The Effects of Gentrification in New York

An overview of reconstruction efforts in New York City and its surrounding areas.

Courtesy of NY City Lens, protestors gather outside the Make It In Brooklyn Innovation Summit during its evening event. 30 September 2016


Background

𝕋he urban landscape of New York city is flourishing, however, the increasing settlement of luxury infrastructure and displacement of low-income communities is shaping the way impoverished individuals make use of their salary. Regardless, it is important to consider how these impoverished individuals settled in their current positions in the first place. Through the National Housing Act of 1934, the Roosevelt administration vowed to create affordable housing and home mortgages in response to the declining housing market (foreclosures) during the Great Depression. By creating loan programs that allow individuals to purchase homes, many of these mortgages were distributed by whites who would often discriminate against African-Americans (as well as other races) by offering higher prices. As a result, New York city's urban development during the 1950s displaced these people of color outside of Manhattan and segregate them into what is now known as Brownville and Brooklyn (as some examples). This will eventually be addressed through the Civil Rights Act of 1968, where the Johnson administration prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and finance of housing based on ethnicity, religion, or gender. Although there are several regulations that restrict unlawful acts against people of color, it did not prevent future issues regarding gentrification and its impact on current communities of various races in New York that have built an affinity to their surrounding population of like beliefs and traditions.


The Growth of Gentrification in New York?

Gentrification and displacement of New York communities. Courtesy of the Urban Displacement Project.

It's real and it is spreading across New York throughout the years! According to a study released by the Interactive Urban Displacement Project by Berkeley and graduate students of the Center for Urban Science and Progress of New York University (CUSP), approximately 12 percent of impoverished neighborhoods are experiencing exclusionary gentrification developments in their area while only 9 percent have been displaced. It is important to note that there are approximately 314 "super gentrified" (extremely high-income) areas that have formed in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. This creates a rather ring of exclusion from impoverished individuals whose net income does not meet the average monetary standards imposed by the wealthy in those areas. However, only 71 of the 314 neighborhoods transitioned from low-income to high-income communities whose median household income is $140,000 or greater.

What does this mean for long-standing communities in New York?

According to Amanda Boston's, Gentrifying the City: From Racialized Neglect to Racialized Reinvestment, the Barclay Center newly constructed and situated in Brooklyn showcases how the rich are building lavish infrastructure despite the impoverished lifestyles African Americans are facing in the city. It increases the cost of living and undervalues the importance of people of color living in New York City, especially in Brooklyn. It is almost as if particular individuals or organizations are flaunting their fortune in a poor area in order to take advantage of them economically, hence the term racialized reinvestment. This is particularly true when these long-standing communities of color are unable to accumulate such wealth due to the displacement and high prices imposed by gentrification.

Despite this, the creation of these interactive maps (such as the one above) allows the leaders of impacted areas to act and prevent the displacement of low-income communities who have built an affinity to their neighborhoods and maintain their traditions. “LISC NYC applauds the creation of these interactive maps with detailed data to enable community-based organizations and policy makers in the New York metro region to assess the risk of displacement of low-income residents on a neighborhood level. With this tool, advocates, elected officials, agency officials and researchers will be able to better target affordable housing preservation and development initiatives and anti-displacement efforts,” based on LISC NYC Deputy Director Eva Neubauer Alligood.

Mrs. Loretta McDonald Takes Us Through Brooklyn for a Look at Gentrification's Effects | BK Stories

In another instance, Mrs. Loretta, a resident of Brooklyn, shows how gentrification has left the city with few recognizable businesses that are still standing in their original location. With respect to the video above, she walks around the neighborhood and provides a brief history of former businesses that were forever shaped by the effects of gentrification. All the small shops that were recognized by the locals have been turned into luxury markets and resulting in residents facing an increase in prices while losing their familiarity with previous shops. In essence, gentrification is taking over New York City with unfamiliar lavish buildings being constructed while collapsing the possibility to relive a long-term memory associated with a particular location. In this case, African-American locals such as Mrs. Loretta do not recognize the community she had built an affinity with since nothing seems the same. 


