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For some of the people on this board that hate gentrification so much and think it's so "evil", then what's a good alternative for gentrification that puts out the same great results? Nothing really.
There are only 2 options: Gentrify NYC (all 5 boroughs) or go back to the old NYC of the 70's and 80's of high crime, high murder rate, poor quality of life, poor living conditions due to socialist laws such as rent control and rent stabilization. Those are your 2 choices.
If you want a clean, safe and quiet NYC (including all 5 boroughs, not just Manhattan) with a good school system and where you can raise a family then you should be embracing gentrification, not bashing it.
Gentrification is a changing of the guard. Look at Time Square as a prime example. Pre-gentrification it was crime infested, hookers left and right, porn shops every other store, it was ugly and dangerous. Fast forward to the present gentrified Time Square and ALL the "ghetto" elements of the pre-gentrified Time Square are gone. It's like night and day. What's wrong with that?
Gentrification is no longer the classic definition of whites replacing blacks or "minorities" but more of a CLASS issue where you have a more educated, higher class demographic replacing the uneducated, under achieving, low-life class that for the most part contributed to the gritty vibe or ghetto feel of the city. Remember, there is a huge co-relation between low income poeple and high crime. I don't know about you but I support anything that helps get rid of the "riff-raff" in NY.
Gentrification gets rid of the "ghetto" feel in the city via displacement. What's wrong with that? Who likes to live in the ghetto and the lifestyle associated with it? Who likes to live next to ghetto people?Not me. Do you? I hope not. And if you do, then you have a serious problem. Besides, the people that usually get displaced are of the undesirable types that contribute to the "ghetto" lifestyle. Yes, no plan is ever perfect and you'll always have "causalities of war" but when you look at the bigger picture, it's well worth the sacrifice and does more good than bad.
The people who complain about gentrification are the people who feel threaten by it and feel they may be next on the chopping block which are many of the complainers on this board.
To sum it up. I would rather have NY gentrified, full of trust-fund yuppies who don't bother no one than full of drug dealing, gangbanging thugs who blight the city and scare off all the good folks. Sounds like a plan to me.
NYCLL...those are not our 2 choices..those are 2 extremes and makes for a very dysfunctional and overall bad city. There is a middle, and that's where we are right now...but NYC is undergoing substantial changes and it is not clear what will happen over the next 10 years.
What is clear to me though is that there will be more wealthier people, and then there will be everyone else lumped together (destitute/lower/working/middle/upper-middle). Is this good? Depends which side you are on I guess.
For some of the people on this board that hate gentrification so much and think it's so "evil", then what's a good alternative for gentrification that puts out the same great results? Nothing really.
There are only 2 options: Gentrify NYC (all 5 boroughs) or go back to the old NYC of the 70's and 80's of high crime, high murder rate, poor quality of life, poor living conditions due to socialist laws such as rent control and rent stabilization. Those are your 2 choices.
If you want a clean, safe and quiet NYC (including all 5 boroughs, not just Manhattan) with a good school system and where you can raise a family then you should be embracing gentrification, not bashing it.
Gentrification is a changing of the guard. Look at Time Square as a prime example. Pre-gentrification it was crime infested, hookers left and right, porn shops every other store, it was ugly and dangerous. Fast forward to the present gentrified Time Square and ALL the "ghetto" elements of the pre-gentrified Time Square are gone. It's like night and day. What's wrong with that?
Gentrification is no longer the classic definition of whites replacing blacks or "minorities" but more of a CLASS issue where you have a more educated, higher class demographic replacing the uneducated, under achieving, low-life class that for the most part contributed to the gritty vibe or ghetto feel of the city. Remember, there is a huge co-relation between low income poeple and high crime. I don't know about you but I support anything that helps get rid of the "riff-raff" in NY.
Gentrification gets rid of the "ghetto" feel in the city via displacement. What's wrong with that? Who likes to live in the ghetto and the lifestyle associated with it? Who likes to live next to ghetto people?Not me. Do you? I hope not. And if you do, then you have a serious problem. Besides, the people that usually get displaced are of the undesirable types that contribute to the "ghetto" lifestyle. Yes, no plan is ever perfect and you'll always have "causalities of war" but when you look at the bigger picture, it's well worth the sacrifice and does more good than bad.
The people who complain about gentrification are the people who feel threaten by it and feel they may be next on the chopping block which are many of the complainers on this board.
To sum it up. I would rather have NY gentrified, full of trust-fund yuppies who don't bother no one than full of drug dealing, gangbanging thugs who blight the city and scare off all the good folks. Sounds like a plan to me.
You're blind aren't you? You can't see anything and need to tap your white cane around the block to feel your way around. You need your trained sight-seeing dog to guide you around.
I guess everything would be that black and white to me if I couldn't see anything. Lucky me.
Who said anything about ghetto? What makes the old ny ghetto? It had a style that was unmatched by any city in the world. Still kinda does, not really actually I take that back. Everything is a sell out, trust-fund yuppies pretend to be the creators, but everyone can see through the transparency of their style. It was the 70's and 80's that brought the greatest art NYC has ever seen. Ever.
Economically, NYC is better, artistically it lost virtually everything. There is no place, or very limited space, for artistic freedom or creativity in the new NYC.
And guess what? The hood is still in the city. It still exists. So gentrification didn't solve any longstanding problems at all. School system? Still sucks, they're trying to fix it, but its not working. I give them an A for effort even though in reality I should give them a C.
And one more thing, I don't feel threatened by gentrification since I live in BK heights and this place was always wealthy, yet, I still disagree with what you're saying. Maybe you should reevaluate your morales and ethics.
It was the 70's and 80's that brought the greatest art NYC has ever seen. Ever.
If I think the abstract expressionists of the 40s and 50s (and yes mods, that was very centered in NYC) were better, does that make me tragically unhip?
NYCLL...those are not our 2 choices..those are 2 extremes and makes for a very dysfunctional and overall bad city. There is a middle, and that's where we are right now...but NYC is undergoing substantial changes and it is not clear what will happen over the next 10 years.
What is clear to me though is that there will be more wealthier people, and then there will be everyone else lumped together (destitute/lower/working/middle/upper-middle). Is this good? Depends which side you are on I guess.
Your comment is correct except for the upper-middle. Upper middle will NEVER be with the other classes. Upper-middle tends to try to be the upper/elitist. They try to fit into that category and try as hard as they can to separate themselves from the lower classes. The same can sort of be said for the middle class, except the middle-class in this city (what's left of it) is off in the suburbs of Queens, SI, Brooklyn, and some parts of the BX.
People should live wherever they darn well please. Landlords should rent to whoever they darn well please. If that means Harlem turns white, Bensonhurst goes Black and the South Bronx becomes millionaires row then so be it.
Ya well if you live to see the day where most Manhattanites have a Swiss bank account and the rest are well on their way to that and you can't keep up with them (or your kids or kids' kids can't keep up), then you won't be saying "so be it." You'd be singing a different tune. Remember, in this world there is always someone richer than you unless you're the Sultan of Brunee or whomever today holds the title of richest man in the world. (And if I remember correctly the Sultan was born into his wealth but I don't wanna get off topic) While Swiss accounts are extreme for an example, the premise is that there is always someone who's better, richer, more handsome, smarter, etc. I don't know how the saying goes exactly but it's something like that. P.S. Please read post #95 and refrain from making comments of a political nature.
To tell it like a real New Yorker, stop talking out of your ass.
New York, up until about 1974 with the regime change (going from a city which provided services to its working class and was more prone to 'help' its working/middle class residents with activities, places, etc. towards a more tourism based economy) was VERY middle class friendly! Overwhelmingly throughout the history of the city, the middle class has been able to do ok.
New York NEEDS a middle class or else it will crash and burn like never before. Know that. See this link: city of aspiration - Google Search and read the pdf. You'll be singing a different tune.
New York NEEDS a middle class or else it will crash and burn like never before. Know that. See this link: city of aspiration - Google Search and read the pdf.
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