Bed-Stuy Speaks Out About Gentrification

February 28, 2008 by
Filed under: Bed-Stuy 

Marcy Avenue sports some of the niftiest buildings this borough has to offer. When I knocked around there recently I found a real beauty at Hancock Street.

Hancock and Marcy Avenue

After I took the above photograph I noticed a flier affixed to the light pole next to me. Intrigued, I went in for a closer look.

Be a true hipster

Ah progress! The next thing you know they’ll be complaining about homeless boogeymen. Come to think of it, I did see a pair of police officers there roust a derelict from a park there once.

Congratulations Bed-Stuy, you have arrived!

Miss Heather

Comments

5 Comments on Bed-Stuy Speaks Out About Gentrification

  1. Jimmy Legs on Thu, 28th Feb 2008 11:13 am
  2. what do you wanna bet the creator of this provocative artwork is indistinguishable from the ‘hipster’ they decry? it’s like they think if they make the statement first it must mean they aren’t gentrifyers.

  3. reverb on Thu, 28th Feb 2008 3:25 pm
  4. Interestingly, the condo in the photo is in Greenpoint, on the corner across from Enid’s. It certainly did not push homeless onto the street when built.

  5. missheather on Thu, 28th Feb 2008 4:34 pm
  6. Excellent observation, reverb (I posted this because the condo in question IS in Greenpoint). But I beg to differ regarding your logic regarding pushing people onto the street: every time one of these bad boys is built it invariably displaces lower income residents. They, in turn, are forced to move elsewhere. But where is elsewhere nowadays?

    Bushwick?
    Bed-Stuy?

    Nope. Too expensive. When rent-stabilized housing and light industry are removed from Greenpoint people lose both jobs and homes. What takes their place? Affluenzics and the poorly paid service workers who cater to them:

    http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/only_the_blog_knows_brook/2008/02/starbucks-milk.html

    Would you like fries with that condo/co-op? Not enough foam on that latte? No problem. We’ll retrain our workers.

    http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/only_the_blog_knows_brook/2008/02/park-slope-star.html

    This is not what I want out neighborhood to turn into. Seriously. That said, you’re right: Mr. Scarano’s condo on Manhattan Avenue “did not push homeless onto the street”. They were already there. But condo-goers don’t like looking at them so they were encouraged to move elsewhere. And move they have: IN DROVES. To far north Greenpoint mostly.

  7. reverb on Fri, 29th Feb 2008 8:48 am
  8. I wasn’t generalizing, but referring to this property in particular. It was an empty lot used for dumping garbage and parking cars for quite some time, and before that was zoned commercial. I don’t think this new construction displaced anyone. Personally I would rather see retail on that corner, but what we have now is better than the alternative of an empty lot with rats. I just thought the building was a curious choice to include in the flyer, opposed to a condo going up ontop of a woodframe knock-down or small business where the owners sold-out and moved out. I think the neighborhood loses in those scenarios.

    Agree with you from a general sense that the neighborhood is being flooded with high-end real estate which puts pressure on current residents to maintain increased rents and cost of living. I think its difficult to watch Greenpoint change so quickly, especially with the threat of mega-retail squeezing our great local shops & stores.

  9. missheather on Fri, 29th Feb 2008 3:05 pm
  10. I hear ya reverb. The mega-retailers ARE indeed squeezing our neighborhood. If I see another bank or cellphone store open up here I swear my head is going to explode.

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