I moved into this neighborhood almost thirty years ago with my husband. We were just starting our family and I fell in love with the huge houses in Brooklyn. The neighborhood was kind of gritty but not unsafe. Obviously crime was high citywide but everyone in the neighborhood seemed to know and look out for each other. We didn't have fancy restaurants called Purple Yam that catered to the yuppie whites, we had a Caribbean restaurant where you could exchange stories about what was going on back on the islands over jerk chicken, yucca, plantain, and oxtail. It was heavenly to say the least.
During the 1990s when the economy was booming things started to change. The Caribbean restaurant was in decline and our friends and neighbors started to move to the suburbs or down south. As they moved out a new crop of folks started to move in--whites. Not just any whites but whites with little kids with plans for more. There was a time when this neighborhood was predominantly white but middle-class african-americans and afro-latinos had turned the neighborhood to their own. That was no more. With the fresh crop of new whites came new demands and old time store favorites started to close as rents started to go up and the new whites made more demands. In the mid-2000s it came to a breaking point when a husband and wife team decided to start their own website. They had gone around the neighborhood soliciting input from the new local businesses and presenting themselves as the voice of this neighborhood. They weren't and aren't. One half of the married due is not even an American and the other half is from one of the most elitist and posh backgrounds that one can ever imagine. There mission was to "improve" the neighborhood but what has happened is something horrendous.
Instead of retaining the charm of the area they have put their own little twist on "revamping the neighborhood." This revamping has involved the continued displacement of African-Americans and other minorities. They refuse to address this. Why is it whenever individuals get the idea to try to improve the community it involves blacks and browns being left out? Ben and Leina have done nothing to try to bridge the divide between the old and the new of the neighborhood. They shoot down any forms of criticism as petty griping. It's not. Some of us miss our old diverse neighborhood and want it back. Gentrification destroys the fabric of a neighborhood and that is what is happening to Victorian Flatbush.
It's a tough subject but no one wants to seem to address what two wealthy and elitist individuals have done to the history of the neighborhood.
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Seriously? This is your "constructive conversation about what is happening to this neighborhood and what we can do so that all races and classes feel comfortable living here"? This is nothing more than a cut & paste job of previous bigotted, mean-spirted posts and rants.
ReplyDeleteSo many things to say:
1) "I moved into this neighborhood almost thirty years ago with my husband. We were just starting our family and I fell in love with the huge houses in Brooklyn." Don't you see the hypocrisy? You moved here because you were just starting a family and loved the huge houses. Now that others are just starting families and moving here because they love the huge houses, you have a problem?
2) "As they moved out a new crop of folks started to move in--whites. Not just any whites but whites with little kids with plans for more." This is an echo of my previous comments. Do you have less against whites without kids? Is it the procreation that bothers you?
3) "There was a time when this neighborhood was predominantly white but middle-class african-americans and afro-latinos had turned the neighborhood to their own. That was no more." So you acknowledge that NY neighborhoods constantly change and indeed changed relatively recently from white to african-american and afro-latino. Yet, now that the neighborhood is changing once more, you have issues with it? How can you possibly justify such stubborness?
4) "One half of the married due is not even an American and the other half is from one of the most elitist and posh backgrounds that one can ever imagine." What does their nationalities have to do with anything? You mention previously that the glorified Caribbean restaurant was a place to eat Caribbean food and discuss what was happening 'back on the islands'. If these immigrants posed no problem to you, why does another?
6) "Why is it whenever individuals get the idea to try to improve the community it involves blacks and browns being left out?" No where has there ever been evidence of community activities or imperatives that leave blacks and browns out. You make this up out of your own fears and then blame it on those trying to do good. We saw it when you refused to participate in a women's group, claiming that they were racist, when in reality, you didn't even open the door. We saw it when you boycotted Qathra because there wasn't a minority behind the counter. You're not being forced out. You're choosing not to participate. That is a huge and vastly important difference and one thta suggests you are the racist not they.
6) "Some of us miss our old diverse neighborhood and want it back." You don't miss diversity. You don't like white people. The 'diversity' you fantasize about doesn't include anyone but your friends .That's not diversity. That's prejudice.
7) "It's a tough subject but no one wants to seem to address what two wealthy and elitist individuals have done to the history of the neighborhood." This is simply not true. Everyday people post on the DPB what the owners have done to the history of the neighborhood. Everyday people discuss what's happening, what's in development and what's to come. Yet, it seems that I'm the only person who reads this blog. Who comments here. Why would theirs be so much more popular if they were as demonic as you say? And where's the outpour of support for yourself that you claim you receive? There isn't any.
Face the facts. The neighborhood has changed. For the better. We'd love to have you as a part of it. See you around town! I'll be the one smiling with friends, sitting outside our new restaurants, enjoying the neighborhood I love and plan to stay in for a long long long time.
Eloise-- I think it would be really beneficial for yourself, your cause, and your readers if you would address what "Josh" has claimed above. I, too, have seen this neighborhood change and would like some answers to Josh's questions.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
this is not a constructive discussion. this is just your 'greatest hits', that is, a list of your favorite and (what you believe to be) your most cogent arguments.
ReplyDeleteI would say "you can do better than this, Eloise!" but I'm not so sure you can...