With so much backlash in US cities about "gentrification".. Will things change or at least slow down due to awareness ?? (Boston: cheap apartment, rent)
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All I'm saying is this, is that the whole city is not going to gentrify that is all. If all of NYC gentrifies than maybe pigs will fly some day. Don't get me wrong I have gotten involved in meetings about gentrification and quality of life issues. Hell I was even at the South Bronx gentrification conference a couple of months back In matter of fact I've signed up to help high school students with tutoring in science and history at a local community center for up coming regents exams. Event ex Mayor Bloomberg has said the reason why NYC has so many poor is that many are uneducated and he is right about that. So again I feel the need to give back.
NYC will always be a POS city no matter what happens and will always be a POS city for years to come. Same way how Marie Antoinette the wife of the French King Louis the XVI, she said let the poor eat cake. The Transplants and who ever can have NYC on a silver sterling platter fresh out of the Peruvian mines. The only thing I like about gentrification is the childless, laidback open-minded women.
I 100% agree with you there. Much of the city is too far from employment centers to ever truly gentrify. The North Bronx for example will not gentrify, it's too far from Manhattan and there are no job centers nearby. Staten Island will not gentrify, as it's too far away. Ditto for Eastern Queens, though there maybe more movement in places like Ozone Park if Resorts World builds the area up or the Rockaways may gentrify as hipsters increasingly colonize it during the summer.
Parts of Brooklyn like Brownsville and ENY will never gentrify because of too many NYCHA buildings (it's where the city dumps most of it's poor people). Realistically, any continuing gentrification will continue to be in Harlem, Western Brooklyn and Western Queens. What's really happening as areas close to Manhattan become more popular and pricer, places like the North Bronx, Bayside, Little Neck, Jamaica, etc get more poor people. The poor just get pushed out to the fringe neighborhoods that have nothing of interest to the hipsters.
I know there's always a lot of talk of the South Bronx gentrifying, but I don't even see that seriously happening UNLESS there's a lot of corporate investment in the South Bronx in terms of offices and other employers.
As far as suburbs go, there will always be wealthy far out suburbs where the wealthy own their estates, though some of the inner suburbs will likely get poorer.
At the same time, the people in the neighborhoods being gentrified have to deal with it in some form or manner. Ultimately they will have to either make more money, move, or organize. For them it's not theoretically, its NOW! If you rent goes up and you can't pay it, it won't take long for your landlord to evict you. The poorest immigrants have already been displaced from Jackson Heights and Corona, and there's a lot more of this to come.
Last edited by NyWriterdude; 03-09-2014 at 06:40 AM..
I 100% agree with you there. Much of the city is too far from employment centers to ever truly gentrify. The North Bronx for example will not gentrify, it's too far from Manhattan and there are no job centers nearby. Staten Island will not gentrify, as it's too far away. Ditto for Eastern Queens, though there maybe more movement in places like Ozone Park if Resorts World builds the area up or the Rockaways may gentrify as hipsters increasingly colonize it during the summer.
Parts of Brooklyn like Brownsville and ENY will never gentrify because of too many NYCHA buildings (it's where the city dumps most of it's poor people). Realistically, any continuing gentrification will continue to be in Harlem, Western Brooklyn and Western Queens. What's really happening as areas close to Manhattan become more popular and pricer, places like the North Bronx, Bayside, Little Neck, Jamaica, etc get more poor people. The poor just get pushed out to the fringe neighborhoods that have nothing of interest to the hipsters.
Bed Stuy, Bushwick, LIC and Williamsburg also have a lot of NYCHA buildings. And for as many industrial buildings converted to condos there are in Dumbo, there are just as many project buildings nearby.
I don't see Bayside and Little Neck becoming the pits anytime soon. They have been and still are very desirable neighborhoods. In order to gentrify they'll have to turn from middle/upper middle class to all out wealthy, which is probably more challenging than going from working class to middle/upper middle class.
At the same time, the people in the neighborhoods being gentrified have to deal with it in some form or manner. Ultimately they will have to either make more money, move, or organize. For them it's not theoretically, its NOW! If you rent goes up and you can't pay it, it won't take long for your landlord to evict you. The poorest immigrants have already been displaced from Jackson Heights and Corona, and there's a lot more of this to come.
And they already are. You'll see many more poor working class immigrants moving into neighborhoods like Bushwick, Cypress Hills, Woodhaven and College Point rather than Jackson Heights (not sure about Corona, doubt it is there yet). Now they are competing in these other areas with native PRs and ethnic whites.
