Race, Class, and Gentrification in Brooklyn: A View from the Street

Professors Krase and DeSena have done a terrific job organizing the vast well of NYC socioeconomic data and knowledge within! "Race, Class and Gentrification in Brooklyn" focuses primarily (obviously) on select neighborhoods in the borough of Brooklyn. Although as a lifelong Queens resident, I found many lessons from history and terms (such as "blockbusting," defining "affordability," and the brief history of informal surveillance and patrols) to be universally applicable to NYC. My grandparents owned a home in Flatbush, not far from the Kings Theater mentioned in Krase's writings. I now have a better understanding of what the borough likely meant to the post-WWII generation and why the neighborhoods shifted rather drastically in terms of culture, race and and income level throughout the decades. I also empathize with many of the groups that have felt "priced out" of their own town--I am currently looking to purchase my first house and feel that I can't afford to own anywhere in the five boroughs or Nassau County. Instead, I search for more affordable housing in Westchester and Rockland counties as well as the Poconos. Above all, I respect how both Professors Krase and DeSena make it clear on pg. 10 that they'll both be members of the elder population of Brooklyn come 2030! That loyalty and passion to the borough set the stages for the rest of the read.