A Spectrum Without Ends: The Effects of Class Divide and Gentrification on the Youth of Chelsea NY
There is a short, skinny 12- year old boy named Lucas, face covered in sun-kissed freckles, who was 1 of the 8.4 million people living in New York City. He has scraped knee caps and is about three months overdue for a haircut, messy pieces of untamed hair falling into his thick brown eyelashes and vibrant green eyes. His tan feet are clad in a dirtied pair of Vans, as gray as a dull winter day. He wears black shorts despite the crisp city air and a navy blue hoodie from his community school.
Lucas hurries into the local market on the corner, where he smiles at the owner of the shop who stands behind the counter at the deli. As Lucas smiles, his rosy cheeks spread wider across his face and reveal the small gap between his two front teeth. The shop owner smiles back a sad smile and waves. Lucas tries to avoid his eyes slipping over the “CLOSING” sign above the rusty door handles.
Slipping his dusty skateboard under his arm, Lucas pulls out his red duck tape wallet. The shop owner pulls out a slice of warm pepperoni pizza from the oven behind the counter. He knows Lucas’s everyday order by heart. Lucas shuffles through his wallet in search of anything but the singular crumpled one dollar bill. He doesn’t succeed and returns the sorry smile to the shop owner.
Money has been tight for Lucas’s family recently. It has always been, but now things are worse for them since being kicked out of their two bedroom apartment. His parents couldn’t afford to keep paying the rent when it kept rising.
Lucas’s empty stare is lost as his eyes wander the crevices of his singular, crushed dollar bill. Everything is falling apart.
Lucas hurries into the local market on the corner, where he smiles at the owner of the shop who stands behind the counter at the deli. As Lucas smiles, his rosy cheeks spread wider across his face and reveal the small gap between his two front teeth. The shop owner smiles back a sad smile and waves. Lucas tries to avoid his eyes slipping over the “CLOSING” sign above the rusty door handles.
Slipping his dusty skateboard under his arm, Lucas pulls out his red duck tape wallet. The shop owner pulls out a slice of warm pepperoni pizza from the oven behind the counter. He knows Lucas’s everyday order by heart. Lucas shuffles through his wallet in search of anything but the singular crumpled one dollar bill. He doesn’t succeed and returns the sorry smile to the shop owner.
Money has been tight for Lucas’s family recently. It has always been, but now things are worse for them since being kicked out of their two bedroom apartment. His parents couldn’t afford to keep paying the rent when it kept rising.
Lucas’s empty stare is lost as his eyes wander the crevices of his singular, crushed dollar bill. Everything is falling apart.
Gentrification is the refurbishment of a lower middle-class urban area. At a glance, gentrification seems like a simple, positive upgrade of living quality. However, when the rent prices rise due to the restoration, many lower-middle class residents can no longer afford to pay the rent and are then forced out of their homes. The topic is extremely controversial. Nevertheless, we know that gentrification is not bettering the community and improving living quality if it is not addressing the issue of classism, but simply pushing the problem aside. Original members of the gentrified neighborhoods are now unable to pay higher rents, so they are being displaced by those who can.
The city of Chelsea has grown and evolved immensely over the past 200 years. Both processes of industrialization and gentrification over time have changed the city and allowed it to become a cohesive and “artsy” neighborhood. Not only has it evolved in the way of eclectic varieties of people, but Chelsea has also grown massively in size. Chelsea started as a ten square block neighborhood when it was divided into two in the 1830’s. After this division, Chelsea began to flourish. Through the industrialization in Chelsea, gentrification emerged. Because gentrification was born from this constant growing and changing, it is impossible to put a date on
when gentrification really began. It was not so much as a sudden event, but rather an evolution of change and classism throughout time. But in the past years, when hyper-gentrification has swung into higher effect, the issue of its deficits on the lower-middle class families has become exponentially prominent. (Williams)
The effects of gentrification spread far wider than the physical state of a city or neighborhood. The skyrocketing rent prices caused by gentrification lead to many effects on simple everyday life. Lower-middle class families living in Chelsea now often find themselves without their affordable local restaurants, markets, or laundromats. Most of the businesses in Chelsea were family run, and therefore, when gentrification causes rent prices to rise, many of these businesses can longer afford to remain open. They are kicked out and replaced by higher income and more mainstream shops. When these family-owned businesses are shut down, there are immense repercussions. What are these families going to do? The families now have to struggle to look for work to try to pay their already rising rent. If they fail to do so, they will be kicked out of their homes. Through the recent years, there has been a drop in the number of low-income families living in Chelsea. When looking at solidly the numbers, it is easy to assume that the problem of struggling families is improving. However, gentrification causes the complete opposite. The problem is being pushed aside and families are being pushed out of their homes. As the number of apartments available to low-income families decreases, the number of low-income families in Chelsea decreases as well. (Jockers)
Gentrification also affects housing policy. Public Housing Projects are a colossal part of Chelsea. At a glance, the public housing seems like a good thing-- a thing to help struggling lower-class families. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. The public housing makes it extremely difficult for any family to move forward and improve their financial situation. Families living there are forced to report any changes in job income to the government and, moving forward, are forced to pay higher rents. This situation makes improving living quality or eventually moving out of the public housing virtually impossible.The financial strain placed by all these things affects every member of these families, including the children who are striving for a future in the city. This is the problem with gentrification-- it sends lower-middle class families into an inescapable cycle of decline.
Because New York is such a bold, unique, and complex city, growing up and living in the city sculpts an equally bold and unique person. Growing up in a place that is known as the “capital of democratic public life” (Solnit 171) has an immense impact on who a person becomes. While the chaotic streets of New York are a major tourist attraction to many, children who grow up there feel a strong sense of home in the bright city lights, tall skyscrapers, and busy street noises. These kids find comfort in the constant lull and non-stop stir of the city. The sounds are their lullaby. In his article “What Makes A New York City Kid?” (New York Times 2017), Andy Newman writes about a collection of unique kids to illustrate the diversity of life in NYC and its effects. Sonia Smith, an eleven-year-old girl mentioned in his essay, says, “‘I like the noise; it helps me sleep at night. I feel like I know the city is still awake and protecting me’” (Newman).
Nicholas Lo, thirteen years old, and his two friends Zejun and Devin wander the streets together after school in the Lower East Side of Manhattan before going home. Nicholas “holds his skateboard in his right hand and manages to eat a slice of pizza off a paper plate he holds in his left. ‘It’s a skill,’ Zejun says. ‘A New York kid skill.’ ” (Newman)
Edward Sherman, also thirteen years old from Inwood Manhattan, is an explorer. He has been homeschooled since pre-school which leaves him spending his free time, ever since ten or eleven wandering and discovering the streets of New York. “The city is his classroom.” He learns from the city. The city shapes him. “If I get lost, it means I haven’t been there before.” (Newman)
New York kids are unique from any other because New York itself is unique from any other. The city’s noisy, blaring streets, radiating music, street and graffiti art, public transportation, and diversity create a completely unique environment. New York City is not a place; is it a lifestyle. So if NYC’s environment changes the lives of children there, how does gentrification affect these kids? How do these kids become outsiders in their own community? Especially in such a hyper-gentrified and divided city like Chelsea.
When looking at gentrification, Chelsea is undeniably the “come to mind” example. Not only does its historical background exhibit this hyper-gentrification, but modern day Chelsea is home to an extremely broad spectrum of social classes in very close proximity. A basic fact about living in New York is that one is always aware of the presence of others. People are not able to avoid each other. Therefore, as gentrification runs through the veins of the evolving city, it causes tension to rage between the classes. This tension is a result of the conflicting views on gentrification. While it is enticing to most members of upper-class communities, many lower middle-class members find gentrification an issue and a threat to simple aspects of their everyday lives. Because nobody goes unaware or unaffected by the those who surround them, the children of Chelsea are immensely affected by the city’s class divides. (Jockers)
Film Director Marc Levin takes this hyper-gentrification as the subject of his documentary Class Divide. He discusses the effects of gentrification and divide on the youth of a neighborhood like Chelsea, where there is Avenues: The World School, costing 45k a year in tuition, on one side of the street and a public housing project on the other. Marc Levin displays how and why class and income divide have an especially powerful impact on the youth living there. On the streets of Chelsea, the class divide is palpable -- and often felt especially so by young people. Ken Jockers, the executive director of the Hudson Guild, a multi-service outreach organization, is keenly aware of gentrification’s presence and effects on Chelsea’s youth. He says that, although there are many stable middle-class families living in Chelsea, because they are so surrounded by things that are luxurious to the extremes, many of the kids are often aware of the things that they do not have. Many of the children begin to compare themselves with those at the other ends of the financial spectrum. The evaluation of one’s income status is not something that a typical child should be dealing with, but in the highly- gentrified and close-packed neighborhood of Chelsea, this self- evaluation is inevitable. (Jockers)
The Hudson Guild is a community center in Chelsea that aims to support lower-middle class families. The community center is a profoundly important place in the Chelsea community because they assist these families with many of the side effects of the economic imbalance in Chelsea. The Hudson Guild’s priority is to assist families in areas such as education, employment, family stability, and overall happiness. A community center that provides such aid in an area like Chelsea plays a huge role in improving the living quality of many lower-middle class families. The community center makes a specifically vast difference to the lives of children. Many of the children in Chelsea who have financially strained families are aware of their economic situation by grade five or six, if not sooner. Even at their young age, these children are not hidden from these harsh realities of the world around them. (Jockers) And although many financially stable families work their hardest to provide comfortable living environments for their kids, it is often very difficult to change the way of thinking of a child in Chelsea because the financial differences between people are so physically visible. Jockers says “If you turn east off 10th avenue, you live in the projects. Turn west, and you have money. That kind of thing exists in many neighborhoods in the country, but here the difference is that it is all out in public.” Whether it be big brand clothing versus cheaper clothes, uniforms or no uniforms, who is where, or race, it is always clear which side of the spectrum a person is on. (Jockers) Essentially, Chelsea has popped the “rarefied bubble” (Raboteau 178) that many children of different classes have spent their lives trapped in.
So, how should these social stereotypes be addressed? Even when critiquing the problems with gentrification leading to displacement and economic imbalances, it is very important to have an understanding that the evolution of a place is natural. When examining a topic like gentrification from the outside, it is easy to place somewhat of a “good or bad” on each side of the income spectrum, good portraying the “underdog” and bad being the “self-centered” or “overly luxurious.” However, the divide between the two classes might not be as clear as it seems. These kids, neither the poor nor the rich, are in charge of what class they are born into. It is important to remember that these close class divides and tensions don’t make for a line between good and bad. Despite the controversy, it is vital to be reminded that Chelsea is a community involving each and every part of the financial spectrum. Chelsea is not a city with an “each person is for their own” ideal because Chelsea is a closely knit community where all people of different classes must coexist together. Their lives will intertwine in supermarkets, parks, and playgrounds. Most importantly, the children will coexist together. In Class Divide, the kids from Avenues and the kids from the Projects begin to co-learn and co-exist. The children from Avenues developed empathy for those they shared the community with. This was an extremely profound thing, especially in Chelsea, because the children, the next generation, coexisted together without tension. This is new. And it is beautiful.
There is extreme gravity in the rapid socioeconomic changes in Chelsea. The topic’s importance elevates even more when you focus in on the children who are living and growing up there. The gentrification in Chelsea will affect where these kids will grow up to find jobs and live their lives. These children, despite their placement on the financial spectrum, are the next generation who will be united to take steps making change in the unbalanced scale of class. These children, together, are the ones who will go onto to be the next doctors, writers, and inventors. These children, together, are the future.
The city of Chelsea has grown and evolved immensely over the past 200 years. Both processes of industrialization and gentrification over time have changed the city and allowed it to become a cohesive and “artsy” neighborhood. Not only has it evolved in the way of eclectic varieties of people, but Chelsea has also grown massively in size. Chelsea started as a ten square block neighborhood when it was divided into two in the 1830’s. After this division, Chelsea began to flourish. Through the industrialization in Chelsea, gentrification emerged. Because gentrification was born from this constant growing and changing, it is impossible to put a date on
when gentrification really began. It was not so much as a sudden event, but rather an evolution of change and classism throughout time. But in the past years, when hyper-gentrification has swung into higher effect, the issue of its deficits on the lower-middle class families has become exponentially prominent. (Williams)
The effects of gentrification spread far wider than the physical state of a city or neighborhood. The skyrocketing rent prices caused by gentrification lead to many effects on simple everyday life. Lower-middle class families living in Chelsea now often find themselves without their affordable local restaurants, markets, or laundromats. Most of the businesses in Chelsea were family run, and therefore, when gentrification causes rent prices to rise, many of these businesses can longer afford to remain open. They are kicked out and replaced by higher income and more mainstream shops. When these family-owned businesses are shut down, there are immense repercussions. What are these families going to do? The families now have to struggle to look for work to try to pay their already rising rent. If they fail to do so, they will be kicked out of their homes. Through the recent years, there has been a drop in the number of low-income families living in Chelsea. When looking at solidly the numbers, it is easy to assume that the problem of struggling families is improving. However, gentrification causes the complete opposite. The problem is being pushed aside and families are being pushed out of their homes. As the number of apartments available to low-income families decreases, the number of low-income families in Chelsea decreases as well. (Jockers)
Gentrification also affects housing policy. Public Housing Projects are a colossal part of Chelsea. At a glance, the public housing seems like a good thing-- a thing to help struggling lower-class families. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. The public housing makes it extremely difficult for any family to move forward and improve their financial situation. Families living there are forced to report any changes in job income to the government and, moving forward, are forced to pay higher rents. This situation makes improving living quality or eventually moving out of the public housing virtually impossible.The financial strain placed by all these things affects every member of these families, including the children who are striving for a future in the city. This is the problem with gentrification-- it sends lower-middle class families into an inescapable cycle of decline.
Because New York is such a bold, unique, and complex city, growing up and living in the city sculpts an equally bold and unique person. Growing up in a place that is known as the “capital of democratic public life” (Solnit 171) has an immense impact on who a person becomes. While the chaotic streets of New York are a major tourist attraction to many, children who grow up there feel a strong sense of home in the bright city lights, tall skyscrapers, and busy street noises. These kids find comfort in the constant lull and non-stop stir of the city. The sounds are their lullaby. In his article “What Makes A New York City Kid?” (New York Times 2017), Andy Newman writes about a collection of unique kids to illustrate the diversity of life in NYC and its effects. Sonia Smith, an eleven-year-old girl mentioned in his essay, says, “‘I like the noise; it helps me sleep at night. I feel like I know the city is still awake and protecting me’” (Newman).
Nicholas Lo, thirteen years old, and his two friends Zejun and Devin wander the streets together after school in the Lower East Side of Manhattan before going home. Nicholas “holds his skateboard in his right hand and manages to eat a slice of pizza off a paper plate he holds in his left. ‘It’s a skill,’ Zejun says. ‘A New York kid skill.’ ” (Newman)
Edward Sherman, also thirteen years old from Inwood Manhattan, is an explorer. He has been homeschooled since pre-school which leaves him spending his free time, ever since ten or eleven wandering and discovering the streets of New York. “The city is his classroom.” He learns from the city. The city shapes him. “If I get lost, it means I haven’t been there before.” (Newman)
New York kids are unique from any other because New York itself is unique from any other. The city’s noisy, blaring streets, radiating music, street and graffiti art, public transportation, and diversity create a completely unique environment. New York City is not a place; is it a lifestyle. So if NYC’s environment changes the lives of children there, how does gentrification affect these kids? How do these kids become outsiders in their own community? Especially in such a hyper-gentrified and divided city like Chelsea.
When looking at gentrification, Chelsea is undeniably the “come to mind” example. Not only does its historical background exhibit this hyper-gentrification, but modern day Chelsea is home to an extremely broad spectrum of social classes in very close proximity. A basic fact about living in New York is that one is always aware of the presence of others. People are not able to avoid each other. Therefore, as gentrification runs through the veins of the evolving city, it causes tension to rage between the classes. This tension is a result of the conflicting views on gentrification. While it is enticing to most members of upper-class communities, many lower middle-class members find gentrification an issue and a threat to simple aspects of their everyday lives. Because nobody goes unaware or unaffected by the those who surround them, the children of Chelsea are immensely affected by the city’s class divides. (Jockers)
Film Director Marc Levin takes this hyper-gentrification as the subject of his documentary Class Divide. He discusses the effects of gentrification and divide on the youth of a neighborhood like Chelsea, where there is Avenues: The World School, costing 45k a year in tuition, on one side of the street and a public housing project on the other. Marc Levin displays how and why class and income divide have an especially powerful impact on the youth living there. On the streets of Chelsea, the class divide is palpable -- and often felt especially so by young people. Ken Jockers, the executive director of the Hudson Guild, a multi-service outreach organization, is keenly aware of gentrification’s presence and effects on Chelsea’s youth. He says that, although there are many stable middle-class families living in Chelsea, because they are so surrounded by things that are luxurious to the extremes, many of the kids are often aware of the things that they do not have. Many of the children begin to compare themselves with those at the other ends of the financial spectrum. The evaluation of one’s income status is not something that a typical child should be dealing with, but in the highly- gentrified and close-packed neighborhood of Chelsea, this self- evaluation is inevitable. (Jockers)
The Hudson Guild is a community center in Chelsea that aims to support lower-middle class families. The community center is a profoundly important place in the Chelsea community because they assist these families with many of the side effects of the economic imbalance in Chelsea. The Hudson Guild’s priority is to assist families in areas such as education, employment, family stability, and overall happiness. A community center that provides such aid in an area like Chelsea plays a huge role in improving the living quality of many lower-middle class families. The community center makes a specifically vast difference to the lives of children. Many of the children in Chelsea who have financially strained families are aware of their economic situation by grade five or six, if not sooner. Even at their young age, these children are not hidden from these harsh realities of the world around them. (Jockers) And although many financially stable families work their hardest to provide comfortable living environments for their kids, it is often very difficult to change the way of thinking of a child in Chelsea because the financial differences between people are so physically visible. Jockers says “If you turn east off 10th avenue, you live in the projects. Turn west, and you have money. That kind of thing exists in many neighborhoods in the country, but here the difference is that it is all out in public.” Whether it be big brand clothing versus cheaper clothes, uniforms or no uniforms, who is where, or race, it is always clear which side of the spectrum a person is on. (Jockers) Essentially, Chelsea has popped the “rarefied bubble” (Raboteau 178) that many children of different classes have spent their lives trapped in.
So, how should these social stereotypes be addressed? Even when critiquing the problems with gentrification leading to displacement and economic imbalances, it is very important to have an understanding that the evolution of a place is natural. When examining a topic like gentrification from the outside, it is easy to place somewhat of a “good or bad” on each side of the income spectrum, good portraying the “underdog” and bad being the “self-centered” or “overly luxurious.” However, the divide between the two classes might not be as clear as it seems. These kids, neither the poor nor the rich, are in charge of what class they are born into. It is important to remember that these close class divides and tensions don’t make for a line between good and bad. Despite the controversy, it is vital to be reminded that Chelsea is a community involving each and every part of the financial spectrum. Chelsea is not a city with an “each person is for their own” ideal because Chelsea is a closely knit community where all people of different classes must coexist together. Their lives will intertwine in supermarkets, parks, and playgrounds. Most importantly, the children will coexist together. In Class Divide, the kids from Avenues and the kids from the Projects begin to co-learn and co-exist. The children from Avenues developed empathy for those they shared the community with. This was an extremely profound thing, especially in Chelsea, because the children, the next generation, coexisted together without tension. This is new. And it is beautiful.
There is extreme gravity in the rapid socioeconomic changes in Chelsea. The topic’s importance elevates even more when you focus in on the children who are living and growing up there. The gentrification in Chelsea will affect where these kids will grow up to find jobs and live their lives. These children, despite their placement on the financial spectrum, are the next generation who will be united to take steps making change in the unbalanced scale of class. These children, together, are the ones who will go onto to be the next doctors, writers, and inventors. These children, together, are the future.
Lucas apologizes the shop owner, smiles sadly and says he will have to come back another day. The shop owner returns the smile and gives Lucas a comforting pat on the shoulder. But before Lucas can turn around to leave, a tall blonde boy, probably about 14 years old stops him. The boy is dressed in a crisp white collared shirt, “Avenues: The World School” written in thin, embroidered gray letters. The boy slides a ten dollar bill across the marble counters and buys two slices of pepperoni pizza. When the shop owner places the two slices of fat pepperoni pieces on the counter, the blonde boy takes one for himself and hands the other to Lucas.
“I’m Jake,” the boy says. “Do you want to eat together?”
“I’m Jake,” the boy says. “Do you want to eat together?”
Works Cited
Abbey-Lambertz, Kate. “How Sky-High Rents Are Radically Changing New York’s
Neighborhoods.” The Huffington Post. LendingTree, 12 May 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Class Divide. Dir. Marc Levin. HBO, 2016. Film.
Izadi, Elahe. “Gentrification’s Impact On Poor Children in Rich Neighborhoods.” DCentric.
DCentric. 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Jockers, Ken. Personal Interview. 22 Feb. 2017.
Newman, Andy. “What Makes a New York City Kid?” NY Times. The New York Times
Company. n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Rebecca Solnit, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, eds. Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas.
Oakland: University of California Press. 2016. Print.
Smith, Greg B. “EXCLUSIVE: NYCHA residents see little benefit from gentrification in their
neighborhoods, report shows.” NY Daily News. NY Daily News. n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Williams, Keith. “The 200-Year History Of Chelsea's Ever-Expanding Borders.” NY Curbed. NY
Curbed. 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2017