Normally graffiti wouldn’t call much of my attention, but this is no ordinary doodle. In case you can’t see it well, it says “PARE EL DESPLAZAMIENTO” — Stop the Displacement. I don’t know what kind of spray paint can-wielding defacers you come across, but in my experience, there are few who tend to think about heavy subjects like urban demographic trends. What struck me even more was the idea that, even if they knew the word “displacement,” that they know how to spell it. Call me doubly surprised when they spell it flawlessly in Spanish. Now I’m having trouble believing this is a random youth tagging a building. This person is educated. This person is an activist.
This is a ridiculous attempt to sheath ivory tower ideas about what causes and constitutes gentrification in a veneer of organic, ground-up dissent. To me it’s offensive in its characterization — mockery, really — of the grass-roots in Bushwick as property-destroying rabble.
The choice of target is just as unbelievable: these mediocre two-families aren’t displacing anyone but the rats who lived on the empty lot. And they’re not exactly luxury homes, despite what the developer claims. Ultimately, they mitigate displacement by providing more housing. So now we just have an activist displaying his ignorance of basic housing economics. Embarrassing.
So the question remains: who, or what organization, is behind this?
Deihmos April 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
That is what sucks about Bushwick. I hate Graffiti
suydamn April 22nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Actually Jeremy, if they consider extra housing to be displacement, I’d say they DON’T know what the word means.
kanoa April 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Peru Ana
Ana Peru
Deihmos April 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
There lots of new stores being built on Broadway and the first thing they do is deface it with graffiti. I don’t understand the mentality behind it. I actually thought graffiti was old school and it doesn’t exist anymore until I moved to Bushwick (New York).
Andy April 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
That Peru shit has GOT to stop.
matt April 22nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I guess I’d be less surprised if some “activist” did this to new luxury condos…but the kind of shit building this is doesn’t really fall into the gentrification side of thing in my books.
Jimmy Legs April 22nd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
PARE LOS FEDDERS
mikenyc April 22nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
exclusion its a form of displacement, developers, speculators, flippers, liar loan signers etc.
it may have displaced an empty lot but not argue on the exact definition,
the intent is conveyed.
the fustration is demonstrated.
by running up high rents on daddy’s dime you are causing displacement, displacement of the grandmother who only pays $300 a month, she gets kicked out so a $1800 pratt bratt can move in after a trip to homedepot for mediocore materials turned ‘luxury’ renovation
its also not a tagger due to the letter style and lack of paint control, it might be just some drunk with a spraycan,
umm…if its a big word its an educated person??
pare el bochinche
mikenyc April 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
why would it be surprising that someone can spell displacement anyway, do you think that all spanish speakers like myself cannot spell big words???
HUH!?!?!
JorgeRB April 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Though I see the individuals point in attempting to combat gentrification, it is certainly, as mentioned, a poor choice of target and a ludicrous way to express their concern. These homes are usually established to provide affordable housing to low to middle income families hoping to own their own home. As mentioned, they are built in abandoned lots, essentially beautifying the neighborhood. As a Ridgewoodian, I am certainly tired of all sorts of graffiti, especially one with no or vague purpose.
Jeremy April 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Mike, you on some kind of drug that messes up your syntax? Try again, next time make sense.
Then in comment #9, Mike, you display a lack of reading comprehension. People who tend to vandalize property with spraypaint do not know how to spell “desplazamiento.” So no me vengas con tonterias.
Bushwick Dill April 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
The current majority of residents, black and latino, displaced the old majority of residents, italian and germans. Both shifts were motivated by economic concerns. Demographics change, people get “displaced”, that is what happens in a living city. No amount of spray paint can change that.
Jeff April 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I’ve been reading this blog since I’ve recently moved to Bushwick. Since re-locating, I struggle with my own concerns about displacing the people who have lived in this area for a years. I am disgusted with Jeremy’s racially and economically charged comments and won’t be visiting this site again. It’s disappointing to me to hear so many apathetic comments. I recently was discussing tactics for smoothing out the wake of gentrification with friends who recently purchased a home in the area. We all were frustrated that we didn’t feel like we knew the tools to make that a possibility. I’m left with that same disappointment in reading these posts.
Thanks to mikenyc for his thoughtful response.
