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Carrie | Post-Trip Reflection

My definition of gentrification:

A systematic process by which the demographic and architectural components of a city landscape are transformed. At its core, gentrification is capitalism at work – an influx of the comparatively wealthy pushes out the existing poorer class – that often but doesn’t necessarily involve adding artistic and cultural value to the existing community.

This trip has been so informative, provocative, and memorable. It was so interesting to have investigated gentrification from different angles, and to have seen everyone’s differing perspectives on this phenomenon. It was amazing to see, on the one hand, the work of GOLES, a smaller grassroots organization that fights gentrification and is very tied to the neighborhood of the Lower East Side, helping tenants to preserve their homes and push back against agencies like HPD and NYCHA. And then, to have met and talked with representatives from the Housing Preservation and Development, and hear their side of the story. For Elizabeth, gentrification was very much an inevitable process of New York – she loved to describe the city and its residents as a “victim of our own success.” To her, the name of the game was to expand New York’s economic potential to compete with international cities like London, and in the process, provide as many affordable housing units for lower income families as possible. It was so eye opening to see how different everyone’s perspectives were on gentrification, and how drastically distinct and sometimes conflicting each organization’s goals were from another’s. Earlier in the week, we also met with CPC and Artemis Construction, which prided itself on creating 80/20 affordable housing units to decrease discrimination amongst residents of differing socioeconomic statuses, as well as bringing natives back to Harlem. Though projects like these gave me some hope, it was also discouraging to see how few of these units were being built in comparison to the great need for lower-income housing New York City has.

 Through this week-long study of gentrification, I cannot say that I have walked away an expert on the topic. Nor can I say I completely understand the phenomenon. But I do feel that I now have a greater understanding and appreciation for how incredibly faceted, layered, and complicated this process is. I have seen the immense anger that it evokes in the residents it has negatively affected, and I have seen the pride in developers that attempt to “solve” part of the problem. Gentrification truly is very complex. I will say, though, that I have come out of this trip a little disheartened. I do feel that gentrification is somewhat inevitable, and that there really isn’t much that can be done to stop it. We can only hope to slow the process, and increase awareness about gentrification. And in the future, if I ever inadvertently become a gentrifier, I will attempt to support local shops (like Tops!), and learn the history of the neighborhood so as not to culturally erase the rich, historical background of the city. Mitigating the negative effects is really all we can hope to do.

I am very excited to continue the conversation back on campus, as I feel that a lot of people would benefit from learning about gentrification. Thank you to everyone on the trip, for making this week so memorable and fun! I have absolutely loved just hanging out with you guys and playing Four-Tiered Charades and walking in a big conglomerated mass down Nightmare New York hallways. A big shout-out to Simon & Marlyn, who were absolutely amazing throughout this process, and whose work made this whole trip possible! And of course to Kemy (my mother Morticia) for being an amazing coordinator! And to New York City, for being amazing.

One of my favorite moments of the trip was canoeing up the Bronx River. I chose this picture because I thought it nicely captured how silly and crazy our group can be. Here, I think Amanda lost her oar, and we are trying to fish it out of the water. Classic. 

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Mural art along our walk in DUMBO.

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Marina | Post-Trip Reflection

Gentrification: The indefinite process of migration and property development by which an urban community is shifts with regards to its demographic dimensions (ie. class, race, educational background, income), economic dimensions (ie. cost of living, rising rents, types of businesses) as well as cultural dimensions (alienation, the value of one's cultural capital). This influx of newcomers, who usually posses more monetary wealth or cultural capital than existing residents, often results in the ultimate displacement of said residents.

      Developing a working definition of gentrification challenged us but the core themes that developed throughout the week are: the stress on housing, on the changing desirability of certain neighborhoods, CAPITALISM, and on the role of artists like Su Friederich, long-term residents like Yukie Ohta, real estate landlords, developers like Robert Ezrapour, and other stakeholders such as the Housing Preservation and Development agency (HPD), educators like Cynthia Rosario at Heketi, and grassroots organizations such as Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).

