I see white people

anonymous · January 2006

Subject: funnny

I lived on Union betw. Nostrand and New York from 2003 until recently. People would consider me Asian. While there, black people responded to me with "Oh, do you have a store?" when I told them I lived in Crown Heights. As if that was the only reason I'd be in the neighborhood. I wasn't offended. I thought it was pretty funny.

jack krohn · January 2006

"...white people keep moving in and jacking up the rent."

White people don't jack up rents, landlords (who are of all stripes) do. Place blame where blame is due.

stacey · January 2006

Guest wrote: I don't think it's fair to label Nebula as just P.C. for the sake of being P.C. She's got a point. This is a stupid thread. Who's shutting down discourse? Nebula who thinks this thread is stupid and expresses that? Or the rest of you who jump on her, dropping the P.C. bomb? I can accept that a few of you might just be posting about white people to say, "Huh, isn't that interesting, white people this far east!" But you would be lying to yourself a little bit (at least some of you) if you didn't admit that part of you is thinking, "White people? Great! The kind of shops we like can't be far behind." Your issue may not be race; it may be class. But you are thinking that once white people come the money and stores can't be far behind. And thinking like that is race-based. I don't mean to admonish anyone. I'm the first to admit I find myself thinking that way too sometimes, but when I do, I feel pretty down about it. I try not to revel in it.

Maybe a few of you were just saying, "Hey, you don't see that everyday." Maybe I'm projecting some of my own issues. But I think Nebula had a valid point and wasn't just spouting P.C. nonsense.

I never labled Nebula or dropped a PC bomb on her. I made a general statement about how we, all people as a whole, have become too politically correct. I was merely stating my opinion as Nubula stated his/hers.

rah · January 2006

And we made Gawker yet again:

ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â¢ We always thought an influx of gays was what signaled true gentrification. To some, though, the signifier is apparently whitey. To each his own stereotype, we guess. [The Daily Heights]

dan.h · January 2006

Funny you mention that. Theres seems to be a disproportionate number of gay couples living in the Jewish hospital.

jayce · January 2006

dan.h wrote: Funny you mention that. Theres seems to be a disproportionate number of gay couples living in the Jewish hospital.

any of the gay folks single and female or are they all couples? i could make many an excuse to walk past the jewish hospital...

anonymous · January 2006

look for me: i'm the new white gay guy in the hood!

armchair_warrior · January 2006

bornslippy wrote: look for me: i'm the new white gay guy in the hood!

*looks for white guy.

hehe you be easy to spot

, like looking for water in a ocean

.

cowgirly · January 2006

I'm white. I live here. I love it here.
I just ate doubles for lunch.
I'm hoping for a bagel store to open one day.
That's not because I'm white and want the neighborhood to change, but because I love eating fresh, hot bagels on a weekend morning.
Also, a video store would be nice.
Does this make me racist, or just a happy neighbor who wants to support local businesses instead of joining Netflix?

alex · January 2006

Hi cowgirly ... walk up nostrand, there is a bagel shop on the other side of eastern parkway. Not the best bagels but they're edible.

cowgirly · January 2006

Hey Alex, thanks! I do like that cafe, but you know what I mean.... a shop that bakes 'em fresh, when you order they're still hot in the basket... until then the cafe will do just fine!

anonymous · January 2006

Subject: white folks in crown heights

this is so sad. no white people don't drive up rent prices, land lords do, but white people -or any people- who come to a community without any regard to who is already there suck too.(think Columbus)

whyfi · January 2006

Subject: Re: white folks in crown heights

guest wrote: this is so sad. no white people don't drive up rent prices, land lords do, but white people -or any people- who come to a community without any regard to who is already there suck too.(think Columbus)

What do you mean by 'without any regard'? And what would you propose?

ben · January 2006

landlords don't drive up prices, the market does. This is basic supply and demand.

armchair_warrior · January 2006

Subject: Re: white folks in crown heights

guest wrote: this is so sad. no white people don't drive up rent prices, land lords do, but white people -or any people- who come to a community without any regard to who is already there suck too.(think Columbus)

landlords dont drive up prices. its what people are willing to pay for rent for a certain area.

anonymous · January 2006

i feel for the folks who talk about how their childhood friends have been forced out of theneighborhood by rising prices... but isn't that how things work? i can't afford to live where i grew up either - my family moved to park slope in the 60's. don't we all have mixed feelings (at best) about what's happened to the neighborhoods where we grew up?

anonymous · January 2006

I too feel for some people who have been forced out due to increased rents and changing communities, however, I always encouraged and "begged" folks to buy when prices were much cheaper in the 90's. I grew up in Crown Heights North and my family had the foresight to buy investment property in the 70's during the time of wide spread abandonment.

