Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Links

Many thanks to Sunset-Park.com for posting about a Voices of New York article on CUNY professor Tarry Hum, and her recently published book,  Making a Global Immigrant Neighborhood: Brooklyn’s Sunset Park.  From the English translation of the article:

In Hum’s view, gentrification brought on by the robust real estate market is the biggest problem Sunset Park is facing. It has started to squeeze out the Latino and Chinese working families who cannot afford to rent in the neighborhood, let alone buy a home. Small businesses are also moving out because of quickly increasing property taxes and commercial rents. “It is similar to what’s happening in Manhattan’s Chinatown,” she said.
Hum has concerns about the scorching real estate market in recent years, especially the projects launched by Chinese developers. She said the high-rise buildings and sprawling projects will turn Sunset Park into another Flushing, and they don’t fit in the working class-dominated neighborhood.  “Rezoning for real estate developers to build high-rise buildings will further boost prices. It may be a good thing for business people. But for the working families living here, it means losing another neighborhood they call home. Neighborhoods that are affordable for the working class are fewer and fewer in the city,” said Hum.
Going west to Sunset Park's waterfront, here's a Fast Company piece on the Industry City Mister Sunday parties, and the business forces behind the carousing:
In New York City, parties like Mister Sunday, along with upscale flea markets, artisanal food events like Smorgasburg, and art events have long signaled the coming wave of gentrification to once-crumbling industrial backwaters like Williamsburg, Bushwick, Long Island City, Gowanus, and now, Sunset Park. A hip, young set willing to push the boundaries into once-unloved neighborhoods (my bold print) in search of bigger spaces, creative freedom, and ultimately cheaper rent is always part of the equation of gentrification. But so are the savvy real-estate developers who follow their every move, ready to pour accelerant on the process...
(Industry City developer) Kimball makes no bones that he’s leveraging artists and their events to create a savvy buzz around the development in a way that no printed marketing material or ad buys ever could. 

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