My thoughts on gentrification (New York, York: wealthy, better, people)

[Outsider1987]

Hi,

I am new to the thread and am posting something unrelated to the current topic but I hope you will stay with me. I want to post my own sadness about NYC.

I have never lived there. I have never even been there. I know a lot of you are probably ready to kick me off this thread already, but please read this and I think you will see that I get where you all are coming from (as much as I can gather, anyways).

I am twenty one. I am not a hipster or some cool chick. I have struggled most my life as I had my daughter at sixteen but I have made it work (without the help of the government......). As a kid, I used to see all these images of NYC. The images that you all speak of. I used to think, THAT'S where I want to be. I was raised in a well to do suburb, but I do not live off of my parents the way most others in my generation (I hate my generation, by the way) do. I saw the edge, I saw the melting pot, I saw the fact that it took a little extra to live there. I like to push my limits and defy what others think (I managed to even save enough on $10/hr with rent etc. to pay for to go to the UK for two weeks when I was 19) and the images portrayed of NYC was exactly what my type of personality craved.

Now here I am, and watched as a teen, as MTV and various aspects changed the picture of NYC. I sit here now and read your posts, articles, etc., and feel this great dispair for all of you and for anyone like me who genuinely wanted to live there for what it was - not to make it fancy and yuppie and upper class. People who just absolutely hated that and wanted to get away from the bullsh*t of upper class America.

I don't even know that I will ever go to NYC at this point. Another reason, is that I was adopted. I found and have reunited with both of my biological parents and it all has gone beautifully. I found out that my birth father lived there for many, many, many, many years. He left in 2001 two weeks before 9/11. I have heard his own stories of NYC and how it changed. How you wouldn't date enter Alphabet City, and when he left Britney Spears had an apartment on Ave. C.

So part of me feels this longing of - my god, I missed out. What if things had gone differently and I had actually lived in this place I longed for growing up? The irony is as painful as anything else. I could have seen it for what it was, and now I doubt I ever will.

I have also heard these stories from a friend of mine I met while living in Los Angeles. He grew up in NYC. He left when he was 37 (he was 39 when I knew him). He had lived in the Bronx most of that time and had plenty of stories....all leading to how he felt he had to get out.

I now live in San Francisco, and it is lovely, but it is a joke. Downtown is Disneyland, and all anyone comes here for is to go to Union Square and eat at the Cheesecake Factory on top of the big Macy's and take the cable car to Fishermans Wharf (don't even get me started on fishermans wharf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Nobody I know seems to get what I'm saying. I hate being surrounded by hipsters. I want to live somewhere where I am invisible yet visible at the same time. Where I can flaunt myself and my being without being surrounded by this BLANDNESS.

I am sad because I feel like I missed out on everything. Nobody seems to understand, and i found this thread on google and felt like maybe I had a shot here. I feel like there is nowhere to go...everywhere is like this now. I want to ask if the market crash will somehow affect it, but I doubt it.

Sigh...

[Gardier]

Desi, I live in Brownsville, I have it very hard, I've been through alot too but you can't solely depend on the "system." I work as many gigs as I can. I have an associates degree. I majored in IT Network security. I do freelance IT work for myself. I do electric work on the side. My old lady is a manager at the Lane Bryant on Pitkin Ave. It's because the ones who make it don't feel sorry for themselves, they go out there and make it happen, or die trying. Believe me, I grew up in the streets and made dumb desicions, but now I'm saving money and looking to move to a much better place. I have a 2 year degree for now, but I have certifications and I am also planning to go after my bachelor's this spring.

[kuvopolis]

As a former NYCer, I think the problem is that people who live in New York City think that they have a god-given right to stay in the City, and that moving elsewhere is not an option (since everywhere else is so barbaric). I talked to my friend in Queens who has no college degree and was complaining that he could not afford to move out of his mom's place. I asked him if he considered moving out of New York City to which he angrily cursed me out. Such is the mentality.

I am going to make the following suggestions, to which I will likely be flamed as well:
1) What about moving out of New York City proper? Ok, I know many nearby suburbs and towns are also expensive, but many are not. PATH runs 24/7 from Manhattan to parts of Newark/Jersey City, where many deals can be had. There is also the Hudson-Bergen light rail which services Bayonne, other parts of JC, etc. And the Newark subway. NJ Transit runs to Elizabeth. All of these places have gone down a lot in crime in the last 10 years.
2)What about moving to other metro areas in the country? Philadelphia, Chicago, and Baltimore are all cheaper than NYC and have subway/el/light rail. I pay $700/month (heat included) for a studio in Chicago that is 3 blocks from the El, is safe and has decent restaurants and nightlife. What does $1200/month in NYC get you? A studio in Woodside, lol. If you already have a car, many other cities would fit the bill.

