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Category Archives: Gentrification

Beware: Gentrification

Tonight presidential candidates McCain and Obama town-halled at Columbia University. I came in late at the end of McCain’s turn, but I caught a curious sound bite that I thought might interest you. Obama said at one point “I could afford [some of the apartments around Columbia University] [in 1980], I don’t think I can […]

TED talks about gentrification

Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice gave a talk at TED where he explained the core ideas of the book. Fortunately this video is available for you to enjoy. At about 18:12 he says something very interesting. If some of what enables people in our societies to make all the choices we […]

How I got here part II

In response to Edie Spencer‘s comment, today I will reveal why I chose this particular 421a yuppie spaceship in this historic neighborhood. I’m starting in the middle because that’s when the story is the most relevant. It would be inaccurate to say I had never heard of Bedford-Stuyvesant, I am a Billy Joel fan after […]

The chicken and egg problem

Most of the comments from my newfound audience thanks to the Times sought to explain the increased police presence. Honorable mention goes to KR in TX, emily from the mynt and Edie Spencer whose comments I will address in future posts. However things are not always as they appear and therefore deserve further attention. I […]

Hypothesis shmypothesis

June was apparently a big month for this crazy yuppie spaceship. It got an article in the New York and LA Times. What publicity! And it seems like everything is going great for those wanting to live like Gordon Gekko on a budget. But au contraire baby bear, something is rotten at Myrtle Place and […]

Rabid Commenter Strikes it Big

You can read all about “The What” and a little about Brownstoner in a lengthy New York Magazine article about the booms and busts of real estate in Broker. Er, Brooklyn. Speaking of which, almost two-thirds of my lease has expired. I’m enjoying my life here at the Yuppie Spaceship, and it’s definitely been easier […]

Not the kind of thing you want to read here

So … Bed-Stuy just got a little sketchier for us at the MYNT. Yesterday, I was just chillin’ eating some apple jacks and assembling my thoughts and some furniture when I heard something at my door. I went to check it out through the peep hole and some seemingly smashed out drunken dude was just […]

Final thoughts on gentrification

I’ve learned a lot while trying to understand gentrification and what it means for me, the MYNT and Bed-Stuy. Here is a compilation of my basic thoughts on the subject. It’s big, not all bad and not totally unstoppable. I think of it less as a forest fire and more of a purification process (like […]

A whole lot of fail

So … the blogscussion didn’t turn out like I had expected =) In any case, I have another question to ponder: is the resistance to gentrification in Bed-Stuy based on race? It’s certainly part of it, but how large a part? Check out the comments in this review of Tiny Cup. I visited there this […]

Blogscussion

Blogs aren’t specifically designed for dialog, so this might be a bit awkward, but I envision this post as more of a discussion rather than a normal post. Save for this: Figured it out Streetfaerie: If you are going to live in this neighborhood then plan on actually becoming a part of it. How offensive […]