Because no matter what the rent is, it'll still be more than half your income.

I've heard the rent is too damn high.

Because when crime goes up white flight begins... When white flight begins landlords lower their rents... So crime and cheap rent go hand in hand... That's amerikkkan society...

Crime isn't the primary cause - at least not historically. Crime is partially a consequence of an extended inability to leverage value from property assets. Unless a larger organization is specifically targeting a neighborhood and can keep it up for years, it's hard to see how crime appears out of nowhere and is the larger cause of rent decreases.

that's a one dimensional view of society. crime and cheap rent are not always paired together though they may coexist.

it was a joke in poor taste. part of the traditional 'one extreme or the other' view of reality for people who like to keep it real on the binary tip.

Rents have not necessarily fallen in NYC when crime has increased- but they certainly did not increase at the rate we see today. City crime scares the yuppies who grew up in suburbia, so when they started to breed they moved out of the city for a "better environment to raise our brood." Hence even neighborhoods that were not cheap since the 1950s (far West Village) were not dotted with kiddie clothing stores and Day Care centers for the wealthy. Having been born here in 1954 I've seen Manhattan change from a playground for adults to a plastic play park for kids.

economics 101. please read.

Because they want you to ignore the crime of high rent that's being perpetrated.

Because when the crime goes up, the money moves to the suburbs. When it drops, the money comes back to the city, and the prices go up. There really isn't much more of a point than that.

the point is not that one misses low rent and street crime. point is that a "culture that’s been laid down for generations" is being destroyed and displaced. future degentrification is no "consolation" for that.

It doesn't have to be, the question is whether this is the case.

who do you think is donating to your stupid kickstarter project, spike?

Guilty white yuppies?

People who properly dispose of their trash, rather than trash their own neighborhood?

Keep being racist; the mods haven't had enough people to ban lately and are getting antsy.

That's not racist

that is not racist at all. you're just stating the facts. its sad that we live in a PC world where every minority with clout can openly speak to the press regarding their problems w "fucking hipsters" and "white people" and someone can't make a passing observation without being called a racist. and to Buffart's point, all you have to do is move your happy white ass to an ungentrified, minority neighborhood in nyc and see how they live and take care of their neighborhoods. its all a product of education anyway, not race. the more education people have, the more civil citizens and neighbors they are. conversely, the less educated a specific community is, the exact opposite is the result. if you don't believe it, you're not paying attention.

a lot of people foolishly lump black west indian people with american black people because they are all black but they are two distinct groups of people with different histories.

Black west Indians don't even particularly like Black Americans. They think that we (Black Americans) are beneath them. Also huge cultural difference, as you also pointed out.

They do not think they are above black Americans. They don't want to be dragged down (downward mobility assimilation ) into the African American urban culture of failure and scapegoating.
African Americans ( only the ghetto ones) dislike Black immigrants because they OUTPERFORM AND OBLITERATE THE GHETTO MYTH THAT A.A. CANT SUCCEED IN "RACIST AMERI[KKK]A."

Replace every word "white" with "black", and vice versa. Then imagine Spike is White. He'd be labeled a venomous racist. Spike Lee is one of the most hateful, yet spoiled, racists in America. Even in Spike's own ignorant rant the clearly highlights that it's the money and not the race. But he can't help but take a swipe at "the man" holding him down. Yawn.

He spoke the truth. Plain and simple. I live in ft. Greene and its becoming the village. The hipsters dont mingle with no body else. The only time they do is when they want drugs. They come buy buildings and raise the rent to ridiculous amounts that only white hipsters can afford. 2500 dollars for a two bedroom in this neighborhood? Forcing us to housing, welfare and all that mess. So whos fucking who?

I agree 100%. Love the guys movies but as a person he can go fuck himself.

Actually, Spike Lee has been a significant agent of gentrification.

and the media plays along with it.

You say that as if Spike isn't talking about people who possess many times the amount of money and power moving in and displacing people without. As if you can just flip flop "white" and "black," to arrive at your conclusion... like those terms refer only to the color of one's skin.

