Brooklyn's Identity Crisis

29 April 2005 - 5:00am

The borough, which 'once epitomized working class America,' faces intense gentrification.

In the Williamsburg neighborhood, "Rents, running $300 to $500 a month before 2000, jumped to $1,500 and even $2,000 as hipsters moved in to escape Manhattan prices." Many original residents were displaced as a result. "With the Bloomberg administration pushing a new waterfront zoning plan that will accelerate the rapid rent hikes in Williamsburg, it will only get worse for plenty of longtime local residents." City planners claim that an inclusionary zoning program will preserve affordable housing in the area, but only a fraction of the original residents will be able to take advantage of it. One community activist "is rankled when news accounts refer to the neighborhood as a 'frontier' and the newcomers as 'pioneers.' It's 'like Columbus.'"

Source: The Village Voice, April 26, 2005
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Now more than ever, the future of cities and towns and villages must be something that is deliberately created through public choice.