Resistance to Gentrification in This City Is Futile
Two swaths of Harlem have seen intense gentrification since 2000.
March 5, 2018 — Seven city neighborhoods experienced biggest real estate jumps in the nation.
Neighborhood activists and longtime residents might try to fight gentrification, but it’s beginning to look like resistance is futile. Real estate prices have skyrocketed in seven neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn over the last 15 years – so much so that these areas topped a new list of the country’s 20 most gentrified ZIP codes, the New York Post reports.
A February study by rental listing website RentCafe analyzed three factors: U.S. Census data on median home values in 11,000 ZIP codes across America from 2000 and 2016; changes in median income; and the number of residents with at least a bachelor’s degree.
The number-one spot – a sign of progress or a crying shame, depending on how you look at it – went to Downtown Los Angeles (90014), where home values rose a whopping 707 percent over those 16 years. The runner-up was the area around the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. (20001), where prices jumped 207 percent.
The Big Apple’s highest appearance is the No. 5 slot. Northeast Harlem (10039) – located directly across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium – saw its home values grow by 356 percent (from $89,572 to $408,654), its median income by 32 percent and its population of college-educated residents by 168 percent.
Another Harlem neighborhood, the swath just north of Central Park, came in 15th place. There’s been a 219 percent increase in median home values there, from $228,043 in 2000 to $727,541 in 2016. In July, a Whole Foods opened nearby, on 125th Street and Lenox Avenue. An outpost of the upscale grocer is often seen as a harbinger of gentrification.
Over the decade and a half, other Brooklyn neighborhoods experienced cost-of-living increases and demographic shifts. Also making the top 20 were Williamsburg (11211, prices went from $330,977 to $882,277 there), Greenpoint (11222, from $345,515 to $746,373), Crown Heights/Bed-Stuy (11216, from $285,310 to $839,905), Bushwick (11237, from $273,563 to $576,572) and a sprawling area encompassing both Bushwick and Bed-Stuy (11221, from $278,115 to $638,822).
Resistance is, indeed, futile.