Alexis Chambers 1

Professor Cullinan
17 October 2014
Gentrification, defined initially by Ruth Glass in 1964 in reference to the
restructuring of historical, yet, largely dilapidated UK neighborhoods, has all but become
synonymous in the United States with Brooklyn, New York. The reverse ofand,
seemingly, inevitable result ofso-called white flight, gentrification is a cycle of
social migration that usually finds urban minorities pushed out of their neighborhoods,
marginalized and displaced, historical landmarks often bulldozed to make room for shiny
new businesses only accessible to and relevant to the upper class. The once-ramshackle,
ghetto neighborhoods that were once undesired or desirable only to impoverished
minorities who could afford to live there, are in the process of restructured and
refinanced, strangely becoming chic and unaffordable except to the same people whod
fled just one or two generations before. Before the gentrification processes, the
neighborhoods are left in shambles by government organizations, seemingly uncaring,
while the minorities are forced to deal with poor quality housing, overcrowding,
deplorable school systems and, on occassion, too little police presence and protection or
corrupt, gestapo-style police brutality wherein cops make sport of harassing minorities
usually while turning a blind eye to real crimes such as rape, molestation, and robberies.
Usually, only when the majority becomes interested in the neighborhoods again, does the
government suddenly find it necessary to clean up the streets, improve housing standards,
tear down eye-sores and introduce entire new school systems and staffs to bring quality
education to the majority, move in.
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As a child of a Brooklyn-raised mother, she often took me with her to visit my
Aunt in the borough. Returning there in the present day, I no longer recognize the
neighborhood that made up such a large part of my childhood and family memories. The
mom and pop stores are being replaced by Starbucks and large-chain stores, including,
Whole Foods:
Indeed, at a time when wealthier people are moving back to
cities, and lower-income residents are getting displaced,
debates about Whole Foods seem to double as debates over
the very character of cities and their residents. Whole
Foods rejects the idea that it targets neighborhoods primed
for high-end development. even John Mackey, the
Whole Foods C.E.O., has acknowledged his companys
knack for identifying neighborhoods on the cusp of
gentrification. In an interview with CNNMoney in 2007,
Mackey said, The joke is that we could have made a lot
more money just buying up real estate around our stores
and developing it than we could make selling
groceries. (Greenspan)
Although much grittier when I was a child, the Brooklyn of my childhood was much
more personable and diverse, home to friendly Blacks, Latinos, Carribbeans, ethnic
Europeans, Italians, and even Middle Eastern. Forced so close together and with the
commonality of urban suffering between us, neighbors became an extended family of
sorts as everyone watched lives unfold and children grow from their windows, fire
escapes, and stoops. The neighborhood, now polished and corporately streamlined, is
now home to the posh and who have no idea or maybe not even care what it took and
who it affected for them to live and walk around in this charming new neighborhood.
Now the streets seem safer, which is not a bad thing, and cleaner, but I had to ask myself:
why does it take an influx of Asians and whites in Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Bronx for
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neighborhoods and businesses to improve? Why did it take an influx of other races to
improve schools that were failing? Evidently, Robert Bevan, writing for The Guardian,
had similar questions to pose:
Gentrification's defenders have argued that repopulating the
inner cities has been good for all, creating sustainably
dense neighbourhoods that are not car-reliant, saving our
architectural heritage, rebuilding derelict sites and
introducing articulate new residents who then press for
improved schools and services for all locals rich or poor
in a kind of trickle-down aspiration. Back in 2003,
Columbia academic Lance Freeman argued that his
quantitative research in Harlem shows that even low-
income renters stay put and benefit from changes such as
lower crime rates. Some of this, at least, may be true, but
why should it take a middle-class invasion to improve poor
people's environments? (Bevan)

Although Gentrification has its benefits, its process seems to benefit the wealthy
more than the poor, improving quality and standard of life and education only, ironically,
for those who have most likely already grown up with a high quality of life. Where is the
real benefit for the suffering and ignored urban minorities who had to complacently
contend, for example, with their children attending classes with shortage of resources and
incompetent teachers. Victims of crime who sought police help were essentially ignored.
They dont work hard for minority crimes. Yet now that the upper class have infiltrated,
police are in fact overstaffed and post up to patrol without need and with no real crime to
address other than a jaywalking ticket, perhaps. Novelist and Brooklyn resident James
Reynolds addresses opprobrium once attached to Brooklyn and its ironic cleanup:
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Bed-Stuy carried a trumped-up, nasty stigma, birthed from
the plague that infected every black community in America
during the eighties and early nineties. So many people,
most of whom had never even been to Bed-Stuy, imagined
the community as a slum, overrun with drunks and junkies,
and Wild West shootouts in the middle of the street. Ghetto
tales of dilapidated project buildings and crack deals woven
by artists like Jay-Z, whos permeated every corner of pop
culture, had reduced Bed-Stuy, a neighborhood of over
150,000 people, to the Marcy Projects. When
gentrification is typically discussed, it refers mainly to a
turnover in real estate in a particularusually black
community. Words like, rebuilding, and renewal, are
dished to describe the process that typically ends in the
removal or displacement of the current residents of the
community. In the case of Bed-Stuy (and almost every
other major city in America) the removed are, indeed,
black people. That generally defines the process. The
root word, gentry, according to Merriam-Webster, refers to
the qualities appropriate to a person of gentle birth. And
gentle birth refers to civility or elegance. So to gentry-fy
a community would mean to make it more civil which
would infer that it was seen as less civil beforehand. And as
ridiculous as that is to me, there are several peoplethose
that grimaced ten years agonow living in Bed-Stuy who
did not find it a civil place to live, until recently.
(Reynolds)
Interestingly, Reynolds mentions Jay-Z, himself having gone through just as much a
rags to riches transformation as his neighborhood. Shawn Jay Z Carter, world-
famous hip hop artist and multi-millionaire business mogul, claims to have once been one
of the marginalized Brooklyn youths resorting to criminal activity just to put food on the
table. Now that he is one of the richest Blacks in the nation, seldom returning to his old
neighborhood, Marcy Projects, it is tragically laughable that he, too, can no longer afford
the astronomic cost of living now that gentrification has occurred:

