wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

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You want better housing, for example, but cannot, or refuse, to pay the rent that MUST come with these improvements, then housing will not be rehabilitated and such neighborhoods, as Mott Haven, will continue to languish in their current state of disrepair, disarray, and utter chaos. In order to garner the kinds of changes that you and others in the community desire, there must be the monetary means to support such investment! The only way to then support the improvements to the community that you desire, is to pay for it, either by its current residents, or by catering to new residents that will pay for it.

The bottom line is, you do not have the right, in this country, to live where you want, at the price you set. You cannot have “affordable housing” (whatever that means) if that means a public or private investor must shoulder all of the costs for your convenience.

As a result, the more you fight what you call “gentrification,” the more these neighborhoods languish in their current, untenable states. Whereas you see this as an attack on the community, I, as a longtime resident, see the investment (capital and human) as a long overdue breath of fresh air, with the promise of new residents, new ideas, and experiences. And isn’t that what this city is all about?

A TRUE BORICUA

I am a born and raised New Yorker, and long-time Mott Haven resident, and I can say that the changes that are occurring in these desperate, chaotic, and dysfunctional communities (Bed-Stuy, Mott Haven, Harlem, Bushwick, etc) is long overdue and sorely needed.

I agree that any revitalization of these neighborhoods should not purposely and intentionally force the removal of its current residents. However, the reality of the implementation of this renewed investment (capital and human) will be the eventual change of the racial and demographic makeup of these communities FOR THE BETTER.

Public and private investors will not revitalize a community (rehabilitate a building, open a new restaurant, provide more retail or community services, all of which would improve the lives of its current residents), if the neighborhood cannot, or will not, support such change. By supporting such change, I mean provide the monetary means to support the improvements. What investor would purchase a 12 unit building, for example, rehabilitate it for hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, and then maintain rents as is, or raise them $25? Private investors will not make such poor decisions, and the city is no longer in the business of building massive subsidized hell holes.

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A TRUE BORICUA

I am a life long resident of Ridgewood. I have seen this neighborhood go through many changes, but the one that I'm seeing now breaks my heart. Miss or Ms and Born and raised in 212 echoed my sentiments exactly. Not only are our rents going up, but the grocery stores in the area see the influx of these hipsters and feel as though they can raise thier prices astronomically. The whole city is getting this way. What happened to us?
I always dreaded the commute to Manhattan everyday, but now the L train is unbearable. I've seen young healthy hipsters practically knock down older folks to get a seat. Then sit down and open their NY Times wide and in your face. Rude, just rude.
As for the poster "b", you asked what you can do about you poor students who are being forced to move from a $600 space because the landlord changed and raised the rent, what can be done is for you and your kind to move back to Iowa. Don't you see that you are causing the problem?

an artist friend of mine lives in a warehouse in bushwick - now know as "east williamsburg"

he is a hard working person who moved there 8 years ago for the large studio space and economical rents - unfortanely the building has been sold and now he has to move at the end of the month

it was with a very heavy heart that i learned this news - the development replacing his $600 space will now go for $2 - $30000 a month!

things are truly changing and while that is understandable it is hard when it happens so fast

while it is nice to see neighborhoods being revitalized, it is unfortunate that hard working kids who brought so much value and pride to the neighborhood - are the first ones to be pushed out

i am sure that the people who have subsidized housing will remain while people with out such "special status" will be force to forge their way in a new neighborhood

i just wish that their was less of a disparity with the way housing issues are being dealt with
not just protection for the lowest income or no income people - but rather a serious attempt to help out lower middle class individuals who are committed to living and working in ny

ny seems like it is just for the super rich or the super poor

this kind of displace affects the lower middle class the most - what can we do to change that?

