Recently there was an attempt to rezone Industry City in Sunset Park around 2015 but was rejected in 2020. This was mainly because many of the people who lived in Sunset Park was opposed to the idea as rezoning Industry City would be yet another attempt of gentrification in the area.
The rezoning project was an attempt at neoliberalism in Sunset Park that led the people that lived in the area, mainly minorities, to actively speak out against it. They ended up succeeding but even when they did, what they faced was similar to what graffiti artists faced in Dickinson’s text. During and after the rezoning process, rhetoric by the media was used to create a specific narrative that benefited neoliberalism.
The media when speaking on the decision would focus on the loss of job opportunities and the overall misfortunate failure of the rezoning. While the decision was a victory for many of the residents who wanted to help protect their neighborhood by stopping the continuing attempts of gentrification in the area. Especially as many of the development in Industry City would not be aimed at the neighborhood’s demographic. Gentrification is also a serious issue in the neighborhood as Sunset Park has already been recognized as a neighborhood in NYC that is undergoing gentrification.
The usage of rhetoric, especially about neoliberalism in the city, is important as outsiders will learn on the issue based on the media. Therefore, focusing only on how the loss of neoliberalism means the loss of jobs while ignoring and disregarding the negative implications it will have on the neighborhood and its residents, leads outsiders to side with neoliberalism, even if subconsciously. Similarly to how the media in the city would try to criminalize graffiti artists while praising neoliberalism as the savior of the city at the time.
I am so happy that the people who fighting for their community won this “war”. Neoliberalism is a such great key to reach the success for this community because those people who wants to make a profit out of the area are most likely selfish and you will never know what will happened after all the rezoning, like maybe the resident will become homeless, we never know.
Thank fully in this case the attempt to rezone was rejected. There are many changes being made because people with the bigger power always think that “upgrading” different neighborhoods and communities would make the places look better or expect more people to go just to make even more money. This makes them not care for those who are being affected as long as they are being benefited. And its sad because its mostly minority groups that are always affected when nothing is their fault.