The Interviews

These interviews are people i personally know living in these neighborhoods they answered the following question about the impact of gentrifcation to their lives and the changes seen cuz it of.

1. What kinds of changes to your neighborhood did you see? 
2. How has gentrification this affected your daily life?
3. Has there been a positive or negative impact to the quality of life?
4. If you could make things go back to the way they where would you do it?

Williamsburg Brooklyn 

1-“When I was growing up in brooklyn NY I mainly saw minorities , particularly hispanic and black males outside until I was 13 years of age. White males slowly started to occupy the area until they became the dominant population when i was about 16 years of age. Hispanic bodegas started to close down and arabic delis became the dominant stores in the neighborhood. Many resturaunts and commercial buisnesses started to open up from what would be mainly hispanic resturaunts and an influx of hipster cultures instead of hispanic barbershops barbershops opened up. Historic landmarks such as domino sugar factory in the area got knocked down and became a public park and many condimiums opened up.”

2-”My mothers rent went up after gentrification which forced me to have to save using electricity so she her bill cant be cheaper since she had to pay more rent. Everything became more expensive in my area which had led me smarter with my money growing up .Commercial stores started opening up in my area which did make everything more accessible”

3-“Gentrification was good and bad for me because it made the area alot safer to live as growing up there was alot of shotouts ,stabbings and gang assaults in the area growing up Also commerical stores such as apple and chipotle opened up that i was only able to experience back then in manhattan and now i could walk 5 blocks there So those are positves , as for negatives rents got to high and alot of my friends had to move out of nyc and the housing market is out of control here with rents up to 3000$ for a one bedroom depending on your area in williamsburg”

4″as for negatives rents got to high and alot of my friends had to move out of nyc and the housing market is out of control here with rents up to 3000$ for a one bedroom depending on your area in williamsburg I personally believe gentrification when its done right is good since it brings new the value of the area up but I dont like the idea of taking over an area that a group of people once resided just because of economic profit”

         Downtown Brooklyn:

1: “ I seen people who clearly have higher income around my area and they built more condos around which was cool at first but than they for real built a condo right next to my projects now all the stores and delis upping their price”

2. “ I can’t walk around freely on certain blocks in my neighborhood anymore because weird and dirty looks I get from the new “neighbors” who seem to be quick to call the cops on people with my skin color even though this was our neighborhood long before they got here.”

3-I wouldn’t because things like people getting robbed had slowed down a lot so that’s one positive thing but I wish the police cared people getting robbed in my neighborhood before people with more money than us not saying people with money deserve to get robbed but it doesn’t impact them like it us for people with less money like if someone that lives in condo gets his smart phone stolen he could replace it that same week or even the very next day while someone who lives the projects has the same thing happens its hurts more and it’s not something easily replaceable but its something they need for work or school:”

4-“not sure because things people are getting robbed less which is always good but things are getting more expensive so it feels safer but it doesn’t feel the same but a man with my skin color is often criminalized so the fact people are getting robbed less is great but normal people like me are being harassed by police in our neighborhood”

steps you can take now:

• help each other out in times of crisis
• support small businesses
• start fund raisers for lower income public schools
• create more opportunity for scholorships for low income students

long term steps

Step One:Question our elected governing bodies why parks and public areas only get renovated and upgraded when the area around it is full of condos and brand new luxury buildings. why weren’t these Parks and these plubic amentiies don’t recive the upgrades and renovations until the area around it is full of  condo and other types of luxury buildings. after all it is tax dollars that pay  for these upgrades and rovations. So why didnt the the parks get these upgrades when it just was just the long term residents who lived there their whole lives? why only after luxury buildings go up and wealthier resident move in to the nieghborhood gets better parks, roads, city bikes, and other sorts of tax paid upgrades?

Step Two and three:Make sure that plubic housing is kept good conidation all year, as in residents don’t go a fews weeks without hot water or heating. as well demanding more rent controlled and affordable homes and apartments for every luxuxy building being built.

Step four: pass laws that limit how much poperty a bank or corrupation can own for self inesest, if for example chase bank wants to buy a empty lot to build there office building here that would be fine, because it benifts the communities and the ecomony with job opputunities. But on the other hand lets say chases want to build a luxury high rise on that lot it wouldn’t benifit the communitie as much because all that would happen is the the area around it becomes more expensisve and other landlord in the area increase the rent. there has be a balance here so we could really have the best of both worlds.

this a collective effort i’m looking foward to adding to these steps and improving these steps with your ideas , so be leaving diccusion open until on may 7th feel free comment, or ask questions or even voice your c0cerns about things you don’t agree with here. I Hope to post a updated version on these steps by may 10th with your guys inputs and improvements.