When people think of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, they think of crime and violence within the neighborhood. I myself have thought this about Bedford Stuyvesant before I did research and actually visited the neighborhood for myself. Bedford Stuyvesant in my opinion, has two different sides. The side the media portrays to us, the people, and the side people who actually visit/live in the neighborhood see for themselves. My visual representation above shows the two different sides of Bedford Stuyvesant. The first image shows the typical view of what people think of when they think of Bedford Stuyvesant, the projects. When people think of this neighborhood, they think of project buildings housing low income black families. The media portrays Bedford Stuyvesant as a …show more content…
neighborhood that is only known for crime and delinquent children that get involved with drugs and gangs. They show the neighborhood as a neighborhood that only gets worse, and is not successful. I specifically took this image because it is the childhood home of rapper Jay-Z. It shows that people who live/ grow up in high crime and violent neighborhoods like Bedford Stuyvesant can get out of situations like that and become highly successful. The neighborhood does not define the people living within. The neighborhood is simply the base where people learn to find themselves.
The lighting for this picture was absolutely perfect because it was getting dark and in my opinion darkness defines the projects. The darkness represents the mystery of fear within the community since the projects is known for drugs and violence. The people living within the community possibly fear the fact that their children have to grow up in that specific environment. Darkness is substantial and compelling. The second images shows the different side within Bedford Stuyvesant that many do not get to see through media. I specifically took this picture because it is the complete opposite of the first image. The image shows beautiful brownstone houses of various colors. These bright cool colors represent warmth within the community. These colors say the neighborhood is not all about crime and violence but beauty within. This image gives a whole new perspective to people who have never visited within Bedford Stuyvesant and has only seen what the media portrays. The colors of the houses give life and a sense of personality to the neighborhood. Bedford Stuyvesant is truly one of the most beautiful neighborhoods I have ever
visited. These images show the beauty within Bedford Stuyvesant that you cannot see by just doing research. The buildings within this community have so much history and give the neighborhood its own personality that people living within the community can only experience it. The people within the community are the ones that bring life to the community. They are the ones that can tell the stories that lie within. The community I profiled is exactly what my images represent. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Once you are within the community of Bedford Stuyvesant it is a new perspective of what the media shows us. It is actually a beautiful neighborhood filled with personality.
Has Bushwick changed for good? I am a Bushwick resident for many years now and have seen the changes that have happened. Yes, I agree some things are in the best interest of all who live in this area however after listening to many long-time residents, my opinion has changed. Over the past several years, Bushwick, a neighborhood spanning 1.3 square miles with a population of over 85,000 residents is the next new spot for white residents. Property owners began renovating old buildings and offering them as "lofts" to white residents who want more space, cheap rent and easy access to Manhattan. Transportations to the city is a must to almost all white residents, because of this the MTA began making improvements on the L train. The reputation of Bushwick was notably “ghetto”, this changed once listings began to pop up for
Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing project is notorious in the United States for being the most impoverished and crime-ridden public housing development ever established. Originally established as inexpensive housing in the 1940’s, it soon became a vast complex of unsightly concrete low and high-rise apartment structures. Originally touted as a giant step forward in the development of public housing, it quickly changed from a racially and economically diverse housing complex to a predominantly black, extremely poor ghetto. As it was left to rot, so to speak, Cabrini-Green harbored drug dealers, gangs and prostitution. It continued its downward spiral of despair until the mid 1990’s when the Federal Government assumed control the Chicago Housing Authority, the organization responsible for this abomination. Cabrini-Green has slowly been recovering from its dismal state of affairs recently, with developers building mixed-income and subsidized housing. The Chicago Housing Authority has also been demolishing the monolithic concrete high-rise slums, replacing them with public housing aimed at not repeating the mistakes of the past. Fortunately, a new era of public housing has dawned from the mistakes that were made, and the lessons that were learned from the things that went on for half a century in Cabrini-Green.