I posted a comment on Saturday and I did nto see it so forgive me if this is a repeat.
I just want to know what is going to happen when these "trendy" neighborhoods become uncool. Will the neighborhoods revert ot 1970's style abandoned buildings with landloards burning themto recoup the insurance?
I remember when my parents moved to Queens in 1977 during the whole shifting era. My father hated Brooklyn with a passion (we lived in East Flatbush, the E90's)and has never looked back. As an adult i moved back to Brooklyn to be closer to my job and remove myself from the 2 fare zone and the Belt parkway commute. I have noticed that the neighborhoods are changing slowly but surley. The new "explorers" with walking their pet (yeah right, more like guard) dogs thru uncharted neighborhoods at night crack me up. I knew Bushwick was the next wave and East New York. Bushwick because it is sandwiched between Bed Stuy and Ridgewood with the same Brownstone style row homes. Willimasburg is too expensive, Bed Stuy (ironically back in the day we called Bed Stuy Do or Die Bed Stuy) is ridiculous. I am telling you right now that the wave is coming up Atlantic Avenue from Downtown and from and the Bushwick side via Cypress/Jamaica Avenue. I am curious to see if these explorers will be apartment/house hunting in Brownsville? There goes the neighborhood huh?

I was raised in Brooklyn, right around the corner from the street that cop was killed on last week.
^^^^
I grew in Brooklyn when Brooklynites were referred to as part of the "BNT".
It's hilarious to see all these student types dying to move out to Brooklyn.

People need a place to live. And when the rents hit the 6,500.00 a month mark, you realize there is serious dearth of AFFORDABLE housing. Expensive rents and chic boutiques does not equal a better quality of life.
I walked down 6th avenue the other week and saw no less than 5 large high rises going up.
All of the fantastic flea markets are gone.

Who are all these people who are spending 24,000 and 35,000 a year on rent annually?

Those figures are more than I earn in a year!

Since WHEN is Bushwick a luxurious neighborhood?

Long time residents are not going to just "go away" just because you think it's YOUR right to live in a chic, upcoming neighborhood.

We were here when you moved here and we'll still be here when you decide it is time to move back to the suburbs to being breeding.

Non-native NYers need not join this discussion. I'm really not interested in what you think.

I grew up on welfare among the gunshots and junkies of midtown. Kids growing up there today don't know what dried blood looks like on the sidewalk. The people complaining about gentrification are liberal carpetbaggers from Iowa who romanticize the filth and crime I lived in.

I'm neither white nor hispanic (a little of both), and moved to west harlem in order to be able to afford a place with enough room to work: I'm an artist myself. I shop in my neighborhood, and when new places open up, I make sure the people employed there are from my neighborhood before I shop there. I do all I can to support the hardworking people who are my neighbors. But I know I will be outpriced within a year or two, and have to seek another apartment. I don't own my apartment, I only rent. I pay twice or even three times as much rent as the people in rent-controlled apartments in my own building, and I'll be one of the first to get priced out. While I'm grateful for the moment, it's hard to forget how unfair this is. I might add that at 1200 for a two bedroom apartment, it's still a little more than I can afford as a freelance artist.

I'll be re-listening to this show to hear where people suggest artists like me and my friends should move!

Oh, in answer to the question "How does one find affordable housing without contributing to displacement?", if one doesn't consider squatting in abandoned buildings an option, either one moves to a city where affordable housing and displacement are concerns which are addressed in policy and law, or where greed has not (yet?) outstripped common sense and community.

Hi. I have been listening to your Bushwick and Gentrification series, which I think is examining some very important issues for our city-thanks for some typically cogent programming.

It strikes me that at the core of these issues is not just the simple economics, but also the amazing pace of acceleration, of this whole process of gentrification. I come from a lower middle class background, am employed in a creative field and since I first moved to the city in 1988 have been rent-jacked from Park Slope to Boerum Hill to the Lower East Side to Jersey City to Harlem and most recently to the Ridgewood/Bushwick border where I live in an illegal loft building. My spouse and I moved here just over 2 years ago and already rents here have nearly doubled, our landlord has reneged on an initial agreement not to raise the rent more than 5% per annum and is being cagey re: a new "lease" (since the building is zoned M1 a legally binding lease for live/work tenants is an iffy proposition).

The 2 main factors driving this situation are that:

-since rent laws were changed in 1997 w/ a 6 year extension of some protections (so in a sense since June 2003), effectively the hazy concept of market value allows most landlords to increase rent to whatever they think they can get, at any time including even during the term of a lease...

-exponential increases in real estate taxes force many landlords to participate in increasing the pace of rent inflation.

The bottom line is that our city and our state have some hard choices to make re: both real estate taxes and regulation of rent increases.

This city is already largely becoming a city of the wealthy. An incredible legacy of cultural diversity and cooperation-a thing of incalculable value possibly unprecedented in human history, is being discarded with great haste and little discussion or debate. If these trends are not reversed NYC will lose that legacy forever, and will in any real terms other than geographical, cease to be New York City.

