(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)
News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.
Monday, January 19, 2015
When Cultures Collide
You're going to see it eventually, even if it's when your cousin Edna sends it in her monthly "newses" email from Omaha. So why not on the Q?
FWIW I thought Buntin's article was thoughtful and well written and written, not deserving being dismissed as "a sick and sorry piece journalism". True, the article is based on studies that use data from the '90s, but those studies themselves are only a few years old. Social science studies by their very nature need time to digest and analyze data. The problem, if it can be called that, with Buntin's article is that it doesn't differentiate between the sort of gentrification that's been going on since the '60s [more properly proto-gentrification back then, since that British term wasn't imported here until the late '70s] and the sort of commercial and gov't-aided HYPER-GENTRIFICATION that's occurring now, starting later than the data for the studies on which Buntin relies. The two types of "gentrification" are VERY different phenomena and not differentiating between them makes villains of ordinary homeowners [such as you Tim. and I] who are likely to oppose the recent noxious hyper-gentrification.
I disagree in the sense that he doesn't prove his headline in the slightest. All the stuff he cites is old news. You read Lance Freemans' "There Goes the 'Hood?" It's like a paraphrase, and that's what, 10 years old?
For the record, and I've said it before, I'm not anti-gentrification nor am I looking to make villains out of well-meaning apartment or house seekers. The problem, as I've tried to state again and again, is the systematic dismantling of neighborhoods to serve a handful of soul-less real estate owners. It's speculation and racism. Classicism, if you must, but most of the time that means racism too.
It only becomes hyper-gentrification when it becomes part of a massive strategy. That's what we're living through new. We've identified that strategy, the players, and their methods. And still we scratch our heads. It's ridiculous. The City should throw its full weight against the new overlords for rampant abuses of rent and tenant laws. Three, ten, a hundred strikes your out, and they ALL qualify - Pinnacle, Shamco, Burke Leighton you name it.
If we can use eminent domain to create Barclays, we can certainly use it to wrench these buildings from greedy hands and place them under supervision til they can be sold to landlords with proven track records of solid management, at a price that doesn't incentivize criminality.
How's that for a plan?
And if someone claims that's socialism, I'd remind them that laws are being broken. It's basically a situation akin to anti-trust - if you don't play by the rules you need to be broken up or fined into submission.
These are people's homes and we have a constitution that protects ones' life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Pulling the rug out from under someone sense of well-being under false pretenses certainly qualifies as denying one the P o' H.
Another look at John Locke's "Lockean Proviso" is in order. This is the first time since college I've been able to cite it! Hurray for higher education! (okay, I had to look it up to make sure, but yep, there it is!)
The social contract is being broken, and it must be mended.
I bet your browsing history has identified you as interested in airbnb and PLG and placed that algorithmically custom ad in your sidebar. The purveyor of the "Q at Stillwell Ave" blog probably has Josh and Karen in his/her sidebar advertising Coney Island rentals, too.
The way these internet banner ads work is that they pull your browser data to "personalize" the ad. So Tim will see his Prospect Lefferts Gardens "neighbors," while another will see "Karen & Joshua, Upper West Side." Creepy, but not bustable.
9 comments:
FWIW I thought Buntin's article was thoughtful and well written and written, not deserving being dismissed as "a sick and sorry piece journalism". True, the article is based on studies that use data from the '90s, but those studies themselves are only a few years old. Social science studies by their very nature need time to digest and analyze data. The problem, if it can be called that, with Buntin's article is that it doesn't differentiate between the sort of gentrification that's been going on since the '60s [more properly proto-gentrification back then, since that British term wasn't imported here until the late '70s] and the sort of commercial and gov't-aided HYPER-GENTRIFICATION that's occurring now, starting later than the data for the studies on which Buntin relies. The two types of "gentrification" are VERY different phenomena and not differentiating between them makes villains of ordinary homeowners [such as you Tim. and I] who are likely to oppose the recent noxious hyper-gentrification.
Regarding that AirBnb ad, I have just checked all of the AirBnb listings in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. None of the hosts are named "Karen & Joshua."
I disagree in the sense that he doesn't prove his headline in the slightest. All the stuff he cites is old news. You read Lance Freemans' "There Goes the 'Hood?" It's like a paraphrase, and that's what, 10 years old?
For the record, and I've said it before, I'm not anti-gentrification nor am I looking to make villains out of well-meaning apartment or house seekers. The problem, as I've tried to state again and again, is the systematic dismantling of neighborhoods to serve a handful of soul-less real estate owners. It's speculation and racism. Classicism, if you must, but most of the time that means racism too.
It only becomes hyper-gentrification when it becomes part of a massive strategy. That's what we're living through new. We've identified that strategy, the players, and their methods. And still we scratch our heads. It's ridiculous. The City should throw its full weight against the new overlords for rampant abuses of rent and tenant laws. Three, ten, a hundred strikes your out, and they ALL qualify - Pinnacle, Shamco, Burke Leighton you name it.
If we can use eminent domain to create Barclays, we can certainly use it to wrench these buildings from greedy hands and place them under supervision til they can be sold to landlords with proven track records of solid management, at a price that doesn't incentivize criminality.
How's that for a plan?
And if someone claims that's socialism, I'd remind them that laws are being broken. It's basically a situation akin to anti-trust - if you don't play by the rules you need to be broken up or fined into submission.
These are people's homes and we have a constitution that protects ones' life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Pulling the rug out from under someone sense of well-being under false pretenses certainly qualifies as denying one the P o' H.
Another look at John Locke's "Lockean Proviso" is in order. This is the first time since college I've been able to cite it! Hurray for higher education! (okay, I had to look it up to make sure, but yep, there it is!)
The social contract is being broken, and it must be mended.
Anon: Names changed? Made up? Would be amazing to find out that those people don't exist.
Anybody know them? Are you them?
By the way, they've done nothing wrong. It was the juxtaposition that made me laugh.
Clarkson,
FYI, none of the hosts looked like "Karen & Joshua", either. I would guess that they exits only in advertisements.
Question: would it be a smoking gun for airbnb if someone outed their bogus poster children? if these folks don't exist, it would be fun to bust them.
I bet your browsing history has identified you as interested in airbnb and PLG and placed that algorithmically custom ad in your sidebar. The purveyor of the "Q at Stillwell Ave" blog probably has Josh and Karen in his/her sidebar advertising Coney Island rentals, too.
The way these internet banner ads work is that they pull your browser data to "personalize" the ad. So Tim will see his Prospect Lefferts Gardens "neighbors," while another will see "Karen & Joshua, Upper West Side."
Creepy, but not bustable.
well i'll be damned...
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