Battlefield Brooklyn
A couple of years ago I heard of a project that would displace a couple thousand people to Make way for a grandiose stadium.
People were being kicked out of their homes, in order to make wave for high rise apartments and a place that people could play basketball.
But our basketball team sucks and certainly didn’t need another stadium because they had Madison square garden.
The Atlantic yards project, which spawned The construction of Project that will build high rises around the surrounding Atlantic-Pacific Area also gave birth to The Barclays center, home of the Brooklyn Nets…. Our first major sports team since the Dodgers abandoned us and high tailed it over to LA in 1957. I bet this made us think for a second….Yes, Brooklyn as we thought is the best
And for now it still is, but while Brooklyn has become more famous over the years, we have lost something in exchange for this fame.
…a fighting chance… When you think Brooklyn you think urban. Loud Italian people, fuhgeddaboudit, cheesecake, hip hop, block parties, biggie smalls, west indian day parades, culture. That’s why people from different walks of life come HERE.
It used to be Manhattan too, until the city under Giuliani in the mid 90’s decided they want to clean up, and develop . Now it’s overly priced, vapid, devoid of anything but douchey nightclubs and places to shop. Now it’s Brooklyn’s turn to develop which I’m just thinking is code for trail of tearsing anyone who lives near or below the poverty line out of that said developing neighborhood (…you know….minus the small pox blankets).
but if you weren’t aware almost everyone lives near or below the poverty line in NYC there is no middle class it’s ridiculous. Thats because the prices for everything is inflated, the taxes are horrific, and if you moved outside of New york city even somewhere upstate, you’d be in a middle class believe it or not. I look at it like this, I’ve lived in my neighborhood all my life…which is a sweet ass 24 years. People have been getting shot in the park across the street, shot in general, mugged, selling drugs for almost TWO AND A HALF DECADES and you know what I’ve never seen? Police presence. That’s how you know when gentrification is happening, when police are around even when they aren’t called, even when no crimes are being committed. But they’re not here for you…they’re here to make sure Jaquan doesn’t bother Kelly on her late night dog walk…don’t get it twisted. You see, when the Barclays center first arrived I said to myself…This is dope. Get to ride the bus 15 minutes/train 5 minutes and see Beyonce in concert. Then the MTV awards came to Brooklyn and I said to myself, we’re all fucked. The VMAs solidified once and for all that my neighborhood would be under going some drastic changes over the next few years… And then a phenomenon happened shortly after.
The eviction notices started to go out Buildings began compiling list of people on rent control who were living possibly under another person’s lease. Threatening them with eviction if they a. Didn’t just simply move out. Or b. allowed the complex to raise their rent to the prices that people not on rent control are paying.
This wasn’t a problem for these same people for at times 20+ years lived under another persons lease, but now that the property value in the area was steadily increasing…people started to see green.
Buildings began compiling list of people on rent control in general and started making up bogus reasons to push them out.
Months of unpaid rent for example when the tenants had most definitely paid. But the catch…in some cases these matters could be easily settled if the building paid the tenants a certain amount to simply just MOVE OUT.
Ladies and gentlemen…This is now Brooklyn this is now my home and corporate greed is spreading through this place like a fucking cancer and it makes me sick and livid and hungry.
Strange men coming to people’s door steps offering them money to buy out their homes that they’ve owned for decades and probably raised their families in. All for the purpose of turning the house, and jacking the price up so high that no one who lives in the neighborhood currently will be able to afford to live in it.
The Others….
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