Open Thread: Do The Right Thing Edition
The 20th anniversary of the release of Spike Lee’s ground-breaking movie Do The Right Thing, which dealt with a day in the life of a block in Bed Stuy, and in so doing brought the multi-layered issues of gentrification race coexistence and conflict in the inner city to a broader national audience. Two decades later,…
The 20th anniversary of the release of Spike Lee’s ground-breaking movie Do The Right Thing, which dealt with a day in the life of a block in Bed Stuy, and in so doing brought the multi-layered issues of gentrification race coexistence and conflict in the inner city to a broader national audience. Two decades later, how much has changed and how much remains the same?
On Brian Lehrer yesterday, there was a big discussion about how the movie brought the issue of inner-city gentrification to a national audience…they played the scene where a white guy is taken to task for buying a brownstone on the block.
oh i said three times i saw this happen, sorry that was an exaggeration, i saw it happen twice. still weird tho. what if it catches on?
*rob*
oh question. is this a new thing? it’s the third time this summer ive seen this happen. women dangling babies over sewers and letting them pee. i was like OMG that is f’ing disgusting but then i was like ugh i guess i let the dogs pee everywhere so it isnt much difference, at least they are going in the sewers. but ive never seen this before and ive only noticed it in park slope! is it that people arent using diapers anymore or something?
oh and yesterday on facebook there was a link that you put in your zip code and it tells you how many sex offenders are in it. 11215 has 702 sex offenders living within it :-/ they even showed mugshot pictures of most of these people!
*rob*
Seriously, unlike UWS Harlem and other places I’ve seen not only in NYC but also in Chicago, Bed Stuy appeared to me, when I first started looking, as a neighborhood that was “gentrified” from within. The use of the “g word” connotes a move into a neighborhood by “outsiders,” usually of different class/race/nationality and the displacement of those that had been there.
This is not what I experienced when I first started looking in Bed Stuy. The majority of the streets and blocks seem populated by multi generation families that have been there for many years. Yes, I do see a flow of younger hipsters and business people to & from the train every morning and evening. But they pale in size as compared to those families who are the anchors for each and every street there.
Each and every block in Bed Stuy that takes pride in itself and maintains a fantastic appearance is largely due to those people who have been there for many, many years. That’s also what makes it a very safe neighborhood and one where you know your neighbors and say hello to them each and every time you pass by.
I saw it. But at a loss at how it brought ‘gentrification issue to a fore’.
Racial relations in a tense city, yes, but not because of gentrification, not in that neighborhood then.
never saw the movie. is it good?
*rob*
More importantly….
June 30 (Bloomberg) — Home prices in 20 major U.S.
metropolitan areas fell in April at a slower pace than forecast, a sign the plunge in real-estate values is abating.
The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index decreased 18.1
percent from a year earlier following an 18.7 percent drop in March. The measure declined 19 percent in January, the most since the data began in 2001.
Price declines are likely to keep moderating as demand
steadies and distressed properties account for a smaller share of transactions.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The What (500+ posts! Count me out)
Someday this insanity is gonna end…
Ohhhhh, this is gonna be good.