Brooklyn Eviction Defense. (2021, March). We Keep Us Safe: VOL 3. 

Brooklyn Eviction Defense is a tenant-led coalition standing in support of renters suffering eviction, harassment, and homelessness. They are not a government-funded organization, but they do give valuable and educational materials such as blogs, readings, and innovative fliers. To make our courage poster attractive and bold, we used one of their excellent images.

Brooklyn Rental Market Report: MNS, real estate obsessed. Brooklyn Rental Market Report | MNS, Real Estate Obsessed. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.mns.com/brooklyn_rental_market_report

This rental market analysis report has been compiled by Brooklyn Rental Market to compare the rental fluctuations. Rental price hikes in Brooklyn have increased by 1.29 percent from $3095 to $3135 just in a month from Feb 2022 to March 2022. Overall, the Brooklyn average rental proving has increased 23.56 percent from last year. It is one of the greatest rental price hikes as compared to national rental prices across the USA. The previous month saw DUMBO’s two- bedroom units as the most expensive livable prices in Brooklyn. It cost more than $6800 rent per month. Important places such as Abridge, Bed Styx, Bushwick, park slope, etc. saw a hike in the average rental prices. In contrast, studios and one-bed apartments in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, and Downtown BK saw a slight decrease in the rents. While looking at the trends of house prices, it can be seen from the bar charts that the average rent for a studio in Brooklyn has increased from $2030 (march 2021) to $2456 (March 2022). Similarly, the rents of a one-bed apartment have increased from $2478 to $3102 in the last 13 months. Also, the rent prices of the two-bed apartment have increased from $3111 to $3846 from march 2021 to march 2022. Overall, the rental prices in Brooklyn New York show a gradual increasing trend.

Curran W. “From the Frying Pan to the Oven”: Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Urban Studies (Routledge). 2007;44(8):1427-1440. doi:10.1080/00420980701373438 

This article talks about the displacement of the industrial business in williamsburg. It Talks about how gentrification is mainly targeted towards neighborhoods. That was once industrial as nowadays it isn;t much needed for them as they aren’t central to the urban economy.  Industrial businesses are then forced to relocate because manufactors see these lots as great opportunities to build lots and apartments. Gentrification does not only effect the people who live there but the people who use that neighborhood as an area for their business. 

Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood profile. NYU Furman Center. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://furmancenter.org/neighborhoods/view/greenpoint-williamsburg 

This source contains geographic data, housing circumstances, and neighborhood conditions in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg area for both 2000 and 2019, allowing me to easily compare and observe how the neighborhood has changed prior to and following rezoning. We can observe that rents have risen significantly, as has the average family income of residents, and there are much less residents with lower incomes as a result of the rezoning. Therefore, the data can assist us in illustrating what happened in the area following the rezoning and can serve as record of the changes and displacement of former inhabitants. 

Nelson, K., & Morales, M. (2019, January 10). Brooklyn gentrification meets resistance from longtime Latino residents in South Williamsburg. nydailynews.com. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn-gentrification-meets-resistance-longtime-latino-residents-south-williamsburg-article-1.957237 

Southside Williamsburg residents, who are mostly Latino, are trying to fight back against gentrification coming to their neighborhood. Residents already notice the effects in their neighborhood-like displacement and the overall culture change. There are fewer people that look like them in their neighborhood because people cannot afford to live there anymore. Stores are being replaced with trendy overpriced restaurants and cafes. El Puente from “The Bridge ” has raised funds for “Green Light District project” to get door-to-door volunteers to help Latino residents get more healthy, educated and cultured for the next 10 years. His goal is to raise quality of life so that they can promote their Latino culture and stay in their neighborhood. Residents are on board with the plan to fight back for their neighborhood.

NY: Building Power & Saving lives. VOCAL. (2022, March 9). Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://vocal-ny.org/ 

VOCAL-NY is a statewide grassroots membership group that empowers low-income individuals affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass imprisonment, and homelessness in order to establish healthy and just communities. Community organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct assistance, participatory research, and direct action are some of the ways they do this. We used this saucer to understand how these organizations fight gentrification so that we could implement something into our intervention.

Pereira, Ivan. IP. 2016. Williamsburg leads NYC in gentrification, report says. AMNY https://www.amny.com/real-estate/williamsburg-leads-nyc-in-gentrification-report-says-1-11786129/

This article covers valuable information on economic differences in the before and after of gentrification in Williamsburg. It talks about the displacement of residents that have lived in the neighborhood for decades, and talks about how these projects had no intention of helping those people. It also gives a brief solution that can help solve this problem of gentrification which is to basically to include affordable housing units in these projects. This way the original residence wouldn’t be displaced and new people can move in. 

