Gentrification in Williamsburg

Paper Summary:

The paper defines gentrification as turning old, decaying neighborhoods inhabited by minorities into wealthy, exciting and sparkling new communities in which the original residents cannot afford to live. The paper discusses how new businesses that move in are affected by gentrification. The paper examines Winifred Curran's "Gentrification and the Nature of Work: Exploring the Links in Williamsburg, Brooklyn" where she shows how small-scale manufacturing and blue-collar work in Williamsburg has been displaced by gentrification. The paper also discusses Jason Patch's work on the embedded landscape of gentrification.

From the Paper:

"Very little has been written on the blue-collar workers that remain in the central city. The work they have done and their presence, despite the assumption that deindustrialization is complete by policymakers, make up a crucial element of the neighborhood, an element that would be removed if gentrification is allowed to continue, tearing out the heart of the lifeforce that makes Williamsburg what it is. Manufacturing is still a viable sector of the urban economy that is increasingly at risk of displacement, she argues, and because of that the conversion of industrial space to residential use is simply due to speculative real-estate pressure. Gentrification is encouraging industrial displacement in this transitional area of Brooklyn, which in turn is leading to the degradation of blue-collar work that remains there, and to the increasing informality of work."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Curran, Winifred. "Gentrification and the nature of work: exploring the links in Williamsburg, Brooklyn" Environment and Planning A 36(7) 2003. 1243-1258.
• Newman, K. and Wyly, EK. "The right to stay put, revisited: Gentrification and resistance to displacement in New York city " Urban Studies, 2006.
• Patch, Jason. "The embedded landscape of gentrification." Visual Studies, Vol 19, No. 2. October 2004.

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