Daily News On Gentrification; Also, I’m a Liar
In today’s Daily News, Metro section columnist Albor Ruiz covers gentrification in Bushwick with some insights from Wednesday’s Make the Road by Walking rally. The article opinion piece doesn’t really delve into anything new, rather it just regurgitates the same old “gentrification is bad” statement. The one good point that Ruiz makes is that for all their anti-gentrification bluster, Make the Road by Walking does have suggestions for positive development. Unfortunately that jewel is lost between the vilification of landlords (sometimes deservedly so) and the overall simplification of the larger issue. Ruiz quotes 21-year-old José López, a Make the Road by Walking staffer, who says “no matter if these people come and say they want to better the community, they cannot do it because they don’t know anything about it and are not interested in the community input.”
Hi José. Nice to meet you. I didn’t know you were so clever. I mean, c’mon, you figured out my whole reasoning behind moving to Bushwick. Of course I say that I want to get involved with the community, but in reality all I want to do is make fun of poor people whilst sipping a cappuccino with my fellow white invaders at one of our ultra-exclusive, rich-people-only coffee shops. You totally get me!
Sarcasm aside, communication is a two-way street there, José. You can complain all you want about “these people” not really caring, but until you make the effort to actually include us in these discussions you are essentially nothing but an angry person full of empty rhetoric. If your intention was to make us feel unwelcome and thus scare us out of Bushwick, keep on keepin’ on brother.
A better tactic would be for Make the Road to host a “Welcome to Bushwick” event for new residents. Many of us who moved here have no desire to see our neighbors thrown out on the street, no matter how hard you try to typecast us. In fact, I plan on attending the next Community Board meeting in September to see what is going on with Bushwick. As much as it is our job to become involved in our community before we start complaining and judging, it is also the job of those who wish to preserve Bushwick’s identity to welcome us into the fold — keeping both sides segregated will only make things worse.
So, José, I’d like it if next time you made an attempt to get my opinion before judging me, because I have not done the same to you. Thanks. You can e-mail me. Or come visit — I’ll be holed up in Northeast Kingdom with the rest of the crafty crackers as we plot against you.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Wine bars? Where?
Or is he just making shit up to solidify his points and he’s actually referring to the ONE RESTAURANT that is new to the general neighborhood?
BS. But the lux condos references I can agree with. So many that are just straight up out of place.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
What Matt said.
August 17th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
There are exactly zero wine bars in Bushwick.
As for luxury condos, there are a handful — if you stretch the definition of “luxury.” There are tens of thousands of non-luxury residential units. Why the hysteria? The only reason a nice new condo is out of place in Bushwick is because its “place” is so shitty. Heh, maybe developers should build slums, and release rats and roaches at the grand opening ceremonies! Now THAT’S contextual!
These are not arguments, they’re expressions of deep envy and should be dismissed and ignored. When they get a relevant, well-constructed argument, maybe someone will pay attention. So far, nearly every quote I have read from someone at Make the Road has been juvenile and empty of substance. Add this to the pile.
August 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I think its unfortunate that they are using something obscene like that monster on Grove to generalize all newcomers. Most of us hate those condos as much as the “locals” and would rather see the neighborhood remain the mix of single family and three story buildings that it is.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Well, I hate Grove because it’s ugly outside and crappy inside, not because it’s tall. No sense in resisting an inevitable greater density, which reduces housing pressures and actually keeps prices lower.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I was born and raised in Bushwick. Im 17. I had to leave bushwick last year because i couldnt afford to live there anymore. I now live in Queens.
I work for the Youth power project at make the road by walking. We have alot of recently graduated lawyers that work at our organization that have recently moved to bushwick to be closer to where they work. The difference between them and the new people moving into these condos are that the people who are learning about the impact they have on this communityare doing something about it. They are moving into regular appartments and not buying into the hype. They are joining us when we go into someones appartment because the roof caved in and the city (or landlord for that matter) hasnt given a damn about fixing it. We are not labeling ANYONE! we just want people to see that we dont have choices! we cant just pack up and move to another part of the city on a whim. If we dont have Bushwick, what do we have…. Id like it if any of you would come to Make the Road by Walking and listen to some of the stories, instead of complaining about it on a blog. Were located on 301 grove street between knickerbocker and Myrtle.
August 17th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Jannelly: You don’t have choices? Sure you do: Queens is obviously among them for you. If you don’t have Bushwick, what do you have? Pretty much anywhere else.