Yeah... I see beige, brown, bronze, chocolate, vanilla, cream and mocca hued folks too :roll: So much for I see white folks.

Hey, anyone interested in a lovely garden apartment in a brownstone undergoing restoration?

realtor guy · February 2006

Subject: vacancy

Niecie wrote: Hey, anyone interested in a lovely garden apartment in a brownstone undergoing restoration?

i am if it comes with access to the garden... details and asking rent please.
-mike

anonymous · February 2006

Pretty much white mom with stroller & Native American gene pool along and European husband, so what does that make us? We moved to the area recently and were the first crackers on the block and all the home-owning neighbors have been very welcoming but also we've experienced teenagers calling to their friends "HEY!! come look at this! check this out! What are they doing here, when I was walking down the street with the baby & my grandmother. We've experienced some harassment from teenagers making rude remarks but teenagers are like that.

I think it is more then white folks moving in, it homeowners who intend to live in their their properties and maintain the upkeep that increases the property values and the quality of life in the neighborhoods regardless of skin color. The rents are very affordable in this area and the homes are on the verge of affordable. We were forced out of Williamsburg due to rising costs and the yuppie invasion after the same happening in the East Village. This is a great area for families and one of the few places left in NYC, where a middle income family can afford property. We could never afford to buy and worked like dogs to save for a down payment

I confess white folks spotting along with Asian Spotting as well as anyone with a small child or people playing music outdoors.

ar · February 2006

If you look at the replies that are not so "friendly" on this topic they are all made by guests. What's up with that?

anonymous · February 2006

Subject: gentrification

As someone who grew up in Brooklyn, and as a woman of Color (I am Puertorican) I understand why people of color feel threatened. We had a community, we played stickball, skellsies (sp??), wiffle ball and all that stuff. Our parents knew each other and no one was supsicious of the other. Gentrification changes the flavor of the communities, the prices are driven up, and people have to move out. I know that it's more of a class thing and not a race thing; and I know that this is "the way of the world," yet, I can't help but feel resentful. This was my youth, this is what Brooklyn was all about for me. I love that there was diversity both in terms of class and race. When I see that everyone in my building gets packages from Ohio, Michigan, etc; I can't help but think, where are the real New Yorkers!!!
So, if you are one of the white people moving in, you should understand that you are changing the dynamics of a neighborhood and it is only natural that people feel threatened and/or resentful.

anonymous · February 2006

I usually read this board and never reply but,
To the last guest post -------------------------huh?
I'm throwing this out there.

Question : So if a person of color moves into a primarily white neighborhood are the current residents supposed to, TO QUOTE YOU " feel threatened and resentful"?

I really like it here and would love nothing more than to see kids playing stickball in the streets and a more since of community, but all the bars on the windows came long before a few white, asian, or any other people started moving in, in the last recent years.
I'll bet you have bars on your windows and it's not because you're scared of some middle class white kid breaking into your house.

So what is your solution?

ar · February 2006

Subject: Re: gentrification

quote from guest/
So, if you are one of the white people moving in, you should understand that you are changing the dynamics of a neighborhood and it is only natural that people feel threatened and/or resentful.
My neighbors ( long time CH'ers) were really happy to see us move in.
The people who lived here before us had like 15 people living in the place and it was infested with roaches, they couldn't be happier we are here. I'm getting so sick of the word "gentrification" . My neighbors don't see us as trying to change the place, but instead they really like it that we care about our home. I understand you are bitter, but you really seem to be focusing on color and that's wrong. Hey, people priced me out of
Manhattan, but that's the way it goes.

stacey · February 2006

Subject: Re: gentrification

guest wrote: As someone who grew up in Brooklyn, and as a woman of Color (I am Puertorican) I understand why people of color feel threatened. We had a community, we played stickball, skellsies (sp??), wiffle ball and all that stuff. Our parents knew each other and no one was supsicious of the other. Gentrification changes the flavor of the communities, the prices are driven up, and people have to move out.

