The Neighborhood Of Flatlands, On Central Brooklyn Essay

I live at 383 East, 143rd street and my zip code is 10454. It is an area in which Latinos are the main population. This area is called Mott Haven in which there are many public housing projects. I live in one of the housing project in which my neighbors I can see they are mainly Hispanics and Blacks. Around my specific zip code area, there are different neighborhoods. In addition, even though these neighbourhood are very close to each other, there are still a lot of differences between them. I will focus on the varieties of people’s races that inhabit certain areas of the zip code 10454 and how certain areas have more schools while other areas have more businesses.

When a neighborhood is gentrified it will not only change the image of it, but also the services available there (Al-Kodmany 2011, 62-63). In other words, gentrification does not only have an impact on the physical aspect of the land, but also the resources that lie there. During the 90s, the Near West Side neighborhood located near Loop, an up-scale neighborhood, sought drastic changes within the area. The changes in racial demographics in the Near West Side indicated that the health risks that affected minorities dropped in the past decade (1992-2002) (Al-Kodmany 2011,

The Upper East Side, zip code 10028, and East Harlem, zip code 10035 are two very different neighborhoods. Overall health varies between The Upper East Side and East Harlem because of differences in social determinants such as socioeconomic status, education, and environment. More specifically, East Harlem has the highest percentage of hospitalizations due to asthma when comparing neighborhoods in NYC.1 Using my observations from doing fieldwork, I will focus on the structural differences in The Upper East Side and East Harlem that result in differences in asthma prevalence.

People that don't make the most such as middle class citizens are constantly pushed and involuntary forced out of their city because of gentrification. Gentrification is the process of renovating and the economic redevelopment from one culture to another using a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. In Downtown Eastside gentrification has been occurring for the past years. In Vancouver DTES gentrification would be doing more harm than good. The effects gentrification would leave in Vancouver DTES are unimaginable. Leaving many homeless, in poverty, culture clashing and with struggles for the low income the middle class people earn. Vancouver is already known as “poorest postal code in Canada. How will the people survive this new modification being done to their beloved DTES?

First and foremost, South-Central Brooklyn is one of the most overpopulated community within Brooklyn, it is extremely diverse with many rich cultures and traditions. Within it, lies seven neighborhoods which are Flatbush, Borough Park, Ditmas Park, Midwood, Kensington, Manhattan Terrance, and Prospect Park South. It serves Community Districts 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17. It mostly consists of densely populated African American, Hispanic and West Indian neighborhoods. According to the 2015 U.S census bureau, the population of Brooklyn stands at 2,504,700 out of which South-Central Brooklyn has approximately 804,982 residents and it is expected to have grown gradually through the one year-period that has elapsed (United States Census Bureau, 2014). This is more than double the amount of the total number of people that was living in South- Central Brooklyn in 2000, which was only 317, 300. Presently there are 37% Caucasians, 36% African American, 16% Hispanic, 10% Asian, and 2% other (Indian) living in South-Central Brooklyn. The female population is 54.6%, and the male population is 45.4% (United States Census Bureau, 2014).

Park Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in all of New York City, home to the ultra rich, the top tier of the American upper class, the 1% (Park Avenue). Those who reside in Park Avenue not only have vast amounts of wealth, but an immense amount of influence that has turned the tables in their favor. But, if you go a couple of miles North of Park Avenue and cross the Harlem river, you arrive at the other side of Park Avenue or otherwise known as the Bronx, one of the poorest districts in all of New York (Park Avenue). Here you see the real hardships average Americans must voyage through in order to put food on the table and provide shelter for their families. 40% of the 700,000 residents who

Now days walking down the streets of Atlanta, we see the new neighborhoods consisting of condos, Starbucks, yoga classes and Chipotle. Gentrification is a growing problem in urban areas as the influx of the riches have caused the displacement of lower class families due to higher economic demands and local politics. According to Diane K. Levy, Jennifer Comey and Sandra Padilla (2005), “We define gentrification as the process whereby higher-income households move into low income neighborhoods, escalating the area’s property values to the point that displacement occurs. In addition to changes in economic class, gentrification often involves a change in a neighborhood’s racial and ethnic composition…” (p.1). Though gentrification has lasting affects on the economic status of cities, there are also repercussions that not only effect working individuals but also the students that attend school in these gentrified areas. When areas are gentrified, schools are rezoned thus leading to long lasting consequences that students must face. Some believe that gentrification is beneficial to a growing economy in a growing city, but the realities of the its lasting effects on education are often left under the radar. The issues that lie within the education system as it pertains to gentrification include day segregation and unequal opportunities between affluent and low-income areas.