This is what I’m talking about. Your words are nonsensical.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Jeremy: The average income in Bushwick is less than $25,000 a year. Most families in Bushwick make barely enough to pay for what is labeled as affordable housing! 40% of Bushwick spends more than 35% of their income on rent. My family used to pay $600 dollars a month. Out of nowhere rent skyrockets to double that amount. 2 years ago no one would want to come into this community, whats the difference now? Did the New York Times label Bushwick as the next “hot Spot” for yuppies???
oh and not everyone is as fortunate as i am… some people leave the CITY and/or the STATE. You have choices… Im sure Bushwick is not your only choice, or was it convenient for you, so close to the l line and everything…. direct line into Williamsburg, and Manhattan
August 17th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
So i was misquoted in this Daily News article. The notion that ‘newcomers moving into the community dont care about community input’ is not true. Yesterdays demonstration was not an attack on newcomers, it was a call to city and state officials to ensure that public policy changes are made so that the long-term residents who have been ignored for years and who have built this community on their backs are not involuntarily or illegally displaced. If you knew and studied the demograpics of the bushwick community before you moved in, then you know that it would be unfair to say that residents in this community have choices to go elsewhere. However, we do seek to have discussions with neighborhood newcomers to address community issues and have done so in the past. So if your down for that, the location is listed already!
August 17th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Jannelly: OMG, not leaving the CITY! Leaving the STA– no, I cannot read on, I simply cannot!
What is the big deal? If you’re Puerto Rican, you know your parents or grandparents came from an island a couple thousand miles away, right? You also must know that many tens of millions of people in this country move between cities and states, let alone neighborhoods, several times in their lives. What is it about the idea of moving that makes you react like you’re seeing someone get stabbed to death?
The New York Times has absolutely nothing to do with the sudden popularity of moving to Bushwick — economics does. I cannot stress enough that until your worldview incorporates a rudimentary understanding of economics, every macro situation you encounter will baffle you.
Furthermore, there are few yuppies who have moved to Bushwick yet, sorry. Mostly just college kids and people who need space but can’t afford it elsewhere.
You’re right that Bushwick wasn’t my only choice, but some other, similar neighborhood would have been on the list — are you saying I should go offend some other neighborhood with my white skin? But what about my Puerto Rican boyfriend — can he stay, even though he makes 4 times what I make?
Unlike Matt who wrote this post, and several of the other commenters, you won’t see any platitudes from my mouth or pen about wanting to visit any community boards or join any activist groups or “get involved.” I just want to live my damn life. I have full faith that the people of Bushwick are capable of helping themselves, and I do not think so highly of myself, or so poorly of them, that I think I am their savior. For a bunch of people to waltz in here citing their White Man’s Burden to help the poor dumb little brown people is so fucking insulting.
And José, you think everybody who moves in here researches demographics? Please, most people are not activists, just people minding their own business. It’s irrelevant anyhow, because yes, moving is always a possibility. I hear Kansas is cheap. Whatever.
“long-term residents who have been ignored for years and who have built this community on their backs”
You see, this is another unfalsifiable statement from the activist ranks. What does it mean to build a community — a bunch of people moved in? Uh, ok, good job *pat, pat* I’d really like some clarification on that — and please, something concrete this time.
Damn, y’all.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
oh, man. Too many Matts! My wife asked if I wrote this post.
Just made the first comment. Should We designate by Matt, Matty, Mathew?
August 17th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
okay, you is just a bunch of haters, okay?
Bushwick hipsters got it going on, and yall can’t even deal wit it. stop hating on it. don’t hate the playa hate the game!
stop hating. stop being haters.
y’all is drinking haterade.
see yall later, alla-hater!
i went to toys-r-us the otha day, guess what i got? mr. po-hater head.
i bet you all is a bunch of chronic masturhaters. y’all is riding the ele-hater, or do you take the esca-hater?
you remind me of
darth hater.
hater.
hater.
hater.
hater.
all hater and no hater makes shaniqua a dull hater.
{snap snap}
By shaniqua armstrong
August 18th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Allan - are you drunk?
Oh, and I will heretofore be known as Matt L (I am the Matt who wrote this article).
And I actually have a response to Jose and Janelly, but its 1:03 am and I’m four vodka and tonics in already, so it’ll come tomorrow. Maybe.
