Ed García Conde in News On November 5, 2014, 6:00 pm

Illuminating New York City’s Gentrification, One Story at a Time – Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes – Curbed NY

Welcome2TheBronx is one of 19 blogs who have provided anecdotal stories on gentrification creeping into their respective neighborhoods for a feature Curbed worked on for the 50th anniversary of the coining of the word ‘Gentrification’. Here’s what Curbed had to say followed by our story:

“Curbed was founded a decade ago as a site that would chronicle real estate and neighborhood changes, two subjects that are inextricably intertwined. And boy, have we ever, tracking the topic with self-proclaimed obsessiveness and attention to minute detail. It’s easy to capture the drastic evolution in areas like the Lower East Side, the East Village, the Meatpacking District, and Tribeca inphotos; comparing historic images and modern-day shots truly does lay bare what’s gone and what’s replaced it. But as the term “gentrification” turns 50, we figured it was time to sit back and take stock on a more microscopic, anecdotal level. We asked neighborhood bloggers and long-time locals to share with us one moment in which they knew their home had irrevocably changed. A shop opens; a dive bar closes. An industrial tank gets torn down; a pile of glassy condos launch. Their 19 tales are but little nuggets, down to the level of a street corner or a storefront, but taken together, they shine a light onto the large-scale transformation of New York City over the last few decades.”

Here’s what Welcome2TheBronx said:

↑ When did the thought of gentrification of the South Bronx hit me? Was it when Bronx Bricks in Mott Haven, the first market-rate condos, opened up in 2007 across from a NYCHA development with 11 units selling from $388,000 to $789,000—sold them all within a few thousand dollars of asking? Or was it when the borough’s first boutique hotel, The Opera House Hotel, opened up in Melrose—or that a year later another one, The Umbrella Hotel, is getting ready to open just four blocks away? Maybe it was when Beverly Boutique on 3rd Avenue in The Hub in Melrose was priced out after many years, and Orva Shoes from the Upper East Side moved in, making their first foray outside of Manhattan? Probably, though, it was when Banksy tagged up a building on my street and thousands of hipsters descended upon my neighborhood to gawk at his (somewhat ironically named) “Ghetto for Life” piece.
—Ed García Conde, founder and editor, Welcome2TheBronx