The big 4 professional cities NYC, Boston, DC and SF are going through major gentrification changes due to changes in demographics as well as economics. NYC with its finance, insurance and real estate businesses, Boston with its biomed and education, DC with politics and lobbying, and last SF with technology attracts plenty of young educated college grads who come from the suburbs. A minor nod also goes to LA and Chicago, but LA and Chicago are not as dense as the other 4 major urban cores I have mentioned. Gentrification is part of the growing income inequality in this country at the moment. Cities were neglected 40 years ago throughout the Northeast thanks to disinvestment and the white flight. It took cities a generation to rebuild its middle class, and now the middle class are on the decline. Their is plenty of grass roots movements going on against gentrification, it reminds me of grassroots movements of that of Jane Jacobs who was against "urban renewal" which is the exact opposite of gentrification. Cities need middle class to susitain itself, cause of gentrification plenty of middle class and to a certain degree working class folks are moving to the south which is cheaper and offer more labor opportunities than the nit picky SF and Northeast cities.
The Carolinas are the only real cheap states in the South. I mean there are places you can move to, in any state, that would be cheaper but you wouldn't want them because they're all working class or some ghetto somewhere. Or you can move to a small town of 50,000.
South also has that "right to work" thing which is really right to get fired because there are few unions. Laborers do not receive the protections they would in the North (were those jobs to still exist). The South is also experiencing gentrification, just not on the level of the Northeast.
The Carolinas are the only real cheap states in the South. I mean there are places you can move to, in any state, that would be cheaper but you wouldn't want them because they're all working class or some ghetto somewhere. Or you can move to a small town of 50,000.
South also has that "right to work" thing which is really right to get fired because there are few unions. Laborers do not receive the protections they would in the North (were those jobs to still exist). The South is also experiencing gentrification, just not on the level of the Northeast.
The vast majority of labors in the northeast are not members of unions.
Typically, employers fire people because there is no work and/or they are bad employees. If you are good employee and there's lots of work, why would anyone fire you?
They would fire you because while you are a good employee and there's lots of work, it is in their best interest to always minimize expenses. And there is almost always someone just as good as you who will work for less, more desperate, or otherwise willing to compromise more than you = regardless of how good you are, you will be fired. Which is why there are minimum wage laws, and worker rules/regulations in every state, with some states providing more protections than others.
How you cannot understand that simple fact is mind boggling..are you from this planet?
The Carolinas are the only real cheap states in the South. I mean there are places you can move to, in any state, that would be cheaper but you wouldn't want them because they're all working class or some ghetto somewhere. Or you can move to a small town of 50,000.
South also has that "right to work" thing which is really right to get fired because there are few unions. Laborers do not receive the protections they would in the North (were those jobs to still exist). The South is also experiencing gentrification, just not on the level of the Northeast.
Over the years the northeast has been deunionizing. Plenty of jobs do not offer unions as they used to unless if its govt, construction, medical, technical, repairs for utilities etc. And plenty of jobs these days in the northeast are also not adding basic benefits such as health insurance or 401k. But I have witnessed gentrification in the south. When ai visited New Orleans last year there is a place called warehouse district which is just like Williamsburg originality andf Hipsters. Also their is a growing yuppie presences in the city. New Orleans has cheap property. Plenty of Californians and Northeasterners can not afford local property purchases or even rent and plenty are moving to New Orleans for cheap property. I ran into a real estate broker in new Orleans. He showed me a house on rampart street for 140k. Not bad but he told me the house value is going to take off when the tracks for the trolley are laid down. The neighbors next house over were an Irish Puertorican couple from Queens. it also seems parts of the south might loose their originality and southern charm thanks to West Coasters and Northeasterners. Also gentrification in the south might change politicals as well.
Also gentrification in the south might change politicals as well.
This won't happen without huge investments in education and urban (as opposed to suburban) infrastructure. Maybe there are small pockets in the south that are doing this, but not by and large. Also some southern state and municipal governments spent hundreds of millions to provide incentives for auto manufacturers and Boeing (and presumably their suppliers) to locate in spread out industrial complexes, which means there is little left for education and urban development.
The vast majority of labors in the northeast are not members of unions.
Typically, employers fire people because there is no work and/or they are bad employees. If you are good employee and there's lots of work, why would anyone fire you?
Wages are depressed in the South. People will work for anything. The same job that pays $15, $20 an hour up North only pays $8 to $12 down South. You would be surprised how many people are living 2, 3, 5 to a house or apartment one person would normally be expected to pay just to survive in this area. A lot of people living in hotels too; I actually did it for a few months myself. The South is not as idyllic as people say it is.
Prices aren't any cheaper. The decent metropolitan areas are still $1,000 or more a month to rent. Cheap by NYC standards, but again, if you're making 1/2 to 1/3 as much it isn't so cheap.
This won't happen without huge investments in education and uan (as opposed to suburban) infrastructure. Maybe there are small pockets in the south that are doing this, but not by and large. Also some southern state and municipal governments spent hundreds of millions to provide incentives for auto manufacturers and Boeing (and presumably their suppliers) to locate in spread out industrial complexes, which means there is little left for education and urban development.
I ment by the new comers coming in from cali and northeast bringing liberal ways. if im not mistaken some southern States nesrly become swing states do to the amount of Northerners moving down.
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