Draft:Gentrification of New York City

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Williamsburg is the most gentrified neighborhood in New York City since the late 1990s.

New York City has massively been expanding its urban fabric and population density, becoming the 16th largest city in the United States.[1] A combination of neoliberal policies, complex geographic location, socio-economic disparities and inefficient strategies, have influenced the ongoing process of gentrification in the city. Multiple megaprojects combined with inadequate city-planning practices have resulted in circulation, community allocation, and equal access to resources being disrupted. As a result, middle- and low-income residents have been alienated and forced to adjust to a complicated and changing urban environment, either directly or indirectly.[2]

History of New York City's development[edit]

New York City view, c. 1894

The history of New York City starts with Manhattan Island, a Lenape settlement brought to Peter Minuit in 1624 during the Dutch colonization of the Americas in what would later become New Amsterdam.[3] The British took New Amsterdam from the Dutch during 1664 and renamed it New York City. New York City's population got larger and more diversified during the next century: Immigrants from the Netherlands, England, France, and Germany, as well as indentured servants and African slaves, were among them.[4]

By the time of the arrival of Europeans, the Lenape were cultivating fields of vegetation through the slash and burn technique.[5][6][7][8][9][10] This extended the productive life of planted fields. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area[11] and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round.[12] The success of these methods allowed the inhabitants to maintain a larger population than nomadic hunter-gatherers elsewhere could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape total in approximately 80 settlement sites around much of the New York City area, alone.[13]: 5–6  In 1524 Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor, who called the area New Angoulême to honor his patron, King Francis I of France.[14]

The development of New York City as the urban environment that we recognize today started to take shape with the arrival of the ...[15]

Urban development[edit]

A 3 story house stands next to a newly built 7 story apartment building on Church Ave in Brooklyn

New York City has been an iconic example of its exclusive shops, flashy Broadway performances, and high-flying business tycoons, and it's a city that has long captivated people. Gentrification increases property values and changes the social and physical makeup of neighborhoods that were previously thought to be unappealing to newcomers.[16]

Since the 2000s, rezonings motivated by both State and private investments, has created exciting areas of historic importance, entertainment opportunities and high quality residentials which cause the areas targeted for new development are disproportionately low-income communities of color, while areas protected by zoning are disproportionately white and middle- and upper-income residents. [17] [18]

Causes[edit]

Neo-liberal policies and renovations[edit]

The displacement of people in New York City started in the 1970s and 1980s with a significant increase in middle-income housing in the form of rehabilitated single-family dwellings, mostly in historic districts, driven by affluent, educated young professionals with "an increasing desire for the kinds of cultural and intellectual pursuits that are generally found only in the central cities—performing arts, museums, libraries, seminars, and etc." Normal succession appears to be accountable for changes in gentrifying districts in New York City, at least during the 1990s. The final section of the essay discusses the consequences of these findings for planning.[19] [20]

Housing regulation[edit]

In the wave of new policies in the 1990s the state stopped promoting public housing and allowed private institutions to lead the housing production. [21]

Effects[edit]

The process of low-income displacement in New York City begins with an increase in rent; rent rises to the point that tenants can no longer afford to live in their apartments. Residents are forced to leave their homes in search of a more inexpensive location, yet this is a problem that affects many locations. Many persons who have been displaced face a serious dilemma: displacement can lead to homelessness.[22] The constantly trends with increasing household income, which is compatible with gentrification hypotheses. When income growth is broken down by race, Blacks and Latinos either have no effect on gentrification or slow it down by 2010. These findings back up widespread claims that as gentrification spreads across the city, even middle-class Blacks and Latinos are finding it increasingly difficult to stay in gentrifying areas.[23][24][25] For example, Long Island City and Downtown Brooklyn, the two neighborhoods, are now whiter, affluent, and more crowded. "The predicted increase in commercial development never happened," according to the report. Instead, a barrage of high-end, high-rise residential building has altered these areas." At the same time, the public schools in the area are overcrowded.[26]

Another large consequence of gentrification in New York City has been the increase of peripheral and metropolitan development of illegal housing, often at risk zones such as seismic areas, flood zones and dangerous slopes.[27] In 2003, Michael Bloomberg had chosen the "right people" from the business, governmental, and nonprofit sectors. He has created clear criteria and measurement tools to enable performance review. Bloomberg and his former private sector colleagues were leveraging their corporate management skills and extensive knowledge of the private sector to build the organizational capacity required to achieve achievements. Agencies were reformed, key missions redefined, and strategic plans[28]

Upzoning[edit]

Neighborhoods in New York City have been upzoned based on the city's fabricated since in the early 2000s, if there's not outright dishonest, promises of increased diversity, affordable housing, little displacement, and other good goals. None of the predictions came true, yet that fact is never mentioned. Worse, the upzoning resulted in the polar opposite: less diversity, fewer affordable apartments, and whiter, wealthier communities.[29]

Existing and proposed solutions[edit]

Strategies and mindsets[edit]

Sustainability[edit]

In 2022, New York City was considered the most polluted city of the United States according to the World Health Organization, mainly due to transport pollutants, affecting gentrification in terms of urban quality of life. Since then, however, the city has invested in a diversity of projects including solar energy, smart constructions, better public transport and spaces and separate collection of waste linked to recycling/incinerating systems.[30] [31]

