There Goes the Neighborhood

Latest Episodes:

Williamsburg, What's Good? Apr 06, 2016

Show notes

While politicians and developers strategize how to control the changes in New York, we want find out what gentrification feels like on the ground. How does a tidal wave of money and fast-shifting demographics affect the people who share a neighborhood? What role does race play when it comes to deciding who is included in a community — and who is excluded?

We start on the west coast in San Francisco, where Alex Nieto was shot 14 times by police after new white residents reported him as a foreigner in his own neighborhood of Bernal Heights. Jamilah King of Mic.com talks about the gentrification dynamics that were central in Nieto's death.

Then we swing back to the epicenter of Brooklyn gentrification: Williamsburg. Writer and humorist Henry Alford talks about the inherently white aesthetic of the Brooklyn hipster, and YouTube personality Akilah Hughes tells her story about a racialized assault that spirals out of control at a well-known bar one Halloween night.

And we meet Tranquilina Alvillar from Puebla, Mexico, who's been living in her Williamsburg apartment for 25 years. Her landlord tried everything to get her out — paying her to leave, changing the lock, demolition — but she's still there.

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Here’s the Plan Mar 30, 2016

Show notes

Mayor de Blasio's plan to rezone East New York and 14 other neighborhoods is his administration's way of controlling the fierce gentrification machine that is steamrolling across the city. So what does the zoning plan for East New York actually look like?

This week we talk with WNYC's Jessica Gould and City Limits editor Jarrett Murphy to understand the nuts and bolts of the plan.

And we go deep into the gentrification machine to see how it works. We meet Elizabeth Grefrath, a young gentrefier in Crown Heights who tells us what it was like to move to the neighborhood just a few years ago. We sit down with big time developers like Boaz Gilad of Brookland Capital and Kunal Chothani of Akelius -- a new player from Sweden -- to understand how they operate in the borough's various markets.

And we walk the streets of Flatbush with real estate agent Namane Mohlabane who shows just how complicated -- and personal -- the machine can be.

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Turf Wars Mar 23, 2016

Show notes

With his first rezoning plan, Mayor de Blasio has declared East New York the place where the city's future begins. But what does East New York's past look like?

This week we go back to the founding of East New York in order to understand how it became the place it is today. We meet the people who have been organizing since the 1960s when the neighborhood underwent radical changes.

And we'll revisit the blistering summer of 1966, when an 11-year-old black boy named Eric Dean was shot and killed amid the neighborhood's simmering racial tensions. We hear reactions to Dean's death from the street and from city hall.

Ron Shiffman talks about the dynamics in the street at the time of Dean's death, as East New York rapidly transformed from a mostly white, working class neighborhood to an under-served community of mostly black and brown New Yorkers neglected by both society and policy.

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'Brooklyn, We Go Hard' Mar 16, 2016

Show notes

East New York is the first neighborhood Mayor Bill de Blasio targeted for comprehensive rezoning -- and it's the neighborhood that saw real estate investments jump from $2.7 million in 2013 to $42 million in the first half of 2014 alone.

But since the 1960s, outsiders have known East New York for its low median income and high crime rates. So what's it been like all those years for the people who call it home?

Mouth to Ear Mar 09, 2016

Show notes

Gentrification is something everyone is talking about -- and the conversation is often heated. It's a complicated idea with a range of factors: race, class, history, policy. And of course there is the personal experience that we each bring to the table.

Take a walk in Bedford-Stuyvesant with Monica Bailey, a resident of the neighborhood for more than 30 years. She'll show you the home she lost.

Monica Bailey was forced to leave her apartment after the owners of the building sold it to a Brooklyn developer who wanted it cleared out.
(Richard Yeh/WNYC)

Sit in the office of a Brooklyn developer and listen to him work the phones. He'll talk tactics for going after foreclosures.

These are the people affected by change -- and the people who are bringing it. Meet them up close and follow the wave of gentrification deeper into Brooklyn.

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Welcome to 'There Goes the Neighborhood' Mar 02, 2016

Show notes

There Goes the Neighborhood takes an in-depth look at gentrification in Brooklyn and the integral role that race plays in the process.

Developers from all over the globe are hunting New York City, looking for deals that will allow them to “revitalize” neighborhoods, and make a few bucks in the process.

But to many tenants and homeowners, it feels like a violent shove out of the way, especially for black and brown Brooklynites who have lived here for generations.

Add to the drama the fact that the nation’s most progressive mayor has a plan to slow down gentrification, and encourage developers to create more affordable housing rather than luxury condos. Only, people are marching in the street stop it.

Beginning March 9, listen in to discover how the process is playing out. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

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