Category: Blog 2

I live in Kensington, Brooklyn and I have noticed neoliberalism takes place within my community and the neighborhoods around me. In the apartment building I live in there used to be mainly just Russian and Uzbek people that live here, and my family and I have been living here for 16 years. And as the time passes and years go on, I’ve seen a lot of people move out and I noticed a lot of young Gen Z people have been moving in. There are Russian and Uzbek people that live here but not nearly as many as there used to be. And there have been a handful of new restaurants open up and it seems to be directed towards younger people like Gen Z. They look so modern and I could see why these restaurants appeal to them. I normally see these restaurants packed with Gen Z people almost all the time. The area around me is changing and bringing in different people. It shows neoliberalism because the area is starting to look something like Williamsberg which is really gentrified. I can relate it to Dickinson’s argument because she spoke about graffiti and how the police are trying to get rid of graffiti so the city of New York looks safe. And they do this for the middle and upper class people because that’s who they care about the most. And I feel like the same thing is happening here in my community because the rent is rising, new people are moving in, and the neighborhood around is changing into something that appeals to the new people. And it’s used to attract them. The meme means that being different is seen as a bad thing because it doesn’t ‘fit in’ but if it can be used to get something like money, it will be exploited to get money from it.

The Bronx is a huge multicultural borough in my city and it is where I am from. The Bronx is mainly known for its middle class and predominantly filled with people of color. I have seen some type of Neoliberalism in my borough over the last few years of my life and in reality it is mainly small businesses in the community. Rent recently has been increased which are pushing many people of color out side of the community and leaving room for newer upper class people to come in. The small businesses in the community are often let alone and all my life up until now I am seeing that they are all being gentrified with bigger corporations. In my area there used to be a lot of pawn shops and small convince stores but I have been seeing recently more and more stores like “Macys” and “Best Buy” or newer fast foods like “Peachwave” which is a soft served ice cream place compared to the minority “Mr softee” seen everywhere else. This could be due to modernization but the new businesses are predominantly upperclass and which my area is mainly middle class citizens. The businesses are often left for rent or even empty for a couple of months but then later on they are replaced with a newer and more known companies. I can compare this to Dickinson’s argument about graffiti and how it is bad for the society when in reality there isn’t any rational reason or problem it is causing to society. The same with all these organizations that are coming into the society that aren’t causing harm but yet modernizing the area into something new. Is it really bad? or is it something that is normal into future upcoming changes for the borough.

My whole life I grew up and was raised in Queens New York to be more specifically Elmhurst. This city change a lot when I was growing up due to the fact that a movie theater I used to go to with my family when I was a little kid was transform into a Target and a fast food restaurant named Chick-fil-a where I work as right now. 82 Jackson Heights used to be a little neighborhood where there wasn’t a lot of shopping center or fast restaurants to choose from. But now a lot of people would be around there to shop with family or friends. I find it unrevealing how a neighborhood can change that much in a second and how more diverse it became too. Don’t get me wrong there’s still little posts ups where people sell food in their small carts and a lot of people would buy from them. It’s nice that that’s still around just a little reminder how it was back then. People were all new to this and wasn’t sure to be comfortable with it and get used to it knowing the fact there area is changing due to all these business shopping stores and restaurants. But it was a society change that change all people too with what they eat or what they choose to shop due to the fact that new clothing brands were opening up around them. Everyone try to make the best out of it but it was sad that place I used to go when I was younger closed down or went out of business because they chose another modern more well business to open up. A restaurant that I would used to go to with my family wasn’t the same anymore because of changed of owner so the food  didn’t taste the same anymore.

Queens is such a diverse borough with people from different cultures and backgrounds, however, you may find that one area houses certain cultures or people than others. In Elmhurst, you will find a lot of Latino people, along with Latino small businesses.  I lived in Elmhurst up until I was 15 years old, I have never even heard of gentrification till that point. It wasn’t till I moved to corona that I realized what was happening to the area I used to live in. A new chipotle store, along with a target opened up in Elmhurst. 15 year old me would see this as a great thing until you realize what is actually happening behind the scenes. Why would big-name stores like ”Target” and ”Chipotle” appear out of nowhere in a lower-middle-class Latin area? gentrification. I remember there being a bunch of 99 cent stores as well as some small restaurants in the very same spot these new stores are now. Gentrification is the process by which the arrival of wealthier people and businesses arrive into poor communities, this displaces the people as well as rasing rent, and housing costs. Target and Chipotle aren’t really popular with Latino people, but it does appeal to wealthier people of a different class. The area I live in now which is corona hasn’t been gentrified yet as the housing here is already expensive, it is mostly 2-floor houses and there aren’t many apartment complexes.