Planetgeogblog. (2019, March 26). Urban reshuffling: Gentrification in Williamsburg, New York. Planet Geography. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://planetgeogblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/26/urban-reshuffling-gentrification-in-williamsburg-new-york/

Williamsburg was mainly a working class neighborhood.  Before the gentrification it was an area that was violent. There was murder, gang violent, drugs and prositution. The gentrification started when artists started moving into the neighborhood. It started attracting more middle class residents. Williamsburg also became a place that people moved to if they worked in manhattan. Due to the sudden change in demographics the rent in Williamsburg begin to rise and started making the residents that were living there before move to places like south bronx and queens.   

Santore, J. V. (2016, May 11). Study: Williamsburg and Greenpoint are NYC’s gentrification capitals. Williamsburg-Greenpoint, NY Patch. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://patch.com/new-york/williamsburg/study-williamsburg-greenpoint-are-nycs-gentrification-capitals

Based on research from Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, 15 localities were declared gentrifying. Williamsburg and Greenpoint were the most rapidly gentrifying localities in New York because in 1990, the members of the locality had ‘low income’. 50% of the population is rent-burdened. In 2014, they had to pay 31.9% of their income in rents compared to 27.3% in 2000. However, the below the poverty line population has slightly dropped in gentrifying areas because of demographic shifts. There has been a 9% increase in white population, 3% increase in Asian and Black and 12% decrease in Hispanic residents. Besides, the rent increase rate was way higher than the median rate of rent increase calculated for New York City since 1990. It increased to 78.7% while median rent increase for the city was 22.1 between 1990 and 2014. Finally, the number of housing units increased in gentrifying neighborhoods to 7.2% compared to 5.5% rate in non-gentrifying localities.

Simpson, J. A. (1991). The Oxford English dictionary. Clarendon Press. 

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by Oxford University Press (OUP), is the primary historical dictionary of the English language, and we utilized it to define “gentrification” in our flyer.

Snyder, G. S., & Tamang, S. T. (2012). Economic Data | Williamsburg[h]. Williamsburg[h]. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/williamsburg2012/gentrification/economicdat/

This webpage evaluates and compares the economic data of Williamsburg/Greenpoint with examples of 4 graphs from different sources. The data range from 2007-2009. According to the webpage, White and Latino residents are the most populated people in the neighborhood. White residents were estimated at 88,094. Latino residents at 40,423. Asian residents at 7,528; and Black residents at 5,106. In the first graph, it shows the median household income for each race. Asian and White residents had the highest, while Latino and Black residents had the lowest. Asian and White residents going above $42,000 and Latino and Black residents below $26,000. The second graph focuses on median household income for ethnic groups. Italian and American residents had the highest numbers, and Puerto Rican, Hasidic Jews, Dominican, Chinese, and Mexican residents had lower numbers and were under $40,000. Puerto Rican residents had the lowest numbers. The third graph compares native-born white residents to the total number of white residents in the area. Native-born white residents were just under $60,000 while the total was under $455,000. The final graph showed economic inequality in the neighborhood. Three of the largest groups were residents under $10,000 (12.6%), residents between $35,000-$49,999 (13.8%), and residents between $50,000-$74,999 (16.3%). Less than 9% of the residents are over $200,000.

Unknown. 2018. Gentrification in NYC. Macaulay Honors College https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/genyc/williamsburg/

This source talked about the rezoning of Williamsburg. How Williamsburg is the peak of gentrification in New York City. The source also provided great demographic information about the neighborhood. It shows what the demographics looked like before and after the rezoning. Another topic covered in this article is transportation. It talks about how during the process of gentrification the neighborhood underwent many transformations to add new means of getting around. Like the addition of bike lanes. Furthermore, Williamsburg also gained many new attractions throughout the process of gentrification. But these new attractions are only catered to a certain demographic, which sparks concerns of whether these attractions or meet for everyone or only the wealthy.

Valli, C. (2015). A Sense of Displacement: Long-time Residents’ Feelings of Displacement in Gentrifying Bushwick, New York. International Journal of Urban & Regional Research, 39(6), 1191–1208. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12340

This academic article contributes to a better understanding of gentrification and displacement as expressions of inequality in neighborhoods. Moreover, the research identifies the emotional, affective, and psychological reactions of long-term inhabitants elicited by the interaction with newcomers. Despite the fact that it focuses on the gentrification experiences of lower-income, long-term residents in the gentrifying neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, I truly believe that there are many similarities in which Williamsburg residents may sympathize. Knowing more about gentrification and displacement, as well as the people’ experiences and feelings, will help us perform better in our spatial intervention “dramatizing displacement induced by gentrification”.