Yale 250 help?
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 7:50 pm
Hi,
I'm having a lot of trouble creating something that actually says something in 250 words! This is 299 and feels so choppy because I had to cut so much out.
Feedback would be great!
On my block in Brooklyn, there is a bakery that sells oxtails, three bodegas, a used electronics store, and a coffee shop with vegan gluten free muffins. Though the last is the establishment I usually frequent, I feel a twinge of guilt every time. Am I helping to destroy the neighborhood? Am I pushing out people who have lived here for years? Am I a gentrifier?
I moved to my neighborhood because it was a bearable commute and was the safest area I could afford. It is made up of an immigrant working class population living in rent-controlled apartments, and a growing minority of recent college graduates. I am conscious that because of the influx of my cohorts, more upscale businesses will move to Prospect Heights. These businesses might not be affordable for the largely immigrant population that’s still makes up the bulk of my area. Once these new businesses come, landlords will raise the rent, and many who have been living here for years will be forced to find cheaper neighborhoods.
I am torn about what my role is and should be. I moved where I could afford to move, and I could afford to move there because it was not yet gentrified. Although for decades, neighborhoods have changed culturally, low socio-economic neighborhoods usually stayed affordable despite the changing cultural feel. Now encroaching waves of young educated individuals and families are forcing the residents out with their yoga studios and willingness to pay more in rent. I don’t want Brooklyn to become, like Manhattan, a place that most people cannot afford to live. I know that by moving to Brooklyn I am part of an inexorable tide toward gentrification, and yet there is no place else in the city I could feasibly live without having the same effect.
I'm having a lot of trouble creating something that actually says something in 250 words! This is 299 and feels so choppy because I had to cut so much out.
Feedback would be great!
On my block in Brooklyn, there is a bakery that sells oxtails, three bodegas, a used electronics store, and a coffee shop with vegan gluten free muffins. Though the last is the establishment I usually frequent, I feel a twinge of guilt every time. Am I helping to destroy the neighborhood? Am I pushing out people who have lived here for years? Am I a gentrifier?
I moved to my neighborhood because it was a bearable commute and was the safest area I could afford. It is made up of an immigrant working class population living in rent-controlled apartments, and a growing minority of recent college graduates. I am conscious that because of the influx of my cohorts, more upscale businesses will move to Prospect Heights. These businesses might not be affordable for the largely immigrant population that’s still makes up the bulk of my area. Once these new businesses come, landlords will raise the rent, and many who have been living here for years will be forced to find cheaper neighborhoods.
I am torn about what my role is and should be. I moved where I could afford to move, and I could afford to move there because it was not yet gentrified. Although for decades, neighborhoods have changed culturally, low socio-economic neighborhoods usually stayed affordable despite the changing cultural feel. Now encroaching waves of young educated individuals and families are forcing the residents out with their yoga studios and willingness to pay more in rent. I don’t want Brooklyn to become, like Manhattan, a place that most people cannot afford to live. I know that by moving to Brooklyn I am part of an inexorable tide toward gentrification, and yet there is no place else in the city I could feasibly live without having the same effect.