PS – i’d love to learn some big words in Spanish, if Jeremy knows any.
suydamn April 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 pm
What part of Mikenyc’s post was thoughtful, the part where he boiled down the movement of people in nyc to poor grandmothers versus rich fashion students? Yeah that was really balanced.
Jeremy April 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Start small, Jeff. Something tells me you don’t know any Spanish at all. If you did, you might see Hispanics as normal people, not helpless objects of pity to be guided and rehabilitated by the likes of you and your white liberal buddies. I’m sure it means a lot to Bushwickers that you had a heartfelt pow-wow with your rich friends about their plight, even if you ultimately resolved to do absolutely nothing. Well not nothing — you get to demonstrate how much you care on a blog, and true to college-Marxist form, accuse anyone with a dissenting opinion of apathy.
Asi que espero que no esperes que te tome en serio.
Augsept09 April 22nd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I hear there’s some new condos going up down the block, Jeremy – rumor has it, there’s a real cute offering plan involved! Shouldn’t you be covering that? You are SOOO beholden to real estate interests! Please tell me you are a lobbyist, or, better yet, a Crown Heights broker! Regards, /. Chris
Marisleysis April 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Jeff,
What makes you and your rich comebola friends think you are any less of a problem to the neighborhood that any other racists? You are looking for “tools” that will make poor minority people happy that you are pricing them out of the hood!?! How ignorant do you think poor people are? You’re just delivering more honky bullshit to make yourself feel less guilty about what YOU ARE DOING to the neighborhood. Please wipe your shoes at the door next time.
Besides, Jeremy’s right about “desplazamiento”. It’s not a word some drunk Hispanic tagger is going to think about in the middle of the night, let alone spell correctly. That’s some activist fraud pretending he or she is the voice of the streets. If you were actually in touch with the people you obviously look down your nose upon, you would have recognized that for what it is.
Ray April 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
“Since re-locating, I struggle with my own concerns about displacing the people who have lived in this area for a years. I am disgusted with Jeremy’s racially and economically charged comments and won’t be visiting this site again.”
So long. Don’t forget your violin.
daveffreep April 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
“This person is educated. This person is an activist.”…this person knows how to use Babel Fish, or some other web-based translation device.
Myrtle Ave April 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 am
There is a difference between compassion and pity, and it is ego.
BornOnWyckoffAve April 23rd, 2008 at 8:40 am
“The current majority of residents, black and latino, displaced the old majority of residents, italian and germans.”
I’m not getting involved in this pointless argument, outside of reminding you all that the German/Italian exodus was largely voluntary–a “quality of life” choice, not an economic one. They chose to leave, they weren’t priced out.
Carry on.
Matt April 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
If they sprayed ‘this building is yet another uglification’, I’d be down with that. Still uncool, but understandable. But writing this on a junkass fedder’s building on a dark and lonely corner? ooooh. Way to take a stand.
Next time if they really had balls and felt like actually making a point, they could go tag NEK or an actual ‘luxury’ building like on Evergreen and Willoughby.
Oh and jeff, if you and your friends want to try and ‘smooth out the waves of gentrification’, you could start by meeting and talking to your neighbors. make friends. or at the very least, nodding on the street acquaintances.
cantevenffordrent April 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 am
yes i may have been in the moment, maybe my syntax was not correct, maybe i misspelled a werd or too,
but i dont see how anybody can really sit at a computer and try to justify who has spelling skills?
or
i still dont see how somebody white and ‘educated’ can sit at a computer & try to justify who of a different race has eduication & spelling skills, and further more actually dissect another persons native language and decide which words are too wordy for someone of a different culture.
i can assure you i can drop some mad krylon skills and know how to spell big words, spanish is my first and native language.
Marisleysis April 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Displacement or Desplazamiento just isn’t a common enough word. It’s not regularly used in conversation in English or Spanish except in specific situations–like activism or science. When was the last time anyone here used it outside of gentrification? Be honest. I even venture to say most people don’t even use that word outside of school, if ever.
The very use of the word suggests a educated person or some uneducated person who was coached by an educated person. Take your pick. To suggest otherwise would be like saying that someone who uses “sphygmometer” is likely not involved in medicine.
cantevenffordrent April 23rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
maybe he should have just wrote
‘yupi go hom’
Jessina April 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
1. I am a Bushwick native.
2. I am Hispanic and Spanish is my first language.
3. I am educated – NYU undergrad, Columbia grad.
4. The point you try to make in the first two paragraphs of your post is a genetic fallacy, an ad hominem specifically. Why would it matter if the spray painter were a white hippie activist from California or a teen Dominican punk voicing the concerns his parents and neighbors spend their Sundays discussing over a family meal? The validity of an argument is in NO WAY dependent on the presenter of that argument. You don’t need to have studied Greek logic in order to realize this.
