The Gentrification of Blackness in Brooklyn, NY

Keywords: gentrification, black geographies, qualitative GIS, mapping, GIS, ethnography
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Gentrification has been a prominent issue in the urbanization of New York City. As gentrification has increased costs and transformed neighborhoods with an influx of new businesses, specific socioeconomic groups have been adversely affected by this process. Among these adversely affected groups is the black community in Brooklyn, specifically within the neighborhoods Fort Greene, Williamsburg, and Park Slope. Black people have been disproportionately affected by the rising cost-of-living and transformation of predominately black neighborhoods within Brooklyn. For the purposes of this research, the measurement of gentrification will be focusing on how blackness is gentrified through the study of black nightlife venues in Fort Greene, Williamsburg, and Park Slope from the years 2002 - 2022. Nightlife in this context refers to bars, music venues, nightclubs, restaurants, and black-owned businesses that operates in a similar manner to what is listed above. This study employs a qualitative GIS approach that maps out the black nightlife spaces within these neighborhoods using Yelp, census data, and ethnographic interviews to discuss the processes of gentrification in these areas.