Using Gentrification to the City’s Advantage
While New Yorkers are exhausted of the lighter side of gentrification: overpriced coffee shops, ice cream shops, and overpriced barber shops; many New Yorkers are suffering because of the darker side: higher rents, eviction, and rezoning.
As a proud resident of Brooklyn, I share much of the resentment that New Yorkers, young and old, have for these products of gentrification. They literally and figuratively whitewash the once diverse neighborhoods that gave NYC its melting pot identity, they take out the artists and mom-and-pop stores that gave these neighborhoods their creative identity, and they threaten to bring down the old traditional stores of the area.
However, it is easy to realize the positive things that gentrification has the potential to bring. It can bring more of the resources that any neighborhood should have: parks, libraries, schools, and good transit. It can make a neighborhood safer, and it can mean more affordable housing for those in need of it.
While some of these positives have been brought into the most gentrified parts of NYC, many are still missing.
For instance, in Williamsburg, when the first plans for a rezoning there appeared, a park was promised along the East River waterfront. Over a decade later there is still no park.
And in Inwood, the promise of more affordable housing within a new mixed-used development was made, but rejected because of the supposedly below-market rents that followed in the plan.
So if none of the things that make gentrification actually a good thing, than what’s the point in a massive rezoning of a neighborhood if the only thing it’ll do is raise rents, evict those renters, and then try to sell them something that can’t afford.
Well, here are some reasons, and examples to justify why NYers should be YIMBYs (Yes In My BackYards) rather than NIMBYs, if promised and executed.
The Creation and Reinvestment of New Parks In The Neighborhood:
On August 18, 2016 Bill deBlasio announced he was going allocate $150 million dollars in total, to five neglected parks across the city. Those parks were St. Mary’s Park in the South Bronx; Highbridge Park in Upper Manhattan; Betsy Head Park in Brownsville, Brooklyn; Astoria Park in Queens; and Freshkills Park on Staten Island. Despite less attention to these areas, they are all in similar situations: growing populations, growing densities, and a lack of standard resources.
While other places have been denied the promise of a new and/or improved park in the area, this is a perfect example of what a gentrified neighborhood and a cooperative city government can produce.
The Construction and Renovation of Transit Assets:
In 2012, when Williamsburg was in the midst of a redevelopment boom, the MTA created two new bus routes that traversed the neighborhood, and allocated new money to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza Bus Terminal.
One of the new bus routes help residents on the waterfront go north and south along the river, and the other one assisted those who needed to ride the bus into Manhattan. They also allocated new money to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza Bus Terminal, constructing a new building for passenger comfort and use.
The Reinvestment and Renovation of Schools and Libraries:
In 2016, it was determined that the Newtown Creek Oil Spill “disaster” relief fund be used for the renovation of the Greenpoint branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Not only did the library receive money to renovate, but also to upgrade the library into a more educational experience.
And, a perhaps the most triumphant story of the educational centers in gentrifying neighborhoods would be the reinvestment of the John Ericsson Middle School in Williamsburg, and right next door, the renovated McCarren Park Pool also came with a Play Center with a computer lab as well.
All in all, gentrification isn’t the best thing that could happen to a neighborhood in NYC, as it does not help with the poverty that New York has to fix some time in the future and the lack of affordable housing, but it can help those neighborhoods that lack adequate park space, libraries and transit.