One argument Dickinson brings up is the displacement of small businesses. Once these small businesses get replaced, the original workers are out of jobs that are most likely family-owned. The only person who would benefit from this would be the original owner while the rest of the workers are left to find another job. Many people in these small businesses lack the knowledge or education to look elsewhere for jobs, especially in my old neighborhood as everyone primarily spoke Spanish. Gentrification is a horrible process that we will see at some point in our lives.

In the city of New York, small businesses and community essentials are slowly dying out and being replaced by big companies that have enough money to pay the New York rent. Personally, as a kid, I would always go to this small store by my house that would fix any damaged or stained clothes. The neighborhood loved the owners of this place but sadly, I remember walking up to it, and the building was under reconstruction. I waited 2 years to see if he was renovating the store, but it ended up being an office building that had no public use. What ends up happening because of this, is the demand for certain services increases, which makes stores pushing the prices through the roof. Not many people can afford these price jumps, which is the main reason for high amounts of poverty and homelessness in New York. One great argument that Dickinson’s text brings up, is that these small stores that are being replaced, had workers that were working for their family and living on paycheck to paycheck. When the store gets replaced, they are forced to look for a new job, in which that process could take several weeks. This is obviously plays a huge impact on their financial status. Their spots are being replaced by the upper class. Slowly, New York is going to be mainly a profit based area, with no value for public needs.

Good evening Class, 

My name is Brian Lazo Bautista and I have been a Woodside/Sunnyside, Queens resident for 18 years now. Personally, I feel like Queens New York is my home and I know everything about the neighborhood and aspects of it. Being from Woodside/ Sunnyside Queens, I have seen many changes and renovations to my community. The effects of Neo-Liberalism and gentrification in Queens are unreal. Personally, I experienced gentrification with the new renovations of public spaces and small business workplaces transformed into private institutions and private buildings for capital gain. The sad reality of this is we see throughout history that lower-income individuals get neglected and taken advantage of due to their financial status. The reality is Gentrification mainly prioritizes the needs of wealthy individuals in the United States. In The Making of Space Race and Place”, Maggie Dickinson states “ Maybe if this art was not from a ghetto, there would be a different approach to art from our society. If it wasn’t just a bunch of kids who weren’t expected to make anything with their lives anyway.” This quote demonstrates how Dickinson wanted to clearly inform the reader that race and identity play a huge role in the war on graffiti, targeted towards low-income families the majority being Latino and black people. The War on Graffiti shows that the main agenda of Politicians is to attract private owned businesses to create a prosperous and more wealthy city that only benefits them. Lastly, the meme in the Blog post to me means that uniqueness or something not normal to society is bad unless the rich people or people in power can benefit from it and exploit it. In the context of the article, the meme correlates with the article by demonstrating how the politicians main agenda is to push and remove low-income families, majority Black and Latino, out of neighborhoods so that private owned businesses can come in and take control for capital gain. The war on graffiti is shutting down the voices and self expression of graffiti of low income minorities through criminalization .

In the city that never sleeps, NYC is often portrayed as a bustling city that’s always in an economic boom. But this image is not always true in all neighborhoods. I have seen many communities fall into the hands of gentrification. It’s a change as clearly as night and day. A side effect of neo-liberalism. Many families are being pushed out of their homes and businesses due to the cost of living rising. This is due to new residential buildings being built and high chains companies moving into these neighborhoods. Although at first glance this may seem a move in the right direction, it is actually not the case. This leads to a higher economic status people moving into the neighborhoods thundering up the prices which makes lower-income families not being able to afford to live in those areas.

Personally, I live in a balanced Queens neighborhood. Recently there was a new apartment building being built in my community which in turn did not have much effect on us but it did have an impact on other neighbors. We see the greed of the owners of the apartment building come into play when the city announced they were building a brand new homeless shelter two blocks away from the brand new apartment building. They immediately went to protest but with little to no success. I can only imagine what other neighborhoods have to go through.

The first hint of neo-liberalism seen in New York can be traced back nearly 50 years ago in the 1970s. The author, Dickinson, portrays this well in the article, The Making of Space, Race, and Place. Neo-liberalism is policies that support a free-market, capitalist environment, and where businesses have more control than the government. A simple act of going against graffiti shows this. NYC was in a low financial state at this point in time. Politicians wanted to attract businesses to become a prosperous city. Citizens, more often low-income teenagers would express themselves with graffiti as an outcry to their community needs. But politicians wanted to push these low-income families, majority Black and Latino, out of neighborhoods so that business can come in. Exclusively banning graffiti to shut down the voice of the citizens in need.

