1. proliferance of people walking expensive dogs
2. rise in cost of price of water
3. disappearance of $1 arizona iced teas in bodegas
4. disapperance of .99 cent bags of UTZ potato chips in bodegas
5. said bodegas begin selling feta cheese
6.white women walking alone at night
7. asian men walking alone at night
8. bars that sell draft beer

1. Blue New York Times bags outside peoples’ houses indicating home delivery
2. Diet soda, skim milk, and soy milk in bodegas
3. "Organic products" section in local supermarkets
4. "No flyers" signs outside peoples’ houses
5. Sushi restaurants

But all of those mentioned so far seem common indicators of gentrification — what are the uncommon ones?

Me!!! East Village to Park Slope to Crown Heights!!!!

almost daily i see a some young white folks move in and a black family move out? i guess this is also pretty standard.

i think gentrification is universally a bad thing. gentrification means the displacement of folks with less. it means the destruction of a community and uprooting peoples lives.

i am speaking as someone who is part of the gentrification in crown heights. i think instead of ignoring it (which seems to be the common response), or just feeling guilty, we need to work together to support affordable housing, attend community board meetings, and support local businesses. i see so many young white folks walking home with groceries from whole foods, when we have great grocery and health food stores right here. if you enter a white owned coffee shop, you will see scores of white people, but when you go into a black owned coffee shop, you don’t. why is this? if we (meaning young, mostly college educated, mostly white people not supporting families) are going to be a part of systematic displacement (and of course its hard not to be when you make 22k a year like i do – i’m not suggesting guilt as a response), the least we can do is take off the headphones for a minute, spend a little time in our community, get to know some people, and support the great black owned businesses that exist.

my 2 cents.

When I get off the train at my stop I look around and see how many people look like me- 20 something and white. Also I look and see how many people look like hipsters. To me, that is a sure sign of gentrification.

I used to live in Bed-Stuy off of the Myrtle-Willoughby stop on the G train. When I first moved there there werent many people that looked like me getting off at my stop. By the time I moved, it was amazing to see how many hipsters got off at that stop with me. It was like I was in Williamsburg! I hope that my area in Crown Heights never gets like that. I really like living in a West Indian enclave. But I guess I’m part of the gentrification process…

1) Posts on Brooklynian asking when high end specialty items such as vegan bakeries and foie gras will be available in the neighborhood

2) White couple with surfboards walking down Nostrand Avenue

3)Young white children (>10 years) playing on the sidewalk

4) Appearance of farmers markets, CSA’s and other food options vs. purchasing veggies at any of the Korean greengrocers in the neighborhood

5) Designation of a "good" or "up-and-coming" public elementary school. In the alternative creation of a specialized school within a larger public elementary school

6) Change in ASS parking rules

Coffee shops and neighborhood blogs are a clear signs that the neighborhood has changed, but long before bodegas switch out the Tropical Fantasy for organic juices, the demographic shifts have already taken hold. The place to look for this in on the 4 train, or more accurately, who gets off of the 4 train. The other place to look is within the NYPD.

I have lived in Crown Heights since 2002, the first four years were spent on Lincoln Pl. off of Utica, the last three or so on Eastern Parkway (between Bedford and Franklin). When I first moved out here, I had a very similar experience to the one I got used to growing up in Baltimore; being the only white person in a room/ train/ bus filled with people of color. When the train got to Franklin Ave in 2002-03, there were hardly ever any white people getting off the train, and never were there other white people (besides myself and my house-mates) to stay on the 4 train past Franklin.

When I moved off of Franklin in 2006 there wasn’t a guarantee that white people would get off the train with me. From 2006-08 this changed to a guarantee of at least one or two per train, more in rush hours. Now its easily a third or more of the train. That is a significant shift in three years. A third of the train riding populous changed from being mostly older and black Caribbean to younger white folks like me.

