The Positive and Negative Effects of Gentrification on the Community of Inwood

The neighborhood of Inwood in Manhattan, New York City has been facing increasing gentrification in recent years. Gentrification is known as the modernizing of a neighborhood in order to conform to the standards of higher middle to higher class people. Inwood has been recognized as a community separated by racial and socioeconomic lines for many years. According to Alanna Schubach, as written in “A Tale of Two Neighborhoods,” 77% of household salaries on the west are over $100,000 compared to the east where families earn less than $20,000 yearly. Broadway is what divides the west and east sides. Ninety percent of the white population living in Inwood reside in the west side, most of whom are much wealthier. These people are able to buy co-ops instead of renting like the people of the east, meaning that they are able to have a long-term presence in Inwood. The influx of white people in this predominantly Dominican neighborhood has led to a wide spread of gentrification, making it one of the city's more rapidly gentrified communities. There is mass confusion surrounding “gentrification” as a whole, specifically because the places where it takes place are communities that white people have strayed away from for centuries. It is difficult to obtain concise information about the intentions behind gentrification because in modern day society whites would rarely step outside of their own suburban communities into new territories without fear. John Blake quotes David Billings in “White Supremacist by Default: How ordinary people made Charlottesville possible”, "Across the country, white people withdrew from the 'public' sphere and migrated to 'whites only' suburbs to evade racial integration," Billings wrote. "The word 'public' preceding words like 'housing,' 'hospital,' 'health care,' 'transportation,' 'defender,' 'schools,' and even 'swimming pool' in some parts of the country became code words that meant poor and most often black and Latino. The word 'private' began to mean 'better”. It seems as though; whites have spread into neighborhoods such as Inwood with no intentions to “help” because they have strayed away in the past. Instead, this is an inevitable financial gain for white people by incorporating high-volume, corporate stores they drive out the local shops, by demanding higher quality apartments they drive out the Latinos who cannot afford the same, and lastly with a higher influx of whites in the community of Inwood there is an increase in police activity that follows because of the distinct forms of living causing minorities to feel inferior.

Consequently, this has caused many positive and negative impacts in the lives of many poor Latinos living in the east. Gentrification is a concept attaining to whites moving into affordable neighborhoods populated by poor minorities and using their wealth and class status to renovate these particular neighborhoods in order to conform to their own standards. Positive results of gentrification can result in economic growth, building renovations, crime rates decreasing, and a more diverse neighborhood. However, the negative effects of gentrification include increased retail rents, large amounts of displaced families, loss of affordable housing, and loss of culture.

Regarding the fact that Inwood is of Dominican majority, much of the community caters to the Dominican culture, in terms of bodegas and restaurants built by the same people who have kept the neighborhood in tact through tough times. For example, during the crack era, Inwood had high crime and drug rates, a positive shift occurred because of the Dominican residents who allowed for the area to flourish by revamping the neighborhood. This created a new sense of community, they opened up their own businesses and supported one another for the greater good. Furthermore, newcomers discriminating against these Dominican owned businesses, has lead to racial tension. In recent years, there has been large amounts of foot traffic in Inwood caused by the revitalization of culture with dozens of new modern bars and restaurants created by the same dominican community that established what we know as “Inwood”, but it is negatively described as “constant nightlife noise” by newcomers who have the power and resources to destroy these businesses and establish their own. As a result, Gregg McQueen wrote in “The Disappearing Dominicans,” this loss of culture will eventually lead to the culture completely disappearing. Juan Gonzales writes in his book “Harvest of Empire” , “As mainstream newspapers accounts of Dominicans involved in violent crime or drug trafficking became commonplace, some whites started to react with anger and blamed the new immigrants for the city’s decline. Rarely did the postriot news reporters, however, seek to explain why so many Dominicans came to the United states in the first place. Few explored the new immigrant’s enormous success in neighborhood commerce or their high enrollment in the public university system”. This is evident in today’s world as well, as we clearly see white people tormenting the lives of Dominicans and replacing their communities with ones that attain to their needs and are held to their standards. There is a possibility for positives to grow out of gentrification, but as we reflect on the past, the people backing this concept have only been interested in positive outcomes for their own people.

Gentrification can be seen to have positive attributes by the gentrifiers but it is extremely important to recognize that they there are plenty of negative ones for the Dominican residents who are being pushed out. Throughout history it has been evident, with migrations and colonizations occurring worldwide that there is much to be learned and reflected upon. While migration and colonization may have great value, that is not always the case, as it has the ability to ruin entire livelihoods, families, and rooted cultures. For example, according to Ato Quayson and Girish Daswani of “Introduction - Diaspora and Transnationalism,” it can be said that in order to flourish, migrants need to preserve their culture, music, and food, however this can be an issue because the migrants are not fully assimilating. This can be compared to the gentrification of Inwood as white people have been replacing local restaurants and mom and pop shops with what they have deemed acceptable such as juice bars and coffee shops. Not only have they replaced the local economy with their own but they are also taking up long term foothold by buying properties. However, Bradford E. Burns and Julie A. Charlip state within “The Origins of a Multiracial Society,” that America is a place of mixing populations. This can be positively compared to the gentrification of Inwood, as gentrification has the ability to diversify the area by bringing in other races to live amongst Dominicans. It is viable to say that this may create a leveled plainfield amongst the different areas of New York City where living downtown is much more expensive than uptown, gentrification would create an all around “sameness” due to the mimicking of these downtown areas in these new found uptown neighborhoods.

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