Gentrification: "The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people."
(www.dictionary.com).
I arrived on Tuesday and found myself the only intern at Legal Aid Society. I began the morning working on trial outlines for three cases I had been assigned to research. As I was about to take my lunch break around 1 p.m., Peter the intern coordinator came into the room. As he sat down to eat with me, small talk ensued. "How do you like New York City so far?" he asked.
"It's good," I replied. "Very big."
"And also kind of impersonal," I added after some hesitation.
At this point, Peter looked directly at me and said, "I love NYC, but I agree with you completely."
Gentrification: "I tried to run the city as a business, using business principles to impose accountability on government. Objective, measurable indicators of success allow governments to be accountable, and I relentlessly pursued that idea." (Giuliani, xiii)
One of my first nights in NYC was spent watching a documentary on the history of the city's architecture and development. One of its themes was gentrification. The rise of Robert Moses coupled with the destruction of neighborhoods in the five counties led to increased prosperity yet also the demise of individual cultures as the less affluent were evicted from their homes and replaced with enterprises and upper class housing. Moses' greatest accomplishment was his expressway. The paved roads brought new found wealth into the city, but not without carving up communities. I remember watching the film with mixed feelings. The drive for financial success is essential for the survival of a city. Yet, many people fall in love with cities because of the diverse cultures. Economic progress has a social price.
Gentrification: "We take from you what we need and we hurl back in your face what we do not need." (Koolhaas, 81).
"I moved here in 1992 and fell in love with New York City," Peter told me that Tuesday. He followed up on those words with a two hour description of the changes he has seen reconfigure the city since. He recounted everything from the drug dealers and aging rock and roll wannabe musicians he used to live next to in his apartment in Soho, to the move he had to make with his wife to Brooklyn after Soho filled up with stockbrokers, art galleries and ridiculously expensive apartments. Advising me to get off at the metro stop Astor Place, he said I could see for myself the changes in New York City culture and that maybe then I would understand at that point what he was talking about.
Gentrification: "Few buildings around here deserve to be people, but judging by the grim procession of faces, some of these folks are halfway to sheetrock. Steel-boned, mortar-blooded. Granite without end." (Whitehead, 114).
Leaving the subway station, my eyes adjusted to the daylight and took in the 360-degree view of Astor Place. Starbucks are everywhere. What existed before the stores I may never know. The logical reason for having four of the same stores within a square block I may never understand. What I did comprehend was the importance of Peter's words, the message of the film, and the startling realization that if I didn't have a venti cafe latte with skim milk, I might not be able to stay awake in class. I felt a sense of loss but understood the reasons for change. New York City's debate confronted me from both sides and I knew that at least for today, I could not figure out how to resolve it.
Quotes from this journal entry have been taken from the following books:
The Colossus of New York Colson Whitehead
Leadership Rudolph W. Giuliani
Delirious New York: Rem Koolhaas
www.Dictionary.com