The other indicator is the in the policing of the neighborhood’s streets. Over the last few years we have become an "Operation Impact" zone, with teams of rookie cops wandering all over. There’ s also the police tower that now lives on Franklin and St. Johns and the mobile command center that’s been on Franklin and on Nostrand. The police department will tell you that they are here because of crime rates in this neighborhood, and has nothing to do with the changing demographic. Though this style of policing has long been in effect for, only recently has the NYPD seen fit to actually focus on the west side of Crown Heights. I say west side, because you don’t see nearly as many foot patrols or heavy policing on the other less gentrified side of the neighborhood. The impact zone seems to end toward the Lubovich section near Kingston. Utica Ave doesn’t seem to have the same police presence.

The police care more about Franklin avenue now than they did three years ago when it was an open weed market. I don’t have ready stats to back this up, but I would imagine Utica Ave. and Franklin Ave. have roughly similar crime patterns, and thus police tactics should be the same on either end of Crown Heights. They’re not; and that’s why I think this is a gentrification indicator. I would argue that this is because of the demographic shift on this side of the neighborhood.

These indicators are along race lines not only because this is how Crown Heights has been defined for at least the last forty years, but also this is how gentrification in NYC works functionally, poor and working class people get displaced further out into the city. There is a re-urbanization that is taking place in white America. The children or grandchildren of the white flight generation that left this neighborhood for Long Island are moving back.

Crown Heights was integrated, up until the white people left it. Once that happened it was red lined as a Black neighborhood. This is what gave rise to it as a neighborhood of Caribbean home owners. And in closing (sorry this went on so long) its that wide level of property ownership, and comparatively low level of predatory lending, that will allow this area to keep that Carribean feeling that we have all come to love and slow the swift change that hit Williamsburg or the LES where everyone rents.

someone above said:

"If you enter a white owned coffee shop, you will see scores of white people, but when you go into a black owned coffee shop, you don’t. why is this?"

I disagree. I think young white people like to drink good coffee no matter who owns the coffee shop. That said, I can count the amount of black owned coffee shops in Central Brooklyn on one hand and I know for a fact that you will find a gang of white people in said coffee shop. Have you ever been to Breadstuy or Common Grounds (both black owned coffee shops with quite a large white clientele?

clayfilms -

you may be right on that one. i go into common ground occasionally and i don’t remember seeing white people there, but i don’t go enough to make a judgment.

however, i think the overall point is still true, the folks gentrifying crown heights don’t tend to spend money in the neighborhood, despite the fact that there is really a lot available in terms of goods and services. i was suggesting a way to fight against gentrification and displacement could be to support local small businesses.

coffee shops may not be the best example. how about health food stores? i very frequently see white people getting off the subway with bags from whole foods, but very rarely see white people in tony’s on fulton st., which has quite a selection of health food.

my general suggestion is that people get to know the neighborhood. i feel like if one looks around, they will find it has a lot to offer. too many people just go directly from their home to the subway, ipod blasting the whole way.

like in most situations when people move to an area where they are a minority they stick to people similar to them. This is why there is a chinatown, little italy, (insert group with area named after it).

the fact that someone described crown heights as a "west indian enclave" illustrates things point very nicely.

also the answer to the question – gentrification is happening when people with more money than you do move in. This is regardless of how much money you actually have.

The term of art for the gentrification above is:

first stage – brunch – ification
second stage – quiche – ification

1. New Name for the neighborhood
2. The price of a wash n set goes up
3. Bus service improves (The B61 which choked the LIFE outta South Brooklyn, I mean Cobble Hill, I mean Cobble Hill West, I mean Red Hook North, I mean Columbia Street Waterfront District residents for yeeeeears gets fixed NOW???)
4. laundry mats get more expensive and cleaner

Oh yeah…

5. No more "loosies" at the bodega

I’m a young ‘white’ resident who just moved to Bed-Stuy. It’s because I’m broke and trying to live within my means.

Are we saying that certain people shouldn’t be allowed to live in certain areas because they make too much money? That’s ridiculous! NO ONE is entitled to live anywhere unless they own. Period! Places get gentrified because the city is an expensive place and many people are simply looking for a less expensive place to live. New York today is a radically different city from the 70′s to early 90′s. There were plenty of places for the poor to live back then. Most were crime ridden, arson infested neighborhoods with the worst schools and rampant drug problems.