Sorry I dont buy that at all - if anything I blame the old timers. Most of the old timers purchased their house for very little money (i.e, in 1972 my MOL paid $8,000 for her home on Underhill). Now the old timers want to leave and they are taking the highest bid for their homes - thus causing higher mortgages, thus new landlords charging higher rents. I was very lucky - the person who sold me their house could have went to the highest bidder but they didn't they sold to us.

jayce · February 2006

Subject: Re: gentrification

stacey wrote:
Sorry I dont buy that at all - if anything I blame the old timers. Most of the old timers purchased their house for very little money (i.e, in 1972 my MOL paid $8,000 for her home on Underhill). Now the old timers want to leave and they are taking the highest bid for their homes - thus causing higher mortgages, thus new landlords charging higher rents. I was very lucky - the person who sold me their house could have went to the highest bidder but they didn't they sold to us.

wow... now thats a hell of an oversimplification.
lets see... it doesnt take into account inflation over that 34 years... or the fact that they will probably have to move into a place that is also on par with today's housing market.

well heck, we bought all of Manhattan for a few hundred. if only those people hadn't hosed the generations thereafter by raising the rent.

:roll:

stacey · February 2006

Not trying to oversimply jayce just trying to make a point that it can be seen many ways and should not be blamed on people moving in only.

ar · February 2006

Subject: Re: gentrification

guest wrote: I love that there was diversity both in terms of class and race. When I see that everyone in my building gets packages from Ohio, Michigan, etc; I can't help but think, where are the real New Yorkers!!!
So, if you are one of the white people moving in, you should understand that you are changing the dynamics of a neighborhood and it is only natural that people feel threatened and/or resentful.

If you say you like diversity, what's your problem?
So, is diversity to you only the people you choose not to be resentful to?

jayce · February 2006

stacey wrote: Not trying to oversimply jayce just trying to make a point that it can be seen many ways and should not be blamed on people moving in only.

I agree, but I can also see the guests point of having a tight community invaded by people who don't seem to respect or involve themselves in the community that is there. I guess I'd rather see people move in who want to actually become a part of that community rather than just hope it "gentrifies" to their liking soon. And sadly, I think a lot of people that move into a neighborhood do so with the hope that it will gentrify. Part of what I like about this neighborhood is the sense of community that is here... the kids all knowing one another and the parents all knowing one another and engaging with each other as an extended family, in many ways. And I can see how hard it is for people who have lived here and grown up here to feel like people moving in are altering that dynamic because they are choosing not to engage in it and remain apart from it. I think thats why the guest poster said its not so much a race issue as it is a class issue. And as the stereotypic white gentrifier, I can both understand and empathize with that.

I was annoyed with the other guest poster who likewise oversimplified and asked if the original guest would say the statement in reverse... that if a family of color moved into a white neighborhood, should the white folks "feel threatened and resentful." To me that argument conjures up the "reverse racism" discussion, which I am always so tired of hearing white folks complain about (and I say this as a white woman myself). Its not about color, its about class and its about power. I don't think the argument is a valid one, because I see white folks "invading" a neighborhood with the hopes of it gentrifying... of exerting that power that we white folks have, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. When someone of color chooses to live in a predominantly white neighborhood, the power issue is just not there.

but thats just my 2 cents. and its not a very popular one, no doubt.

ar · February 2006

stacey wrote: Not trying to oversimply jayce just trying to make a point that it can be seen many ways and should not be blamed on people moving in only.

Gotta go with Stacey on this one.

whyfi · February 2006

AR wrote: Gotta go with Stacey on this one.

Ditto, and I'd also wish that the community would pick up their litter/garbage.

I went to the first block association meeting that was held after I moved in. The meeting consisted solely of organizing a block party for the kids... keep in mind that this was the first block association meeting in over a year. Did we talk about people not picking up dogshit? People cleaning up in front of their homes? About the piles of garbage in backyards? The guy sellin' out of the back of his van 24/7? No. Nope. Uh-uh. Nah. Nothing but a donkey ride and an inflatable trampoline-thing. Have I been to a meeting since? No. Do I refuse to go back because of the bad taste in my mouth from the last experience? No, absolutely not. I'd be happy to go to another block association meeting. I'd love to get something accomplished. They have the contact information that I wrote down when I went to the meeting. They know the particular strengths that I feel I would bring to the community. Either they're making an effort to not include me or they haven't done anything since the block party. At this point, I'm thinking about how to start my own block association with a minimum amount of resentment from my neighbors that supposedly lead the community.

I see white people

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