Brooklyn 'Gentrification'

[lastdaysoffla]

I want to talk about something that's been rolling around in my head for quite a while now. I want you guys to be as objective as you can be looking at this. This subject is one that is blatantly obvious to me and I think my arguments have validity.


It is not often we in Jacksonville talk about gentrification because it just isn't an issue here. When whiter more affluent people want a new place to live Jacksonville responds by cutting down some trees and building a new neighborhood. Now for the controversial bit; Brooklyn has been gentrified. Not gentrification in the traditional sense, where poorer residents were pushed out for richer ones, but gentrification of the highest order wherein an entire 'neighborhood' was manufactured in favor of richer residents.

I had a unique view of the proceedings because I was in a position where I was travelling up and down Park St throughout 2013. When I first started this commute I was struck by the Brooklyn area. Here were grid streets, many old oak trees, and even a gentle elevation change  between Riverside Ave and Park Street. This was just before they started clearing the land and I was enamored with the place. I imagined a large park on the site and perhaps mulit-family brownstone style townhouse along the streets. An oasis in the middle of the urban desolation that is Duval County

Here is the view from Park and Jackson in 2011.




I was shocked and disappointed when I started to see trees fall and the tell tale signs of development begin in this beautiful place I had only just discovered.

Here is the view from Park and Jackson in May 2013. Notice the poignant graffiti installation on the bus bench proclaiming "leave room for us" ( Yes, I'm aware no bears lived in Brooklyn pre-development)




I watched over the course of 2013 as this vestige of a gone-by era in Jacksonville rapidly was transformed into horridly ugly ( I'm looking at you The Brooklyn Riverside ) apartment blocs designed for the hipster urbanites of the Riverside/Avondale variety. I would often ride my bike through Brooklyn on the west side of Park St towards downtown, seeing as the east side was blocked off completely. I enjoyed the strange mix of light industrial operations, seemingly very old buildings like the few churches that remain, and homes. There are even a couple of parks tucked back in there, I found. Riding through that slightly rougher area as a white guy I knew I was in a place that I didn't exactly fit in. Even so, I never felt threatened or unsafe even when passing through on foot. I saw the west side of Park St as a reflection of what the east side possibly used to be.

Now, enough with the backstory. On to the current day and my gripes with Brooklyn and people's obsession with it.

First:Brooklyn is not a 'Neighborhood'

  Yes, this might be shocking to you. As frequent visitors to Metro Jacksonville you all should be able to see what constitutes a real neighborhood. What we have in Brooklyn is a development plain and simple. Everything that you see there was built to suit the clientele of the apartments and visitors to the stores and restaurants. It was not designed as a real community. The closest thing to public infrastructure there is so-called Unity Plaza which serves as nothing more than a front porch to 220 Riverside. As a non-resident of the Brooklyn development, I wouldn't feel welcome spending a day reading in Unity Plaza. I'd go to a real public park like Memorial. The connectivity that was offered by the gird of streets in pre-development Brooklyn is gone. Where before Stonewall and Jackson streets went all the way through to Park now Stonewall is a gated off parking lot as is Oak street between Jackson and Leila. Not exactly what you'd expect from an organically grown community.

Second : Brooklyn is still a food desert

One of the most lauded additions to Brooklyn was the Fresh Market. People saw this as a much needed thing for the area with the only other supermarkets being Publix in Riverside and Winn Dixie in Downtown. The people most in need of a place to buy food in that area are arguably the residents on the west side of Park Street. Though I think it would be fair to say those residents can't afford to shop at the upscale Fresh Market. Brooklyn remains a food desert for those on the west side of Park street even though they live within the shadow of a supermarket.


Third : Park Street is a demarcation line of race and income

This is my most glaringly obvious point and the least refutable. The east side of Park St, what is now known as the Brooklyn 'Neighborhood', is predominantly white and rich and the west side is almost entirely black and lower income. There are no two ways about it. The rents at the Brooklyn Riverside and 220 Riverside exclude anyone who is from the other side of Park Street. What must the people who have lived in Brooklyn's west side their entire lives feel looking at what is now across the street?  I think a young black man would just about as comfortable walking through the new Brooklyn as one of those hipsters would be walking through the old Brooklyn. You are not going to see a resident of the Brooklyn development using the parks on the west side of Park St. I would imagine that the people in the development regard the area to the west of Park St. as 'ghetto' or 'dangerous' even though in my experiences I never had any problems over there. I once wanted to show a friend the graffiti wall on the west wall of the park street viaduct I told him to turn down Stonewall St from Park St and he responded with a firm "No' afraid to park his truck there. There is a well used homeless camp under the Park St viaduct. Another example of the haves and the have nots living so close yet so far away from each other.

