Host Intro: The average rent in NYC is at an all time high right now, with many people being pushed out of Manhattan and the more expensive parts of Brooklyn ever deeper into the outer boroughs. One neighborhood that is currently absorbing a large chunk of this migration and experiencing rapid gentrification as a result, is Ridgewood, Queens. Cali Snyder spoke with some transplants and longtime Ridgewood residents to get a sense of how the neighborhood is changing.
AMBI: Punching in the code to enter an apartment.
TRACK: I’m here with Jacob Eufemia in Ridgewood, Queens. He lives on the upper east side, but is intrigued with Ridgewood because his rent in Manhattan is increasing.
ACT: Jacob: My rent was actually increased in the summer over $300 dollars. Which is actually insane. So what I’ve found I’ve had to do is definitely manage my money better.
TRACK: His interest was sparked as he made the trek to Ridgewood, a piece of NYC that he does not frequent. He explains living in Ridgewood is more affordable but it also poses a threat to the community that was here first.
ACT: Jacob: At the rate of gentrification in NYC you can look at Brooklyn and you can look at Queens, Queens is literally getting gentrified, the Bronx is gonna get gentrified.
TRACK: It feels as if the rise in rent is slowly kicking everyone out of Manhattan, forcing people to move into more affordable boroughs.
ACT: Jacob: No one in their right mind could afford a place in Manhattan living off of minimum wage.
AMBI: Subway stopping
TRACK: I am joined by Krisstal Ramirez, on the corner of Summerfield Street and Wycoff. She has been in Ridgewood for a year, but lived in Bushwick before. She has had firsthand experience of gentrification.
ACT: Krisstal: I mean things have gotten really expensive especially with the recession we’re on right now and people moving from other different places. It has increased the cost of living.
TRACK: While living in Bushwick, gentrification was present in Krisstal’s life too.
ACT: Krisstal: They told us that they were gonna rent the places, they were gonna renovate the spaces and they were gonna increase the rent. We could have stayed with the new owner, but the rent was gonna increase, so the landlord was nice enough to take us where she wanted us to move, which was Ridgewood.
AMBI: Cars driving by
TRACK: Nick Krueck, stopped while walking his dog. He is also a new resident of Ridgewood.
ACT: Nick: In Ridgewood, I’ve only lived here for 10 months, I’ve been in Bushwick for 10 years.
TRACK: He explains his reasoning for moving here, which has seemed to be a common theme for the new Ridgwoodians.
ACT: Nick: It’s just an apartment that we liked and was in a, I say this loosely, reasonable price range.
TRACK: He has experienced, first hand, the demographic change of Ridgewood.
ACT: Nick: I work at a Bar off of the Myrtle Wyckoff stop, and our demographics just changed. A lot of the transplants in the neighborhood are younger kids and that’s going to change the demographic, gonna change the scene, gonna change people’s wants and stuff like that.
TRACK: The original demographic of Ridgewood was mainly German immigrants in 1908, as time went on a large Hispanic population resided in Ridgewood. While Ridgewood has been a historically family centered area, it has now shifted to an influx of young hipsters.
ACT: Nick: You know I do feel like more people could be part of the community that are moving in here and making an effort to support the people that have been here for 20-30 years, and learning about them and their stories.
AMBI: Train leaving.
TRACK: Just a couple blocks away, a luxury apartment building was put on the market in September, and a Burlington coat factory is scheduled to open this fall. Gentrification is happening in Ridgewood right before our eyes. For Baruch College, this is Cali Snyder.