Personally, as someone who has not lived in one particular place all their life, it could be difficult to witness the gentrification or urbanization of a location that I stay in. However, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen it happen in areas that I frequently visit.
Being a resident of the Bronx has allowed me to first-hand witness the gentrification of the area I used to live in and to go to high school in, Co-op City. Over the years, public areas in Co-op City have been taken over by corporations and become a spot that welcomes people with deeper pockets. For example, the fast-food restaurants around Co-op City 4 years ago included, but weren’t limited to, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Popeyes. This was fitting for the majority of the residents of Co-op as they could access cheap fast food with ease. However, now in Co-op, you can find new restaurants that have taken over the public spaces such as Shake Shack, Chipotle, and Starbucks.

To make matters worse, the segregation in the area is so blatant that it is almost vexatious. For example, there are two main places to get coffee in Co-op, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. With the prices, you are more likely to find the white residents of Co-op in Starbucks and the black residents in Dunkin. Same with Shack Shack versus McDonald’s, respectively. All of this is a result of the influx of white families that have been entering Co-op City in recent years. It diversifies the area that has been minority populated for a while. However, it also gives small businesses the chance to jack up prices unnecessarily and large corporations a chance to step in and privatize public spaces. I am not necessarily the type to not support diversification, however, I see no need for small businesses to jack up their prices for the customers who have been shopping with them for years.

Hello

My name is Edryan and as a Mount Vernon resident and being really close to the Bronx I have first hand seen the effects of Neo Liberalism and gentrification. I was raised mainly in the Bronx so seeing the rapid change of project buildings being “renovated” in exchange to have wealthier families and usually non persons of color to essentially replace these the resident already. For example, in my father building in which he still currently lives the buildings purchased from someone else and made anew. With the reservations came this increase hijacked rent and price where it was risen tremendously. Being in the 1970’s with extreme economic and political troubles business elites came this sense to having different austerity policies as we mentioned in class in with graffiti and this is where the world of privatization came from. We now rent out certain places that used to contain small business and give them off to studios for higher businesses. In worst cases these decisions can even lead to the homelessness or displacements of certain individuals. they can literally not afford to live after essentially being kicked out from their businesses or home.   In addition, near my home there was a project that really impacted a lot of thing it was called Mount Vernon’s Sandford Boulevard Redevelopment Project. It made allowed more major businesses to come to Mount Vernon including Target, Staples e.t.c. It also took over a lot of smaller businesses and was even under fire for a very long time from neighboring counties(pelham manor) for the increased traffic it would bring, the very dramatic increase of population and congestion, and the way it would effect these smaller businesses, yet, they still lost and it went through. Even though, Dickson did mention many things like this there is always two sides to every story. This project did bring forth much new jobs and did overall help the struggling economy within Mount Vernon. So of course both stories have to be heard.

Neoliberalism is not something new in this country we live in and in particular, New York City. Growing up in District 2, Lower East Side, and Chinatown area, I have seen the tremendous change in residents. As a low-income community, money is an issue and as the economy grows and inflation widens, a lot of landlords are in desperate need of cash intake so that they can pay for property taxes and more so that they can feed themselves and their families. The lifestyle in the neighborhood is that “you just have to make enough to spend and live on”. Many people like my parents have no hope or praise in moving to a better neighborhood or going anywhere up the economic ladder simply because they do not have the ability to do so. They rely on their kids and generations that have it better than them, to complete that task for them. These residents in the Lower East Side/ Chinatown neighborhood get crushed even more when prices in their neighborhood start to raise, rent increases, and people are forced to move out and find a new home because the market is demanding a wealthier lifestyle. This is closely related to gentrification and the conquering/ replacing of many neighborhoods and their people. Neoliberalism to me is like a domino effect because once it is destroying the lives of many, it only gets worst. Businesses in the area were closing and being rented to wealthier people as studios… The idea that a business that profited owners and consumers gets turned into a studio for personal use only…  A neighborhood filled with liveliness and traditions became a place so quiet and dull. With this happening, those who win will keep winning and those who are bound to lose will lose always. As Dickinson mentions in his writing, Neoliberalism makes it that poor people will no longer even be needed and totally discarded even when they were the building blocks and pieces necessary for the rich to even be able to get richer. Poor people would contribute to jobs that wealthy people did not want, and help sustain the workforce and supplies, now almost 80% of them are unemployed. The outcomes of Neoliberalism are scary and inhumane.