Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn
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Meet the Sad Face of Brooklyn Gentrification’s Human Toll

August 3rd, 2007 · 10 Comments


[Photo courtesy of UNO]

We came across this on the blog started by UNO (United Neighbors Organization), which is working to protect tenants from displacement and eviction in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The picture touched our hearts–as it was certainly intended to do. No to be dramatic or emotional, but it simply breaks our hearts that a 90-year-old woman would have to grapple with losing her home of 50 years. Every day, we see something that makes us say that there is something very, very, very wrong with the New York City of the early 21st Century. That “something” generally has to do with deprivation and struggles that we see in a city with so much mindboggling affluence. The other night, it was a group of children on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. They were probably six to twelve years old, and out by themselves. A girl, who was 10 or 12 was “in charge.” They were loud and a little rowdy and were trying to pool together some money for a slice of pizza. It upset us to see children that young out on their own, pretty much scrounging for food in a neighborhood where spoiled and pampered children can be found in abundance.

Today’s sad story (and it’s still so very early) is that of Marie Tinghitella. Here it is from the UNO blog:

Her name is Marie Tinghitella a 90 year old resident of Williamsburg. She just received a Marshals Notice of Eviction to vacate the apartment that she called home for the past 50 years.

With the Support of UNO, Saint Nicholas and Legal Aid for the Aging she was able to vacate the eviction notice for a couple months while she can find an affordable and decent place to leave, and hopefully in the community that she call home: Williamsburg.

According to our records, at least one Senior Citizen a month is displaced or is facing harassment from their landlord.

If you want to get more information on tenant’s rights or know a senior that is facing harassment please call us at 718-388-5454 xt. 123 or xt 107.

When we look at that face, we see a thousand grandmothers, including our own. It is so, so, so wrong.

Tags: Williamsburg

10 responses so far ↓

  • 1 who walk in brooklyn // Aug 3, 2007 at 8:02 am

    have you seen this before (perhaps i even sent it)?

    http://www.villagevoice.com/news/9921,lobbia,6033,5.html

    we’ve been down this road before & will keep on it for a long time to come, i’m afraid–

    in the plainest language possible, it’s a fucking outrage these jerks can’t wait for old folks– the very people who kept and made neighborhood x/y/z attractive places to ‘speculate’ later– to die… it won’t be THAT long.

    at the time of the Voice piece, a few people were furious, & even called the Park Slope Brewing Company asking how they could condone having such a person in their midst? If memory serves, the guy even had a piece of Liberty Heights in Red Hook when they first opened (i’d need to check that, however). fact is, however, even if most people “feel” for the situation, they don’t actually DO much. good thing UNO & some others are taking action.

    wwib

    p/s: as for the other aspects of class war, that’s a bigger, very complicated issue, and one that many many Brooklyn blogs are complicit in simply by their silence. not to suggest there are any easy answers or that documentation is all THAT effective, really, but compare demographic reality to internet reality & what do we see? at least two starkly different worlds. just recognizing what is here now, would be a huge first step.

  • 2 Anonymous // Aug 3, 2007 at 9:21 am

    The only way you can evict and elderly tenant in an RS apartment is if they don’t pay their rent. The owner occupied eviction doesn’t’ work etc etc. If she doesn’t pay her rent – which NEVER goes up – as the SCRIE program covers the rent increases.
    If she is in a market rate apartment then she has no property rights – just as any other market rate renter in any other part of the world. She should have bought 50 years ago – then she would have equity and no mortgage payment.
    Sad but true.

  • 3 Anonymous // Aug 3, 2007 at 10:35 am

    I can’t believe you are for real. The more I read blogs, the more I wonder whether some posters are just mouthing off to rattle people. Would you be talking this way if it were your own mother in that predicament? I don’t think so. Wait until you get old, my friend. What goes around, comes around.

  • 4 Anonymous // Aug 3, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    I hear about these elderly people getting evicted, but what i dont understand is how it’s happening.

    It’s very difficult to evict anyone 65+ from any apt.

    I also dont understand how people have a one year lease believe that they have a right to live in the apt once the lease is up.

