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June 14, 2012
Kelly Anderson, 'My Brooklyn' Director, Discusses Brooklyn Gentrification
The Huffington Post
by Christopher Mathias
According to The Fordham Institute's Michael J. Petrilli, Brooklyn has four of the nation's top 25 most gentrifying zip codes. They are, in order of whiteningness, 11205 and 11206 (parts of Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, and Williamsburg) 1237, ("East" Williamsburg and Bushwick) and 11238 (Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Bed Stuy).
...But Brooklynites don't really need charts and graphs to know gentrification is creeping further and further into the borough.
Three recent documentaries have focused on the issue. "Battle For Brooklyn" documents the process by which a chunk of Prospect Heights was displaced to make room for Atlantic Yards and Barclays Center, "Gut Renovation" focuses on the rezoning of Williamsburg, and "My Brooklyn: The Battle For The Soul Of A City" concentrates on Downtown Brooklyn, and vanishing Fulton Mall.
"My Brooklyn" (which, along with "Gut Renovation," received the Audience Award at the Brooklyn Film Festival) features footage of Mayor Bloomberg and real estate developers salivating over the Brooklyn market while longtime residents are brought to tears in intimate interviews about having to move their families or close their businesses.
The film, by Kelly Anderson and Allison Lirish Dean, shows concrete evidence that gentrification, namely in New York, doesn't just happen, but is rather fueled by public policy.
NoLandGrab: Battle for Brooklyn, for those of you with short memories, won top honors at the 2011 Brooklyn Film Festival.
Posted by eric at June 14, 2012 11:56 AM