Gentrification is a bitch, but the inhabitants of Brook-land, NY know this all too well. In a trend that can be dated back to Robet Moses' projects in the Bronx and the seedier parts of New York City, more and more neighbourhoods in NYC are becoming real estate hot beds. The NY Times is reporting on the changes that are taking on Greenpoint's waterfront, and how uppity the yuppites are getting over it. I can hear the war cries now: "We don't want cooler, richer people to move in"! In an effort to maintain the historic beauty of the area, the "National Trust for Historic Preservation plans to sound the alarm by declaring Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places", the Times reports.
This makes me laugh. When those too poor to live in Manhattan were booted to outer boroughs to make space for the elite, no one said word one. When those same entrenched communities were then forced out of Brooklyn, nothing muttered on their behalf. Now the Historic Preservation is coming to the aid? I guess I wouldn't be so concerned if I wasn't one of those scraping by. Lets just hope that the Historic club of nerds protects Bed-Stuy in respect of Biggie.
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Seeing gentrification first hand, and not just the buildings but also the people that were effected by it and teir lives afterward was a really moving experience. Before I moved here and started working in the "throw-away" communities it had been little more than a concept that I was aware was happening through books and articles.
What's really cool is that one of the communities Roxbury, specificly Dudley Square fought back against it. They used imminent domain to get all of the property to be turned into affordable housing.
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