As the years go on, the 3-5 story buildings and brownstones, streets filled with music and laughter, and the clinks of dominoes all seem to fade away. Instead, they are replaced by an aching silence that makes it louder than it’s ever been. This silence is gentrification.

Gentrification is the process of renovating and changing a neighborhood to conform to a more middle class taste. Usually this includes the introduction of new businesses, living spaces, and improvements in public facilities and schools in the community.

While this can be beneficial to the community, there’s a huge flaw in the way things progress. Instead of people of color in these low income neighborhoods benefiting from the change, they end up losing everything they have.

Gentrification occurs when people of higher class, usually Caucasians, come into a neighborhood of lower-class to live and end up changing the whole dynamic. As a result, corrupt landlords see this as an opportunity to raise the rent and a lot of the residents who are people of color, can’t afford to live in their neighborhoods anymore.

In New York City, there has been an increasing amount of gentrification and it can’t be ignored. Take it from iSchool student, Jasmine Gebreyesus, a resident in Harlem being affected by gentrification.

She discusses how her community has changed throughout the years, stating, “My community has significantly changed, especially my block. I don’t see the same families that live there anymore, it’s many white families that move up, especially students from Columbia.” Adding on, “I think Black/Hispanic culture is being taken away, especially the historical brownstones that have been there for years, they’re being modernized which takes away the history from them, which is a big part of Harlem because they’re known for their brownstones and the culture that surrounds Harlem.”

When asked about the future she says, “we should consider our surroundings and not make the prices extremely high because once Harlem’s prices are going up, then people will start moving uptown to Washington Heights and the Bronx and families who’ve been living there all their life won’t have places to live.”

Jasmine isn’t the only student facing this problem either. Elise Heart, a Junior here at the iSchool, from Fort Greene, shares her story.

“A lot of people are moving into my neighborhood and changing things like stores. They changed a local business into a Chipotle and a Starbucks just opened down the block.”

She says, “people really like the aesthetic of Brooklyn. People really like the buildings and now it’s becoming modernized and becoming little Manhattan so more white people are moving. It’s cheaper as well, which I understand everyone wants to save some money, but don’t come in and raise problems and change the culture for your personal gain.”

But although gentrification badly hurts the people of color in the community, it has an effect on everyone else. Elizabeth Gray, a Queens native and teacher of New York Narratives, explains the ins and outs of gentrification and how it occurs.

She says, “I think that people often don’t frequent the same businesses so, there might be two coffee shops on the same block and one coffee shop is almost always frequented by people who lived in the neighborhood for a long time or mostly Black and Latino or original resident. And then there’s like a fancy coffee shop where only white people feel welcome.”

Explaining the divide in the community, she says, “if you want to go live somewhere and want to respect and appreciate the cultures that have existed there for a long time then that’s fine, but if you want to go there and open up a Wholefoods and like only go to new businesses owned by white folks and stuff like that, I think that really sucks. I think that you shouldn’t try to live somewhere and change it, you should try to live somewhere and be apart of that place.”

As a Caucasian person who’s feeling the harsh effects of gentrification due to corrupt landlords, Ms. Gray believes, “ we should all be advocating for more laws for rent stabilization and rent control because that could help keep people in their homes and that could can help keep apartments affordable.”

While Ms. Gray gives insightful information, Jennifer Rendon, a Junior at the iSchool with rent control, a way people can limit and control the amount their rent is going up by,  is still facing economic issues in her neighborhood, Washington Heights.

“Literally everything around me is being gentrified, it affects me and my family because my rent is increasing every year and we’re becoming financially unstable to the point where one day we will have to move. I remember summer nights, Fort Washington, Saint Nick, and Broadway was filled with music, block parties you know, you would see the old Dominican grandpas playing dominos. Now it’s so quiet,” she explains.

She claims that there might not be a solution to the interference within her neighborhood, stating, “I don’t think there is, I mean no one is doing anything about it, how can you stop people from moving to places they want to live? The landlords would want more people with money to move in because they can benefit from that.”

Patrick Lindo, the gym teacher at the iSchool, talks about his experience with gentrification in White Plains Road, located in The Bronx. “A lot of changes have been made there since I moved there when I was fourteen. There have been a lot of changes to park areas, and frankly they’re making the buildings look less crappy.” He explains, “they’re raising rent as well as prices in stores and it’s really hard for people to really live in the City anymore without getting help.”

His opinion on why this is happening is “they’re trying to get people of color to move out, I don’t like to say that but it’s the truth you know. These people who are causing this don’t realize or think about what others go through, if they have an illness, a family to take care of, children or disability. It’s a lot people have on their plates, and we have to take time to focus on that, not have them face such harsh things.”

Most people aren’t aware of gentrification and it seems to go unnoticed. While the future of these beloved neighborhoods seem bleak as the years go on, it’s our duty not to stand by and watch this happen. By spreading awareness and coming together, we can bring light to the situation and change our future.