Oh, it is on now. Hakeem Jeffries, the State Assemblyman who's gotten a lot of attention lately for introducing legislation that would ban the use of names like "ProCro" forever just wrote an op-ed piece in the Brooklyn Paper explaining his view. The Brooklyn Paper also published a piece by Lanishia Goodwin, a broker from Bed-Stuy who thinks that Jeffries is going too far and needs to curb his enthusiasm for such a pointless cause. She claims that his "Neighborhood Integrity Act" would essentially stunt expansion and growth for the communities it claims to be helping. She even drops the TriBeCa bomb in making her case, talking about what a boon for the entire city the area is. Anyway, we think her point is best summed up here, "...nicknaming allows the newcomers to relate just how close each neighborhood borders and complements one another. The real estate industry does not use nicknames to push away the old; its prime objective is to relate to a new division of neighborhoods that do not merely border, but cohesively coexist." Spoken like a true Broker Babble veteran. "Newcomers" means gentrifiers right?
Nothing too fresh comes from Hakeem Jeffries, with the crux of his argument being that brokers shouldn't mislead potential buyers. Nothing we haven't heard from him before. He claims to speak in the defense of those who might be pushed out of their neighborhoods by the alleged greed of brokers:
Every Brooklyn resident has a right to call his neighborhood anything he wants. But real estate brokers are obligated to give prospective homebuyers and tenants accurate information about the property being marketed. The consequences of realtors providing misleading information are broad. Working families are pushed out of rebranded neighborhoods as housing prices soar. Newer residents pay more to rent or buy, largely as a result of the deceptive marketing. And then the ProCro debate consumed everything in its path.
· New names help Brooklyn grow [Bk Paper]
· Neighborhood integrity matters [Bk Paper]
· ProCro Coverage [Curbed]
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