August 18th, 2007 at 3:53 am
Matt, Jeremy et al. -
I don’t really understand why everyone is getting so defensive. This is not about placing blame. It’s not about white rich people v. poor brown people or bodegas v. wine bars. There’s no real hating going on, as Armstrong puts it. It’s obvious that this conversation needs to continue outside of the internet so that we may be able to expose prejudices and misconceptions on both “sides” without resorting to personal attacks.
I moved to Bushwick last year because it was affordable and I haven’t always felt very welcome. But the truth is, it’s not my community - I didn’t build it. They did, and I choose to respect that. While you may feel there is no worthwhile “community” to speak of, what with all that garbage and noise in your backyard, there is still a distinct collective of people who have worked to improve their hood. And what claim do I have to their hard work? You seem to believe that you are entitled to everything just because you have the means to move here.
But the problems faced by long-time Bushwick residents are not unique to this situation. What is going on is something that affects us all at one time or another. I mean, how would you feel if in ten years time, after having sown deep Bushwick roots, that you were forced out by skyrocketting rents? And what would you think if the newcomers displayed such a brazen sense of entitlement? Of course everybody has options to move further out, but why should low income people always get the shitty end of the deal? You might not think of it as a big deal having to move to Queens but people all over the country are in similar situations, having to work twice as hard for half as much gain. Trends such as these do suck (and are not necessary) and there’s no point in shutting up about it or devaluing the experiences of people like Jannelly.
I know that may sound naive but I really think we should be working together to combat inequality in all its incarnations (as they say, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere). The income gap in this country is at its highest ever and the poor are (for the most part) disenfranchised. As a resident I feel a responsibility to do something about it.
I’m pretty sure that the rally and the work done at Make the Road has not been intended to point fingers but rather to encourage popular participation and improving government’s role in the situation. That said, I believe MRBW can do more to address the gap between old and new residents. However, it’s not theirs nor Jose’s responsibility to throw you a welcoming party (until perhaps you demonstrate real interest in the situation apart from complaining on blogs).
August 18th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I bought a place in bushwick and the reason was purely economical and somewhat for convenience to the L. I lived in williamsburg and was PUSHED OUT because it became to expensive. But that is the life of the city and it’s ever changing communites and I realized I needed to look elsewhere if I wanted to live here. The market decides the price of a community and in this city there is an ever expanding need for apts. I don’t see how this can be stopped as we see the population of nyc rise. To live in this city you need to be adaptable because if you look at history there have been waves of change in every community. I’m sorry but this neighborhood could use some change and developers are building and converting buildings for the better. I also just read that in NY magazine an article that had this to say about mixed income communities:
“Why New Yorkers Last Longer”
In neighborhoods that mixed affluent people alongside poor ones, the poorer residents were statistically healthier than those in non-mixed neighborhoods.
That’s because, Wen concluded, the presence of relatively wealthy people has a spillover effect on the immediate neighborhood: safer streets, cleaner environments, better food in stores. (Indeed, another study found that poor teenagers in mixed-income neighborhoods ate more leafy green vegetables than poor teenagers in non-mixed ones.) Wen is careful not to say that all income equality produces trickle-down effects; if the poor and wealthy are completely sealed off from each other in different parts of a city, the effect doesn’t occur.
And this, as it turns out, helps explain the one troubling chapter in New York’s life-expectancy success story: the Bronx. Alone among the five boroughs, the Bronx’s average life expectancy has actually declined in the last twenty years. And it is the only one that saw very little financial uptick from the nineties boom years, and virtually no gentrification.”
Seems like a little gentrification couldn’t hurt Bushwick
August 21st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
i moved to bushwick because i was priced out of a neighborhood i had lived in for years…what a tragedy.
thats how it goes.
deal with it–everyone else has to.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Katie (comment #14):
I moved to Bushwick last year because it was affordable and I haven’t always felt very welcome. But the truth is, it’s not my community - I didn’t build it. They did, and I choose to respect that.
Good holier than thou rhetoric — you “choose to respect,” the implication being that we choose not to respect. You’ve already wrecked any credibility you may have had as an impartial commenter.
While you may feel there is no worthwhile “community” to speak of, what with all that garbage and noise in your backyard, there is still a distinct collective of people who have worked to improve their hood. And what claim do I have to their hard work? You seem to believe that you are entitled to everything just because you have the means to move here.
