'Best Of Brownsville' Street Kiosk Triggers Local Gentrification Fears

I'm not sure where to put discussions concerning Brownsville so I'll just put it here since it's one neighborhood over. 

I thought this was an interesting article about pre-gentrification fears and how some people feel that keeping a neighborhood bad is the best way to ward off invasion from outsiders.

Crown Heights is also mentioned in the article along with Bushwick and Bed Stuy as a neighborhood experiencing "hyper-gentrification."

http://gothamist.com/2016/09/16/brownsville_gentrification_fear.php

I had caught this article earlier this afternoon and was stuck by that as well.

Though I gotta admit the comments section gave me a good laugh when they were listing other early signs of gentrification. I totally passed three white women jogging close to Nostrand/Church aves over the past two weeks and didn't even think of it till I read those comments.

My favorite early sign is people complaining to their local supermarket, and expecting to be taken seriously.

I got the opposite response from Key Food grocer 9 years ago. He wants to know what I need that's he's missing. He's a success early on with my patronage.

The earliest Signs of gentrification are the sellers wishing to retire on the proceeds not the buyer.

Sellers are a hopeful bunch.

yes, i felt the same way. especially when it turns out the sign was (in part) crowd-funded and involving local arts/community centers, with a goal of making the area better lit and safer.

i suppose the DOT's sudden "interest" in the area at all could be counted as gentrification, but it's looooooooow on the list of urgent negative signs

I kind of like the street maps (aka way finding maps) that are posted in areas that have lots of turnover and/or Air BnB residents.

They basically announce that "we know you are new here, and would like you to find places where you will spend your money"

"Brownsville in Brooklyn has ALWAYS been different. Its the hood."

Another sign of gentrification is claiming ownership over a place because 'you've been there forever'

Barnstormer said:

I'm not sure where to put discussions concerning Brownsville so I'll just put it here since it's one neighborhood over. 

I thought this was an interesting article about pre-gentrification fears and how some people feel that keeping a neighborhood bad is the best way to ward off invasion from outsiders.

Crown Heights is also mentioned in the article along with Bushwick and Bed Stuy as a neighborhood experiencing "hyper-gentrification."

http://gothamist.com/2016/09/16/brownsville_gentrification_fear.php

Wait until those residents see these WalkNYC map kiosks pop up on thoroguhfares like East New York Avenue or Rockaway Avenue:

I still found it a trip that this type of kiosk magically appeared on Flatbush Avenue. LOL

Marco555 said:

"Brownsville in Brooklyn has ALWAYS been different. Its the hood." Another sign of gentrification is claiming ownership over a place because 'you've been there forever'

It's been the "hood" seemingly for forever though.

i dunno, man; the VP of finance in my company was born in brownsville and i rarely see her out of high-class designer couture. granted i imagine her parents fled for the suburbs when she was young..

those walkNYC signs have popped up as far as Church and Nostrand (as far as i know, anyway)! airbnb explains the occasional appearance of a lot of clueless looking europeans with rolly-suitcases in that area

Depends on how you define "hood." Was ever a super wealthy neighborhood? No. But it was seen as an upwardly mobile step for many of the immigrants living in Lower East Side slums. 

There's no such thing as "always" when talking about the makeup of an American neighborhood, especially NYC. That language seems to be used by people who once wanted to leave an unsafe and deteriorating neighborhood but now sense a 'gentrification threat' and claim ownership. The irony is that I imagine a number of the grandparents of said gentrifiers probably lived in the area before Brownsville became what it is today. 

Marco555 said:

The irony is that I imagine a number of the grandparents of said gentrifiers probably lived in the area before Brownsville became what it is today. 

That's what I find funny. 

I was a member of the Brownsville Boys Club (now Brownsville Rec Center) on Linden Blvd and Stone Ave (now Mother Gaston Blvd) for about 4 or 5 years back in the early 60s. They have a great indoor pool and dad and I used to go swimming on weekends. Cost $1.00 a year for each of us to be a member.

Ms. Whynot often tells this story:

Just after graduating from college in 1992, she proudly told her grandmother that she had rented an apartment on the Lower Eastside.

To her surprise, tears quickly filled her grandmother's eyes and when asked why she stated "your grandfather and I worked so hard to get the family out of the LES, and now you are forced to live there again"

...without comprehending that the LES was now a place where young recent graduates wanted to live.