5. How stupid do you have to be to think that the native Spanish speakers of this neighborhood – who watch Spanish news programs and read local Spanish newspapers – wouldn’t know the word “desplazamiento” or how to spell it? How completely unaware do you have to be to think that the families and even the youth from this neighborhood don’t know what the hell is up when white kids are moving here and rent prices are going up, when their friends and neighbors are being forced to move further away from their jobs and schools? How out of touch do you have to be to think that the kids in Bushwick don’t have access to a plethora of resources that could give them the information and the will to understand the concept of displacement and how to communicate about it in their household tongue? This is a relatively common topic of conversation (in English and in Spanish) in the NYC Black and Hispanic community – on the streets, at home, in church, in school, at the laundromat, in the newspapers, and all over the internet (yes, young blacks and latinos surf the web too).
6. Yes, the ebb and flow of neighborhood demographics in this city is forever shifting … but this is not a simple matter of a Black and Hispanic neighborhood becoming White. This is about an affordable working poor and lower middle-class neighborhood being taken over by young non-local people, many of whom can’t afford to pay much more on their living expenses than their local counterparts. The problem is that inevitably (as is beginning to happen here already and has happened in many other NYC hoods), once young non-offensive white kids begin to occupy an affordable neighborhood, landlords don’t want to rent to Black and Hispanics anymore regardless of whether or not they can afford it … soon young wanna-be hipster types follow the struggling artists … rents go up … young corporate types move in … condos go up where basketball courts once stood … Before you know it, not even the young artists and entry-level employees can afford the neighborhood anymore either, and certainly not the families who truly keep this city running. The problem is that it’s not just Bushwick; it’s the city, and to some extent, the country. If a city can’t provide homes for it’s working poor, for it’s lower-middle class, for it’s families, it will collapse. Slowly? Sure. Will you suffer Jeremy? Probably not. No one expects you to do anything about it. You may have moved here because you couldn’t find a decent place to live in the city too. No one with a brain thinks that’s your fault. I just don’t see why you feel the need to post stupid comments on your site that promote unfounded stereotypes and in a way help to inhibit those who do care about the people of this community and the future of this city long-term – no matter what types of self-righteous egos or kids with limited and immature methods to exercise their frustrations may happen to be on their sides.
7. Jeremy, I crown you King Douche of Bushwick.
Bushwick Dill April 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Quality of Life = Property Value. If quality life deteriorates then people who stay will risk selling their homes for less. It is an economically rational choice to leave when your property value will fall, just as it is an economically rational choice to leave when your rent becomes too high. There are the same forces at work.
On another note: none of the college educated drunken taggers i know have ever used the the word displacement in english or spanish in a tag. From experience, they usually sick to shorter, funnier words like balls or fuck.
BornOnWyckoffAve April 23rd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Your first paragraph summarizes the fears that were played upon in the practice of “blockbusting” in the ’70s. If you’re like most people on this site, you probably weren’t in New York (or weren’t even born) back then, so here’s a summary.
These people were led to believe that their property values would go down, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, there was also a long-standing trend of voluntary migration from Brooklyn–>Queens–>the suburbs at least since the end of WWII.
Marisleysis April 24th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Jessina,
It matters if he’s a white, hippie activist from Cali because then not only is he a patronizing fraud, he’s using a negative stereotype to further *his* cause.
“2. I am Hispanic and Spanish is my first language.”
Me too. My family has never used that word when discussing how neighborhoods have/are changing. My mother doesn’t even use that term to discuss how she was “displaced” out of her home country and then out of her adopted country into this country. She just says things like “we had to go” “i left because I had to” and “we came here because…” She would laugh if i used displacement. Not because the usage is wrong, but because it is too scholarly for everyday use.
Maybe it’s because we all didn’t get to go to grad school or maybe it’s because we talk like regular human beings at home. Activists dont like to use common language because they want to sound smarter than everybody else around them. That’s why it’s so easy to pick out activist graffiti from messages from the actual people of the hood. They dont use funny words like balls or fuck. ;)
Now go look up desplazamiento on Google. If you skip the music and English pages, you’ll see it’s predominantly used in scholarly papers. It’s an educated person’s word, not a common person’s.
