So apparently Black Americans are beating a trail back to the South and fleeing North East cities particularly New York. This story made the front page of the NY Times yesterday and I was just a little agitated by it. I am also noticing a lot of white yuppies beginning to populate neighborhoods that used to have a social stigma of being you know *whispers* "ghettos"... places like Nostrand Ave Brooklyn, Brooklyn in general, East New York, HARLEM- although the gentrification of Harlem has been going on now for some time and is old news ...the Black Flight has fotten so bad that most areas of Harlem are pre-dominatley Tom and Sally zones. Which is whatever except the one thing I dont understand is that when the Black people were living there the property value was crap now taht their are white tenants the property value is doubling and trippling on these otherwise extremely modest below average town homes with no property. I mean these are attached brownstones its not like there are huge lots of land space for a gazeebo and golfing in teh back -__- nonetheless a harlem property on a Tom and Sally block can fetch upwards of 600K. A part of me kinda wishes that the Blacks would hang in there long enough to benefit from this upswing. instead of selling their properties and seeing them double retail value in the hands of their new white owners with almost no turn over time. This is obviously not fair and a huge real estate ring of racism but que sera! Nevermind the properties middle class blacks are leaving behind, more importantly Blacks leaving the city means that the city will change without the influence of their culture. This means that an entire paradigm shift will be taking place soon in the NYC. NYC's shared memories of block parties playing pick up games at local parks. And the welcomeness towards people of color may not exist here anymore. We have a large immigrant population here in NYC most of which is made up of the carribean, puerto rico, dominican republic. There are a lot of these immigrants who are heading South, North and otherwise just out of the city in general in persuit of homes in the suburbs. I dotn knock the idea of anyone owning a home however, it has always been the case that city property is more valuable. I mean I really can't blame someone for wanting to move to an area where they can have a six bedrooom home a front and back yard, a great! school system to raise their kids in a safe neighborood and experience nature everyday. Really there's no argument there. But something else is happening here something bigger than just the move out to the suurbs I guess it's the erasure of shared memory in the city?? the disipation of dreams that never came true. I think I would have liked to see the people who came up north to pursue work and opportunity actually find that opportunity instead of wandering around up here not really fitting in and then eventually having to leave because none of what they expected came to pass. For example the crappy public school system, the housing market being wack, violence and poor police protection. It wasn't even taht long ago that the white flight took place that was like barely two generations ago and now we are on our way out already. On the other hand I must say this is a step up for Afro-A;s cuz they are moving out to the burbs and their quality of life will soar by comparison to their city dwelling peers. Their children will have better edcuation, better everything really. thats pretty awesome tha it only took Blacks two generation time period to make such a big leap economically and culturally. Remember it took the Jews, Italians and the Irish almost a hundred years to accomplish this. They didnt start their spill over into the more expensive parts of Jersey until like four of five generations of city living. Well however the cookie crumbles , even though they will do better in the suburbs (HOPEFULLY) I am sad to see them go. Its like we are handing our city over to immigrants now well w.e. I hope they keep NYC poppin v_v toodles! |
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