The implementation of green spaces into urban projects like public parks, roof gardens, protected areas, vegetation in public infrastructure or even private gardens help clean the air, improve human wellbeing, reduce noise, increase the attractiveness of crammed communities and foster interaction across social groups. Compact developments with an emphasized verticality are another approach to creating active spaces with efficient energy use, less driving distances, reduced emergency response time, mixture of homes, services and jobs. [32]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Glaeser, Edward L. (2005). "Urban Colossus: Why Is New York America's Largest City?" (PDF). p. 1.
  2. ^ Kathe Newman; Elvin K. Wyly (January 2006). "The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City". Urban Studies. 43 (1): 23–57. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1010.9471. doi:10.1080/00420980500388710. S2CID 153428928. Archived from the original on 21 Jan 2022.
  3. ^ "Document: The Purchase of Manhattan Island, 1626". Dutch New York. 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  4. ^ "New York City". HISTORY. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  5. ^ Stevenson W. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life 1640–1840 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1950), 2, 35–37, 63–65, 124.
  6. ^ Day, Gordon M. "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forests." Ecology, Vol. 34, #2 (April): 329–346. New England and New York Areas 1580–1800. Notes that the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribe in New Jersey and the Massachuset tribe in Massachusetts used fire in ecosystems.1953
  7. ^ Russell, Emily W.B. Vegetational Change in Northern New Jersey Since 1500 A.D.: A Palynological, Vegetational and Historical Synthesis Ph.D. dissertation. New Brunswick, PA: Rutgers University. Author notes on page 8 that Indians often augmented lightning fires. 1979
  8. ^ Russell, Emily W.B. "Indian Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States." Ecology, Vol. 64, #1 (Feb): 78 88. 1983a Author found no strong evidence that Indians purposely burned large areas, but they did burn small areas near their habitation sites. Noted that the Lenna Lenape Tribe used fire.
  9. ^ A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands with the Places Thereunto Adjoining, Likewise a Brief Relation of the Customs of the Indians There, New York, NY: William Gowans. 1670. Reprinted in 1937 by the Facsimile Text Society, Columbia University Press, New York. Notes that the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribe in New Jersey used fire in ecosystems.
  10. ^ Smithsonian Institution—Handbook of North American Indians series: Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15—Northeast. Bruce G. Trigger (volume editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 1978 References to Indian burning for the Eastern Algonquians, Virginia Algonquians, Northern Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, and Delaware Tribes and peoples.
  11. ^ Mark Kurlansky, 2006 [page needed]
  12. ^ Dreibelbis, 1978 [page needed]
  13. ^ Burrows, Edwin G.; Wallace, Mike (1998). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199729104.
  14. ^ Koussa, Nicolas (12 April 2016). "Quand New York s'appelait Angoulême : une conférence le 21 avril" (in French). French Morning. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  15. ^ Glaeser, Edward L. (December 2005). Urban Colossus: Why Is New York America’s Largest City?.
  16. ^ Nevárez, Julia (2008). "LOCATING THE GLOBAL IN HARLEM, NYC: URBAN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES, PUBLIC SPACE, AND GENTRIFICATION". In Moser, Gabriel (ed.). On Global Grounds: Urban Change and Globalization. Nova Science Publishers. pp. 1–15. ISBN 978-1-60692-000-8.
  17. ^ Baker, Kevin (2019). The fall of a great American city. James Howard Kunstler (First ed.). Westport, CT. ISBN 978-1-947951-14-3. OCLC 1123170575.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ Angotti, Tom (January–March 2017). "Zoned Out in the City: New York City's Tale of Race and Displacement" (PDF). Poverty & Race Research Council Action. pp. 1–12.
  19. ^ Thomson, Steven (2014-11-05). "Tracing the History of an Idea as 'Gentrification' Turns 50". Curbed NY. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  20. ^ Freeman, Lance; Braconi, Frank (2004-03-31). "Gentrification and Displacement New York City in the 1990s". Journal of the American Planning Association. 70 (1): 39–52. doi:10.1080/01944360408976337. ISSN 0194-4363. S2CID 154008236.
  21. ^ Goering, John M.; Stebbins, Helene; Siewert, Michael (1995). Promoting Housing Choice in HUD's Rental Assistance Programs. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research. ISBN 9780788130953.
  22. ^ Derby, Dora. "NYC's diverse culture seemingly fading: The real consequences of gentrification". The iNews Network. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  23. ^ Sutton, Stacey (January 2020). "Gentrification and the Increasing Significance of Racial Transition in New York City 1970–2010". Urban Affairs Review. 56 (1): 65–95. doi:10.1177/1078087418771224. ISSN 1078-0874. S2CID 158668946.
  24. ^ NCRC (2019-03-18). "Shifting Neighborhoods: Gentrification and Cultural Displacement in American Cities » NCRC". Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  25. ^ "The Harmful Effects of Gentrification on NYC's Low-Income Black and Latino Populations". Fordham Law. 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  26. ^ Gratz, Roberta Brandes. "New York City Promises Affordability Through Rezoning But Delivers Gentrification". Common Edge. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  27. ^ Jha, Abhas Kumar; Miner, Todd W.; Stanton-Geddes, Zuzana, eds. (2013). Building urban resilience: principles, tools, and practice. Directions in development Environment and sustainable development. Washington, DC: World Bank. ISBN 978-0-8213-9826-5.
  28. ^ Brash, Julian (January 15, 2011). Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City. University of Georgia Press. pp. 100–129. ISBN 9780820337548.
  29. ^ Davis, Jenna (2021-07-15). "The double-edged sword of upzoning". Brookings. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
  30. ^ "Report Places New York City in Top 10 Most Polluted US Cities". CBS News. March 23, 2022.
  31. ^ Culliton, Kathleen (January 27, 2020). "New York Among Most Polluted Cities In the U.S." Patch.
  32. ^ Gould, Kenneth A.; Lewis, Tammy L. (2016-07-15). Green Gentrification: Urban sustainability and the struggle for environmental justice. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-41780-4.

Category:Gentrification of New York City Category:Economy of New York City