      We learned a lot about the NYC housing crisis that exists at all income levels, according to NYC HPD. Dissatisfied with the 420-1A tax abatement policies, some elements of DeBlasio's ten year plan to build 200,000 new affordable housing units throughout the city, and the seemingly stingy 20%-30%-50% affordable housing splits of new developments, I came away wondering: How do we align private property developers' and landlords' interests with those of the people of New York? Is 20-40% the best we can do to create quality housing options for low or extremely-low income people? Should a lottery of 27,000 people for 25 spots be considered a success or a failure of the system? Overall I felt there was a scarcity of options and a limited awareness of available options with regards to schooling options for kids and housing options for individuals and families in NYC.

      One thing I wish we had more time to do was visit the Tenement Museum to grasp more of New York's unique history and relationship with immigration, as well as speak to more residents who were experiencing displacement or adverse effects of living in gentrified neighborhoods. This trip has inspired me to explore long-term residents' perceptions of ethnicity and the influx of Chinese immigration and property development in Chinatown, Manhattan and other ethnic pockets of the city for my senior thesis, and I am very excited for the chance to keep learning more about this issue. 

      Furthermore, this trip left us asking: How do we, as college graduates, mitigate the negative effects of gentrification, especially when we are at risk to become gentrifiers ourselves? I hope we can continue the conversation back on campus.

      Thank you to our community partners for taking the time to meet with us and speak candidly about their work and personal views about gentrification and housing in the city. I am also so grateful to the rest of our group for lots of charades on the subway, introducing me to ShakeShack and the deliciousness of Sriracha, and navigating this week together (even when it meant we had to turn around a few times to get where we were going). Special shout-out to our amazing leaders Simon and Marlyn, and our awesome coordinator Kemy!! This was a wonderful way to use the city as our classroom and I can't imagine having this experience with a better group!

      One of my favorite moments from the visit to Heketi Community Charter School in South Bronx:

      10 - 2 = 8 Teacher: Can you explain how you got this answer? Julianna: Well sometimes I use the number line, my head, my heart...

        This second grade class had just been learning about sociologists: "Sociologists are people who study people, places, and events." Written above is a definition of community: "A community is a place where people live, work, and have fun together."

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Ellie | Post-Trip Reflection

Gentrification: The transformation of a community that occurs when people of a higher socioeconomic class come into a community of lower socioeconomic class, causing prices to rise, resulting with the displacement of residents and the bankruptcy of small-scale, local businesses.  

I have learned so much on this trip and it really sparked my interest in urban studies. This trip was so unique in that it allowed us to examine and explore gentrification on the individual level as well as in the context of the larger picture. We talked with people like Su Friedrich about their experiences with gentrification and displacement. We also got to observe gentrification in process as we saw construction on almost every street in every neighborhood as well as the presence of public and private affordable housing efforts. We then got to apply all that we saw and heard to be able to critically analyze the proposed and implemented strategies of both governmental organizations and non-profit organizations to combat the negative effects of gentrification on their citizens. Although I may not have a concrete definition of gentrification or a solid idea of what the best solution for the problems it causes, but the trip has set fire to my curiosity and I have so many more questions that I plan to explore, such as is gentrification inevitable or what is the line between the government's responsibility and the government infringing on the rights of citizens that are considered to be the "culprits" of gentrification. Lastly, when I am living on my own, I will be a much more informed citizen with the knowledge of some of the tactics and strategies that I can practice as an individual to make sure that I am not contributing to gentrification or at the very least, minimizing my impact.

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Some illustrations and notes Emily jotted down on the trip.

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Emily's notes from some of the discussions we had on our breakout trip.

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Emily's notes from the second day of the trip - Big Onion Tours and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

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Emily's post-trip reflections

I began this trip with the desire to better understand the process of gentrification, as well as the role of art in perpetuating or problematizing that process. I left the trip feeling more ambivalent about the issue -- I feel like I have a lot more knowledge and awareness about gentrification, while understanding that there is still a lot I can learn.

