NYC and the living ain't easy (as it once was)

This article: http://www.wnyc.org/story/brooklyn-left-me-broke-and-tired/ caught my eye.

It's the story of a resident who after many years in NYC and a literal neighbor to our Mayor DeBlasio is being priced out. She details her history in NYC and what has gone down (not prices) since moving here.

I have classic New Yorker mixed feelings. In my mind I am aware the economic disparities are sharper than they've been in the city in a long time. I'm aware of the manipulation of prices that are like a hammer blow to people who's incomes are not poor, but not wealthy. But I'm also aware that the New York City several generations, mine included, had the pleasure of experiencing from the late 60's to the mid 90's was economically depressed in some key areas, and that has been in the process of ending, giving way to owner's capitalistic whims, for nearly twenty years.

Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights from 2009-2012 changed crazily in terms of new business and up-pricing of housing. So did the East Village from 1997-2000. So did Fort Greene from 1995-2000. There's a reason the phrase for this sudden change is called a tipping point. But it's a long climb up, and while I have sympathy for many, and concern for myself as I wonder what the condo being built next door to me foretells of my future, I can't help but think for myself and everyone, we need to prepare for the shock or be shocked. Yes there are some who can't change their finances, and yeh it sucks that affordable living in New York City's inner radius isn't the broader concern of business and government (especially government) but I also feel no one after the shifts of the the mid 90's to mid 00's should be without a plan to stay, or a plan to leave.

It's the comments below the article on that page, that are my reason for talking about whether or not we have a plan to stay in New York in general, Brooklyn in particular. If you don't live in a rent stabilized or controlled situation, if you neighbor has historically been devalued, if you don't have the means to afford the shifts in NYC rental pricing, if you don't own, you have to have a plan in this city.

The affordably nooks are, have been and unfortunately will continue to shrink.

Is the African Bazaar at Dance Africa Shrinking? : Photo Wednesday

This is not one of the those I hate gentrification pieces. But simply a sincere question;

What’s the future of the African Bazaar that has accompanied BAM’s annual Dance Africa event for almost two decades?

My question stems from the fact that the triangle shaped parking lot, which for the past decade has provided space for the Bazaar vendor tents and food stands is the footprint for one of several new 20+ story towers soon to be erected along side five relatively brand new high rising additions to the Downtown Brooklyn skyline.


Tomorrow is May 1st and in three weeks the African Bazaar will be held as part of Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual Dance Africa event and I wonder what plans, if any have been made to keep the Bazaar, a marketplace and meeting place, an unofficial annually reunion for many communities of color, particularly for creative peoples who's talent, passion, and dedication, have helped to cultivate and maintain the positive image of Brooklyn that has proved so enticing to developers.

I wonder because from my outsider perspective I available spaces, parking lots that were once buildings, and recently staging grounds for the bazaar, now becoming buildings again. I wonder if in the planning for all these developments, space has been allocated for to the bazaar which has long been a central nexus of community culture and history, so the long standing communities in Brooklyn can continue to enjoy and participate in that history and culture.

I’ve written various pieces complaining about the callous and sinister side of gentrification, about displacement, and economic bias, which often overlaps ethnic bias. And I’ve written about the positives that come with development and change. For me sky scrapers in downtown Brooklyn are pretty much fine, despite the fact that they’ve made the city skyline from my physical perspective look haphazard and unfamiliar. For me, and I believe other Brooklynites, Downtown, is just that Downtown, Brooklyn’s “City”. Since Downtown was so beat down since the departure of major department stores from the 70’s to 90’s and the climate that existed after, I’m happy for renewal to almost any degree, My definition of Downtown, starts where the bridges let out, and ends with the Williamsburg Savings Bank Building at Hanson.

So I’m don’t automatically think the new towers on the grounds of the African Bazaar are necessarily bad. I’ve followed the development and planning of these spaces, and I’m aware they are co-owned by BAM, a sponsor of the African Bazaar. I’m also aware the new spaces will contain cultural amenities of their own, a new library in one, possibly a theater in another. I'm sincerely excited to be in those spaces.

But my question is because as an Afro-Carribean man who's lived in this borough through waves of change, I've become sensitive to how often that change is people like me, being short changed out. I walk through Bedstuy and see dozen's of tourists from Europe suitcases on wheels in tow and plenty of Upper East Siders who've been priced out paying above market in rent stabilized buildings, exploding their protected rent stabilized status, and on the other end of that I see moving vans, moving people of color out as frequently as I see the aforementioned people coming in.

So I’ve searched online and haven’t been able to find what space the African Bazaar goes into, which tower is going to open it’s spacious lobby to the dance recitals that have been as much a part of the African Bazaar as it’s food and clothing vendors. Inclusion or expulsion, that’s the difference between evil gentrification and positive gentrification. I’m not sure where we’re going here, anyone know?

Spike to the heart of Gentrification Agnst

Since everyone else is talking about fiery filmmaker and Brooklynite Spike Lee's expressive talk about gentrification during a Q&A at Pratt Institute (Alumni office I'm side-eyeing you for my lack of notice) I might as well post it too.

Besides simply saying gentrification is bad Spike addresses the issues of new people trampling the longstanding culture of existing residents, neighborhood renaming and my fave the "discovery" of places that already have people, culture and life.

A few highlights:

"Why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers into South Bronx, Harlem…for the facilities to get better?"

"The motherfucking Christopher Columbus syndrome… you can't discover this we been here."

Spike also references the Michael Jackson Tribute party planned for Fort Greene park back in 2009, and how it was turned away, by new residents to the area, which I wrote about on this blog: http://umbrooklynborn.blogspot.com/2009/08/community-is-bigger-than-one-person.html

Here’s the full audio, including the man’s response and Lee’s rebuttal:

https://soundcloud.com/daily-intelligencer/spike-lee-on-gentrification

All that's essentially the raison d'être of this blog, nearly verbatim. Wonder if Spike's a reader?

The whole breakdown from NYMag:

The filmmaker, wearing a Knicks beanie, orange socks, blue Nikes, and "Defend Brooklyn" hoodie, was at Pratt Institute for a lecture in honor of African American History Month, surrounded by locals, when he was nearly asked a question about “the other side” of the gentrification debate. “Let me just kill you right now,” Lee interrupted, “because there was some bullshit article in the New York Times saying ‘the good of gentrification.’” (See: “Argument Over a Brownstone Neighborhood” andNew York’s “Is Gentrification All Bad?”)

“I don’t believe that,” said Lee. And for the next seven minutes he explained, with passion, humor, and a fair amount of f-words.

Here’s the thing: I grew up here in Fort Greene. I grew up here in New York. It’s changed. And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the south Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better? The garbage wasn’t picked up every motherfuckin’ day when I was living in 165 Washington Park. P.S. 20 was not good. P.S. 11. Rothschild 294. The police weren’t around. When you see white mothers pushing their babies in strollers, three o’clock in the morning on 125th Street, that must tell you something.

[Audience member: And I don’t dispute that … ]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And even more. Let me kill you some more.

[Audience member: Can I talk about something?]

Not yet.

Then comes the motherfuckin’ Christopher Columbus Syndrome. You can’t discover this! We been here. You just can’t come and bogart. There were brothers playing motherfuckin’ African drums in Mount Morris Park for 40 years and now they can’t do it anymore because the new inhabitants said the drums are loud. My father’s a great jazz musician. He bought a house in nineteen-motherfuckin’-sixty-eight, and the motherfuckin’ people moved in last year and called the cops on my father. He’s not — he doesn’t even play electric bass! It’s acoustic! We bought the motherfuckin’ house in nineteen-sixty-motherfuckin’-eight and now you call the cops? In 2013? Get the fuck outta here!

Nah. You can’t do that. You can’t just come in the neighborhood and start bogarting and say, like you’re motherfuckin’ Columbus and kill off the Native Americans. Or what they do in Brazil, what they did to the indigenous people. You have to come with respect. There’s a code. There’s people.

You can’t just — here’s another thing: When Michael Jackson died they wanted to have a party for him in motherfuckin’ Fort Greene Park and all of a sudden the white people in Fort Greene said, “Wait a minute! We can’t have black people having a party for Michael Jackson to celebrate his life. Who’s coming to the neighborhood? They’re gonna leave lots of garbage.” Garbage? Have you seen Fort Greene Park in the morning? It’s like the motherfuckin’ Westminster Dog Show. There’s 20,000 dogs running around. Whoa. So we had to move it to Prospect Park!

I mean, they just move in the neighborhood. You just can’t come in the neighborhood. I’m for democracy and letting everybody live but you gotta have some respect. You can’t just come in when people have a culture that’s been laid down for generations and you come in and now shit gotta change because you’re here? Get the fuck outta here. Can’t do that!

And then! [to audience member] Whoa whoa whoa. And then! So you’re talking about the people’s property change? But what about the people who are renting? They can’t afford it anymore! You can’t afford it. People want live in Fort Greene. People wanna live in Clinton Hill. The Lower East Side, they move to Williamsburg, they can’t even afford fuckin’, motherfuckin’ Williamsburg now because of motherfuckin’ hipsters. What do they call Bushwick now? What’s the word? [Audience: East Williamsburg]

That’s another thing: Motherfuckin’… These real estate motherfuckers are changing names! Stuyvestant Heights? 110th to 125th, there’s another name for Harlem. What is it? What? What is it? No, no, not Morningside Heights. There’s a new one. [Audience: SpaHa] What the fuck is that? How you changin’ names?

And we had the crystal ball, motherfuckin’ Do the Right Thing with John Savage’s character, when he rolled his bike over Buggin’ Out’s sneaker. I wrote that script in 1988. He was the first one. How you walking around Brooklyn with a Larry Bird jersey on? You can’t do that. Not in Bed Stuy.

So, look, you might say, “Well, there’s more police protection. The public schools are better.” Why are the public schools better? First of all, everybody can’t afford — even if you have money it’s still hard to get your kids into private school. Everybody wants to go to Saint Ann’s — you can’t get into Saint Ann’s. You can’t get into Friends. What’s the other one? In Brooklyn Heights. Packer. If you can’t get your child into there … It’s crazy. There’s a business now where people — you pay — people don’t even have kids yet and they’re taking this course about how to get your kid into private school. I’m not lying! If you can’t get your kid into private school and you’re white here, what’s the next best thing? All right, now we’re gonna go to public schools.

So, why did it take this great influx of white people to get the schools better? Why’s there more police protection in Bed Stuy and Harlem now? Why’s the garbage getting picked up more regularly? We been here!

All right, go ahead. Let’s see you come back to that.

Photo Wednesday 020514 : Bridge to SnowWhere Edition

And the snow goes on...

This Photo for Wednesday obviously comes from this week's snow storms. Love this pic, I was on my way to an errand when I decided to hop off the subway and take the bridge. Stinging snow, obscured city, frames hands, icy camera. Good times! It got so dark the lights came on, it's actually about 12:35pm in this pic.

Click through and you'll see the other one I like of the mail-carrier living up to that mythic poem.

In addition to the new snow falling today, supposedly more snow's on the way this weekend. I blame the groundhog for being mad that the Mayor dropped him. Stay safe.