April 2024
DJ Treasure
Video courtesy of the Treasure360island Youtube page.
With audio from Sunny Winters from WeAreFlatbush and Guerillmo local promoter from Crown Heights events
Gentrification as described by Oxford is “the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.
The CDC describes gentrification as a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a community’s history and culture and reduces social capital. It often shifts a neighborhood’s characteristics (e.g., racial/ethnic composition and household income) by adding new stores and resources in previously run-down neighborhoods. Ironically Brooklyn was not a “run-down neighborhood and according to the NY Times Between 2000 and 2010, Crown Heights and the two neighborhoods to its south and east, Flatbush and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, all areas with large West Indian immigrant populations, each lost from 10 to 14 percent of their black populations, according to an analysis of the 2010 census released by the Department of City Planning. The city is changing, and many are accepting Brooklyn is officially gentrified. Williamsburg a northern neighborhood of Brooklyn was one of the first areas followed by Bushwick then Fort Green and now the changing of residents and business has officially moved south into Crown Heights and Flatbush.
Historically new residents move close or along the areas of easy transportation. Crown Heights sits just south of Fort Greene along the lines of several NYC subway stops and is amongst the latest of newly gentrified neighborhoods. Spike Lee’s famous rant at Pratt Institute referenced the change in the neighborhoods as the “Christopher Columbus Syndrome”. Change does not always look like a race of people, but gentrification changes the income level of people and with the new residents the culture of an area changes.
These changes are evident in Crown Heights and Flatbush Brooklyn. Where once stood your local businesses owned by locals are now replaced with cafes and coffee shops. Where a local bodega that local residents shopped for their basic milk and bread and small grocery needs are now replaced by organic markets.
Local bakery shops like Lord’s Bakery who has been in the same location for over 40 years has a new landlord who is seemingly clearing the entire city block to make way for a new project. Sunny Winters of WeAreFlatbush a local organization that was created to preserve the culture of Flatbush Brooklyn sees this as a major sign of change to come.
It’s easy to see gentrification take place when former stores are closed in unison covering one city street to be replaced by high rise condominiums or businesses that no longer reflect the community of people who once resided in the area. Spike Lee called it the “Christopher Columbus Syndrome” describing the gentrifiers as those who believe they discovered an area, when in reality culture and history of the area was intact prior to the new apartment buildings, rental price inflations and changing of the residents. While gentrification is displacing the people who once lived in Crown Heights and Flatbush there is a reluctance for everyone to give up their homes easily and readily. There is a more of a merge in the two areas as versus a full-blown takeover of a wealthier people. The culture in both neighborhoods have continued to remain visible and strives on. Gentrification is Flatbush and Crown Heights although aggressive in the real estate market is seemingly a slower process than that of Williamsburg and Bushwick.
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