Gentrification Up Close in N.Y.C.'s West Village

A former resident of the iconic neighborhood reflects on its past, present, and future.

2 minute read

October 24, 2019, 1:00 PM PDT

By Camille Fink


MacDougal Street

Goran Bogicevic / Shutterstock

In a feature piece, Susannah Jacob recounts her experience living in New York’s West Village and describes the social, economic, and cultural changes in the neighborhood in recent years. She also looks back and traces notable shifts in the neighborhood, including its transformation from a working-class, immigrant enclave to a white bohemian one in the 1960s.

Gentrification began to transform the West Village long before other New York neighborhoods, but the more recent influx of extreme wealth has changed the area drastically. Jacob looks at the numbers—widening income disparities, an increase in single-family homes as apartment buildings disappear, and a surge in businesses catering to the area’s high-income residents:

There are fewer manufacturing, wholesale trade, healthcare, social assistance, and arts and entertainment businesses. Most of the old factory buildings that housed defunct businesses have either been converted into condominiums and mansions or turned into high-rise modern buildings bearing the names of their former enterprises, such as the Superior Ink building, now a luxury condo development overlooking the Hudson River, the Babaco Alarm building, now a mansion, and, most grotesquely, the former Village Nursing Home, which previously had 200 beds for the neighborhood’s elderly and is now the site of a handful of full-floor apartments (between 2006 and 2016, lower Manhattan lost more than half of its certified long-term care facility beds, DNAinfo has reported).

She also talks to longtime residents and employees of surviving businesses about how the character and feel of the West Village have changed over time. People who grew up in the neighborhood recall that crime and drugs were issues in the 1970s and 1980s, but housing was affordable and the mix of residents created a vibrancy and sense of community that the West Village lacks today.

"With its churn of stores appearing then disappearing and the rich who come and go like a traveling circus, the neighborhood had come to seem to me a symbol of impermanence driven by wealth. At first glance, its increasing emptiness—vacant commercial spaces blighted by skyrocketing rents, shells of brownstones, and luxury apartments unoccupied for fifty weeks a year—suggested a place on the precipice of becoming something else. In time, I understood that the neighborhood’s emptiness is simply its deepening condition," notes Jacob.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 in The New York Review of Books

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Aerial view of town of Wailuku in Maui, Hawaii with mountains in background against cloudy sunset sky.

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly

Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

July 1, 2025 - Honolulu Civil Beat

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

July 9, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Map of Haussmann's redesign of Paris in the 1850s through 1870s under Napoleon III.

In Urban Planning, AI Prompting Could be the New Design Thinking

Creativity has long been key to great urban design. What if we see AI as our new creative partner?

June 30, 2025 - Tom Sanchez

View of dense apartment buildings on Seattle waterfront with high-rise buildings in background.

King County Supportive Housing Program Offers Hope for Unhoused Residents

The county is taking a ‘Housing First’ approach that prioritizes getting people into housing, then offering wraparound supportive services.

5 hours ago - Real Change

Aerial view of suburban housing near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Researchers Use AI to Get Clearer Picture of US Housing

Analysts are using artificial intelligence to supercharge their research by allowing them to comb through data faster. Though these AI tools can be error prone, they save time and housing researchers are optimistic about the future.

6 hours ago - Shelterforce Magazine

Green bike share bikes parked in a row on a commercial street with outdoor dining and greenery.

Making Shared Micromobility More Inclusive

Cities and shared mobility system operators can do more to include people with disabilities in planning and operations, per a new report.

7 hours ago - Cities Today