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By ALAIN GAILLARD
Low-income tenants from neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Greenpoint have felt the effects of gentrification for about two decades. Unable to cope with the increases in rent and influx of affluent new neighbors many have had to move to neighborhoods they can afford.
However, does gentrification have a silver lining?
Speaking to a room filled to capacity Thursday at the Brooklyn Historical Society, at the kickoff of an exhibit for the 100th anniversary of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to showcase the development of business in Brooklyn over the past century, Borough President, Eric Adams, deplored the popular opposition to gentrification, saying it was used to “demonize the evolution of a community.”
“Brooklyn is going to evolve and change; what we must do is make sure that we do not forcefully move people out, which allows the natural transition of a community,” he said.
He praised the ethnic diversification in Brooklyn, which has contributed to the development of the borough: “Instead of the attitude, I don’t want another person who doesn’t look like me, talk like me, speak like me, and eat the same food as me, listen to the same sound, the same music. We should be open and welcome the beauty of this thing we have in Brooklyn,” he said.
His words contrasted sharply with the general tenor of many neighborhood activists who portray gentrification as an unadulterated evil in low-income and minority areas.
During the ceremony, the former Brooklyn Borough presidents, Howard Golden and Marty Markowitz, extolled the attractiveness of Brooklyn that was built on ethnic diversity.
Based on three themes—local, global, and labor innovation—the exhibition, which opens to the public on Friday, will show the work of pioneering community organizations in Brooklyn and the changes in the evolution of consumer culture over the past decade.
According to Andrew Hoan, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, 1,000 visitors are expected to visit the exhibit, which will run throughout 2018. “We had an exhibit for the ninetieth anniversary of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and that was a success. We decided to have it again to show tourists, our children, and Brooklynites the history of the borough,” he said.
Photo by Alain Gaillard
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