The Shifting Faces of Bedford-Stuyvesant - Mini documentary (2014) скачать в хорошем качестве

The Shifting Faces of Bedford-Stuyvesant - Mini documentary (2014)

A look at gentrification in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy). Visit my blog at http://abrooklynblogger.com   / abrooklynblogger   The Shifting Faces of Bedford-Stuyvesant BY NICOLE GROSSETT Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, has long been known to be a predominantly black neighborhood. In fact Bedford-Stuyvesant, also known as Bed-Stuy, has been featured in rap videos including videos done by Notorious B.I.G. (Biggy Smalls). Spike Lee’s movie “Do the Right Thing” (1989) was also filmed in Bed-Stuy. Bed-Stuy was known in the past for high crime rates and many feared going through the neighborhood. Today, the faces of Bed-Stuy are changing. Many Bed-Stuy homes have been renovated. When one enters these homes, the colloquial name “Bed-Stuy” doesn’t seem befitting. One now feels the need to call the whole name Bedford-Stuyvesant because it is rapidly becoming an affluent neighborhood. Many homes in the area are now worth millions post-renovation. Walking through the neighborhood, one sees new faces, primarily white faces. One of the interesting aspects of the gentrification process in Bedford-Stuyvesant is that at this moment, the whites are interspersed with the blacks creating diversity. One may note a young white woman walking her Yorkie and on the corner that she is walking there are blacks who are of a different social class hanging out at the corner bodega. The whites don’t appear to be fearful, but seem to have embraced the neighborhood. Diversity is a great thing. However, the process of creating a more diverse neighborhood is a problem. The problem is that many of the original black residents have been forced out of their apartments in order to be replaced by new, mostly white, tenants with more means. Sometimes race and economic class correlate. Per the U.S. Census Bureau for 2007-2011, there were 192,160,374 whites (non-Hispanic) in the United States. Out of the white population, 18,959,814 are below poverty level which translates to 9.9% of the white population (non-Hispanic). The U.S. Census Bureau quantified that there are 36,699,584 blacks in the United States out of which 9,472,583 are below poverty level. Therefore, 25.8% of the black population are below the poverty level. The median household income for whites (non-Hispanic) in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was $56,570 and the median income for blacks in 2012 was $32,902. Black tenants of the lower economic class in Bedford-Stuyvesant have been offered money to cover their moving expenses just so that they will move out of the newly renovated buildings or buildings that are in the process of renovation. Some black residents have been back and forth to court just to stay in their rented apartments in which they have years of history and family memories. There are new businesses in the area, namely bars and restaurants. These new businesses are white-owned businesses. Is this the same trend that was experienced in Washington D.C. in which white Suburbia decided that they wanted to move into the city and bought out the black residents? Is black America, no more than nomads who must move at white America’s financial whim? According to a Washington Post article (January 18, 2014), written by Marc Fisher, in a Washington D.C. neighborhood which has experienced gentrification, the population “…went from 6 percent white in 2000 to 33 percent white in 2010 — Washingtonians’views about gentrification are polarized along racial and economic lines: Among whites, 77 percent say redevelopment has been a good thing, but 53 percent of blacks say it has not.” Similarly, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, as stated by Alison Gregor in her New York Times article (July 9, 2014), “From 2000 to 2010, the number of white residents grew from 2.4 percent to 15 percent, while the number of black residents shrank from 75 to 60 percent, according to census data…In the western half of the neighborhood, the changes have been even more dramatic, with white residents making up more than 25 percent of the population, and black residents 49 percent.” As Bedford-Stuyvesant becomes more affluent, the faces are shifting from black to white. Again, economic class and race are many times synonymous. Historically blacks have been poorer than whites in this country. Without economic power, one has no power. Some of the original black residents have been uprooted from their familiar dwellings and have been forced to move out in the name of gentrification. Is this process fair to the original black residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant?