All right, so I realize a lot of you don’t live in expensive, rapidly-changing urban areas, so you probably won’t be able to relate very well to what I’m about to say. That’s okay. But if you do live in or near a big city, whether it’s NYC, LA, Chicago, Philly, SF, or even somewhere a lot smaller like New Haven in CT, then I shouldn't need to tell you how much of an issue gentrification is. You already know, and you've either reached a boiling point now or a long time ago.
If you’re a native of any of the aforementioned cities (I don’t care if you live there now and moved there mid-point in your life--your opinion is completely irrelevant), you've certainly seen a lot happen over your entire lifetime. I’m just going to talk about NYC since it’s my native city.
My earliest memories were filled with seeing cabs and police cars that were Chevrolet Caprices and Caprice Classics, squeegee men, a bit more overall noise than I see now, but overall, it was a grittier place. Movies like Bad Lieutenant from around that era sum up my early childhood memories quite well. Let’s not forget the even wilder ‘70s and ‘80s which I was not even around for. Today, the images of rampant subway graffiti, prostitution and porn shops in Times Square, regular muggings and assaults, and “No radio” signs that many drivers put on their windshields to avoid break-ins have all but faded from the public consciousness. Why not bring those days back?
Now, when you live in a big city that is pretty much instantly recognized whenever you mention it, it could very well be a very target for potential very highly privileged newcomers. Throughout NYC’s history, and throughout the history of many other big cities, many newcomers came and went. In NYC’s case, in more recent years, population growth has been far too rapid, especially in Brooklyn. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are now far more expensive than they were even 5-10 years ago, and the overall population has exploded more than I ever thought possible. Areas that have been “revitalized,” so say the gentrifiers, I consider ruined. These places include Bushwick, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Park Slope, Greenpoint, Carroll Gardens, etc.
We have definitely reached a point where for far too many of us, prices keep skyrocketing, but our paychecks are stagnant. When we try to find better-paying jobs, we have to compete with people that we know take up space and don’t belong here: the countless, never-ending influx of newcomers that we need to get rid of ASAP. They deserve nothing but disdain. Aside from taking up space and holding us back in terms of job competition, they do a lot of other damage as well.
What about the mom and pop stores, or city fixtures I grew up with? More of them just keep disappearing, even though in past generations, it was much easier to simply pass the baton. Just passing the baton is getting increasingly harder now because property owners are forced to charge more. Those stores are being replaced by either chain stores or health food or frozen yogurt places obviously catered towards newcoming hipsters.
Oh, and luxury condos. Fucking luxury condos. They are known to replace hospitals (RIP St. Vincent’s and Parkway), graffiti sites (RIP 5Pointz), and an infinite amount of other lesser-known places. Only certain people--you know who--can afford them. They’re everywhere these days, and development won’t stop being halted. In fact, their rate of growth now is much, much more rapid than I've ever seen it. No one can possibly comprehend now infuriated I am over this. I go to sleep every night wondering if my landlord will have to sell our entire complex to a developer who has the means to build lavish condos for millionaires and billionaires. The damage done by these luxury condos already built and in progress is so colossal that it's irreparable.
A lot has changed over 24 years. You can say crime is down (even though the po-po, especially in the last administration, are well-known for downgrading crimes so they could receive discretionary promotions above captain), the air is cleaner, more people are coming in than leaving, property values are up, and so on. These issues are all intertwined. A safer city is also a more expensive city. Property values are always high in areas generally perceived as safe. Newcomers know this. In fact, one of the first things they ask is stuff like, “Is this area safe? Am I going to get mugged? Do black people live here? Is some random dude going to shoot me in the head on my way to work at my $500,000/year job as a marketing executive?”
Just. Fucking. Appalling.
I’m going to address those newcomers directly right the fuck now: you need to be purged. Go back to wherever the fuck you came from. I wish I could make you a thousand times more paranoid than you already are from afar. In trying to improve your own life, you are fucking up thousands more in the process. Don’t rush and call the po-po just because you see one or two blacks or Hispanics innocuously hanging outside your building, presumably waiting for someone. Your overpriced yoga studios, frozen yogurt and organic food places can fuck off and burn in a wildfire. You've already killed the city's character, made the city infinitely more bland, and if you don't already have at least a black eye for it, believe me: you will.
Let’s remember that a lot of lifelong NYC residents are average or low income. I’m one of them. Newcomers that planned their moves here long in advance make far more than they deserve. There truly is nothing more disconcerting when everything around you keeps going up through the roof and then if you’re lucky enough to get a regular check, it usually stays where it is, for a long period of time, without going anywhere. Even if you work at a job where you can easily get promoted, not much is likely to change. The rates at which living costs are going up right now make living a major fucking hemorrhoid.
Over time, I've talked to a lot of mainly affluent people that have planned to move to NYC, hoping to talk them out of it, and expressing my concerns as a local. There’s one line that comes up over and over again, and it’s pretty short and sweet: “Fuck the locals.” It’s not uncommon to hear something racist and/or classist after that either. Such blatant disregard for residents in a city they've lived in their entire lives is precisely what makes you so contemptuous and why you need to be forced into a meat grinder.
There are solutions. Don’t incentivize any further luxury developments. Don’t promote NYC (or any other city or place whose cost of living you want steady) anywhere. Lay off a fuck ton of cops. Turn the whole entire city into a massive dump. Reopen the old Fresh Kills Landfill--I thought it was an egregious mistake to close it and convert it into a huge ass park, which is now a work in progress. Allow squeegee men to come back and do their thing without any repercussions. Subway graffiti? Thumbs up. Make the whole environment unbearable for people that moved here in search for a better life, but for those of us that have lived here forever--we’ve seen it all before. People will leave, property values will slip in a nanosecond, there will be mass panic, hell will break loose, and I say: fucking good. Good riddance to the undesirables, and good going for the real kings and queens of NYC.
It may sound ludicrous that I’m actively proposing extreme urban decay over a long period of time, but it really is the only viable solution to gentrification at this point. No other solution I've seen goes far enough. Our city had much more of a soul when big banks and chain stores didn't have ownership of certain well-established locations, and I want that soul back.
It’s imperative that we act now.
If any of you have any other gentrification solutions though, then propose them, and back them up. Either that, or you can talk about how you, or anyone else you know that have been adversely affected by gentrifying neighborhoods. If you've actually benefited significantly from any gentrifying city or specific neighborhood, you've been dealt a good hand to begin with, and I hope you choke on your own vomit.
Former iron fist mod of the NG Featureless Chat from May 23, 2012 to May 4, 2014.
