'burb Stuy

whynot_31

prodigalson

Brooklyn will never be the same thanks to gentrification. Hopefully, the good folks there won't be priced out of their homes.  And let's also hope that somebody will record and document in some way the old neighborhood accents so that they can be reserved forever.

whynot_31

Many people will have to move to cheaper neighborhoods, or share apartments.

Others will cash out. Others will be pushed into homelessness, or choose to move out of the city entirely.

But you are correct, Brooklyn will never be the same.

What I think is going unwritten about is how the suburbs are struggling. Heroin and meth.

The 'burbs are not the utopia they were once believed to be. Bed Stuy is not becoming many modern burbs.

Esperanza

Also, rural areas in general don't seem to be as safe as they are. I've heard stories of Chicago 'burbs in which the cartels are setting up shop selling drugs (and moving there families into the homes to make it more legit). No longer is the inner city the hub.

whynot_31

NYC is getting lots of Panera Bread, 7-11, and Olive Garden locations.

...which may be dangerous.

Esperanza

Goodness, haven't eaten at an OG since the Chicago Burbs! The day we see a Cheesecake Factory going into Brooklyn, it's the end.

prodigalson

"There Goes the Neighborhood" by the Bus Boys 

whynot_31

Open Letter to Landlord, by Living Colour

whynot_31

Or, with a sharper edge, he's a good one courtesy of New Orleans:

brickstoner

Oh, but is it fully a shame?  

Empty lots being turned into new housing, shells being renovated to turn into new housing.  That's a net gain.

The higher rents hurt, and push out older residents.  But this is New York City, and people of all classes (except the highest) get pushed out of neighborhoods they once lived in.  

Change?  Change can be good or bad.  The change taking place now, while it has negative consequences for the lower middle class, is a different, far more positive type of change when the area was hit with the crack epidemic, disinvestment, corrupt policing and gang wars.

I just take issue with the idea that any change automatically means Paneera and Starbucks.  There's very little in the way of chains popping up in the most gentrifying areas - in fact I do see a lot of chains in the crap areas of Bed Stuy (Popeyes, DnD, etc.). It's the expensive 'cater to the whites' areas that people complain or joke about - i.e. the artisanal mayonnaise joints, the cupcake and cocktail places. 

Large, metropolitan cities like New York, London, SF, Paris, all change.   People say R.I.P. every few decades.  The dynamism is just too much to resist.

Brooklyn never will be the same and it was never expected to be, not in 1883 and not in 1968.  Certainly not in 2015.

southeast

Welcome @brickstoner.