Thanks to Bloomberg (and policies started under Dinkins and Giuliani) New York is now a city where families Want to raise their children. The population is rising and there are very few burned out buildings and gaping empty lots. The city is safer than it has ever been thanks to gentrification. These people have higher income jobs and pay higher taxes to pay for the very generous services that NYC provides.

You want a city that has lots of cheap housing for the poor? Go to Detroit. You can buy an average house for $7,000. But there are virtually no middle and upper income people living there. The result? A city sadly fit for neither rich or poor.

I was raised in public housing in the South Bronx until I was 10 and then my family was able to buy a modest home in middle class Queens. Most of my neighbors were refugees from Bed-Stuy, City Line and East New York in Brooklyn when the poor moved in in droves and forced the middle class out. Where was the hue and cry to protect these former middle class neighborhoods from turning into slums then? The middle class is incredibly important to NY and more should be done to encourage them to live here. There is plenty of subsidized housing for the poor and while the city should continue these programs, the priority should be focussed more on the people who pay the real taxes to provide those subsidies.

I have no sympathy for people forced out by gentrification. Once again, NO ONE deserves to live anywhere unless they OWN.

Shops that finally take credit cards….

i got one for you. hiheyter is no longer only one commenting up in this piece

What people always fail to realize, or choose to forget, is neighborhoods were de-gentrified before the were ever gentrified.

Take East New York. East New York was a huge working class Jewish neighborhood for a long, long time. If white people start moving to ENY will the "gentrification" word will be dropped? What about the fact that it once was a nice, safe, respectable, "white" neighborhood?

Red Hook, Fort Greene, Williamsburg, all these places were safe working class neighborhoods or primarily white; Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish, etc, for years before they became known as "fringe" or "bad".

What if white people moving in is not "gentrification", but more of "reclamation"?

@hiheyter – that is hilarious!!!

@christopher – There’s a big difference between voluntarily leaving (a la white flight) and being involuntarily priced out. You can reclaim something that was taken or lost, but not something was voluntarily relinquished. So the "reclamation" theory is bogus.

With that said @Luis, I agree with you. Ownership is the antidote to being priced out. I really wish more programs would focus, not just on providing affordable housing, but teaching people (particularly in lower-income communities of color) the benefits and importance of ownership. And not just home ownership, but even owning the commercial spaces.

"reclamation" – oh so you’re entitled or it’s your right to reclaim these areas because white people moved from them many years ago? Wow! So, how far should we go back in time to see how people have migrated over the years. I want to see what areas I can reclaim.. I don’t think anyone was forced to leave these "safe working class neighborhoods".

@ Christopher

"reclaimation!?!"LOL Hey man, I’m going to assume that you’re ignorant of the history of New York City. I’m going to assume that you didn’t know that there were Africans (slaves and freemen) living in New York City in the 1600′s alongside Dutch employees of the West India Trading Co who built what we know as lower Manhattan for free.

@ me
what you said right here is spot on

"my general suggestion is that people get to know the neighborhood. i feel like if one looks around, they will find it has a lot to offer. too many people just go directly from their home to the subway, ipod blasting the whole way."

getting to know the neighborhood and your neighbors is a great step towards building community. but on the real alot of people (gentrifiers and long time thug residents) living in CH have no vested interest in Crown Heights or building community. One group got priced out of their former neighborhood and just want a cheap place to live while they stack their paper until they move out. And the other group wants a cheap, under policed neighborhood to live in while they illegally stack their paper until they can move out.

We lived in Park Slope. We couldn’t afford to buy there. We saved our money and found a city program called Homeworks. It allowed us to buy our house here in the neighborhood and we moved into it in 2005.

Just after we moved in, I was coming home one day when a black woman stopped me and asked me what I was doing here. I told her I lived here. She said, "So, you’re a pioneer?" I told her I didn’t like that term and what it implied. She asked me if I felt sorry for the people who were being priced out of the area. I told her I did, but we had to live somewhere and Crown Heights was where we could afford to live. She told me she didn’t like seeing people like me moving into the neighborhood. I took that to mean white people. I told her that I didn’t think the color of anybody’s skin had anything to do with it. It’s economics. She walked away. I saw her a couple if times after that and she just said, "You’re still here?" I told her I wasn’t going anywhere.

