Brooklyn Heights Gentrification

The Evolving Gentrification of Brooklyn Heights Gentrification is a process in which wealthier, usually middle and upper income people, move into a deteriorated or lower income community. The wealthier people renovate and restore housing and sometimes businesses in these communities. The result is what is known as gentrification. The increase in middle income families and individuals usually results in the overall decline of racial minorities. Gentrification also makes the real estate market change. Where once stood modest homes that were affordable now stands luxury apartments which command expensive rents. This process of gentrification is what has made New York City the beautiful, diverse and thriving city it is today. Gentrification
What once began as an area filled with brownstone buildings in the architectural style of Queen Anne and Gothic Revival, it started to lose upper-class residents because the newly-operational IRT subway in early the early 1900s, made it easy for the masses to travel freely to and from the once-secluded neighborhood. When the wealthy people left for the suburbs, many of the brownstones were divided into rooming houses for lower-income occupants (Osman 2011).
When the depression hit in 1929, nearly one-third of the houses in Brooklyn Heights were boarded up due to bank foreclosures. Eventually, the neighborhood experienced a deep decline in population and income level and it was no longer considered a place where the well-to-do wanted to live (Lees, 2003).
It was not until the end of World War II when Brooklyn Heights once again experienced another gentrification. The upwardly mobile young adults who were now hitting the business world en masse did not want to locate to the far off suburbs of Long Island. Manhattan was always a place where housing was overpriced with the affordable neighborhoods being just like the Brooklyn Heights of a decade prior. Brooklyn Heights became their neighborhood of choice (Lees,
This gentrification began with the onset of the redevelopment of the outlying areas surrounding its borders. Wall Street bankers, now finding themselves to be in a new class of wealthy, flocked to this exclusive area. Once again, Brooklyn Heights was more financially out of reach for lower income residents than ever before. For a family who once dreamed of living close to New York City and not out in the suburbs, Brooklyn Heights was no longer an option, even for many two income families. With the onslaught of the very wealthy and the accompanying increase in property values, local “mom and pop” stores which were mainstays for the locals over the course of many years were unable to afford their rent. Big businesses, such as The Gap, Barnes and Noble and CVS moved in to cater to the masses in the surrounding newly-developed neighborhoods now containing high-rise apartment buildings and scores of new residents. This type of gentrification seems to be contradictory to the desires of the class of people who inhabit the exclusive blocks of the historical district that one knows as Brooklyn Heights (Davidson, 2012). Although Brooklyn Heights is considered a family neighborhood, the families are usually small in size with many larger families moving to bigger quarters in more distant suburbs. In a community undergoing gentrification, the average income increases and average