Brooklyn 2013


Brooklyn today


I implore you to see this objectively, stop white knighting for Brooklyn and see Brooklyn as a development for affluent mostly white residents. I understand that the typical definition of gentrification doesn't apply here. The last houses in Brooklyn that aren't standing today were gone after 2008. The Brooklyn development is gentrification of the highest order. An entire so called 'neighborhood' constructed from nothing and cordoned off from the surrounding area. A place designed for the enjoyment of the more affluent not for the enrichment of the entire community. No consideration of the places historically black past. No respect or acknowledgment of what came before. A shiny facade facing Riverside Avenue ignoring a less desirable and pretty area bounded by Park and Myrtle Streets.


Thanks for reading and sorry for the short novel. I look forward to the conversation. 

[JaxAvondale]

I definitely wouldn't call Brooklyn rich. I think Brooklyn has under gone a millennialification not gentrification. My office is in Brooklyn and work out at the Y regularly. There is a wide range of people living and hanging out in the area.

I think once Park Street redevelops and Jaxis gets built that Brooklyn will feel more like a neighborhood.

[thelakelander]

Yeah, it's going through gentrification but it's too late to turn things around now, IMO. It started prior to the developments you see now though. The first wave of its elimination came in the form of a failed urban renewal project in the 1970s. The old townhouses west of Park Street are the remains of that project.

The second massive removal came with the widening of Riverside Avenue around 15 years ago. That took most of the commercial and residential within a block of Forest and Riverside Avenues. The widening of  the I-95/I-10 interchange took out more property, including a small church my parents attended back in the late 1960s. I recall most of the remaining housing stock and churches between Park and Riverside being demolished in the mid 2000s for the Riverside Park development.  After they were torn down, the market fell apart and that development went up in smoke. By the time Brooklyn Riverside and Brooklyn Station came, that side of the neighborhood was already long gone.

Anyway, I doubt the west side will remain much longer. There's not much left and half of it is from the 1970s urban renewal project. Heck, I doubt the entire population left is more than 40 people or so.  I also doubt there's more than 10 houses that were built before the 1970s project still standing. The idea of preserving the small cluster of the remaining one or two blocks of historic structures pretty much died when property owners voted down an opportunity to become a historic district a few years back. Much of the remaining property has already been snapped up for future development.

[Kerry]

That was a lot to absorb in one post but let me be blunt - you are so far off base isn't even funny.

First, 220 Riverside and Brooklyn Riverside have a mix of age and race that is probably unmatched by any other apartment complex in Jacksonville - and since these two complex represent about 95% of districts population Brooklyn is probably one of the most racially mixed neighborhoods in Jax.  There is every conceivable demographic represented.  If you don't think so come over and spend a day with me.  If Park is a demarcation line of race, the problem is on the west side of Park.  The east side is racially mixed.

Second, Brooklyn is NOT a food desert.  Fresh Market isn't as expensive as you think it is.  On a lot of items they are less expensive than Publix.  Milk is $2.99 a gallon (sometimes going up to $3.29).  On Tuesday's ground beef and chicken breasts are on sale for $2.99 a pound - $2 a pound less expensive than Publix.  Fresh Market brand chips (all varieties) are $2.50 a bag - and they are darn good.  The list goes on and on.  If you think only white people shop in Fresh Market then you have never stepped in there yourself.  In addition to FM there is the Farmers Market at RAM on Saturdays and the Beaver St Farmers Market.  If all else fails the Publix in Riverside is less than 1 mile from almost every front door in Brooklyn.  What more do you want?

Third, Brooklyn is a neighborhood.  There are only 3 categories of urban development; neighborhoods, districts, and corridors.  If it isn't a neighborhood what is it?  We have retail, dentists, banks, major employers, small employers, 4 parks (Brooklyn Park, J.S. Johnson, Unity Plaza, and Northbank Riverwalk), residential, beauty salon, gym, industrial uses, and at least 9 restaurants.  We could use a few other things but give us a few more years.

Fourth, I'll give you this, Unity Plaza isn't conducive to reading a book.  There is no shade and you have to sit on concrete with no back support.  However, I have seen people laying out on the fake grass and I have played soccer with my two teenage boys there.  However, Unity Plaza wasn't designed to be a passive recreation area - it is a programed event driven facility.  On almost every weekend night and Saturday morning there is some type of live music or event.  If you want passive just cross the street to the Riverwalk.  It is so passive it can be sleep inducing.