Jackson Heights is a neighborhood with a plethora of diversity and multiculturalism, hence there’s wide coverage of Gentrification in the media and literature. Jackson Heights is skyrocketing economically like many other local neighborhoods, with the looming possibility of becoming out of reach for the average American family. Redevelopments of infrastructure have rapidly progressed causing a rise in house price and rent, this ultimately resulting in the neighborhood to become financially unreachable for most. This is an example of the term that was first coined in 1964 by German-British sociologist Ruth Glass as ‘gentrification’. Ruth Glass wrote, "Once this process of 'gentrification' starts in a district, it goes on rapidly
There are many examples of cities reforming itself over time, one significant example is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. More than a hundred years after the discovery of gold that drew thousands of migrants to Vancouver, the city has changed a lot, and so does one of its oldest community: Downtown Eastside. Began as a small town for workers that migrants frequently, after these workers moved away with all the money they have made, Downtown Eastside faced many hardships and changes. As a city, Vancouver gave much support to improve the area’s living quality and economics, known as a process called gentrification. But is this process really benefiting everyone living in Downtown Eastside? The answer is no. Gentrification towards DTES(Downtown Eastside) did not benefit the all the inhabitants of the area. Reasons are the new rent price of the area is much higher than before the gentrification, new businesses are not community-minded, and the old culture and lifestyle of the DTES is getting erased by the new residents.
Older gentrification is issued onto poor black communities to increase white supremacy in the area and improve living conditions in the so called “hood.” After Older proposed his thoughts on Gentrification being an issue in colored low-income neighborhoods, he then turns to criticizing another writer with a different point of view on the issue. The author of “Is Gentrification All Bad?” in an article in the New York Times explains his views on gentrification. Older places emphasis on one of Davidson’s claim on “sweet spots” in the community saying “Davidson talks of a “sweet spot”: some mythical moment of racial, economic harmony where the neighborhood stays perfectly diverse and balanced.” (Older 358) The author does not support this claim as to being logical in his sense. Older’s views represents an opposite approach on the same issue of gentrification. In another quote “The gears are all already in place, the mechanisms of white supremacy and capitalism poised to make their moves.” (Older 358) the author speaks on how white people are over taking the poor colored communities to improve their lives, but not thinking about the consequences of the affected
In contrast to the negatives of gentrification, some people view gentrification as a the only effective way to “revitalize” low-income urban communities. In the article, “Gentrification: A Positive Good For Communities” Turman situates the piece around the opinion that gentrification is not as awful as the negative connotation surrounding it. Furthermore, he attempts to dispel the negative aspects of gentrification by pointing out how some of them are nonexistent. To accomplish this, Turman exemplifies how gentrification could positively impact neighborhoods like Third Ward (a ‘dangerous’ neighborhood in Houston, Texas).Throughout the article, Turman provides copious examples of how gentrification can positively change urban communities, expressing that “gentrification can produce desirable effects upon a community such as a reduced crime rate, investment in the infrastructure of an area and increased economic activity in neighborhoods which gentrify”. Furthermore, he opportunistically uses the Third Ward as an example, which he describes as “the 15th most dangerous neighborhood in the country” and “synonymous with crime”, as an example of an area that could “need the change that gentrification provides”. Consequently, he argues with
With increasing housing prices, it is not bearable to indigenous residents. The author reiterates that many residents of gentrifying neighborhoods fear the possibility of being displaced and are unsettled by the feeling of being pushed out. The issue of displacement in gentrifying areas is one of the biggest issues implied in this chapter. This relates a lot to my research because of the fact one of the main concerns mentioned in my research is figuring out what occurs to residents who are displaced from their homes because they are not able to afford their rent? There must be a certain mechanism that tap the wealth created by gentrification for the benefit of indigenous and poorer residents who may wish to one day live in a neighborhood.
If one looks deeper into each side, they can see that these stereotypes are not always true. One big stereotype people have about “the hills” and “the flats” is that the “flats” are more prone to violence than the “hills” because of the exposure to a more difficult lifestyle. However, there are numerous counts of violence and hate that has not been accounted for or heard of in a multitude of neighborhoods. According to FBI.gov, there are 365 violent offenses per 100,000 persons in the United States. In addition, these violent crimes have an impact on those who have seen or experienced it. This number includes robberies, domestic violence, and assault and gang activities. According to a scholarly journal published by Sciencedirect, around thirty
Gentrification is described as the renovation of certain neighborhoods in order to accommodate to young workers and the middle-class. For an area to be considered gentrified, a neighborhood must meet a certain median home value and hold a percentage of adults earning Bachelor’s degree. Philadelphia’s gentrification rate is among the top in the nation; different neighborhoods have pushed for gentrification and have seen immense changes as a result. However, deciding on whether or not gentrification is a beneficial process can become complicated. Various groups of people believe that cities should implementing policy on advancing gentrification, and others believe that this process shouldn’t executed. Both sides are impacted by the decision to progress gentrification; it is unclear of the true implications of completely renovating impoverished urban areas; gentrification surely doesn’t solve all of a community’s issues. I personally believe that gentrification is not necessarily a good or bad process; gentrification should occur as a natural progression of innovative economies and novel lifestyles collide within certain areas. Policy involving gentrification should not support the removal of people out of their neighborhood for the sake of advancement.