We know our neighbors. They know us. This is also our neighborhood. We do spend money here, and I’ve noticed an improvement in the quality and selection of the food at the Met supermarket on Nostrand where I shop. I like that, and if that’s gentrification, that’s okay with me. I don’t want the West Indian businesses to go out of business, but I would like to see some more variety in the types of restaurants and stores in this area. I guess that will happen with time.

I also like that the amount of gun violence seems to be dropping. I don’t hear anywhere near the number of shots that I used to hear. I want my neighborhood to be clean, safe and quiet. I think everybody wants that, and I think having dialogue like this helps everybody understand each other.

baby stroller sightings past 9 pm.

@LB

Too much emphasis is placed on home ownership. It’s not a cure-all. Rather, long term leases (think 5 years, think 10 years, etc.) will help stabilize neighborhoods much in the way that increased home ownership is idealized to do. Longterm rentals can be a better financial plan for many city residents. (And, of course, we need to see increased subsidies for the middle class. More Mitchell-Lama-type projects, for instance.)

@ rosweed – "She told me she didn’t like seeing people like me moving into the neighborhood." … "You’re still here?" Damn … that’s RUDE! Imagine if the colors were reversed…

I’ve read about Homeworks. There’s actually this great story some years ago, I think it was in the Times, about a woman out in Harlem who purchased a place through Homeworks years ago. Her property value later shot through the roof, and she was able to purchase more properties and parlay her modest investment into a couple of million dollars in assets. And I want to say that she was making under $50,000.

@ db – I totally disagree. Too much emphasis is on renting.

I know or have spoken to dozens of residents around Central BK who had the opportunity and ability to purchase a place in the neighborhood back when things were affordable, but didn’t. What stopped them? A deeply entrenched renter’s mentality – an inability to see themselves as an owner. Now they are getting priced out. In some ways it’s sad, but in others it’s their own fault.

Long term leases are like adjustable rate mortgages – the question is, what happens after the lease expires. Plus, a long term fixed rate lease ignores the realities that landlords face ever rising costs. What landlord would ever buy into that?

Why not have programs that subsidize down payments so that ultimately people can afford their own mortgage rather than focusing on having them pay off someone else’s.

Like it or not, our legal system protect owners – not "long timers". Therefore, ownership = self-determination. Renting = being at the whims of someone else’s determination. I think it’s extremely important – particularly for low and middle income communities of color – to start being owners of the communities in which they live.

On the issue of home ownership versus rental as a factor in New York gentrification, anything that makes it harder for people to be displaced or priced out will slow down the process.

If you compare the rate of gentrification in the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, you’ll see a big difference in the speed at which it happened. The gentrification of the LES started years before it did in Williamsburg and in some ways is still less complete than the changes in Williamsburg. I put this difference largely on the housing stock.

Most of the tenement buildings in the LES are protected by the 1943-47 rent control laws, and most of the rest are covered by the rent stabilization law of 1969. Basically, any rental building that was built before 1947 is covered under the old rent control laws (an FDR relic) and anything built between 1947 and 1969 is rent stabilized.

The rent control laws gave many more rights to tenants and restrictions on landlords than the later rent stabilization laws. The owner of a rent controlled building can’t kick you out so long as you pay the rent and don’t destroy the place. Under current law, rent controlled buildings that have more than six units are supposed to put those units into stablization once a tenant vacates. So in addition to waiting out a tenant indefinitely, the landlord must wait the duration of another lease before they can push the unit to market rate.

The Williamsburg housing stock had long since been taken out of the rent control system as many or most of the buildings in that neighborhood have fewer than six units. The spread of gentrification happened like wildfire there, because as soon as the landlords realized that they could triple the rents, they did. There was nothing to stop them from doing it every time a lease expired. It left the people of neighborhood completely priced out within a couple of years.

