New-York– a metropolis facing inequalities ?

Doc 1 : NYC inhabitants :

ethnic diversity

New Jersey
White, 73%

Analyse the 3 documents :

Would you say there is a social
and spatial segregation in NYC
today ?

Doc 2 : Inequalities between 3 different boroughs in NYC (Source US CENSUS 2015)

Manhattan Bronx New Jersey New York (TOTAL)
Population (millions) 1.6 1.4 8.9 22
Average income ($) 69.659 34.388 71.629 58.003
Proportion of population under the poverty line 17.7% 29.8% 10.4% 15.3%

Doc 3 : Living in New Jersey (left) and in the Bronx (right) (photographs)

In the Bronx, many residential areas are dedicated to low income families. Considered as a ghetto1, the Bronx
is known as a dangerous area. However, from the end of the 1990s, violence is decreasing and middle class
families, attracted by low rents and prices, settle down in the area

1
District that concentrates a majority of poor people with the same ethnic origin.
New-York city – exclusion and gentrification
Document #1 – Gentrification explained by Jen Sorensen (2013 and 2018)

Document #2 – « Ain’t nothing going up bu the rent »,

Harlem neighborhood, 2019.

Document # 3 - Spike Lee2’s speech, Black History month, Pratt Institute, Feb.
2013.

[Audience member: You mentioned gentrification with some slightly negative

connotations and I wondered if you'd ever looked at it from the other side? Which
is that, if your family was still in that $40,000 home that's now worth $3.5m to
$4m…]
Lee: Let me, let me, let me, let me just kill you right now.
[OK, go for it.]
There was an (…) article in the New York Times saying the good of gentrification. I
don't believe that. Here's the thing: I grew up here in Fort Greene. I grew up here in
New York. It's changed. And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the

2
Spike Lee, internationaly renowed american movie director. His films have explored race relations, urban crime, poverty and other political
issues. Has directed movies such as Malcolm X (1992) and Blackkklansman (2018).
south Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better? The garbage wasn't picked up
every day when I was living in 165 Washington Park. [And I don't dispute that … ]
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And even more. Let me kill you some more.
[Can I talk about something?]
Not yet.
Then comes the Christopher Columbus Syndrome. You can't discover this! We been here. There were brothers playing
African drums in Mount Morris Park for 40 years and now they can't do it anymore because the new inhabitants said
the drums are loud. My father's a great jazz musician. He bought a house in 1968, and the people moved in last year
and called the cops on my father. He's not — he doesn't even play electric bass! It's acoustic! We bought the house in
1968 and now you call the cops? In 2013? Get outta here!
Nah. You can't do that. You can't just come in the neighborhood and start bogarting and say, like you're Columbus and
kill off the Native Americans. Or what they do in Brazil, what they did to the indigenous people. You have to come with
respect. There's a code. There's people.
You can't just – here's another thing: When Michael Jackson died they wanted to have a party for him in Fort Greene
Park and all of a sudden the white people in Fort Greene said, "Wait a minute! We can't have black people having a
party for Michael Jackson to celebrate his life. Who's coming to the neighborhood? They're gonna leave lots of
garbage." Garbage? Have you seen Fort Greene Park in the morning? It's like the Westminster Dog Show. There's
20,000 dogs running around. Whoa. So we had to move it to Prospect Park!
I mean, they just move in the neighborhood. You just can't come in the neighborhood. I'm for democracy and letting
everybody live but you gotta have some respect. You can't just come in when people have a culture that's been laid
down for generations and you come in and now things gotta change because you're here? Get outta here. Can't do
that!

1. According to the 1st and 2nd document, explain what gentrification is.
2. Document #3 – What ate the beneficial effects of gentrification according to one audience
member ?
3. Document #3 – List and classify the negative consequences of gentrification according to Spike Lee.