  • 5 Rich // Aug 3, 2007 at 1:19 pm

    Well, turning it around to think about one’s own parent is a good point. I support my mom, so maybe the anger is misplaced at the owners of the property rather than at the lack of responsibility within the family. I don’t see how it is a property owner’s job to provide welfare to an elderly person just because the family won’t… there are tough luck cases out there (like my mom), but ultimately who is responsible for them?

  • 6 Anonymous // Aug 3, 2007 at 1:35 pm

    What goes around, comes around, indeed. This is why I’m always suspicious of hard-luck stories involving the old. How badly did this women treat her relatives, especially her children, if they now want nothing to do with her? What has she been doing all her life, to have nothing and nobody to show for it?

    Homeless children are innocent. Homeless old people? I have my doubts.

  • 7 Brooklyn Born // Aug 3, 2007 at 7:30 pm

    I crack up that the hypocrisy on these Brooklyn bloggers that I bet have not lived in Brooklyn more than 10 yrs or 5 yrs. All these Brooklyn bloggers and some commenter such as brownstoner, Clinton Hill Blog, Bushwick Blog, Kensington Blog, Gowanus Lounge and so on should look in mirror to see how much they play a part in the “gentrification” Brooklyn.

    The true native brooklynites that came to Brooklyn 20-50 years ago when nobody wouldn’t fathom the idea of living these neighborhoods. Then in the past 10 to 20 years ago, the starving artists come to artist and blend with the neighborhood. And as most places when the starving artists make the area “cool” and the wannabes start jumping the bandwagon to be “cool.” Unlike the starving artist, these wannabes start changing things, which creates a demand, which bring on the developers, doing what they do.

    And after the carnage is over, the native brooklynites and the starving artists can even afford to live there. That’s Gentrification in the truest form. So, don’t blame developers for changing the landscape of the Brooklyn, without you Brooklyn bloggers, out of towners, kewl wannabes, and cafes with ur lattes looking at yourselves.

    So, you bleeding-hearts, don’t show sympathy for these natives and sip your lattes.

    How accurate is my statement?

  • 8 Mom Vidalia // Aug 4, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    All y’alls up in arms and meanwhile its the little old ladies suffering out on the sidewalk, when we should be implementable to a little regulation that come from the Mayors mouth and gets signed up by all of us at the same time. As in the bible jesus says, we only as good as we treat them old ones and then the babies. We are only little better than 0 for 2, if you were to ask me about it. And thats fixable at this point in time, cause this is America and Brooklyn.

  • 9 Anonymous // Aug 5, 2007 at 9:37 am

    We all have to take responsibility for our actions. Old people as well as young. My grnadmother would not be in this situation because any of her 6 children or 15 grandchildren would bring her to live with us. Her sister who never had children lives with me and she is just my grandaunt. The city must build more affordable housing for the poor and the elderly. Private owners should not have to shoulder the weight. We pay real estate and other taxes to the government to handle cases like this.

  • 10 Anonymous // Aug 6, 2007 at 7:25 am

    The original post made one small, but major misstatement: The comment noted that she is “losing her home of 50 years..” She is not losing her “home” — because “home” implies ownership. Obviously, she doesn’t own. Therefore, she is losing her “rented apartment.”

    I realize that you are applauding her for moving into that neighborhood 50 years ago when no one wanted to live there. But someonebody also bought that building 50 years ago and no one is applauding that owner. In fact, for all we know, the owner of that building could be a 90-year old woman who doesn’t want the hassle of owning and is taking her $1 million profit and moving to Florida. Does anyone feel sorry for her?

    The question is not about gentrification. The question is: why are people who take the risks and hassles involved with owning a building, vilified — especially if they make a profit, while people who do not take risks and did not want the hassles of ownership, championed?

    We rent now (market rate), and our landlord raised our rent $200 per month for the coming term, and we anticipate he will continue to do so for each subsequent term. Which is why we are looking to buy. Renting does not imply squatter’s rights. Renters always seem shocked — SCHOCKED — to find out they have no rights to their property. Why does this not shock anyone else?