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Pros And Cons Of Gentrification

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Ironically, Newtown Creek, a declared superfund site located in Brooklyn, New York, is experiencing rapid population growth and development. This proves to be an issue not only to the long term residents of the area who are driven out due to increasing costs of living, but also to the health and well being of those who reside in the area due to close proximity to the various pollutants contained in the creek. I am writing to Mayor De Blasio to ask that more affordable housing options be produced around areas hit hard by gentrification in the midst of environmental cleanup. In this brief, I will explore the pros and cons related to gentrification and how it relates to the process of designating responsibility for cleaning up the contaminants …show more content…

Originally a movement started by artists who moved into these neighborhoods for their affordability, real estate developers and urban planners take advantage of this increased demand for residence as an opportunity to convert once dilapidated buildings into luxury housing units. These once lifeless neighborhoods are given business, increased jobs, and a “safer” atmosphere. However, complying with the basic rules of supply and demand, as demand for housing in these neighborhoods increases, housing prices also go up. As once affordable housing prices hit astronomical rates, lower-income families that once lived in these neighborhoods are eventually forced out when they simply cannot afford to pay rent …show more content…

A culture has dissipated with the residents who have left, and these effects will only continue to be felt as the area is cleaned up of its environmental contamination. Ridding Newtown Creek and its surrounding neighborhoods of pollutants will only make them “more attractive and drive up real estate prices,” thus benefiting real estate developers and putting residents in a deeper state of disadvantage. Real estate companies and the Department of City Planning should be required to provide affordable housing targeted at certain income groups in the area in order to make it more possible for diverse groups of people to live there even as environmental cleanup takes place. Groups in charged of housing and development in the area ultimately have authority over mitigating the issue of gentrification, which will only prove to have more significance in the coming years as populations increase and environmental cleanup takes

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