One thing is for sure, and that is just how complicated gentrification is (as attested to by the "debrief" illustration above, which roughly charts the flow of one of our conversations after a day of visiting community partners.) There is no one, malicious agent that is causing gentrification to happen in the neighborhoods and boroughs that we visited -- yet it is undeniable that gentrification is oftentimes a violent process that displaces the original residents by forcing them out of the areas they've lived in via rising costs of living.

I also gave a lot of thought to art on this trip. As a Visual Art major and as someone who is considering pursuing a creative career (possibly as a fine artist), it was particularly interesting to visit Louis Meisel's photorealist art collection in Soho, and then to immediately visit the JUDD House. One thing is clear to me: art is something that belongs to no one person. In my journey and process to craft an identity as an artist and to hone my own taste, I will have to be adventurous and open-minded.

Overall, I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity and look forward to post-Breakout activities.

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Emily's notes from the first day of the trip.

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Paul | Post-Trip Reflection

Gentrification: a process by which former residents of a community are displaced by newcomers of a higher social status, causing prices to rise.

This definition of gentrification is one I would have given before the trip started, but I now think about gentrification in a much more negative light.This trip also made me think about gentrification as a sort of symbol of how our national economy has been changing over our history. When we visited DUMBO and Vinegar Hill on Monday (and again in Soho on Wednesday), we looked at several apartment buildings that were originally meant for industrial use before being converted into apartment buildings or tech startup headquarters. Original proprietors included Arbuckle’s, which made coffee, or Moore brothers paints, but now include Etze or foreign financiers who do not live in their apartments but instead use them to speculate with real estate. While the United States was once in an industrial revolution that arguably lasted into the 1950s, we are now in the “Third Industrial Revolution” of tech startups and finance. Gentrification is important not only as an instrument of social and artistic change, but there are numerous economic aspects to gentrification as well.

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Day 6: Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Bronx River Tour, Pho and Halloween

Today began with an early morning visit to HPD, which was down in Manhattan, by all of the government buildings. Its a beautiful area, and after having all of our bags thoroughly checked and our ID's signed in, we were finally able to go into the office of Housing Preservation and Development to meet with Liz G, the director of External Affairs for the department. 

She began by speaking about the 10 year plan that DiBlasio hopes to implement. Emphasizing the point that NYC has a severe gap in the demand / supply of housing, and that there are a lot more people who want to live there than they can fit. In her words, NYC is a victim of its own success. Along those lines, she detailed to us different accounts of how her public-private partnerships in development have blossomed into great 80-20 or 50-30-20 developments. 

For her, gentrification was an inevitable, capitalist process. It was natural to her. She stated how NYC was in direct competition with international cities like London, Paris, etc, and how gentrification was the product of NYC's growth. In her eyes, this is a normal, good process, where casualities are bound to happen, but all in the name of expanding NYC to be the best that it can be. She spoke a lot about the idea of these developers, "as of right" being able to build 100% luxury, but only through HPD's subsidies did it help to mitigate the total destruction of the prior income bracket. 

After that, we headed up to the Bronx, where Michelle, Colleen, and Julie met us, and we went canoeing. Pretty self-explanatory, there were a few bumps and small splashes, but overall it was a fun venture out into the water, and to observe the highly industrial area. 

We then went to get pho and Grand Pho in Chinatown, as a surprise on a whim by us. It was a great success. 

This was followed promptly by a visit to Wafels and Dinges, where some of us gorged on ridiculously warm and gooey waffles. From there 9 we had changed at the restaurant) we went over to Washington Square Park, where we waited for Houston, before going to the surprise. 

Nightmare New York, the Haunted House - was a lot of fun - and most of it was just because we were all there together. The best part was walking in the dead-end and still thinking that we were scared. Classic us. 

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