Gentrification in Our Backyard
On August 15th, 300 people crowded around the corner of Broadway and Sherman Avenue in Inwood to protest the planned development of Sherman Plaza, a 17-story luxury apartment building. It was the eve of the City Council’s vote to rezone the block under Mayor de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing scheme, which requires developers in rezoned areas to set aside 25 to 30 percent of new units as affordable housing. For months, Inwood residents fiercely criticized the plans to build Sherman Plaza because of its potential to increase surrounding rents and displace long-term residents. Amidst shouts of “save uptown” and “Inwood no se vende” (“Inwood not for sale”), City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez finally announced that he would vote against the bill. That evening, with Rodriguez’s influence, City Council rejected the rezoning proposal.
One of the most commonly vocalized concerns among these uptown advocates was the potential for Sherman Plaza to accelerate gentrification in the area. Proponents of new developments such as Sherman Plaza emphasize the improved community resources, higher quality grocery stores, and better public services like transportation that can accompany greater investment and wealth in a neighborhood. Historically, however, gentrification has involved rent inflation, heightened economic pressure on long-term residents, and the deterioration of local art and cultural institutions.
Here in Washington Heights—a newly exposed “well-kept secret”—the community protests against developments such as Sherman Plaza are just a small piece of the reaction to vigorous gentrification processes occurring in northern Manhattan as a whole. According to the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness, the White non-Hispanic population in Washington Heights increased by 23.7 percent between 2005 and 2010. During the same time period, the black and Hispanic populations decreased by 5.6 and 8.0 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, median household income increased from $35,473 to $41,171. This rapid change in demographics coupled with a rapid rise in income is textbook gentrification.
Our proximity to these gentrification processes as students and professionals on West 168th St compels us to assess the potential public health-related impacts of gentrification and to prioritize what the CDC has already acknowledged as a significant public health issue.
Gentrification’s health effects can include the exacerbation of existing health disparities among the poor, women, the elderly, and racial/ethnic minority groups. For example, gentrification can increase food insecurity. In Washington Heights, the near replacement of Fort Washington’s Associated Supermarket due to the management company’s competing lease offer from Walgreens would have complicated grocery-shopping options for many of the supermarket's frequent customers, 45 percent of whom are seniors.
Additionally, gentrification is associated with a higher prevalence of mental and psychological stress from financial pressure, loss of community services and social support, and overcrowded and unhealthy housing conditions, according to research and analysis done by the Alameda County Public Health Department. At times, increased housing prices and an increased cost-of-living can lead to displacement of long-term residents, especially in rapidly urbanizing areas like San Francisco and New York. In extreme circumstances, greedy landlords lured by skyrocketing housing prices have attempted to push out tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. Unscrupulous building owners have been known to employ construction-related harassment and severe maintenance neglect, which are both particularly hazardous—and sometimes life-threatening—strategies.
All of these examples reflect processes by which gentrification places pressure on existing social determinants of health, pressure that can then manifest in the loss of homes and deteriorated health. According to our very own Mailman faculty, successful public health advocacy involves acknowledging and addressing fundamental, systemic causes of health such as class, race, and gender. This is especially so when considering the health effects of gentrification and the disproportionate health burdens experienced by long-term, low-income residents in a transformed community.
We are uniquely positioned at the Mailman School to delve into the issues of gentrification in the neighborhood hosting our academic home. Although conversations about gentrification have begun to take place at Mailman, we can continue to do more to address its local significance in our research, classes, and community engagement. There is great potential and urgency in focusing our public health efforts in our Washington Heights neighborhood, where long-term residents—our neighbors—deserve the right to thrive free from social and environmental hazards to health. At the same time, these efforts might include uncomfortably honest appraisals of how we, as community residents and consumers, may be involved in processes of gentrification.
Mitigating the health effects of gentrification requires an honest and critical appraisal of its positive and negative impacts; however, gentrification’s deleterious health impacts are not inevitable. The Alameda County Public Health Department in California’s Bay Area, for example, is investigating promising new strategies of stabilization and preservation to improve community development while avoiding displacement. Likewise, development in northern Manhattan can and should occur without the health hazards of gentrification. Increasing the quantity and quality of food markets and food options can be spearheaded by local business owners, such as the Seasoned Vegan soul food restaurant in Central Harlem. To strengthen socioeconomic vulnerabilities, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone provides tax incentives and loans to businesses seeking to invest in under-resourced communities. Such initiatives help to promote healthier environments for existing residents in a manner that benefits overall public health.
Changes are underway in Washington Heights, and these changes will create ripples in the region’s public health system. As we have learned in our classes and in our fieldwork, public health involves a birds-eye view, taking the well-being of large-scale communities and populations into consideration. Let’s not let this birds-eye view, however, prevent us from seeing public health issues when they are right next door.
Joanna Xing, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, MPH '17, is originally from Clarksville, MD, and became a new resident of Washington Heights after coming to Mailman. She recently completed her practicum at WE ACT for Environmental Justice and helped with WE ACT's Healthy Homes campaign.
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