Despite the desire to do so, the landlords of the LES were more constrained in their ability to double and triple rents. The result is a slower change. I haven’t even gotten into home ownership, but here’s my point, anything that stops situations where people are forced out of their apartments because they can’t afford a %200 rent increase will slow down gentrification. Home ownership will definitely do that, and that’s probably why this neighborhood has been and will continue to gentrify more slowly than Williamsburg.

As a long time reader of this blog I’m intrigued why it’s this post that has generated so many comments. The authors have invited commentary before, yet it took a conversation about gentrification to really get people going.

One can argue that we have all rehearsed our various positions regarding gentrification, and the subject itself has become a nomadic rhetorical enterprise looking for an online home.

I wonder if Nostrand Park is opening itself up to be the home, even if a temporary one for this debate? And if not, what is the purpose of this exercise? Is it a ploy to get hits? If so, what’s next? A poll on sex positions?

That said, and since you asked, an uncommon indicator of gentrification is a silencing and disavowal of poor whites.

@nat – you make a persuasive argument. I still think ownership is the key, but I know it is not a reality for all, and I appreciate the point that you make – ultimately rent controls can help neighborhoods enjoy a certain degree of stability.

I’m a big proponent of mixed income communities anyway. Wish we would see more intentionally planned mixed income developments and communities around the city…

Hmmm. Lots of really interesting comments here. I’d like to touch on the area supermarkets issue. Background: I’m 32. I grew up in Crown Heights, moved away to Boston for six years and then moved back to the area. I couldn’t disagree more when I hear comments like ‘the area had plenty of great grocery stores’. Huh? Where? They were bad when I was growing up and they still kinda suck.

One of the main things that I remember from growing up on Prospect Place and Nostrand is how truly and unbelievably crappy our Key Food and Met Food on Nostrand were as compared with the Key Food in Park Slope on 7th or the huge Walbaums in Queens, where my mom would shop sometimes on the weekends. When I say crappy, I’m talking bad meats and produce, subpar customer service and limited selection. Having moved back here in 06′, I’m still disappointed in the area’s supermarkets. My Mom still has the two crappy supermarkets that I mentioned earlier to shop, unless she wants to wait in ridiculous lines at the Pathmarks on Fulton or at the Atlantic Center. Western Beef has great meat, but the rest of place isn’t air conditioned and thus smells like ass (which I don’t mind so much anymore, but some folks can’t deal with).

As for the supermarkets near me (I’m near the museum, on Lincoln Place), I have the worst Key Food EVER on Lincoln and Washington (all of the meat and veggies are crap) and my very own shabby Met Food a few blocks down. The only places I can go for decent groceries nearby are the farmer’s markets or at the Western Beef (if I need meat). So lets not rip on ‘white kids carrying Whole Foods bags from the train’. If you work near a Whole Foods and you live in Brooklyn, its not unreasonable to shop there.

k-man i feel you.

but i’ve made supermarket shopping kind of a sport and you cna get good, fresh food int he hood if you do a little research

raskin’s fish market on kingston and union has the cheapest, freshest fish in this area and they will clean, scale and fillet the fish to whatever your liking is.

for meats..drive up beford to the stop and shop on flatbush and church…that super market is sooo slept on…the prices are great (buy one get one free on brand name and organic groceries) and they have a free parking lot on the roof.

no excuses for the long lines and terrible cashiers in super foodtown and the atlantic center pathmark but as long as you shop at those spots before 11am you should be in and out (and in pathmark’s defense..they’re open 24 hours)

as for veggies..you’re right..no excuse for the poor quality produce at key food or met…i say support the farmers markets or go to fairway..what can i tell you..

Particularly with the rezoning, there has been lots of gentrification talk in Sunset Park and South Park Slope. One less talked-about change (in part due to economics here, and in part elsewhere) is the diminishing Polish community that around Third Avenue in the 20s ("SunSlope") that has been around for over 100 years.

Read more about it one local business owner here: http://blogs.journalism.cuny.edu/interactive2010/2009/11/20/the-polish-of-south-brooklyn/