Gentrification As a Business Model

At the heart of gentrification lies the ever imminent housing crisis. Mass revitalization and a capitalistic agenda fuel investors to turn previously unwanted land into business opportunities for more affluent-favoring practices and populations. The growth of short-term housing platforms, such as Airbnb, plays a huge factor in the housing crisis. Businesses such as these take advantage of an already scarce, affordable housing market, primarily located in communities of color, for profit. The cherry on top lies in the fact that 75 percent of these “business hotel” listings are in violation of state law. 

Courtesy of New York City Council Member, Ritchie Torres. Image depicting businesses and illegal hotels amid gentrifications. 19 February 2015.

According to the article, Illegal Hotels and the Gentrification of Communities of Color by Amsterdam News, the city of New York is housing more than 3000 illegal Airbnb units. These illegal units are profit-making properties that have quickly made affordable housing a scarce commodity. From the year 2006 to 2012, these same cities in Brooklyn have seen an increase in median rents from 13 to 45 percent. 

Moreover, 75 percent of those hotels being built by the wealthy in (as a result of gentrification) communities of color are not up to date with federal law. For example, the construction of such hotels limits the housing available to those that have been affected by gentrification, in this case, both African-Americans and Latino communities in New York experience a dire need for affordable housing; a problem supposedly addressed by the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In this case, it is the online marketplace of Airbnb that is implicitly harming communities of color in an attempt to harvest the cheap costs of land as a form of profit. As Airbnb started there rise in the location of Brooklyn neighborhoods, it leaves those individuals who can not afford their listed housing costs in search of another home with little to no success. 

The problem lies within large-scale capitalistic businesses, private investors, and our government. Airbnb has the availability to remove these illegal listings from their services, but they claim to take no responsibility. At this point it is up to our government to enforce the shutdown of these units, however, not much progress has been made with respect to gentrification.

Another Perspective?

Data from United States Census Bureau. “Zip Code Business Patterns.” 2000-2015.NYC Comptroller

While gentrification may displace some African Americans from their original homeland (such as Brooklyn, NY), its effects also allow long-standing businesses (which may or may not be operated by people of various races) already in the area to grow. At the same time, it will allow new and old businesses alike to offer more job opportunities to individuals in need of a higher income as a result of gentrification. According to data from the United States Census Bureau, the rate at which business revenues increase is higher in areas that are experiencing gentrification in the state of New York.

There are two possible conceptions responsible for the explanation of such business growth in gentrifying areas. One pertains to already existing businesses in areas such as Brooklyn that make their relatively low-priced goods attractive to higher-income individuals (that are able to purchase more) who are settling in the area as a result of gentrification. Another perspective, however, pertains to the creation of businesses (through means of outperforming/replacing other markets) that capture the eyes of impoverished communities when searching for job opportunities. This may lead to better performance as a result of maximizing resources in terms of employment. As a result, the ability to produce more goods (and therefore a high revenue) as a result of an increasing workforce is proportional to the migrating high-income population in gentrifying neighborhoods.

While this may sound beneficial, most of the long-standing communities of color do not have businesses to run or the high standard qualifications for a high-income job opportunity and will therefore suffer from the high prices imposed by growing enterprises. Even those existing businesses that are still present after the gentrification process will eventually increase their prices in an attempt to gain more profit from wealthy individuals or likely be destroyed in favor of lavish hospitalities. As a result, most African-American communities and others alike will need to migrate to other areas that are suitable to meet their capabilities of expenses with respect to their low incomes. However, this is difficult...especially when one has built a family history of like traditions and memories in gentrifying areas such as Brooklyn which they called home.


How are Other Communities Being Affected?

Courtesy of Via Square. Image depicting customers celebrating the opening of the retail food store Fong Inn Too. Date Unknown.

It’s relatively simple to see the financial burdens that gentrification imposes on its victims, but we often do not visualize its effects on the specific history and legacy of long-standing communities. The displacement of previous residents caused by gentrification eats away at local cultures and their communities. 