What are you even talking about? You activists are experts in employing long-winded sentences to say absolutely nothing. Who made a claim on anybody’s community? If anything, the problem here is that the “natives” think that they own Bushwick because they TEND to share a common ethnicity with each other and they were here for a marginally longer time in the history of the neighborhood. Other people move in, and we are suddenly invaders.
I mean, how would you feel if in ten years time, after having sown deep Bushwick roots, that you were forced out by skyrocketting rents?
Been there, done that, didn’t think it was a big deal.
And what would you think if the newcomers displayed such a brazen sense of entitlement?
Who has displayed this “brazen” sense of entitlement, and what actions would you describe to demonstrate this? Looking for something concrete here.
Of course everybody has options to move further out, but why should low income people always get the shitty end of the deal? You might not think of it as a big deal having to move to Queens but people all over the country are in similar situations, having to work twice as hard for half as much gain.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. One thing at a time. What shitty end are you talking about? You mean that they have less money, so they have less housing options? You mean they can’t move to a mansion in Beverly Hills? Shock of shocks!
Working twice as hard for half as much gain…as compared with some time in the past? 10 years ago? 20? Or maybe compared to other people? Which people? You’re really not getting much across here.
I know that may sound naive but I really think we should be working together to combat inequality in all its incarnations (as they say, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere). The income gap in this country is at its highest ever and the poor are (for the most part) disenfranchised.
Inequality is a part of life, it is natural, it cannot be stamped out, and it is not unjust. Or are you poorer once you find out there’s someone richer? If you were full before, are you suddenly starving because you just found out someone down the street had a bigger meal?
The income gap is irrelevant because everyone is richer in absolute terms.
As a resident I feel a responsibility to do something about it.
And, clearly, a responsibility to wag your finger at those who don’t do like you.
I’m pretty sure that the rally and the work done at Make the Road has not been intended to point fingers but rather to encourage popular participation and improving government’s role in the situation.
Well, that’s always worked before! The government always does a bang-up job!
That said, I believe MRBW can do more to address the gap between old and new residents. However, it’s not theirs nor Jose’s responsibility to throw you a welcoming party (until perhaps you demonstrate real interest in the situation apart from complaining on blogs).
I completely agree with you here. They have no responsibility to welcome anyone, and we have no responsibility to “get involved.”
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
If you saw how Armstrong signed his last post you’ll know that he may not have been drunk but just his usual entertaining self. His spirit and attitude is exactly what bushwick needs to help the community move forward.
If we can all get along on this blogsite it would be great, and we can try to do things to make it better. Yes in a matter of time he could be as popular as Williamsburg. But until that time there will be a lot of growing pains.
August 25th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Orly?
August 28th, 2007 at 2:03 am
The replies to Jannelly’s post are absolutely galling in their arrogance and callousness. Guess what, packing up and moving to a different city or state isn’t all that easy when you have to leave behind your job, your family and everything you knew. It’s one thing when you do so of your own free will, another thing entirely when you’re forced to leave behind the people and things you love.
THIS sort of attitude is exactly why you’re looked upon as “invaders.” Practice a little basic human compassion and respect and it will take you far in your new neighborhood–or in ANY neighborhood, for that matter.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Life isn’t EASY. But having to move because your rent went up — a slow process, which should give people plenty of time to plan for such an eventuality — is NOT anything like the end of the world. I don’t want to hear about people in dire straits because they were too stupid to plan and save. Sick of the sob stories.
Leaving behind family and “everything you knew” elicits zero feeling from me. Call your family. Know something NEW.
Know who I have compassion for? Starving Africans. Bombed Iraqis. Not American citizens on all manner of public and private subsidy for generations in a city full of opportunity who — the horror! — must find a cheaper pad. Boo-fuckin-hoo. That’s not callous, because one can only be called callous about one’s attitude toward things that are a big deal.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:44 am
I’m actually smiling as I read your reply, because I know you’re still young and you’re gonna get what you so richly deserve, someday. With your attitude, it’s inevitable.
By the way, rent doubling in one shot is not a “slow process.”
August 28th, 2007 at 10:05 am
What’s my attitude, exactly? That I think people should buck up and make their own way in life? That whiners get left behind? You’re right, I will get what I deserve, and I will have built it with hard work and intelligence, not stupid fuckin rallies and an EBT card.
Rent doesn’t double in one shot — or maybe you have some anecdotal evidence you’d like to share?
August 28th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
8/28/07
from SoBu
Whatever you do on this blog, please don’t tell people to SHUT-UP - which is so rampant in our Bush-ism-era -, or, take discussions out of the blog, inPrivate. pls. No!!!
