Is Degentrification EVEN POSSIBLE??

At a PEN World Voices Festival titled, “Degentrify New York and Give Her Back to the World," Livewire writers were asked if it was possible to ‘turn back the clock’ to a time when Park Slope was affordable for artists to live and create there. That’s a good question!

Some ideas were thrown out to send Park Slope in the direction of degentrification, such as author Luc Sante’s notion of “Keeping your door open when home” and slam poet/professor Tracie Morris’s idea to “Hang out in front of your building for one hour a week." Although these ideas are adorable, I can’t help but ask: What the fuck do they have to do with degentrification?!

Gentrification by definition is: the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.

So, unless Sante is leaving his door open to let those lower income families back in to crash on his couch, or Morris is hanging out outside the building coming up with ideas on how to make rent cheaper, those ideas aren’t going to change anything.

In my opinion, rent is too damn expensive, and you shouldn’t have to pay out the ass just to live in an area where (on the extreme end) you aren’t going to get shanked on the way home late at night or (on the less dramatic side) you can have a relatively clean neighborhood to walk around in that offers places to eat that aren’t in turn charging out the ass based on the simple fact that they are in a “trendy” location. 

On the other hand, turning back the clock seems not only impossible but also an equally stupid idea. I mean, we don’t want things to go back to being shitty; we just want a better system from here on out, right?

As per other suggestions made, maybe removing your headphones and listening to the sounds of the city and acknowledging your neighbors might make people more friendly, but let’s face it, it’s not going to do shit for cost of living in the area. In their defense, the writers did throw out a few ideas that were less of a joke, but nothing incredibly ground breaking.

Degentrification is a cute idea and all, but sorry to burst your bubble: People are greedy and selfish. They aren’t going to give up a Utopian comfort zone that they CAN afford, and they probably don’t give a shit if you CAN'T afford to live there. 

Though it would be fantastic, unless people can start coming up with some real ideas that we can actually use as more areas are inevitably cleaned up --- other than genius shit like, “Stop being so scared of people who look so scary” --- degentrification is not going to happen.