Stay Classy
Another day, another foray through my news feeds. Today: a nice article at The Real Fort Greene about the fear of a neighborhood losing its coolness via excess gentrification, mallification, and other evilications.
As a new resident in the area (though technically in Clinton Hill), I am, in a real sense, one of those people. I moved in to escape rent insanity rampant on the other side of the river. What appealed to me are the very qualities that people fear being destroyed. I moved here to get away from it not aid and abet it’s Saharan encroachment.
Some things cannot be stopped: the gentrification is going to keep on keeping on. There are too many pressures on the housing market. According to Rentometer, the median rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in my zipcode (11205) is $1,950. That ain’t a bargain. And it isn’t the end of it. And it isn’t going to stop.
What we can do is try to prevent the malling, the homogenizing, the giant-super-storizing processes that ride the migratory beast like fleas. As Winston Zedimore said, “We’ve got the tools, we’ve got the talent!” We can fight this. The question is: do we have the will to do it?
Do we?
What do you think?