I think that about sums it up for me for now.

[Tacachale]

Yeah, it's going through gentrification but it's too late to turn things around now, IMO. It started prior to the developments you see now though. The first wave of its elimination came in the form of a failed urban renewal project in the 1970s. The old townhouses west of Park Street are the remains of that project.

The second massive removal came with the widening of Riverside Avenue around 15 years ago. That took most of the commercial and residential within a block of Forest and Riverside Avenues. The widening of  the I-95/I-10 interchange took out more property, including a small church my parents attended back in the late 1960s. I recall most of the remaining housing stock and churches between Park and Riverside being demolished in the mid 2000s for the Riverside Park development.  After they were torn down, the market fell apart and that development went up in smoke. By the time Brooklyn Riverside and Brooklyn Station came, that side of the neighborhood was already long gone.

Anyway, I doubt the west side will remain much longer. There's not much left and half of it is from the 1970s urban renewal project. Heck, I doubt the entire population left is more than 40 people or so.  I also doubt there's more than 10 houses that were built before the 1970s project still standing. The idea of preserving the small cluster of the remaining one or two blocks of historic structures pretty much died when property owners voted down an opportunity to become a historic district a few years back. Much of the remaining property has already been snapped up for future development.

Yes, I'd say this post makes some good points but misses the historical context (plus, it uses the obnoxious term "white knighting"). Brooklyn has always been dynamic ever since it went from a plantation to a residential neighborhood after the Civil War. I doubt that by 2013 there was much "vestige" of a past era in the eastern section. It was a group of office buildings and a bunch of empty lots created by road widenings and failed projects well before any of the current projects were a twinkle in their developers' eyes.

Saving "old Brooklyn" hasn't been possible for 40 years. What we can do is push for better designs and vision for the projects that are coming, and maybe saving some of the older warehouse buildings, if that's even still possible.

[lastdaysoffla]

That was a lot to absorb in one post but let me be blunt - you are so far off base isn't even funny.

First, 220 Riverside and Brooklyn Riverside have a mix of age and race that is probably unmatched by any other apartment complex in Jacksonville - and since these two complex represent about 95% of districts population Brooklyn is probably one of the most racially mixed neighborhoods in Jax.  There is every conceivable demographic represented.  If you don't think so come over and spend a day with me.  If Park is a demarcation line of race, the problem is on the west side of Park.  The east side is racially mixed.

I'd love to spend a day  in Brooklyn. To be honest I haven't even been in either the apartment buildings. I take issue with your claim that the west side has the race problem. It is a historically black area of course its mostly black. Would you be happier if half the residents were priced out of their homes so more races could move there? Which wouldn't happen because of the perception of the area. Which leads me to ask, what is your perception of the west side of Park? You spend much time there?

Second, Brooklyn is NOT a food desert.  Fresh Market isn't as expensive as you think it is.  On a lot of items they are less expensive than Publix.  Milk is $2.99 a gallon (sometimes going up to $3.29).  On Tuesday's ground beef and chicken breasts are on sale for $2.99 a pound - $2 a pound less expensive than Publix.  Fresh Market brand chips (all varieties) are $2.50 a bag - and they are darn good.  The list goes on and on.  If you think only white people shop in Fresh Market then you have never stepped in there yourself.  In addition to FM there is the Farmers Market at RAM on Saturdays and the Beaver St Farmers Market.  If all else fails the Publix in Riverside is less than 1 mile from almost every front door in Brooklyn.  What more do you want?

I have been in that Fresh Market, mostly to buy water when on bike rides. It is not cheap. Be honest Fresh Market is not geared towards people on a budget.

Third, Brooklyn is a neighborhood.  There are only 3 categories of urban development; neighborhoods, districts, and corridors.  If it isn't a neighborhood what is it?  We have retail, dentists, banks, major employers, small employers, 4 parks (Brooklyn Park, J.S. Johnson, Unity Plaza, and Northbank Riverwalk), residential, beauty salon, gym, industrial uses, and at least 9 restaurants.  We could use a few other things but give us a few more years.