The only thing to add to what you said is that if it was the case where white people were continually forced to move to different neighborhoods because black developers where buying the property in their neighborhood, it would never happen and there would be an uprising. If you want to ignore history and it's effect on the present, then that's on you. I agree it's not 100% a race issue, but you can't ignore the history and Spike's rant is representative of a history of black neighborhoods being bought out, redeveloped and that black neighborhood being forced to move to another neighborhood where they could afford the rent. Also, when this destroys any/all traces of history for African Americans, it ties back to a much larger sense of injustice, which is widespread and touches so many places in African American's lives.

Blacks didn't build those neighborhoods. They were built by waves of European immigrants. Most blacks hate their neighborhoods as they see themselves "put there" or "intheir place". They always want to move to another ethnic group's neighborhood . The racist 1924 immigration act (which sought to favor Nordic blonde blue eyed NW Europeans via quotas.) shut down all tan/brown /olive skinned Mediterranean Italian and East European immigration. As they suburbs became popular, their kids( then called white ethnics) moved out to theses new suburbs. As cities lost population and zero European Immigration , cities and industry encouraged African Americans to come north.
Unfortunately, liberal socialist democrat policies have turned African Americans into socialists who distrust and want no part in free or private enterprise, nevermind capitalism.
So the idea of "black yuppie developers" chasing out whites is as ridiculous as sheep chasing and devouring lions. Just sayin....in hypothetical argument yes, reality is different.

Thanks for that. I guess in a way, you only support what I said, but the underlying disgust for "blacks" is apparent. In case you didn't catch it in your rehash of history, African Americans moved to neighborhoods where they could live and where the segregated (legally or socia-economically) allowed them to. Before when Italians weren't accepted for being "ethnic", African Americans also weren't allowed to buy property through racist housing and lending policies. So this even playing ground where "blacks" supposedly "failed" in the capitalist model is as much of a fairy tale as African American developers redeveloping white neighborhoods....which was the point, btw. Also, the capitalist model, when applied to housing, literally profits from those that aren't financially stable enough or have high enough credit scores to lend/build/own. So when Spike talks about a neighborhood being taken over, it doesn't matter who built it when the people that built it fled because "ethnic" people moved in. It also doesn't prevent from those "ethnic" people from feeling like they have something invested in their community. So I really don't see the point in what you just said at all.

Right. Nothing like the phony "reverse racism" card. YAWN

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

He's a P.O.S! The hypocrite says "you cant just come into a culture and impose.......THATS WHAT HE DID WITH "DO THE RIGHT THING!"

1. Italian pizzeria in Italian neighborhood changing to African American.
2 Disrespectful blacks blasting boomboxes,yelling at Italians in said restaurant.
3. Despite the Pizzeria being an Italian American business who's owner proudly displays photos a Italian American Achievers.....the blacks want to impose photos of black boxers (Ali?/Sugar Ray?) Rather than ask, they are rude,disrespectful, forcefull,ENTITLED. YET THE ITALIAN IS OLD SCHOOL AND NO PUNK!! This pisses the ghetto blacks more!
4. Boombox retard imposes himself and gets killed in NYPD chokehold.
5. Pizzeria burned down.
6. MOVIE ENDS WITH THE PLACING OF A PHOTO OF A BLACK BOXER AMONG THE CHARRED WHITE BOXER PHOTOS.
BLACKNESS FINALLY IMPOSED ON THE ITALIAN ESTABLISHMENT! !

SPIKE LEE'S IDEA OF "RIGHT THING" IS THAT THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS

I think it's IQ.

With all due respect I don't believe you truly know and understand what you're talking about. Education equates to civil behaviour? I'm from London, England and the same economic cleansing is happening here in areas which have long held/housed black communities and culture. People are being pushed out, money talks and when there is no money there is often no voice. Africans/blacks have and are still at a economic disadvantage mainly due to damaging historical elements, which they themselves did not ask for. In short there seems to be little to no respect for black communities given there tumultuous history and in fact what you find usually is a opportunistic attitude which seeks to cash in and take advantage. Spike Lee is right, you have to have some respect.