Instead of trying to keep a run down neighborhood run down so that people can continue to live in their substandard dumps, Jessina, why dont you use your grad school smarts to figure out a way for these people to actually get out of poverty so they can live in the kind of homes they want to be living in. You know, like your average white suburban family’s house.
cantevenffordrent April 24th, 2008 at 11:23 am
usually in the time before you were born… a minority family was usually politely asked to move when they lived in an average white suburb, then came the bricks through the windows, then came the burning crosses on the lawn, then came the burning house….
you should also be asking yourself why are there 46 apts (no fee by owner) MIN$ 2000 to max unspecified using only the search term BUSHWICK, oh you mean EAST Williamsurg to you hipster trash.
lets also not think that people move to greener pastures, some people become homeless, some crowd into substandard housing creating dangerous living conditions, some relapse, some just give up and commit suicide,
Jeremy April 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
#30: Mentioning burning crosses? Gentrification causes suicide? I think I’m done paying attention to you.
Jessina: Most of what you wrote can be defused by once again explaining, excruciatingly for me, what I am saying here. Your average tagger doesn’t know the word “displacement.” Your average tagger, even if his family is Hispanic, is usually less proficient in Spanish than English. Thus my surprise at seeing DESPLAZAMIENTO, spelled correctly, spray-painted across a building. It’s incongruous. Which leads me to think it’s some activist schmuck playing tagger, all the while clueless that what they tagged is NOT luxury housing but humble, affordable housing. Not to mention the tag’s general lack of style.
Cities will retain as many working poor people as they need. They will either travel farther to work or they will be paid more to live closer. This is really a ridiculous thing to even ponder, a city gentrifying itself to collapse.
Anyway, I agree with Marisleysis — ultimately, to avoid being “displaced,” people need to learn how to not allow themselves to be. Protests and graffiti aren’t going to get anyone ahead.
I will proudly wear the crown of King Douche of Bushwick which you have bestowed unto me. I’m used to being loathed for my points of view that dissent from the mainstream — might as well be loud and proud about it.
cantevenffordrent April 24th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
its always the people who can afford it that seem to have a greater understanding of the meaning of affordability…sorry i can afford to pay more, not sorry you cant afford to pay these ‘affordable’ rents
see if they are affordable why is there ‘displacement’ ??? is bushwick affordable because williamsburg and LESs are not. who defines affordable?
cantevenffordrent April 24th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
i can spell too, PENDEJO
r April 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
can the average blogger spell diffused?
YOU ARE RACIST
Jeremy April 24th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Uh, I can spell “diffused,” but do you know what it means? Do you know what “defuse” means?
Clearly my opponents here are all total fucking idiots. You make my work easier by providing poorly spelled, shoddily reasoned arguments. And by screeching “RACIST!!111″ at the top of your lungs at anyone who may have a differing viewpoint, you prove your complete inability to argue like rational adults.
cantevenffordrent April 24th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
umm im not your opponent, thats how your perceive this situation,
i just wanted to submit a different viewpoint and actually considered what has been written here offensive,
maybe this is my shoddily reasoned argument, perhaps i have a complete inability to argue, but actually im not arguing, you are creating an argument where none exists, in fact i would find it hard pressed to believe that you would engage any hispanic on the streets of brooklyn and verbally demean then with your im so educated attempts at veiled racism, nice sitting there on a computer writing those words….are you in the real estate industry, becuase 99% of all RE brokers i have met have actually had these strange delusions…or are you just blogging and getting ad revenue for your next can of PBR? since your readers are so young educated and weathly…wow im impressed!
yet you actually continue to pursue this course of logic,
“Your average tagger, even if his family is Hispanic, is usually less proficient in Spanish than English.”
so hispanic families who speak spanish are actually so uneducated in your opinion they are unable to read/write and speak spanish? unlike you a highly educated young and wealthy gentrifier in bushwick.
Ray April 24th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I don’t see what the big deal is. Rats, pigeons, graffiti artists, termites, and other pests are to be exterminated calmly and quickly. You see someone spraying graffiti, crack him in the head a few times with a crowbar and hide the body. Have things really changed this much since I was a kid?
