Karina Ramsey
Dr. Carrie Hall
English 1121
April 4th, 2019
On My Block (Gentrification Memo)
Gentrification has become a big problem in Brooklyn. Residents of Brooklyn and packing up and leaving their homes because she can’t afford to pay the increasing rent. I researched gentrification happening in neighborhoods in Brooklyn like Crown Heights and the rise of gentrification in East Flatbush. In neighborhood like these with a huge Caribbean immigrant population it’s sometimes hard to see it changed in order to make room for higher paying residents. You see local Caribbean food places close down so food places like sushi can open up. Having Cocktails bars replace the fried chicken spots, and Pet spas to giving these new income residents a reason to stay.
Many residents don’t want to move to places like Brownsville, or East New York because they don’t want to be surrounded with the violence and crime that comes with living in those neighborhoods, especially when they are raising young men and women, they rather leave the state of New York. Many even move to Boston, Maryland, or Philadelphia for affordable living but travel back to Brooklyn to shop at their local markets and food places that they enjoy and are used to. A Lot of people end up moving in with their parents because they can’t afford to pay their rent when it increases, or they can’t pay the asking prices for a new apartment. Many landlords even stoop as low as not providing heat nor hot water to force their tenants out. Landlord are even buying tenants out and offering them as much as 10,000-70,000. It seems like a lot of money to middle-income people, but in fact is nothing, its pocket change. When they add up moving expense, taxes, and the cost of to find a new apartment they would have been better off sticking it out at their old apartment.
Some warnings signs of gentrification are landlords increasing the rent tremendously because they know existing tenants can’t afford to pay it. Landlords coming in and changing things like your kitchen countertop which has been there for 10 years to a brand new expensive one. See your childhood neighbors moving out and moving to places like Atlanta and Virginia. What is really common is that that landlords are withholding repairs with the hopes that their current tenants with move out so they can repair and make room for higher-income renters.
A Lot of middle-income residents are living the city of Brooklyn and the state of New York altogether because of the cost of living. Landlords in the neighborhoods I research are not helping the situation of gentrification, in fact they are part of the reason we are losing our neighborhood to rich white folks, who can afford to pay these ridiculous prices these apartments are going for now. Gentrification inn Crown Heights is in a rush and it is slowing moving to East Flatbush. You can slowing see new condos and high-rise building being built in East Flatbush. Rents are slowing stating to increase and more Caucasian people are staying on the train pass Atlantic Ave.
