House of the Day: 1232 Dean Street

Speaking of cowardly, what would you call it to make the kind of statement you made and then not answer any of the posts in return Whuh?

It’s not my job to defend What’s behavior, but I will defend the concepts and ideas that I believe he is correct in promoting discussion on.

Gentrification has and always will be, for the foreseeable future, a serious and difficult topic in Brooklyn. It hasn’t always been handled well, although there clearly have been some positive benefits. Some see it as a race thing, I think it’s more of a class issue myself. With the less wealthy people being disenfranchised and steamrolled by ‘the money’. It’s pretty basic, and not all that complicated, from my perspective. Race has been an issue, but I see that as not quite as much of an issue as class/money. The eminent domain of Atlantic Yards is one example, the BQE is another prime example – the damage done to the Columbia Street communities is a story that I don’t think has ever really been told properly.

Just because some person has money, doesn’t mean they ‘know’ best what should happen in a neighborhood, and without proper and thoughtful discussion issues require – it is going to be difficult to acheive a positive result.

The BID is a good example also. The assumption that all bodegas are “drug” infested is outrageous. [Granted that usually was the case on Myrtle years ago – don’t ask me how I know that, I will deny everything.] How can the shops be supported and encouraged to grow their businesses without the new neighbors that bought a $2 million brownstone and who now seem to expect goat cheese at the corner store now giving them a hard time. They were here, they’ve worked for their piece of this universe, who are you/me/anyone to come in and say – it’s yucky, I want a Citerella here. It’s rude for starters, and it becomes increasingly difficult to create positive discourse and degrades from there.

What lobs cherry bombs, I prefer a sparkler. The intent and the concerns are the same. To ask people to think about the realities of what is happening.

Whuh–I am no coward of any sort. I have tried mightily to engage in constructive dialogue on this and other issues pertaining to gentrification and manners is besides the point. Taking a position that has no possible manner of refutation or engagement is intellectually dishonest and cowardly. On either side of this issue there are people who will not find middle ground. What is only the most “famous” of these but in no means is the only one who deserves criticism.

But to get to your points, how should the average middle class person who is looking to upgrade their living situation do so without moving into a neighborhood where the housing stock is cheaper? And what is wrong with seeing “good bones” and trying to fix it up? None of us have “broken down barriers of apartheid”. Social, technological and economic changes of the past few decades have done this for us. I for one, cherish living in an environment where there are people of many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Part of the reason I like CLinton Hill so much is that there is so much for me to learn about it. But the fact of the matter is that to “improve” a neighborhood–to repair crumbling houses, spruce up decaying streetscapes, increase neighborhood services etc–takes money and so the uncomfortable reality is that those with ready capital are the ones most likely to benefit and those without are most likely to be displaced. What would you do about it oh great thinker?

I imagine what makes Biff and DIBS so uncomfortable is that The What isn’t, for their psychic convenience, an “angry renter” or a bitter Lodi realtor, but someone who a.) saw the RE bubble for what it was, and as we now know b.) was motivated by disgust at the smug upper middle class interloper who strolls into a neighborhood, sees the “good bones,” and ignores the fact that his interloping (often) displaces someone of lesser means, who is also often a person of color. How flattering, to think one is “breaking down apartheid like barriers,” when one opens gourmet stores of no feasible interest to the original locals, or drives up rents until the ‘hood is no longer affordable for anyone but other interlopers. I love that how, as The What proves right, the discussion turns to his manners. You people are intellectual cowards.