... must use more education targeted towards social issues in their schools and community to help people learn to live healthier lifestyles. They must make it known that drug dealing and violence are not “all right”, and to help people obtain some sort of unity. The well known community members need to get involved in politics so that their voices can be heard and let the City know their communities needs/requirements. Creating support groups for people with AIDS, ex-addicts, people who have lost a family member, also for people who just need a place to talk and get their frustrations out would help the community as a whole. If the people of the South Bronx would act as a community bound together to help themselves and each other, there would be less tolerance for deviant behavior among its’ members. The City must also be made more accountable for its’ actions. Clean-up and reconstruction of Times Square to Battery Park is a step in the right direction. However, painting a mural of “… flowers, window shades and curtains and interiors of pretty-looking rooms…” (p. 31) on the walls of empty buildings in the Bronx, just to give the illusion that this area is a good neighborhood, is not.
Lance Freeman tackles the issue of gentrification from the perspectives of residents in the gentrified neighborhood. He criticizes the literature for overlooking the experiences of the victims of gentrification. The author argues that people’s conceptions on the issue are somewhat misinformed in that most people consider it as completely deplorable, whereas in reality, it benefits the community by promoting businesses, different types of stores, and cleaner streets. These benefits are even acknowledged by many residents in the gentrified neighborhood. However, the author admits that gentrification indeed does harm. Although gentrification does not equate to displacement per se, it serves to benefit primarily homeowners and harm the poor. Additionally,
Gentrification is designed to improve the quality of life for the residents, but the fact is that it pushes out old residents to welcome in young and wealthy citizens. To analyze the demographic even further, gentrified neighborhoods in New York City have seen an increase in white population despite a city wide decrease. As Kate Abbey-Lamertz of the Huffington Post states, “The report notes that change is driven by educated people moving in, rather than by existing residents becoming more educated.” These changes are being driven by a millennial demographic who can afford the changed aesthetic. The influx of millennials are pushing out families whose lifestyle can’t keep up with the changing demographic. Even though these changes have been occurring for almost thirty years, and the city hasn’t made the changes needed for people who need low income housing. New York City’s gentrification must be slowed in order for people in low income housing to catch
When one thinks of a futuristic movie that takes place in New York pictures of flying cars and strange cloths pop into the mind. These are in fact used. In addition to these items however, the city itself is portrayed in a very gloomy light. The very first scene of the movie is an aerial shot of the city at night. The audience can see noting but the outline of buildings and pinpricks of light that are the widows in these buildings. When we get down to street level we see other sources of light such as a digital billboard on the side of a building, car headlights, and light from nearby restaurants, but the overall feel is still dark and dismal. The buildings are all metal and it is constantly raining throughout the movie. Other things used to portray this dingy, dismal feel are open fires and trash in the streets.
Darkness is meant to conceal, light is meant to expose, and there is power intrinsically imbued in both of these. Murderers hide in the dark, waiting for their victims, and the atrocities of different countries are hidden in history and official memos and propaganda. At the same time, light exerts power because it illuminates, it discovers, it creates vulnerability on all it touches. These powers, however, do not simply exist; they are forged within every aspect of life, even the very structures that people live in. Low-income tenement apartments are built so that they are not seen, colored in a drab shade of gray or brick, build alongside one another so that they blend into the background. They have small lawns and even smaller windows so that people walking by cannot get a glimpse of the life inside; darkness is used to hide their sad reality. Victorian mansions, however, do not need to shroud themselves in darkness. Their almost treeless lawns, small front gardens, and large picture windows are meant to illuminate their wealth, showing it off for the entire world to see.
It takes a while to process everything that is going on, but once you see the whole picture, the smaller details come out and are noticeable, even within the visually assaulting Square. The tall buildings are the first things you recognize; just the sheer size of them makes you feel like a tiny, unremarkable speck of dust. Each has its own character and was created with a unique design. A uniting factor of the buildings is the windows. The glass surface reflects the afternoon sun’s light, making a giant mirror from the buildings’ sides. The mirrors create an enormous hall of other building’s distorted reflections. Hanging from the buildings are advertisements for everything under the sun. Many billboards are for the different musicals that are going to be shown at Broadway soon; the classics, like West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Annie, and Wicked, are always there. Others are announcing the release of a new HP laptop, or Samsung HDTV. Some unveil a high fashion store’s new fall line of sweaters and jeans. Of course, there is the obligatory Coke commercial, telling you to enjoy a refreshing bottle of ice cold Coke.