WHAT is Gentrification?

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Gentrification is, at core, an international social justice issue that manifests especially intensely within America because of our tendency towards the imbedded hierarchies of our society.  It is the play-out of a power/wealth dynamic within the residential realm in urban locations. Typically, gentrification is observed by means of measurable statistics, such as upsizing in rent prices, decreasing diversity in schools and businesses, disappearance of old/local shops, and so on.  To hear more about gentrification in general, check out this linked video:

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Here, Stacey Sutton begins to uncover what it really means to gentrify in her TEDx Talk from 2015.  In the talk, she states that 

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defining gentrification mearly as "neighborhood improvement" is overly simplistic. Gentrification is much more complicated... 

The term gentrification refers to processes by which higher-income or higher status people relocate to or invest in low-income urban neighborhoods.  These neighborhoods have historically been disinvested in, by both the private and public sector.  So when high income people move in to these neighborhoods, it is typically to capitalize on the low property values.  In doing so, they inflate property values, displace low income people, and fundamentally alter the culture and character of the neighborhood... It is the way that inequalities play out in space.

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WHERE is Gentrification?

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The following is a list of locations of neighborhoods within Brooklyn that are experiencing or are threatened by gentrification in some way or another.

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1a. North Greenpoint

1b. South Greenpoint/ transition to Williamsburg

2. Williamsburg

3. Bushwick

4. Bedford-Stuyvesant

5. Crown Heights

6. Prospect Heights

7. Prospect Park

8. Prospect Park (South) / Flatbush

9. Flatlands

10. Bergen Beach / Mill Sasin

11. Midwood

12. Sunset Park

13. Graveseed

14. Bath Beach

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While it is one of the most quickly gentrifying locations in the country, Brooklyn is not alone.  As the American Dream continues to be redefined by emerging generational desires and as urban domestication is becoming more and more demanded for, gentrification is plaguing locations around many of our great American cities, including Portland OR, Washington DC, Denver CO, Seattle WA, Chicago IL, Minneapolis MN, and Atlanta GA, just to get the list started.