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Gentrification





Gentrification
Maria Mallick
Date 10/17/2014










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Gentrification

We hear about Gentrification when we go to certain areas of New York City such as
Harlem, Brooklyn Village and Queens Village. Gentrification is the process of repurposing and
rebuilding an existing area to be more upscale and fit for the upper and the middle classes of
society. It often leads to displacement of the lower classes as the cost of living and services
increases dramatically. It is quite surprising to learn that the process of gentrification has been
occurring in New York City throughout its history.
Gentrification usually takes place when land or property in a neighborhood begins to be
bought by the wealthy and converted into expensive living spaces (Zukin et al. 2009). When the
newly built upscale buildings become fully occupied by upper class residents, it exerts a
tremendous amount of financial pressure on local residents. The cost of basic goods and services
begins to increase to the point of unaffordability. Those who own property usually sell it off and
move away, while those who rent are left to decide whether to pay higher rents or move away to
somewhere more affordable. In either case, this process forces many people to leave their
neighborhoods towards other areas, and even pushes some residents into homelessness (Newman
and Elvin Wyly, 2005).
With gentrification comes other signs of adjustment for lower class residents as the
upper class creates new businesses such as boutiques, upscale cafes, bars, art galleries, etc.
Gentrification puts pressure on small businesses to close down one by one, either because the
landowner demands higher rents or gives their space to other businesses. The changing retail
landscape can have negative effects, such as affecting the social bonds between residents and
small locally-owned shops. Residents are left to decide between shopping at the corner store or
at a newly developed, well-stocked but personally-detached supermarket. Often times old stores
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Gentrification

are the first to disappear due to rising rents when their lease ends, or when stores are replaced by
beautiful condos (Zukin et al. 2009). It also puts an enormous amount of pressure on small
business owners to upgrade their stores and products to meet the demands of upper class
customers. The process of gentrification makes longtime residents feel uncomfortable about the
changes to their neighborhood.
Much of the debate about gentrification and displacement involves struggles. Although it
is often associated with neighborhood improvement, gentrification, in reality, is the process of
class transformation in which space meant to serve the needs of middle- and upper-class people
ends up displacing the lower-class. Gentrification not only includes moving working class
residents out, but also makes them lose their old jobs. For example, a lot of factories located near
water were converted into upscale water-facing high-rise apartments. In any case, when an
established working-class residential area becomes attractive to investors, developers, and
middle-class households, the risk of displacement can become quite serious (Newman and Wyly,
2005).
Newman and Wyly (2005) explain how many people lose their jobs due to local
businesses closing down. This can easily be seen when the Dominos factory closed down in
2004, after nearly 150 years of service, due to the steady decline in demand. After the Civil War,
New York was the biggest provider of refined sugar to the United States, and for a period of time
the Domino factory in Williamsburg was the largest sugar refinery in the world. In past this
factory employed over 4,000 workers and processed 3 million pounds of sugar a day (Ferri,
2014). Likewise, the closing of several other factories pushed many towards unemployment and
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Gentrification
even homelessness. Shelters have seen overcrowding in the past several years due to the
gentrification of most neighborhoods (Bellafante, 2013).
The city government also stimulated new residential construction with inclusionary
zoning which permitted higher and denser buildings. It offered tax reductions and cuts for private
real estate developers when they included some affordable apartments for lower-income
families in their market-rate residential projects. The law has forced developers planning to build
residential buildings to provide 30% of the building towards affordable housing (Ferri, 2014).
Looking at demographic data from Bedford-Stuyvesant and neighboring Brownsville
concerning gentrification, one can see those living with limited resources might lose their ability
to subsist on those resources when the neighborhoods they live in dramatically change because
of gentrification. Between 2005 and 2010, the median rent in Bedford-Stuyvesant and
Brownsville increased by more than 22 percent, while the median income of those renters over
the same period of time stayed the same. High rent and low income also causes competition
among lower income class. Due to the west to east progression of gentrification in northern
Brooklyn, low income resident moved to Brownsville, which is a more miserable neighborhood,
but moving all the low income to one condensed area created intense competition in a housing
market for those least able to engage in it. This led to people ending up in shelters. Therefore
Brownsville continues to rank among the communities sending the greatest number of families
into the shelter system; public housing, despite its high concentration in the neighborhood, only
serves a minority of residents. (Bellante, 2013)
It is really sad to see people being forced to move out and leave the places they were
comfortable living in. Many people who have lived in particular neighborhoods all their lives
have had to move out because of the upper class' desire to live close to the water or certain parks.
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Gentrification
Another sad fact is that people have to compete with each other to get placed into the upscale
apartments that have encroached into an area. Despite the affordable housing act, the housing
application is decided on a lottery basis.
In my opinion, the process of improvement and renovation of a neighborhood should not
impact the basic social fabric and character of the neighborhood. It is important to improve and
modernize, but not at the cost of driving local stores out of business. The state should pass laws
to prescribe a fixed low annual increase for apartments and businesses, which would eliminate
the need for many to move away. Moving away from one's neighborhood creates anxiety in
young children since they are torn apart from their friends and more importantly their home.
Local residents should be allowed to have more say in the proposed developments in their
area and should be allowed to voice their concerns. Residents should be kept informed about
future developments and their socioeconomic impacts.
While the process of renovation, modernization, and improvement of cities and
neighborhoods is an important one, proper consideration should be given to the social, economic,
and human impacts of this process and the goal of betterment of society in general should not be
forgotten.





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References
Bellafante, G. (2013, July 6). Gentrifying Into the Shelters. The New York Times [New York]
Retrieved from http://http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/nyregion/gentrifying-into-the-
shelters.html
Ferri, J. (2014). History of the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg - Domino Sugar Factory
History in Brooklyn.
Retrieved from http://brooklyn.about.com/od/historicbrooklyn/a/history-of-the-domino-
sugar-factory-contr oversy.htm.
Newman, K & Wyly, E. ( 2005).Gentrification and Resistance in New York City. (2005, July).
Retrieved from
http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/142/gentrification.html
Zukin, S., Trujillo, V., Frase, P., Jackson, D., Recuber, T., & Walker, A. (2009).New
RetailCapital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City. City&
Community, 8(1), 47-64. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6040.2009.01269.