Many residents of the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn are fearful of a possibility of gentrification. The neighborhood, which many describe as a small town in a big city, has recently seen an increase of new comers who have been priced out of Manhattan and nearby Park Slope. They want to add coffee shops, restaurants, and bars into the neighborhood which doesn’t have any.
While change is needed in the neighborhood, by way of cleaner streets and road improvements, many long time residents, including myself, are afraid that the new comers desire for more businesses will lead to gentrification, in particular the possibility of Kensington becoming a second Park Slope. Kensington does lack business (in fact there are little except for Bangledesh, Mexican, Pakistani, and Chinese food places) nail salons, and 99 cent stores, but the idea of bringing in new businesses leads many to believe that Kensington will soon be lost to gentrification. Caroline DiSimone, a long time resident of the neighborhood, is vocal about the possibility of gentrification. “People move to Kensington because it does have the atmosphere and appeal of a small town,” she says. “The proposals for adding new businesses in the neighborhood threaten that. This is a family-oriented neighborhood. What are we gonna do with bars?”
Here is a link to an article from Newsday where Kensington is profiled. They discuss the residents fear of gentrification and even speak to the founder of the neighborhood blog, who is an advocate for new businesses in Kensington.
It seems like gentrification is taking over Brooklyn. There are mixed feelings on this issue, we want the neighborhood to get better, but we still want to keep the original culture. How do we find the midpoint to have both?
In my neighborhood right beneath the elevated train tracks there used to be a lot of empty warehouses and people are afraid to walk near there because the street is very quiet. Over the last couple of years more stores like 99 cents stores, cell phone stores and small insurance companies opened up and the area got busier. Now the street under the elevated train track is not that scary anymore. The stores there has made it convenient for nearby residents to purchase small household items and such. The thing I wonder about is since there is already four 99 cents store within 9 blocks on the same avenue I wonder how they still manage to stay in business.