The Importance Of Food Rents In New York City

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, a New York Times best seller, written by Matthew Desmond, truly captures the lives of not only people who are getting or have gotten evicted, but also the landlords who have to evict these people. Desmond follows the lives of eight families including Sherrena, Arleen, Tobin, the Hinkstons, Lamar, Scott and several others, to discover more about their lives and how they have dealt with evictions in Milwaukee. The evictions of these eight families take place all other Milwaukee, the Northside, Southside, Westside and Eastside.

Many laborers do not have enough money to support their family. The goal of the owner contradicts the goals of the laborer because the owner desires the maximum amount of labor with the minimum amount of pay, but the laborer desires the maximum amount of pay with the minimum amount of labor. Hence, capitalism paves the way for employers to control laborers.

Producers are always looking for a new way to make money. They research ways to produce their merchandise more cheaply. “...‘appliances’ designed to wear out quickly and be thrown away.” (Berry) If people were more concerned with function and not money then America would have a lot less waste and Americans would waste a lot less money. Producers also research new products they can make money from. “Consumer wants can have bizarre, frivolous or even immoral origins, and an admirable case can still be made for a society that seeks to satisfy them.” (Gailbraith). Producers encourage and scheme ways to get you to buy their product. Producers know that the economy controls everything.

capitalism leads to a concentration of property and thus a concentration of resources and power in relatively few hands.

The problem is there is inevitably a lack of housing, due to homelessness and influx of people. Without enough housing, the prices of the homes will be very expensive; however, if there is not a balanced mix of luxury and affordable housing, those already living there will be forced to leave because they will not be able to maintain taxes and other increases that will be tacked on to housing expenses. In order to make this process a bit more feasible, New York created the “Inclusionary Zoning program.” This program required “that developers set aside a certain percentage of units in a new development as affordable units.” The issue with this zoning ordinance is that although it was stated as a “requirement” the city kept it as a voluntary process.” With the ordinance being voluntary and developers with a capitalist mentality, many developers opted out of adhering to the ordinance. Although the residents of New York may not be in the power broker or decision-making classification, many of its inhabitants have been there for many years. Unless there are efforts to make this ordinance mandatory, there will be much opposition to keep new development out.

Living in Manhattan is a struggle, its also prestigious and convenient. Consider that Manhattan has a population of 20 million, from that number about 7 million people commute to Manhattan for work.

Since the recession started in 2007, the national statistics of unemployment, low-income households, and hunger have increased yearly. Even after the recession had ended in 2009 the economic issues are still very prominent. Everything economically related to the health and welfare of the vast majority of our American citizens, has sky rocketed in a very negative way. Students, parents, children and families alike have, and continue to struggle with hunger on a day to day basis. Our communities have become impoverished with food, expanding state to state with hunger and even starvation. New York City, has become a haven of families struggling with the realities that hunger can bring. How long can we live like this before somebody does anything about this?

As the leasing amount and house rent goes up while there is stagnation in wages and salaries, affording the monthly rent becomes difficult leading to gentrification in the city.

Gentrification is a major reason for the increase in rent prices throughout New York City. Harlem rent prices have gone up over the past years because of new condominiums and businesses that are being built in neighborhoods. The displacement of residents leads to an increase of people becoming homeless in the city. According to the author, Ivan Pereira, “Harlem saw a 9.4 % average rent price increase during that same period from $2,191 last year to $ 2,397 in January” (Pereira 1). The change causes longtime residents to move out because of a variety of factors including unaffordability, pressure from property owners, diminishing or lack of stores that cater to them and many more. The more condominiums and business’s being built makes living

Gentrification is the process of taking distressed inner city neighborhoods and upgrading them to be more attractive to upscale skilled workers, and major corporations; where the neighborhood is converted to more affluent residential use. Studies profile most gentrifiers to be affluent, young, single, urban professionals and young, married couples who are both wage earners and have no children or small families. Housing improvements, city service upgrades and expansion of the local economy is often attributed to these gentrifiers. There are many New York City neighborhoods in recent years that have gone through gentrification. Some of those neighborhoods include Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn and Harlem to name a few. Gentrification can be positive for all involved if the government is able to employ successful provisions where the negatives turn into positives and existing members of the community won’t become unable to afford to continue to live in their residences due to rising housing costs and thus be forced out to live elsewhere. Support mechanisms must be in place for the current community to be able to reside and blend into the newly redeveloped community.

New York city’s population is 8.5 million, one in one hundred and forty-seven New Yorkers are currently homeless. it is estimated that 58,000 homeless men, women and children sleep in homeless shelters and at least 3,100 sleep in the streets during winter. (Bowery). By looking at the sociological impact of homelessness, I will argue that New York city’s greatest problem is homelessness.

Prior to the War, the American diet heavily consisted of “red meat, butter, wheat flour, and sugar.” Red meats, wheat flour, sugar, and butter were all consumed by many American families on a weekly basis, which is why the United State Food Administration felt the need to place restrictions on consumption and encourage the consumption of “milk, vegetables, nonwheat cereals, fish and poultry.” The American diet consisted primarily of these foods because these foods could be grown and harvested in America.

The displacement of the low-income population is becoming a larger issue in trendy cities, where the pressure for urban living is surging. These particular cities attract new businesses, highly skilled workers, major developers, and large corporations, all of which drive up both the demand for and cost of housing. In this case, the only way to combat gentrification would be to give the youth from low-income families opportunities like a top-notch education. Just because a family's income in lower does not mean they should be turned away from education. Overall gentrification is accommodating for the wealthy as they get more of a choice. The neighborhoods they move into, they bring everything with them such as the organic food and the private schools. Yet for the poor, gentrification only creates more of a divide between rich and poor. Thus this is why gentrification malicious for the

People who have low income are all willing to pay their house rent at a reasonable and affordable price, in order to accommodate public’s wishes, the New York City regulated the Rent Control law in 1947. The rent control is originally designed to against the potential increase of house rent, and also protect citizens’ personal property. This is an empirical example of the implement of the price ceiling, which is the maximum price set by the government, any price beyond this price would be considered illegal. (Microeconomics) But after the rent control was enforced, does it really help the public as it was supposed to do? The answer can be either yes or no.

In capitalist production, goods are produced for the market in order to get a profit. What matters for the worker, as I’ve said, is that he or she gets an adequate amount for his or her labor. What is being produced is, in this sense, immaterial.