Within New York’s heart, on the southeastern side of Manhattan, lies Chinatown, home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. This pocket of culture along with others, made possible by its diverse set of citizens, shapes the New York that we know today. Chinatown’s food industry, arguably a major component of the city’s character, is at risk due to gentrification. As property and business prices go up, local restaurants are being taken down one by one. This directly threatens the culture that makes Chinatown what it is today, a safe haven for fellow Asian Americans or other communities that share the same values/traditions. 

Fong Inn Too, a family-owned noodle and rice store and the oldest independently run tofu shop, closed in January 2017 to be replaced by a newer, replicated version of its previous self called Fong On. Similar to other business ventures that drive our minority populations, Fong On investors deliberately capitalize on the current market while catering to wealthier customers. According to Eng, Fong On NYC was, at one point, advertising that the store was opening with “the same products, the same food, and the same employees” as Fong Too Inn. As a result, these modern revitalizations strip communities of their local and authentic character.


Final Thoughts

Nevertheless, the exclusionary restructuring of urban space, known as gentrification, creates an environment where wealthy individuals inadvertently harm the long-standing communities of color in New York. Local affordable corner shops turning into luxury money-making businesses while neglecting to provide healthy alternatives to those who can not afford such goods/services proves that racialized neglect and reinvestment exist as coined by Amanda Boston. The wealthy are taking over New York family-owned businesses, leaving them no choice but to shut down with the privileged only being able to afford them. The worst part is that no universal form of legislation by the government is protecting these individuals from the increasing prices caused by the gentrification of businesses. Not only have they constructed new luxury businesses but at the same time made it difficult for those communities of color who to thrive and grow in their respective areas. Even today, we feel the effects of inflation and its impact on our daily expenses, perhaps it is a reflective representation of how these long-standing communities of color are suffering the same way through gentrification.


References

  1. “New York - Gentrification and Displacement.” n.d. Urban Displacement. https://www.urbandisplacement.org/maps/new-york-gentrification-and-displacement/.
  2. Public Affairs. “New York City Gentrification Creating Urban “Islands of Exclusion,” Study Finds.” Berkeley News, 10 Apr. 2019, news.berkeley.edu/2019/04/10/new-york-city-gentrification-creating-urban-islands-of-exclusion-study-finds/.
  3. Gentrification in New York City – Tania Caldwell. tcaldwell.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2021/12/16/gentrification-in-new-york-city/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2022.
  4. “What’s Innovation to Some Means Gentrification to Others.” NY City Lens, 30 Sept. 2016, nycitylens.com/whats-innovation-to-some-means-gentrification-to-others/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2022.
  5. Boston, Amanda. “Gentrifying the City: From Racialized Neglect to Racialized Reinvestment.” Items, items.ssrc.org/layered-metropolis/gentrifying-the-city-from-racialized-neglect-to-racialized-reinvestment/. Accessed 26 Apr. 2021.
  6. Upadhyaya, Kayla Kumari. 2018. “Historic Chinatown Tofu Business Calls New Shop a Copycat.” Eater NY. February 7, 2018. https://ny.eater.com/2018/2/7/16986226/fong-inn-too-tofu-trademark-chinatown-nyc.
  7. “Bloomberg - Are You a Robot?” Www.bloomberg.com, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-28/nyc-comptroller-data-reveals-nyc-gentrification.
  8. “Mrs. Loretta McDonald Takes Us through Brooklyn for a Look at Gentrification’s Effects | BK Stories.” n.d. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTAKcQYs5IE.
  9. News, A. (2021, October 20). Illegal Hotels and the gentrification of communities of color. New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2015/02/19/illegal-hotels-and-gentrification-communities-colo/

Courtesy of NY City Lens, protestors gather outside the Make It In Brooklyn Innovation Summit during its evening event. 30 September 2016

Courtesy of New York City Council Member, Ritchie Torres. Image depicting businesses and illegal hotels amid gentrifications. 19 February 2015.

Data from United States Census Bureau. “Zip Code Business Patterns.” 2000-2015.NYC Comptroller

Courtesy of Via Square. Image depicting customers celebrating the opening of the retail food store Fong Inn Too. Date Unknown.