East side of Brooklyn may have a variety of retail and restaurant options but but it's layout is that of a glorified strip mall. It's a develpoment. It didn't grow naturally over the years. I've spent years living in different cities and have seen what real neighborhoods look like. I lived in Denver for a while. There you find large residential areas with clear commercial districts lined on major streets. It's organic, authentic, real communities. You won't find public roads gated off like Stonewall and Oak streets in Brooklyn. Yeah Jackson Street goes through, but that's it. I think the reason Stonewall isn't through street is pretty clear, wouldn't want the riff raff roaming through.

As for the parks. I must ask have you ever actually went to Brooklyn Park or J.S. Johnson? Would you find yourself at either park anytime near sunset? Have you seen many of your neighbors walking over to those parks?

Fourth, I'll give you this, Unity Plaza isn't conducive to reading a book.  There is no shade and you have to sit on concrete with no back support.  However, I have seen people laying out on the fake grass and I have played soccer with my two teenage boys there.  However, Unity Plaza wasn't designed to be a passive recreation area - it is a programed event driven facility.  On almost every weekend night and Saturday morning there is some type of live music or event.  If you want passive just cross the street to the Riverwalk.  It is so passive it can be sleep inducing.

Okay, reading a book was just an example I know it's not a passive park. My broader point is that I wouldn't feel very welcome there if I wasn't going to one of the restaurants or attending an event. I mean look at like you were visiting for the first time. Unity Plaza appears as just an extension of 220 Riverside, not a park. Even the signage facing Riverside Avenue looks like it's the name of the development. I feel like it's purpose is so the developers could say, "Hey we're gonna cut down a bunch of trees, cover all this nice open green space so close to downtown and the river with parking lots, but at least we're putting in a 'park' ". Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Unity Plaza a private partnership with COJ. Without digging too much, I'd imagine the land isn't even owned by the city. A quick look at the website says © 2016 Jacksonville Unity Plaza, Inc.. So, am I even welcome there as a non-resident or a patron of a business there? It's owned by a private entity, doesn't look like a public park to me.

I think that about sums it up for me for now.

I'm not here to rustle jimmies ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rustle%20My%20Jimmies ) or shit on where you live. Just voicing my opinion on something I've been thinking about

[mtraininjax]

Good insight, thanks for the post! Some great posting fore sure. I would go a step further and say the gentrification process started in LaVilla and worked its way over the Park Street Viaduct into "Brooklyn", yet this area has come back much faster. Probably due to the Courthouse debacle when many private law firms bought property in LaVilla, but decided to dump it when the Courthouse took the better part of the Peyton Administration to complete.

But hey, what is this "Brooklyn" you mention? You mean the extension of Riverside or Downtown? Most TV and Paper reporters cover it as Riverside, or worse, the dreaded "westside". Someone in MJ should give all reporters a "crash course" on where landmarks are located. Technically everyone west of the river, does live on the westside, but to call Chafee road the westside, well, is like calling Ortega Forest, the westside. Ugh!

The East and West Sides of Park Street are interesting for sure. The east side has been leveled or is in the process of changing hands, the west side is largely still in tact. Some of it is because it was not needed in the destruction of Forest/I95/I10 as others have eluded to, but also because of nasty stuff in the ground too. The area over near the new Animal Care and Protective Services has lots of coal ash and nasty stuff in the ground, not conducive to digging or moving for airborne contaminants, and while its across I95 from where we speak, it is conceivable that some of this is in and around the west park street areas.

Over time, these tracts will become more valuable as the land on the east side of Park becomes more valuable, people cash out and well there will be more changes and tear downs of the row homes for newer projects. Who would have ever thought that a Mega-Gate station would go in at the corner of Park and Forest? A couple of years ago, or 5 years ago, people would have laughed at you. Residents will be pushed out and offered ridiculous sums of money to go live elsewhere. It always does.

If downtown can get its act together and take 2 steps forward with the transportation center and more infill in LaVilla, that place could really turn into a special connection with Brooklyn/Riverside.

Here's hoping, and again, great thought and pictures! Well done!

I know the Fresh Market is not always the least expensive, and you are right its a haul to Publix, the Dirty Dixie or Sav-a-lot, but its better than the 18 convenience stores located in Murray Hill along Edgewood.

[lastdaysoffla]

Yeah, it's going through gentrification but it's too late to turn things around now, IMO. It started prior to the developments you see now though. The first wave of its elimination came in the form of a failed urban renewal project in the 1970s. The old townhouses west of Park Street are the remains of that project.

