamsburg?”
Ridgewood is actually a lot nicer than most of Bushwick, but the huge psychological adjustment necessitated by moving to Queens kills it for a lot of people (quite the reverse of Ridgewood’s struggle for a Queens zip code vs. a Brooklyn one in the last century).
> Ditmas Park, which is actually the 12 blocks between Ocean
> Av and the subway cut, from Cortelyou to Newkirk
415 Argyle Road was described in an early 1960’s brochure as being in “peaceful, quiet suburban ‘Ditmas Park’ at Argyle and Dorchester Roads…”
So this fight is perhaps older than you think.
By East New York on May 13, 2011 1:04 PM
“So where do I live when I’m priced out of Williamsburg?”
Somewhere else.
but certainly not anywhere that could displace any working class people who have lived in a neighborhood for generations.
Wow, really brave of that Lanishia showing off her ignorance that way. And, yes, if I were looking for a real estate broker I would certainly look for one who advocated playing fast and loose with neighborhood names. But totally irresponsible of the Brooklyn Paper not to fact-check Ms. Rapid Realty’s erroneous claims. Ocean Hill is nowhere near Flatbush – was she thinking of Ocean Avenue or Ocean Parkway? And when and by whom was the “boundary of Bedford-Stuyvesant…pushed to Nostrand Avenue”? And thank you Mr. Marvin and Ms. Morris for setting the record straight!
KCPS “Kinda Close to Park Slope”
Look at the 100-year-old fight over the border of Queens and Brooklyn. This is a stupid waste of time. Names are a very small part of rent increases and decreases. The best way to preserve economic diversity in New York is through a mix of programs aimed at subsidizing housing and encouraging home ownership.
“brokers have been calling all of bushwick “east williamsburg” for years now. everyone moving there knows it’s bushwick and have no problem saying they live in bushwick.”
Yes, and oddly, because I guess Bushwick is just so damn cool now, now some brokers are calling East Williamsburg “Bushwick.”
AGE “Along the Gowanus Expressway”
DUBB “Down Under the Brooklyn Bridge”