There has been a tremendous change in East Harlem between class warfare and gentrification. East Harlem is one more economic factor to the city’s wealth per capita since the attack of September 11, 2000. It is Manhattan’s last remaining development and it is on the agenda of the tax revenue of our government. East Harlem has become a profit driven capitalism. Gentrification enforces capitalism, it does not separate people, it does not go against race, poor and the working class, it wages war on the poor and the working-class.

The Community of East Flatbush is comprised of a culturally diverse population. According to the Brooklyn Neighborhood Report, 2012, there are 143,683 residents. The demographic breakdown is as follows; Asian 1.9%, Black 88.3%, Latino 6.2%, White 1.4% and other 2.2%. The top ethnic groups are as follows: African Americans 23%, Jamaican 13.2%, African 11.4%. Haitian 10.1%, Guyanese 7% (U.S. Census 2009). According to Homan (2015), a community is a number of people who share a distinct location, belief, interest, activity, or other characteristics that clearly identifies their commonality and differentiates them from those not sharing it.

Gentrification is the movement of mostly middle-class white Americans back into cities in areas with low living costs. In areas where gentrification is present, public schools are being closed because they are having difficulty appealing to gentrified white students. Typical middle- and upper- class families take advantage of selective enrollment schools, leaving local public schools with less students. A specific example of gentrification is the city of Petworth in Washington D.C. In Petworth, fifteen public schools were closed due to gentrification in 2015. As the city’s population gradually increased in its percentage of white people, Petworth’s public schools decreased both in their number of students and thus, their

Adding to the inequalities and misfortunes within communities of color, gentrification has taken the Bay Area by a storm. Gentrification is the purchasing of deteriorated urban homes and areas, then the renovation by higher-end and middle class communities. An abundance of high-end people rush into the Bay Area and purchase up the real estate. Incoming middle and higher class take the Bay Area real estate and revitalise it into up-and-coming neighborhoods, then increase rent prices. Therefore, reducing affordable housing for communities of color. Therefore, this revitalization is changing the character of communities because the Bay Area may appear nicer, the communities of color are unable to afford the standard of living. Communities of

Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.

Central Park was the first landscaped public park in the United States. Advocates of creating the park – primarily wealthy merchants and landowners – admired the public grounds of London and Paris and urged that New York needed a comparable facility to establish its international reputation. A public park, they argued, would offer their own families an attractive setting for carriage rides and provide working-class New Yorkers with a healthy alternative to the saloon. After three years of debate over the park site and cost, in 1853 the state legislature authorized the City of New York to use the power of eminent domain to acquire more than 700 acres of land in the center of Manhattan.

The influx of the middle and upper class is exhibited through the amount of affordable housing now available in neighborhoods throughout Minneapolis and Saint Paul. In 1998 “11% of housing in Minneapolis-Saint Paul” were densely gentrified neighborhoods, and with time this is increasing (Wyly, et al). With higher earners entering a neighborhood, the higher the cost of housing is. One way to measure affordability is comparing the median renter’s income and their affordable threshold of rent (usually 30% of their monthly income) with the percentage of available units that this renter could buy in a neighborhood. For an area to be considered affordable, 50% or more of units should be available for a median renter (CURA Housing Forum). In a University

New York City is made up of five boroughs, which include the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Within these boroughs, there are high and low-income neighborhoods that contain either high or low status organizational structures or facilities. Each division has their own characteristics and top attractions, such as the Empire State building, Central Park, or Times Square. As New York City may be known for great food and fun attractions, New York faces infrastructure problems within each borough. New York City’s infrastructure funding is limited in lower income neighborhoods, where money needed to upkeep the city goes toward prime tourist’s areas or residents living in high status neighborhoods, such as The Upper East Side of Manhattan, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and Lenox Hill, Manhattan. Moreover, abandoned buildings, poor sewage conditions, and rocky roads and streets are examples of low-income area infrastructure problems that may hinder neighborhood growth both structurally and economically. Harlem, East Brooklyn, and South Bronx are low-income parts of New York that lack new and refined facilities, roads, plumbing, and fundamental structures, which contribute to high crime and arrests.