Gentrification

In some of my earlier postings I've mentioned this word gentrification and it's a word that I'm not fond of.  I've posted it's exact meaning from the webster's online dictionary gentrification:The rehabilitation of a deteriorated neighborhood by new residents who are wealthier than the long-time residents. This can cause an increase in housing prices and lead to displacement of the long-time residents.

This is happening in many neighborhoods and while people may view this as a positive thing it really is not.  Some of the NY neighborhoods it's happening or has happened in Williamsburg, Park Slope, East Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, LIC, Woodside, to name a few and i'm sure there will be many more to come.  The housing that is being built is usually luxury cooperatives, condominiums, etc. that appeal to upper middle class or yuppies to have a closer commute to the city and I think while cleaning up a neighborhood is a good thing and the desire to improve housing but why would you build luxury housing that is out of the reach of most people who occupy these areas and price them out of their neighborhoods which many people have been living for many years sometimes generations.  Why not clean it up and offer to moderate to median income housing?  This is the thing they fail to tell all the artists, bohemians, and yuppies who get suckered yes I said it suckered into buying these properties the surrounding not yet gentrified areas aren't that safe especially near the train stations.  I ride the M train every day and I pass Marcy Ave and trust me that's not a nice area but you see plenty of high end buildings around there and I see the difference in the crowd of passengers coming in and off the train and I'm almost surprised to see this type of crowd but this is the result of gentrifcation.  I don't like gentrifcation b/c it takes away the originality of the neighborhood, it prices out long time residents and the elderly and who wants all of these high end fancy boutiques etc in your area and why should my rent be affected b/c someone else wants to live a certain lifestyle if they want all of this they can always get an apartment in Manhattan in my opinion.  I once had a conversation with a coworker and we spoke about this and they mentioned how once Park Slope was a real bad neighborhood at one point but due to the gentrification it's really nice but then I mentioned why should an elderly person who has lived in one of those landmarked buildings for many years probably raised their family there be priced out of there b/c of a bunch of yuppies who want to raise the rent and improve it for their benefit?  While I suspect she felt a small shed of sympathy I doubt they got my point b/c there are people out there that only think about their situations and their life in the present but the fact is no one stays young forever and when we get older things change and when you're retired sometimes your fixed income doesn't match up to current cost of living increases so try to tell someone to get out when they probably couldn't even afford a studio on today's rent prices!  I think it's not fair how there are old buildings with elderly residents who live there on fixed income are being targeted and they try to get rid of them b/c of rent control only to get someone who will pay a ridiculous rent for only one or a few blocks of gentrification but by the way be careful when you go down 2 blocks in the other direction but they still keep moving into these areas I think its crazy. Hmm you might want to check into the surrounding neighborhood streets before you sign on the dotted line I know I sure as heck would that's a big investment.  Last weekend when I rode the L train back home due to the crappy MTA service diversions I couldn't believe the difference in the crowd on the way back all of these bohemians, yuppies, artsy fartsy types I have to say I never used to see that back in the days when I rode the L train which is a true sign of the times for me.  You expect to see that in The Village, Union Square, etc.  not on the way to Bklyn.  I went to East Harlem a.k.a Spanish Harlem and you even see gentrifcation in this area of the city too I went there in 2009 to go to a well known and talked about puerto rican restaurant with my husband and jr.  and while the food was good I have to say that they were trying way too hard to conform to gentrified areas and I have to say that while the food was good I've also heard it used to be better and a lot of local residents have stopped going b/c of the quality of the food has gone down and want to charge table cloth prices in an area of the city which isn't high end or table cloth type of restaurant.  Why should they have to change for them? If they like the food they will come if not then don't very simple it's not an american restaurant don't expect that type of feel if you want that go elsewhere.  I got a steak and onion rice and beans everyone knows rice and beans go together I had to order it separate totally ridiculous, the appetizers are small and expensive.  I've noticed that when latino restaurant try to make their restaurants high end and appeal to a certain crowd the quality and authenticity of the food goes down but the ambiance is beautiful while ambiance is good the food has to be good for customers to keep coming back and if it's not it the business will simply not flourish.  While I think some might consider my opinions to be biased but think of it this way I wish I could afford nicer housing and if I was in a higher income bracket  that I sure wouldn't want to displace any residents who couldn't afford to live anywhere else as I've said before most people only care about life in the present and getting a nice property to invest in but is your investment really worth it?   I've even seen the effects of gentrifcation in lower manhattan where I now deem it yuppie land years ago you could shop in conways and many other discount stores in the area get affordable lunch not now if you walk down the street the conways is gone made into luxury apartments, all you see is high end over priced places like chipotle grill which is overpriced overrated chopped up crap given to you in a biodegradable serving dish, five guys burger and fries, starbucks, and many others.  The Wendys has gone up I once went there for lunch and my total was $8.85 I almost had a heart attack I only ordered a grill chicken meal so I quickly scratched them off my list.  It's getting to the point that you can't find affordable lunch anymore so I stick to pizza or sometimes bringing my own.  It's almost comparative to rising subway fares you pay more to get less.  This is a sad reality of many places in NYC it's rising cost of living and outrageous rent which is pricing out the middle class I know I will be priced out of here eventually but with this horrible economy it seems like no place is safe to go so it kind of leaves a person with their backs against the wall. The middle class is slowly disappearing from this city pretty soon you're going to have the very poor and the very wealthy. It's hard when your rent is the price of some people's mortgage payments and you have food,  utilities, clothing, etc. and average daycare in there if you have kids the cost of living keeps going up but your paycheck stays the same making it harder to get by and save for a rainy day.  Seems like things will get worse before they get better, seems like this recession is even worse than the one in the late 80's early 90's and it's going to take us a long time to recover from it if we ever do totally.