When I moved to Bushwick in mid-May from Cypress Hills, at first I was shocked, and cannot tell you how often I called 311 to complain about noise, anonymously though (street-parties with blasting music until 3 in the morning). It was either that, or check myself into Bellevue. In the meantime I got earplugs instead. Since then I may have adapted some to my new environment. And to my delight, some noise-makers have left.
I moved to Cypress Hills (75th Precinct) in 1986 from Fort Green (rent was too high there.) Prior to that I lived on the Upper East Side (in a tiny rent-controlled shoebox). There, in Cypress Hills, I waited in vain - mind you for 20 years - for a Sushi-place to open - although house prices more than quadrupled, demographics didn’t change much - it never happened. Still, no Sushi place I know of!
The only discrimination I suffered, was as a single female homeowner; they didn’t forgive me for that: rotten eggs flew into my front window and my backyard got urinated into, among other things. But I stuck it out! I could pass for Latino being 5.2 with brown eyes and speaking some Spanish.
Will gentrification ever happen in Bushwick? No one really knows for sure, how and when. My guess is, that much will remain as is for some time, which is okay for me. Those closest to the city have more of a change that it’ll happen sooner. So, please keep the blog open!
August 28th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Well, if the belief that only bums, thugs and crackheads are being hurt by gentrification helps you to maintain your coccoon of smug self-satisfaction, then go on with your bad self, girlfriend.
Hey, I remember Bushwick in the ’70s, I’m not against the idea of it being cleaned up and made safer and more livable. But when good people are getting screwed in the process–well, I don’t like that at all.
Oh, and by the way, you can make as many references to your Puerto Rican boyfriend as you want, but your racism is quite easy to detect in your writings–even to a white working-class guy like me, who didn’t go to college, has paid his own way in the world since his mid teens and is free of so-called “liberal guilt.”
August 28th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
It’s not my belief at all that only bums will be displaced by gentrification. I said nothing that should lead anyone to such a conclusion. I simply challenge the idea that having one’s rent rise is “getting screwed.”
Wow, it took a whole 25 comments for someone to cop out with an accusation of racism. No, my racism is not easy to detect because it doesn’t exist. It’s too easy for you to just point your finger and claim racism without backing it up. So if you can’t put up, shut up. The next person to claim this better come up with some mother fuckin proof.
You lose.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Hee hee hee… You’re ADORABLE when you’re angry, Sweet Cheeks. Go sip on some zinfandel, you’ll feel better.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Good, so all you got is a whole lotta nothin.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:10 am
You idiot.
You and your friends have bought into a shit neighborhood. The sewers back up. The rats run wild in the streets at night. The fire hydrants do not work. the foundations in most of the buildings are cracked. there are plenty of areas where trash is illegally dumped in piles. And the crack dealers and drug addicts still meet up on the corners.
Just wait until the paint peels off your walls to reveal the rotten wood behind it, or the rats re-chew that hole through the plaster board. You are living in a shit neighborhood. We lived there because we could not afford to live anywhere else. We had little choice. You morons who can afford to live somewhere nice are instead paying top dollar to live in shit. We are getting forced out, but we will find somewhere else to live. Or perhaps we will end up homeless and sleeping in the doorway of your buildings. But we did not pay a lot of money to live in shit, you did.
Now go back to your boasting moron.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Who’s boasting, asshole? Nobody here.
Bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter. That’s what I see when I read your pathetic screed you fuckin loser.
hahaha — loser!
August 29th, 2007 at 1:19 am
I don’t know about you or Dark Joe, but I’m not bitter at all. I’m glad to be leaving Bushwick and you’re more than welcome to it! I do share Joe’s opinion that you new folks are shelling out a lot of money to live in a seriously deteriorated neighborhood and the sellers/landlords are laughing all the way to the bank. As for who’s a winner and who’s a loser, I guess only time will tell. So don’t do your victory dance JUST yet.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:36 am
That’s fine and well. Again, no victory dance — everything in life is a risk and nobody knows the future. And “a lot of money” is relative — kind of the entire point of this tiresome debate.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:39 am
beginning in 1998, my landlord in williamsburg started raising our rent each year in a non-regulated building by $500 more A MONTH. This was for a rat infested building, very dilapidated – So yes, rent increases can be that drastic.
that’s why I ended up in this “shit” neighborhood in the first place.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Too bad you had to answer the question for him, A.
So I stand somewhat corrected — some people may indeed have giant rent hikes, with the clear intention of just getting them out. I’m sure it’s a terrible situation to be in and I hope only a few people experience it.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:40 am
OMG - Jeremy, you’re going soft! It’s important to try and be sympathetic though, if not empathetic. Hey, I grew up dirt poor, on welfare, so I have no problem with empathy.
Bushwick may very well end up a crucible in the NYC gentrification wars since long time tenants seem to be organizing. What can that realistically do though?
Money always seems to win though. Back in the 1980’s when gentrification hit the East Village, you had people actually throwing bricks through windows and rioting in Thompkins Sq Park. I don’t see that happening today.
People are just too demoralized… this country is just fucked, I sometimes think.
One thought just occurred to me: why don’t the homeowners who live in all those new, 2-family, brick houses, built in the 80’s or later, make the rents they charge for the people living in the apartment above their homes affordable? Then the longtime residents can stay in the hood.
I’m offering a hypothetical here..
Do you think that’s happening? or that they’re charging market rents?
Also, how do people think the fall out from the subprime mortgage/upcoming recession thang will affect Bushwick?
August 29th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
You can’t organize against the laws of economics. And really, if bricks through windows and riots didn’t do it in the EV, how is waving placards at ugly condos going to?
Dude, “money always wins” because people use money to pay for things, and until we live in a post-scarcity world, people will always have to do/give something to get something. There’s no alternative to money. Except maybe the abject poverty of a barter economy.
As for the 80s houses (they’re actually 90s I think): did you really just ask why people who are likely not rich themselves wouldn’t charge below-market rent out of the goodness of their heart? Charity is one thing — that’s asking a lot.
Subprime mortgage won’t affect Bsuhwick much. A general lull in the real estate market overall, however, could very well accelerate gentrification in Bushwick — when people stop buying, they start renting. Rents tend to go up in real estate slumps.
Upcoming recession? Because of real estate prices? Doubtful. Because of retarded wars financed with gazillions in debt held by countries that only sorta like us? Very possibly!
August 29th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
The day money STOPS winning is the day you need to worry.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
You are getting nothing for Christmas this year you naughty little boy.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
whoa. dudes. whats happening here? chill out a little. And give me a break, I just moved to bushwick. I’m originally from another (so called developing) country and apparently bushwick is too new and too much.
But I like these basic and very important questions on urban living. We are at a break point where half of the worlds population is living in cities and the problems and their solutions in here, usa, will be an example to the rest.
In order to consider the options and find solutions we can at least try to create a ground for them. (no, not a yoga studio)
Instead of doing nothing for the gentrifying neighborhood there might be something that could be done. For good. Make the road is apparently looking for these. when the gentrified “Bushwick arrives” (which there is not a single doubt it will) anyone who is left around will indeed be integrated into the community and to new Bushwick’s opportunities. so they can at least minimize the damage done to some. whether it be hipster or a fashionista or a yuppie city, as long as there is housing and a proper plan of development, there might be a balance of human values and opportunities for the rich to get richer (since they will, get richer, no matter what).
Jose and Make the Road is apparently trying to get this message out with their means but they have no idea about possible solutions. Which is making the new comers pretty angry, if you don’t have a solution why are you against anything? And if you are not against the people moving in, why protest in front of a new condo?
Entire New York is ready to hear Make The Road’s positive solutions to this problem. They have to be better laid out than meetings which noone hears about, yet everyone is welcomed (or rather expected) to join.
Personal fights here to the extent that it even gets to racism accusations does not seem to be a good way of looking for solutions neither. And surely noone moving in this neighborhood will look at demographic data (is crime rate a demographic data?) before moving in, or attend any meetings for the sake of bushwick’s current residents.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:18 am
“…did you really just ask why people who are likely not rich themselves wouldn’t charge below-market rent out of the goodness of their heart? Charity is one thing — that’s asking a lot…”
Dude, it was a joke! I’m thinking if everyone’s so concerned about the neighborhood changing and poor people of color having to leave, why don’t the more privileged home owners rent to them cheaply in order to save the integrity of their neighborhood?
PS Turgan: don’t diss yoga or I’ll come bash you with my yoga mat and make you eat incense!
I think this thread is gasping it’s last breaths – or am I just tired of it?
