gentrification
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Color of Climate: Is Climate Change Gentrifying Miami’s Black Neighborhoods?
Paulette Richards has lived in Liberty City for almost 40 years. In that time, the 57-year-old community organizer has seen some things in the close-knit and vibrant historically black community, located in northwest Miami-Dade County. She’s seen young mothers struggle to feed their babies despite working multiple jobs. She’s seen kids suffering because of a…
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On Whole Foods, Gentrification and the Erasure of Black Harlem
Bye-bye, black Harlem, glad I knew ye. Hello, Whole Foods, I do enjoy your products, but if you can gentrify greens, what chance do we really have? I first moved to Harlem in 1998. I was a young single mother in graduate school with a 2-year-old. Harlem offered me respite, refuge and safety in blackness…
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‘Bye, Becky!’ Protests Erupt Over Gentrifyng Brooklyn, NY, Bar That Promoted Itself With Fake Bullet Holes Behind $12 Cocktails
On Monday a press release for a new “boozy sandwich shop” in Brooklyn, N.Y., went out, complete with a photo of a chichi cocktail in front of a “bullet hole ridden wall”—a wall the new owners said they were proudly keeping, but which turned out to be fake (at least the bullet holes were). By…
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Is Airbnb Turning NYC’s Brooklyn White? Airbnb Responds
Editor’s note: A quote by Murray Cox has been added to provide full context. Updated Tuesday, June 27, 2017, 1:38 p.m. EDT: On Monday The Root published this original article, which used data to argue that the home-sharing company Airbnb is being used as a tool for gentrification in Brooklyn, N.Y. After the article was…
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Biggie Smalls Mural Will Stay on NYC Building
Last week a Brooklyn, N.Y., landlord threatened to remove a Biggie Smalls mural created by Spread Art NYC in order to make room for new windows. But on Monday, local activists reached an agreement with the landlord. The mural, which has been on the building in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood since 2015, was an eyesore and…
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Watch: The Notorious B.I.G. Quiz: How Well Does Brooklyn, NY, Know Biggie’s Music?
Things done changed in Bed-Stuy. It’s now one of the most gentrified areas in Brooklyn, N.Y., affecting everything from voting to schooling. Fancy coffee, avocado toast and almond croissants are on every corner. It’s an everyday struggle for longtime residents to pay the unbelievable rents. The Root hit the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant without warning to…
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NYC Biggie Mural to Be Destroyed by Landlord
A Brooklyn, N.Y., landlord plans to remove a mural of Biggie Smalls to make room for windows and raise rent prices. Two years ago, the mural was placed on the side of an apartment building on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Quincy Street in Biggie’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, but Samuel Berkowitz, the building’s landlord, said…
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Urban Planning Can’t Happen Without Black People in the Room—Yet It Does
Sit at the tables where people are deciding where the new school will go, whether to expand the bus stop or if a new business can drop itself into a neighborhood, and the first question that comes to mind is, “Where are all the people of color?” In 2017 it is—still—a fact that most folks…
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Welcome To Pittsburgh, Where White People Open "90's Style Hip-Hop Fried Chicken" Spots In The Gentrified Hood
If this weren’t a real thing that was really actually happening, the concept of a 90’s style hip-hop fried chicken restaurant created by White people in the hood would make for a cute and clever Chappelle or Key & Peele skit. The owners would be the type of overzealous 90’s hip-hop fans who still rock…
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30 Percent of Black-Owned Businesses in NYC Vanished Between 2007 and 2012: Report
The Big Apple has been seeing a huge economic boom in the past 15 years or so because of its rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, with the number of new storefronts and companies bumping up by some 45 percent. However, that good fortune has not extended to everyone, with black-owned businesses seeing a significant decline over the…