Marisleysis April 24th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
It’s very common for first generation children to not know their parents’ languages as well as the parents. It’s also common for second generation children to not know their grandparents’ languages at all. It’s a very common complaint within immigrant culture, I’m surprised you were unaware of it. I’ll even bet a nickel that it’s the families who are better educated and wealthier who are more likely to stress the importance of bilingualism to their children. And certainly, it’s not going to be a foreigner him or herself doing the tagging.
Ingo Hart April 24th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I don’t always agree with Jeremy about gentrification and such,but I’m always baffled by charges of racism. So many people are on here accusing everyone else of being a racist but there’s no real evidence. I think there’s room to debate gentrification without resorting to all of this name calling and adhominim. and enough with the PBR jokes, god that’s so old.
John Dereszewski April 26th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I don’t have much to add to this but only offer a comment about the type of house that was defaced. Like Matt and a number of other posters, I found it bizarre that the tagger had selected a generic “fedders special” to hit. These buildings differ from Partnership housing since they are both structually and aesthetically inferior to them and, as unsubsidized, considerably more expensive. So it is not entirely accurate to call them “affordable housing”. However, the persons who reside in them appear to be – and correct me if I am wrong – mosty lower-middle class minorities who, at considerable cost to themselves, are living the “American Dream” by becomming first-time homeowners. In doing this, they continue the trends that have shaped Bushwick for more than a century and, if anything, further strengthen the minority presence.
Thus, unless the tagger wishes to reserve Bushwick for poor, underemployed and inadequately educated minorities, this destructive action makes absolutely no sense, even on its own terms.
hipsterassasin April 26th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Dereszewski-
where exactly do the poor underemployed and inadequately educated minorities go?
(isnt that what displacement means? …you silly gentrifier!)
John Dereszewski April 29th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Being called a gentrifier – and a silly one at that – for supporting the development of housing that will enable mostly minority lower middle class families to either remain in Bushwick or make it their home just shows how loony this whole discussion has become. The best way to combat the sort of uncontrolled, displacement generating, gentrification that many of us fear is to support the balanced development of Bushwick and – guess what! – this housing, which is replacing vacant lots not low income residences, is part of the balance. #41, please get real.
Jeremy April 29th, 2008 at 11:17 am
John D as gentrifier, love it. There’s simply nowhere to disagree with him here and be considered reasonable, if you are against displacement.
mikenyc/hipsterassasin just wants everyone to live in dilapidated apartment buildings surrounded by empty lots and trash and crime and tags, because das real, son. It’s like a lobster, grabbing his brethren, who are trying to escape, back down into the bucket so they can all be dinner together.
Armstrong April 29th, 2008 at 11:21 am
The furor over semantics has exhausted me…
This was probably an abandoned building or empty lot before the Fedders shack went up. Isn’t infill housing a good thing ultimately no matter who lives there?
Either someone will buy it at a price the market supports, or it will sit empty for awhile till it eventually goes rental for whatever the market will support.
If enough of these get built (and rent-stabilization doesn’t seem to be stopping that process, no matter what Jeremy might say) before the devaluation of NYC’s outer-boro housing market, housing costs will go down for everyone except the poor fools who bought within the last ten years!
In short: It’s the economy stupid. Bushwick was just about to crest before forces bigger than gentrification, racism, displacement, etc rode in on their dark horses.
Peak oil, overpopulation, the unsustainable divide between rich and poor, etc. are about to take us all for an interesting ride.
Jeremy April 29th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I never said rent stabilization would stop the building of anything. That makes no sense.
peak oil, overpopulation, unsustainability oh my!
john breiner May 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
who are you people and where are you from?? because this is bizarre..
Graffiti is old school and not done anymore? graff writers don’t have social awareness? surprised it’s spelled correctly?, (Not that this is even a writer or anything, its pretty clear its an regular adult, and probably a 1 to 10 time deal out of frustration.) But Could you possibly be anymore detached from the environment you just moved into?
This pic is one of the few good things going on in the neighborhood, people not going for it.. (“it” being what’s going on right now..) and it is unfortunate that this might be the extent of there power to do anything,, but yea..
And yes i am a native new yorker, and no i don’t mind people moving in ( that was me 10 years ago) but well the kind of people moving in and the tactics of some, and the ignorance of the rest, makes me want to move to where you guys are leaving..