In yesterday's heated comments debate about gentrification, someone said, "I would like to see some more targeted conversation about what aspects of gentrification are seen as bad, and what realistically can be done about them." How timely that this would land in our lap, then. Let's hop aboard the gentrification train to Bed-Stuy, where visual artist and brownstone owner "TRUE" seems to be directly answering that commenter on the website he set up to find tenants for the third- and fourth-floor apartments in his unique 100-year-old home (right):
Bed~Stuy is becoming the Black Cultural Mecca that Ft. Greene was on its way to becoming, before the gentrification of the mid ’90s came in and displaced all the artists who were creating the scene. Gentrification ~ and the social upheaval and cultural discontinuity that comes along with it ~ is something we are diligently working to prevent in Bed~Stuy. And how is he working to prevent that? For that, you'll have to read the bold portion of his page. An inteteresting stance, but one seemingly at odds with those pesky laws about discriminatory preferences in real estate deals.
· TRUE Realty: 424 Macon [trueart.biz]