Blogger: Change in Crown Heights From More Than Gentrification

With a slew of recently opened businesses on Franklin and Classon avenues and rising rents, many have started to wonder if Crown Heights will , a neighborhood vastly changed by a steady stream of young residents.

Nick Juravich, the blogger behind I Love Franklin Ave., has written a fascinating Huffington Post Op-Ed that throwing around terms like “gentrification” may be simplifying the complexities of neighborhood change, though.

Juravich writes that “neighborhoods like Crown Heights were changing long before 'gentrifiers' arrived, and the networks of people and institutions that drove these changes continue to influence the direction and pace of change.”

In his piece, he asks readers to look past obvious markers of change, like the controversial  the rise of glass condos and the upscale coffee shops, and remember that Crown Heights is home to a thriving immigrant population, like the practitioners of Chabad-Lubavitch Judaism and migrants from the Caribbean. These two groups own a good deal of property in the neighborhood, and are credited with opening and operating many new businesses, as well as forming social organizations and events (like the West Indian Day Parade).

Juravich also wants readers to remember that Crown Heights is full of community organizations that get results, like the Crow Hill Community Association, who were making change before any of the so-called “gentrifiers” moved in.

Read Juravich’s full story in the Huffington Post, and let us know what you think about his position. Has “gentrification” become a catch-all term that fails to encompass all of the change that is happening in Crown Heights?