Five days prior to my birthday in December, we were informed by signs on Jackson Street that residential parking would be prohibited on the street for the next month while sewer lines were installed for the four two-family homes that were being built on Beach Street, which is directly across the street from our home.
With the weekend throngs taking up nearly all of the available spots, parking on Beach is already a challenge. Those of us without driveways were truly left to rely on the streets due to the increased restrictions on Jackson and the construction-related limitations on Beach.
Regardless of whether they had alternative options, people with driveways started to be quite cautious about where they parked. Joan started to worry that our automobile might get a ticket or be towed at any time.
Suddenly, I realized that Stapleton was becoming gentrified.
New York is the setting for this narrative. It has occurred in places no one ever imagined would be cool places to live, like Manhattan, Brooklyn, and more recently, Queens.
The concept of gentrification is straightforward. Low-income people can afford a dilapidated neighborhood. Artists are frequently included in this. Thus, the artists take up residence and create a groovy atmosphere with open mic nights, spoken word events, and art shows. All of a sudden, the neighborhood becomes very popular. Developers take advantage of the comparatively low cost, purchase land, raise rents, and drive out lower-income individuals while attracting those who can afford to pay $1.1 million to live in a neighborhood with easy access to buses and places to stay for one or two nights but little more.
To maximize their gains, however, the property values must fall to an all-time low before they can accomplish so. In order to reduce the area’s appeal, some disruptive factors are implemented. The police may appear less frequently, and the crime rate may be on the rise. Trash is not routinely collected. The mail service is inconsistent. Untrustworthy storefront businesses are permitted to thrive. It becomes impossible to park. Rental prices continue to rise. Additionally, the entire place has the odor of a dead skunk whose body has been left to rot. At last, the excellent people who contributed to the area’s appeal decide that enough is enough and leave.
Allowing construction to continue indefinitely is another excellent method to drive people out of a neighborhood. When you can’t open your windows in the summer and there’s continual banging, parking is impossible, and other amenities are deteriorating, a renter’s nerves are strained to the breaking point.
People’s fuse lengths have significantly decreased since the epidemic, which is not surprising. If you spend enough time driving around this island, you will come across people who speed past stop signs and red lights, disregard speed limits, cut you on your right when you’re turning left, assume they always have the right of way when they don’t, and generally act more out of anger than caution. Over the past five years, there has been a noticeable increase in traffic, which has been exacerbated by people riding bicycles, scooters, and other forms of transportation, people who never look up from their phones when crossing the street, pedestrians who believe they have the right-of-way regardless of when and where they cross, and SUVs driven by people who shouldn’t be operating mid-sized vehicles.
This is the demise of the creative community and a boon to developers.
We came here 22 years ago in 2003, and I remember Stapleton with great affection. Van Duzer was only starting to gain popularity. The block’s one-hour parking spaces hindered the success of the popular eatery Vida. In addition to hosting spoken word and musical events, the Martini Red and Muddy Cup served as art galleries for regional artists. Our neighborhood bookshop was called Bent Pages. Ira owned a shop selling antiques. Mood Swings was doing well, and Richmond Hood had just made its mark.
All of those locations either vanished or moved during the course of twenty years. However, they did. Because that is how things are. Everyone else is compelled to walk while money speaks.
I’m not quite ready to give up just yet. Aside than making parking even more difficult, I’m interested to see how the new two-family buildings will impact the neighborhood. I’ve lived in this specific location in Stapleton for more over 20 years, and despite all the changes, people eventually become used to their surroundings and neighbors. Probably the nicest people you’ll ever meet are our neighbors. It takes a while to develop a connection like that, but we look out for and care for one another. You Can’t Make New Old Friends, as the Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton song states.
We’ll have to wait and see. However, when will it be nearly impossible for us to remain here? When parking stops being available? when the rent for the buildings across the street is the same as ours? When do we stop noticing the scent of dead skunks since we’ve grown so used to it?
I will inform you.
Raise your lovely grey heads!
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