The second massive removal came with the widening of Riverside Avenue around 15 years ago. That took most of the commercial and residential within a block of Forest and Riverside Avenues. The widening of  the I-95/I-10 interchange took out more property, including a small church my parents attended back in the late 1960s. I recall most of the remaining housing stock and churches between Park and Riverside being demolished in the mid 2000s for the Riverside Park development.  After they were torn down, the market fell apart and that development went up in smoke. By the time Brooklyn Riverside and Brooklyn Station came, that side of the neighborhood was already long gone.

Anyway, I doubt the west side will remain much longer. There's not much left and half of it is from the 1970s urban renewal project. Heck, I doubt the entire population left is more than 40 people or so.  I also doubt there's more than 10 houses that were built before the 1970s project still standing. The idea of preserving the small cluster of the remaining one or two blocks of historic structures pretty much died when property owners voted down an opportunity to become a historic district a few years back. Much of the remaining property has already been snapped up for future development.

Informative post.

Yes, I'd say this post makes some good points but misses the historical context (plus, it uses the obnoxious term "white knighting"). Brooklyn has always been dynamic ever since it went from a plantation to a residential neighborhood after the Civil War. I doubt that by 2013 there was much "vestige" of a past era in the eastern section. It was a group of office buildings and a bunch of empty lots created by road widenings and failed projects well before any of the current projects were a twinkle in their developers' eyes.

Saving "old Brooklyn" hasn't been possible for 40 years. What we can do is push for better designs and vision for the projects that are coming, and maybe saving some of the older warehouse buildings, if that's even still possible.

Informative as well. I'm not here on a "save Old Brooklyn Campaign" I just found the area before the development was so interesting and had so much potential. When I first came upon the area I thought of one or two of the blocks being a passive park and a park along McCoy's Creek. But, like you said, better designs and visions.

Yeah, I weighed the use of White Knight. Maybe wasn't the best choice. I just see a lot of stuff on here acting like Brooklyn is the best thing since sliced bread. Like it was a neighborhood that grew into the new cool place to be over time, sort of how Murray Hill has. It was an almost overnight transformation at the hands of developers. It was engineered to be the cool new place. It didn't happen organically.

[tpot]

I must admit I do find it comical when Brooklyn is called a neighborhood.........lets be real here.....it's a strip mall with an apartment building and a retention pond.........lol

[Adam White]

I must admit I do find it comical when Brooklyn is called a neighborhood.........lets be real here.....it's a strip mall with an apartment building and a retention pond.........lol

There are people who live in Brooklyn. Although the number of old residents has decreased, there are still people living there (I think - I've not been there in some time). I remember in the 80s when I first became aware of Brooklyn, there were a lot more people (one of the girls in my class was tutoring a kid there).

[lastdaysoffla]

Good insight, thanks for the post! Some great posting fore sure.

Thanks man. Glad you enjoyed.

[riverside_mail]

FWIW, there are more whites living west of Park St. now than I've ever seen in the last 18 years.

[acme54321]

It's a develpoment.

Then you might as well call Riverside, Avondale, Ortega, San Marco, Etc. "developments" because they were laid out and built by developers.

[Captain Zissou]

The real gentrification hasn't even occurred yet.  Gentrification is the displacement of native populations for more wealthy residents and upscale amenities to serve them.  So far, 2 largely vacant tracts of land have been turned into mixed use developments. These vacant tracts were caused by the failed urban renewal from decades ago that Lake described.  The real gentrification will occur when the houses west of park street are bulldozed for a new doggie yoga studio and vegan cheese shop.

[Kerry]

It's a develpoment.

Then you might as well call Riverside, Avondale, Ortega, San Marco, Etc. "developments" because they were laid out and built by developers.

Thank you.  I hate it when I hear people say stuff like it isn't organic growth and such.  I think what they are trying to refer to is the scale of the development.  At one time builders used a single lot on a block that might contain 20 lots, which resulted in 20 different developers each building a small building on a single lot.  Now we have developments that take up the entire block built by one developer and the scale is at the block level as opposed to the lot level.  This still pales in comparison to suburban development that is built at the 300 acre level.

I wish we could build at the lot level today but for the most part we have a currency system that doesn't allow that type of development anymore.  Look at the new Gate Station as an example.  It could have been built on a 1/4 of their lot, freeing up the rest for other uses, but for some reason Gate decided they have to take up the entire block - which will mostly be empty space (parking).  Likewise, if 5-Points was being proposed today they could never get a lender to finance it because it doesn't have a 500 space surface parking lot and no national retailers pre-leased.

Great - now you have me going off on the globalists tangent with their rigged economy.