{"id":465886,"date":"2022-06-20T23:55:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T20:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/gentrification-is-nothing-like-slavery-in-fact-its-about-freedom\/"},"modified":"2022-06-20T23:55:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T20:55:36","slug":"gentrification-is-nothing-like-slavery-in-fact-its-about-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gentrification-is-nothing-like-slavery-in-fact-its-about-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"#Gentrification is nothing like slavery \u2014 in fact, it&#8217;s about freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af953157ce15\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af953157ce15\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gentrification-is-nothing-like-slavery-in-fact-its-about-freedom\/#%E2%80%9CGentrification_is_nothing_like_slavery_%E2%80%94_in_fact_its_about_freedom%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Gentrification is nothing like slavery \u2014 in fact, it&#8217;s about freedom&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CGentrification_is_nothing_like_slavery_%E2%80%94_in_fact_its_about_freedom%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Gentrification is nothing like slavery \u2014 in fact, it&#8217;s about freedom&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Mayor Eric Adams was right to honor the memory of Seneca Village, the community of free blacks that once stood on part of the site used to create Central Park.\u00a0But he\u2019s misguided in asserting, as he did in his Juneteenth speech, that gentrification \u2014 and the changes it can have on current-day black neighborhoods \u2014 is akin to slavery.\u00a0In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite: Gentrification is an aspect of <em>freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is well worth recalling the many communities of successful black-owned businesses and property owners \u2014 from Harlem to St. Louis to Pittsburgh to Detroit, that were cleared for the alleged greater good of urban renewal and, like Seneca Village, without\u00a0compensation for their owners.<\/p>\n<p>Think of Pittsburgh\u2019s Hill neighborhood, immortalized by the brilliant playwright August Wilson \u2014 replete with a rich community life, yet labeled a slum and replaced by public housing.<\/p>\n<p>But buying and selling property is not seizing. Adams\u2019 call to \u201cpreserve\u201d black neighborhoods ignores that urban real estate constantly changes as the economy changes, as commuting patterns change, as the climate changes.\u00a0That\u2019s just not how healthy cities work \u2014 for any racial group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/bed-stuy.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Brownstone buildings line a street of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2014\" class=\"wp-image-22734238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/bed-stuy.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/bed-stuy.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/bed-stuy.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Brownstone buildings line a street of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Victor J. Blue\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cPreserving neighborhoods\u201d means freezing them, and long-time residents may suffer, rather than prosper, as a result.\u00a0Somehow declaring Bedford-Stuyvesant to be permanently a black neighborhood would have meant denying long-time owners the chance to sell their homes for far more than they originally paid \u2014 and, in the process, to build the inter-generational wealth blacks are likely to lack.<\/p>\n<p>So, too, are poorer residents of neighborhoods in which higher-income newcomers arrive likely to realize benefits: more retail choices, more employment opportunities, the improved city services that the political pressure of the affluent can demand.<\/p>\n<p>So, too, do increased property values lead to increased property-tax revenues, providing, in theory, improved city services, both for poor as well as well-off neighborhoods. The fact that New York\u2019s property-tax system fails to do that at present is a problem of government, not gentrification.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/eric-adams-juneteenth-02.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Mayor Eric Adams visits Seneca Village at Central Park as Juneteenth Celebration is held in New York City, United States on June 19, 2022.\" class=\"wp-image-22734081\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/eric-adams-juneteenth-02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/eric-adams-juneteenth-02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/eric-adams-juneteenth-02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Adams honored the memory of Seneca Village, the community of free blacks that once stood on part of the site used to create Central Park.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Tayfun Coskun\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>If there is any aspect of New York City life today that is akin to slavery it is the fate of public-housing residents.\u00a0They lack the control over the daily life surroundings that property owners take for granted.\u00a0They live an institutionalized life, in which they must <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eal to authorities for repairs, or for permission to plant a garden.<\/p>\n<p>And, crucially, they lack the freedom to own anything;\u00a0their apartments are owned by government:\u00a0They can\u2019t rent empty rooms to lodgers. They must pay a higher rent when their income increases. They must hope that plans to attract private investors to chip away at the New York City Housing Authority\u2019s $40 billion in deferred maintenance come to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no doubt that gentrification may price some poorer tenants out of increasingly well-off neighborhoods.\u00a0But to insist that black neighborhoods must be flash-frozen patronizes residents, based on the assumption that they cannot cope with change, adapt and move on. \u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/seneca-village-excavation-01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Lizzie Martin (C) shows her godmother Jill Herbert a readout from ground-penetrating radar during an archaeological survey of a vanished 19th century settlement named Seneca Village in Central Park August 11, 2005 in New York City.\" class=\"wp-image-22734105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/seneca-village-excavation-01.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/seneca-village-excavation-01.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/seneca-village-excavation-01.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A team of scientists are using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to survey parts of the site which was once home to as many as 260 mostly African-Americans before they were evicted in 1856 when Central Park was created.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Mario Tama\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Plus, thanks to fair-housing laws, there\u2019s no reason affluent African-Americans can\u2019t be the \u201cgentrifiers.\u201d Nor, for that matter, should we rule out the prospect that new African-American communities will form out of choice, not policy;\u00a0indeed, someone should tell  that to progressives who believe predominantly black communities are, per se, \u201csegregated\u201d and need to be changed.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor of America\u2019s greatest city must understand and acknowledge that it is Gotham\u2019s history of change that underlies its dynamism \u2014 and that lays the foundation of a shared, not exclusive, prosperity.<\/p>\n<p><em>Howard Husock is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/06\/20\/gentrification-is-nothing-like-slavery-in-fact-its-about-freedom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Gentrification is nothing like slavery \u2014 in fact, it&#8217;s about freedom&#8221; Mayor Eric Adams was right to honor the memory of Seneca Village, the community of free blacks that once stood on part of the site used to create Central Park.\u00a0But he\u2019s misguided in asserting, as he did in his Juneteenth speech, that gentrification \u2014&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":465887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/06\/eric-adams-juneteenth-gentrification-99.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[130516,72859,66147,76558,114241,70362,87230,21170],"class_list":["post-465886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-20-22","tag-african-americans","tag-eric-adams","tag-freedom","tag-gentrification","tag-nycha","tag-public-housing","tag-slavery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}