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Last night, The Observer spoke to Jay-Z at his charity
carnival. Mondays announcement that the Brooklyn Nets
would still be called the Brooklyn Nets was very much on
our mind, so we asked if the most famous Brooklynite
since Walt Whitman might soon be moving back to his
home borough to be closer to the team.Maybe, he
told The Observer. Ive been thinking about it, and here
his brow furrowed. The prices over there are really high,
though.Holla, Hova. While starving students can still
score deals in Bushwick and Clinton Hill, prices on
highrises and brownstones fit to house the King of Rap
have soared in recent years. Brooklyns not like before,
he conceded with a laugh. Maybe the $450-millionaire has
no room left in his portfolio for more property (Knutsen)

Perhaps Jay Z, worlds richest Brooklynite, and worlds most outspoken Brooklynite,
Spike Lee, can debate the issue of gentrification while, ironically, they are far removed
from the impoverished citizens gentrification puts at a residential disadvantage: Jay-Z,
owning properties in TriBeca and travelling on yachts two-thirds of the year, and Spike
Lee, with his lavish late 18
th
century Spanish style Manhattan townhome work $32
million
i
. His points may be valid like as when he discuss the outrageousness of the
current race for private school by Brooklyns newest citizens, the urgency itself an
indication of how horrible the minority-standard public schools were and remain:

So, look, you might say, "Well, there's more police
protection. The public schools are better." Why are the
public schools better? First of all, everybody can't afford
even if you have money it's still hard to get your kids into
private school. Everybody wants to go to Saint Ann's
you can't get into Saint Ann's. You can't get into Friends.
What's the other one? In Brooklyn Heights. Packer. If you
can't get your child into there It's crazy. There's a
business now where people you pay people don't
even have kids yet and they're taking this course about how
to get your kid into private school. I'm not lying! So if you
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can't get your kid into private school and you're white here,
and you can't afford it, what's the next best thing? All right,
now we're gonna go to public schools. So, why did it take
this great influx of white people to get the schools better?
Why's there more police protection in Bed Stuy and Harlem
now? Why's the garbage getting picked up more regularly?
We been here! (Lee, as transcribed
ii
by Bramley)

Yet, its hard not to roll your eyes when he proclaims with such conviction: We Been
here! and in fact , Jay Z, and other famous and prominent Brooklyn citizens like Denzel
Washington, havent been there and, if they returned presently, would be just as foreign
and invasive as well as downright insulting in their lavishness as the yuppies now
creating a demand and presence for Starbucks and Whole Foods. Yet, would I be
considered foreign to the old neighborhood that, although frequently visited, I wasnt
raised completely in? Am I just as much an infiltrator or poseur for having concern
over the social restructuring of a neighborhood whose upward transformation doesnt
actually affect me, directly? Gentrification, whether in Brooklyn, New York, Manchester,
England, or anywhere else in the Western world, is a testament of capitalism. As it turns,
some win, some lose, some stay, some move and everyone, at some point, experiences
the legendary green grass, even amidst redesigned brownstones.




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Works Cited
Bevan, Robert. From Ruth Glass to Spike Lee: 50 years of gentrification The Guardian. 27
Feb 2014.Web. http://www.guardian.com/cities/2014/feb/27/ruth-glass-spike
-lee-gentrification-50-years. 8 Oct 2014
Greenspan, Elizabeth. A Whole Foods Grows in Brooklyn The New Yorker. 17 Dec 2013.
Web. http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/a-whole-foods-grows-in-
brooklyn 08 Oct 2014
Knutsen-Elise. Hello Brooklyn 2.0: Even Jay Z Has Been Priced Out Of The Borough New
York Observer. 30 Sep 2011. Web. http://observer.com/2011/09/hello-brooklyn-2-
0-even jay-z-has-been-priced-out-of-the-borough/ 08 Oct 2014
Reynolds, James A bed-Stuy State of Mind: Gentridication Shaken and Stirred The Gawker
Online. 01 Mar 2014. Web. http://gawker.com/a-bed-stuy-state-of-mind-
Gentrification-shaken-and-sti-1533824681 08 Oct 2014