Also true 'racism' in it's element and potency can often be defined by 'power imbalance' African/black individuals who hold to so called economic 'racist' views are in response to that power imbalance. Racism cupped with a lack of power will seldom produce little if any disadvantages and long standing damage or hurt to the opposing party. Where as racism combined with 'power of economies' has the ability to devastate communities for generations.

The "power imbalance" theory of racism is utter garbage. If I discriminate against you because of your race, I'm a racist. It doesn't matter if I'm in the powered class or not (we can't say majority anymore because whites are no longer in the majority in the USA). Notice how Spike said nothing about the asians moving in? Or the other ethnic groups with equal access to money to buy homes? His beef is with white folks, and people who'd, like, have dogs or something (white people). And *gasp* the schools got better when rich people moved in. Gee, I wonder if that has anything to do with the paltry interest (outside free day care and free meals for kids) that the poor put into schools. It's not racial, it's economic.

Rents go up in Manhattan because of co-op conversion, new building, and lots of Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, and other emerging markets money pouring into real estate. Whites are forced out to the outer boroughs. *Notice how no one in the white community is complaining about this* It's called economics. If our rent goes up, we have to move too.

Everything Spike Lee said was driven by racism, except a white guy saying the same repugnant crap doesn't get applause.

If you did your research, you'd see that "white" makes up for 72% of the United States of America. Your apathy only reflects how some people don't see it as a problem

it will take too much time to point out all of the inaccuracies in this statement, but you don't hear white communities complaining because it doesn't happen to them. Development targets low real estate values, not middle and not high (for obvious reasons within a capitalist society). Socio-economic connections of race and wealth are established and it's a waste of time to try to prove it to you. If you want to look to examples, look at the development of Central park and how all of the German and African residents (both of who were not very welcome at the time)...at all of the neighborhoods affected by Robert Moses public works, Columbia's redevelopment work in Harlem/Morningside Heights and I could go on for a long time here.....

Your incorrect to think it doesn't happen to white neighborhoods. It actually happens to working class white neighborhoods first, but since you are replacing blue collar white with rich white it doesn't look so obvious on the outside, and no one can make stupid "colonizer" claims. Look at Carrol Gardens, Park Slope, Hells Kitchen, Chelsea. Look at Astoria and Greenpoint.

Agreed....I guess it's a matter of percentages, perception and frequency. I shouldn't say it doesn't happen.

ok...if you look at what I said in response to the other comment, you see that I corrected myself. Second of all....who cares who did it first? I don't see the relevance of that and you are replying to the wrong comment about "stupid 'colonizer' claims"...... If you are going to sit here and act like there is no correlation between race and socio-economic status, then there's really no discussion to be had.

True.

Why is it "utter garbage" - because you disagree with it? I fail to see you debunking it conclusively. Try again.

Umm, I'm white and I'm complaining about it. My old, working class mostly white neighborhood has been thoroughly and totally gentrified and is now full of rich, mostly white people, and my family was long ago displaced. But I'm not rich, so no one hears my voice.

The only whites no longer a majority are the English descent Anglo Saxons who were for over 100 years of US history. The 1924 national origin immigration act against Italian,Russian,Polish other East European restrictions were a failed attempt to prevent these (alien races-1924 ) from making whites ( then exclusively for German and English Anglo Saxon 'native' American )a minority.

White Americans (all Euro Mixtures) are over 70% The white minority myth is a multicultural fantasy even the US Census debunks.
Even the Hispanic population has a massive 40%-55% White spaniard segment ignored by latino advocacy groups pushing the 'brown stereotypes' to their advantage.

I know more than a few extremely well educated folks - phd and post-doc holding adjuncts, etc. who've been priced out of Fort Greene by folks that only hold Masters' and Bachelor's degrees - but have a whole lot more money...

Yeah, minorities should never be able to speak their opinion no matter how much clout they have! When will they ever learn their place? They need to listen to us educated folks on how to keep garbage off the streets. (commence eyeroll sequence)

Well said Ed!

Trash, not so much. But picking up after your dog is definitely not a priority for many folks in the South Bronx.