With so many cities that have tons of affordable housing, I laugh at how US immigrants and hipsters/yuppies move to NYC and then complain about how expensive it is. There is this myth that New York City is the only place any sensible person should live in, perpetuated by shows like Sex and the City and Friends. Unless they are trust funders, Carrie and Phoebe would be fortunate to even live in Rego Park. As for the long-time residents (of which I was one), I feel for you, but gentrification has led to the revitalization of NYC and has thus made the city better as a whole.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by kuvopolis

As a former NYCer, I think the problem is that people who live in New York City think that they have a god-given right to stay in the City, and that moving elsewhere is not an option (since everywhere else is so barbaric).

A "right?" Come now, don't you think you could tone that down a little? If anyone from any other part of the country said the same thing about staying in the city or town where they were born, it would be called hometown pride, and people would get nothing but admiration for expressing it. Tell me why this is such a terrible thing when a New Yorker has hometown pride? (I was born right here in Brooklyn, I probably have more than my fair quota of hometown pride, and I deserve at least a gold medal for my restraint in not firing back at you the way my instincts tell me I should!)

[A_Better_Bronx_2morrow]

Whichever way you cut it, GENTRIFICATION is a GOOD thing for the city as well as all 5 boroughs. Since gentrification started in the mid 90's, NYC has become a much safer and desirable place to live and visit.

In the South Bronx, new condo are being built, the new Yankee Stadium sparked a new mall, metro north station, new parks, court house renovations, street renovations on grand concoarse and the neighborhood is gradually gentrifying which will increase property value and make surrounding neighborhoods better and safer.

Whoever is against gentrification is against GROWTH and supports ghettos and slums. I for one HATE WITH A PASSION ghetto people and what they stand for. They are the PARASITES that destroy neighborhoods and deter any growth in their community. They are their own worst enemy.

So if they get displaced due to GENTRIFICATION, then so be it and let that be a lesson to them that ghetto people, thugs and hood rats WILL NO LONGER be accepted in NY. Either get your life together or get the hell out. That's the message that needs to be sent to them. Strict and to the point. It's called TOUGH LOVE. If you don't like it...oh well!

[DAS]

Originally Posted by A_Better_Bronx_2morrow

Whoever is against gentrification is against GROWTH and supports ghettos and slums. I for one HATE WITH A PASSION ghetto people and what they stand for. They are the PARASITES that destroy neighborhoods and deter any growth in their community. They are their own worst enemy.

So if they get displaced due to GENTRIFICATION, then so be it and let that be a lesson to them that ghetto people, thugs and hood rats WILL NO LONGER be accepted in NY. Either get your life together or get the hell out. That's the message that needs to be sent to them. Strict and to the point. It's called TOUGH LOVE. If you don't like it...oh well!

Wow you are really angry with those rent stabilized tenants that you can't legally evict from your building. It must really hurt.

[A_Better_Bronx_2morrow]

Originally Posted by DAS

Wow you are really angry with those rent stabilized tenants that you can't legally evict from your building. It must really hurt.

My tenants overall are fine. It's the thugs and hood rats in the neighborhood who keep detering good tenants from moving in. Prospective tenants get scared and don't want to be surrounded by ghetto people and I don't blame them.

No one can honestly say I LOVE BEING SURROUNDED BY GHETTO PEOPLE.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by A_Better_Bronx_2morrow

My tenants overall are fine. It's the thugs and hood rats in the neighborhood who keep detering good tenants from moving in. Prospective tenants get scared and don't want to be surrounded by ghetto people and I don't blame them.

No one can honestly say I LOVE BEING SURROUNDED BY GHETTO PEOPLE.

They jus' be keepin it Re-yal!!

How would I scare friends visiting from Europe without there being some real ghetto hood rats in the streets to show them? They think that the hip-hop lifestyle is a cartoon, until they see reality. Especially the women..they come here all "tolerant" and can't understand why anyone would be afraid..then after 20 minutes of cat calling and in your face hoodiness, they want to retreat back to European Utopia.

[Woozle]

Anyway, on to gentrification. Let's all hate on the taxpayers who contribute billions to the city in taxes and tens of billions to the local economy. How awful for New York that they chose to stay in the city instead of promptly decamping for Connecticut after their first public urination sighting!



Again, if you want to live in a failed city abandoned by yuppies and hipsters, there's still plenty of choices for you in this country. Detroit. Camden. Newark. Grit galore. Alphabet City in the 80's would look tame by comparison.

Now, how about having at least one city in this country that we can associate with wealth and glamour? Heh.

[A_Better_Bronx_2morrow]

Originally Posted by Woozle

would look tame by comparison.
Now, how about having at least one city in this country that we can associate with wealth and glamour? Heh.

In the attempt to create such a place, the poor would cry discrimination...the usual excuse, and apply pressure to polictians to shut down any such plans. The liberal media gets involved instagating the whole situation.