Anyway… at Trader Joes they have these amazing little ice cream balls called MOCHI. OMG to die…
August 30th, 2007 at 4:16 am
I dunno, Jeremy… I was intrigued by your “challenge” so I went and read back through a lot of what you’ve written here. No, I couldn’t find any out-and-out racist statements–but there’s a sort of racist TONE to a lot of what you write, if that makes any sense. To put it another way, my gut reaction is “that guy’s a racist.” And obviously, I’m not alone here. Or maybe you just feel contempt toward anyone whom you feel to be somehow culturally inferior to yourself, with skin color not necessarily a factor. At any rate, I can tell you’re not someone I’d want to hang out with.
Yeah, I know… That’s vague, it doesn’t constitute PROOF, and in your puerile competitive worldview it means “I lose.” Whatever. I treat people with respect–in real life and in cyber-space–and consequently I don’t need to be constantly watching MY back when I’m walking around the Bush or anywhere else. Peace!
August 30th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Well, the “you lose” comments are because “Wyckoff” was clearly trying to win…something with his accusations of racism and other silly comments and non sequiturs.
When I write something, I invariably say to myself “are people going to think this is racist?” Sometimes things that I think will never pass the “censors” go unnoticed, and other things I consider totally innocuous send people into fits.
People in New York are too sensitive about race, not to mention everything else, and they see racism everywhere. That’s dangerous because it cheapens the accusation of racism.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:55 am
From Dark Joe, with my notes…
You and your friends have bought into a shit neighborhood. (true, it ain’t the Upper West Side or Brooklyn Heights now, is it? Did you think we didn’t notice when we moved here?)
The sewers back up. (311. And I’ve never seen nor heard of this as a major issue confined only to Bushwick. Please enlighten me if I just haven’t noticed overflowing sewers.)
The rats run wild in the streets at night. (311. I’m sure this is still a problem overall, but if you call enough it gets cleaned up. I’ve noticed a major change on my street from ‘04 to ‘07. Major.)
The fire hydrants do not work. (311. I’ve never seen a broken down fire hydrant in my area. Just wide open hydrants left to pour out water after everyone is done playing with them.)
the foundations in most of the buildings are cracked. (311 ain’t gunna help you there, but an inspector might catch that, eh?)
There are plenty of areas where trash is illegally dumped in piles. (311. Don’t dispute this, but again, a major change in my area since I moved in. I’ve logged dozens of complaints and while it can still be a dumping ground along M. Hernandez park, it’s much better. But what are you gunna do? People are lazy motherfucking assholes who don’t want to, or know how to, take responsibility for their crap)
And the crack dealers and drug addicts still meet up on the corners. (311 & 911. Enough said. First year we lived on my block I called about some douchebags down the street who were dealing. They are gone now. Dunno where they went: a few blocks away or to Rikers?)
We lived there because we could not afford to live anywhere else. We had little choice. You morons who can afford to live somewhere nice are instead paying top dollar to live in shit. (I don’t know about everyone else, but I had no ‘choice’ to live in Manhattan or Park Slope or whatever playground of the brownstones was afffordable only to those who can buy a million dollar home. I just wanted a nice little house. A nice little backyard. A nice little street. I was sick of renting. And my mortgage from ‘04 is less than my rent was in ‘01. So personally I don’t feel like I’m naively living in ’shit’. I like my neighborhood.)
October 25th, 2007 at 12:04 am
lol…the biggest myth going…when I always hear about the “so called”, long time residents; which made “Bushwick” the new place to live???
till this day…I have never witness anyone pick-up one piece of paper from the street in which they live on! to me that speaks volumes!!!
October 28th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Jose Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
So i was misquoted in this Daily News article. The notion that ‘newcomers moving into the community dont care about community input’ is not true. Yesterdays demonstration was not an attack on newcomers, it was a call to city and state officials to ensure that public policy changes are made so that the long-term residents who have been ignored for years and who have built this community on their backs are not involuntarily or illegally displaced. If you knew and studied the demograpics of the bushwick community before you moved in, then you know that it would be unfair to say that residents in this community have choices to go elsewhere. However, we do seek to have discussions with neighborhood newcomers to address community issues and have done so in the past. So if your down for that, the location is listed already!
just curious, why would anyone here dignify any comments made by “thug” jose!? a personna non gratta.
probably still lives @ the PKs w/his mother…@ taxpayers expense!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 11:17 am
It’s so unrealistic to expect people to ” know and study the demograpics of the bushwick community before you moved in”, when most people are just looking for an affordable place to live.