Gentrification definition is – the process of repairing and rebuilding homes and businesses in a deteriorating area (such as an urban neighborhood) accompanied by an influx of middle-class or affluent people and that often results in the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.
I saw a sign in Richmond Hill NY. House for sale $900,000… Wait What???? Granted it was over 15 years ago but when I lived in NY this neighborhood was in the $200,000 – $300,00o range. Conversation later on that day with my sister who is also a realtor… “if they want something more affordable they will have to go out on “the island” (Long Island)” Wait… What???? “The Island” (Long Island) was suburbia. Upper Middle Class, Upper Class Living… you could barely afford the taxes.
Morning walk in my sister’s Long Island (upper middle class) neighborhood and it hits me… most of her neighbors are now … let’s say … diverse… lots of brown people… specifically a lot of Asians, Caribbean… so… what’s really going on here? Are they rebuilding and repairing and moving the urban America for ease… or maybe… mass exodus from US?
Back in the days Queens and Brooklyn was the only places we could afford to become a homeowner. You can look all you want in the beautiful areas of manicured lawns and picturesque homes in Long Island but the prices, the taxes and factor in the commute cost from “the burbs” and you simply could not afford to live there. It was white washed.
Then slowly but surely people of color in NY (especially Caribbean/Immigrants) became prosperous enough and couldn’t wait to get out there. Almost all the communities you walk through now has come color
Fast forward 15 years, the homes in Queens and Brooklyn cost sometimes 3x as much as “the island”. Gentrification? Or mass exodus from us? It’s as if they are saying: 1. If you gonna move into our communities then what we are going to do is take over the urban areas because y’all don’t even know the convenience of what you have so we gonna buy it out, price you out and you can have the damn burbs with your 4 hours a day commute and 4 times more taxes….
SOAR 
Gentrification is a insidious form of racism. Its been happening to black and brown urban areas for decades. Most people assume its Black People’s fault that areas become gentrified, however that’s totally incorrect because when you racially target a area, and extract resources out of the community, the unfortunate outcome is the creation of a Ghetto. All communities have tax dollars funneled into there communities, However we’re told to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, however when we do. We get the holocaust of Black Wallstreet!!
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