I myself do not anticipate being able to continue to live here much longer.

Thanks for looking at these important issues.

you see new york has become a city about money and not a city about ideas - when i moved here in 1980 there were art stores every few blocks in Manhattan and now there are a few and they survive selling frames and gewgaws. And my budding artistic career eventually became unsustainable as well.

Becoming a positive force in your neighborhood can trump the negative forces of gentrification. volunteer, and get to know your neighbors.

I am a white student and I used to live in bushwick back in 2000 when I was a student. I had to live there because I could not afford to live anywhere else. After I moved out of the neighborhood more white kids started moving in for the same reason. These new residents want their neighborhood to be clean and to have nice places to go out and eat and shop at - this is the natural progression of things. This is not gentrification in the negative sense. These new residents are not pushing people out ... rather the "old" residents are complacent.
New York is a very expensive place to live and all people need a place to live - even white kids that move here from other states - no one is entitled to own a neighborhood.

I find it infuriating that as a collective this city is so concerned with the rights of low income folks, and their entitlement to a neighborhood. As evidenced by Jessica and her situation, working middle class peoople have no place TO go but these formerly undesirable neighboorhoods. I have lived everyplace in this city (UES, UWS, Redhook, Borum Hill, Riverdale), and have at every turn been stunned at the lack of reasonably priced housing for thouse of us NOT on public assistance, or those of us not making well into the six figure salary range.

I'm currently working on a documentary about the Red Hook food stalls, and the Park Department threat which could potentially shut this culinary institution alive. Many people see this current situation as part of the larger picture of gentrification and commercial development.

Gentrification and commericial development seems inevitable. The question that I want to pose is whether we can keep unique aspects of a community while still having commercial and economic development?

Jessica should live in Bushwick. I think people forget that the people who own the buildings set the rents - and make the money. I live in Williamsburg and the old Italian and Polish community members are making out like bandits. The people in Bushwick who own the buildings will make a lot of money when Jessica pays their "high" rents.

There are 4 construction sites on my block. Change should not occur at this rate. To me, the way that local government allowed this to happen is a big f-u to all the people living on this block, as if saying, "you don't matter, only change and new money coming into this neighborhood matters."

We are not talking about HUMAN RIGHTs, we are merely talking about what we would like, and I wish my artist community friends can afford to live around me, not continually kicked out so their landlords can charge exorbitant amounts of rent.

I believe one of the major problems with gentrification is that money isn't being put back into the local community. Rents are rising because of new arriving groups, however, they do not shop locally and have very little to do with the local community in general.
The solution is to become a part of the community by giving back to it. We have cheaper rents and they get our money!

Since there is inadequate housing in NYC, there is no way to find affordable housing that will not contribute to gentrification. A middle-class person moving to a lower- or working-class neighborhood makes that neighborhood more attractive to other middle-class (and eventually upper-class) people. The only long-term solution is a boost in the supply of housing.

Re: Artists as the “shock troupes” for gentrification. I have to completely agree with this and seriously question any artists, particularly white artists, who believes otherwise. Poor people, including poor blacks and Latinos, have had to organize themselves and work with/fight the the city and with landlords for affordable housing.

These artists, including Jessica, should organize themselves and unite with the people in these neighborhoods for better housing for all, rather than with the developers and cafe proprietors they are currently in cahoots with.

i think the question is what is more important, community or money for people with nothing to do with the community? It's clear that we don't value communities

From the Ditmas Park blog:

"Every time I see another hipster walk down the street around here, I say to myself, 'Ka-ching,'" an apartment-owning neighbor told us yesterday.

maybe contributing to your community in a positive way, socially, economically (volunteering, spending money in local buisnesses, not lugging your groceries from whole foods home on the subway) helps

I am a white student and i have moved many times within New York because i was priced out by richer white people. I think this is a class issue. It only becomes "visible" when whites are moving into minority neighborhoods.

NYC neighborhoods have always changed over time and always will. no ethnic group in NYC has a right to any neighborhood. If they want to stay they should buy buildings collectively while they're still cheap, like all immagrants have done over the years
with "luxury high rise condos" growing up all over the city working people have no where to live. all neighborhoods are up for grabs. get ready for redevelopment.