Time marches on people, and change is inevitable. Harsh, I know, get used to it.
It was not poor immigrants but young yuppies from wealthy families who now fill the once working-class neighborhoods of New York. Their bourgeois invasion and occupation of our city have made housing, and living in the communities they grew up in, unaffordable to most native New Yorkers.
2
What makes you a New Yorker is when you finally realize that you have to leave to escape the taxes ,crime and bureaucracy and the only thing you’ll miss is the bagels.
1
While Eric Adams remarks were definitely unpolished, his remarks target the recent white flight back to the city. Any New Yorker born and raised in the city during the last 50 years can witness the instant revival of entire neighborhoods with basic city services and investments; which have only correlated with white majorities moving into specific neighborhoods. It's a frustration to see areas that remain destitute instantly revived once the populace changes. Areas now become worthy of investment.
2
Eric Adams can forget about getting the Hipster vote in the primary in 2021.
5
"Who is the true New Yorker?" is the soft echo of a familiar jingoist refrain -- "Who is the true American?" Better yet, "Who is the true German?" Remember that one? This stuff is toxic.
12
A hundred years ago the Italian and Jewish residents of Harlem were probably saying the same thing about the influx of out of state people changing the demographics and economy of Harlem, Go back to Georgia or Alabama.
8
Not exactly: 100 years ago, Americans/New Yorkers were telling Italians and Jews to go back to where they came from and by 1924, they had the immigration restrictions in place to make sure few more of them came. You are speaking more to the state of the city about 60 years ago. Point being: no one belongs; everyone belongs.
3
There doesn't seem to be an difference between Donald Trumps racist message to immigrants and Eric Adams racist message to what likely are white people. They are both hateful.
8
I was born and raised in NY, and lived there for 33 years. I have lived in Colorado for 30 years. I still know the subways, but neighborhoods have changed dramatically. The NY I knew is very different.
1
It's simple: you were born and raised in the city..until about your 18th birthday. By that time the "New York-ness" is ingrained into you. that's why i consider Bernie Sanders a true New Yorker as opposed to the carpetbagger, Hillary Clinton. True New Yorkers know the city frontwards and back, inside and out, those who just stepped off the plane, train, bus or boat- don't.
4
@ Lou Andrew's, Eventually most completely assimilate. Are they then New Yorkers?
Isn’t this the same sentiment that Trump supporters echo about immigrants who come to their flyover states?
9
Yea, yea. We in Florida have the same sentiments. Stay in New York, Ohio, Iowa or where ever you are coming from. We're drowning from "outsiders".
3
@Mike - Snowbirds don't count? they've been coming down there since the 1950's. be grateful you have them otherwise Florida wouldn't be much of a place. swamps mosquitoes, alligators ugghh , i've said enough already.
5
If anything, you are "drowning" because of the rising oceans ignored by your politicians (and anti-science types).
10
In all honesty, being a New Yorker isn't so easily defined as it used to be. Since the postwar era, everything has changed since then. Also, being a major place for immigrants, there is almost no defined culture especially when you have nearly the entire world living with you. For the record, I'm not trying to be anti-immigration for saying this since I happen to be born outside the country myself hence being Israeli-born. Although some say having a bagel or having to do just about everything in a day in what is supposed to be a NY minute might define it as well. Overall, I don't think there is much distinction to being a New Yorker these days as there is for being anywhere else since so many cities have many similar characteristics.
Espaillat should not be serving in Congress with the kinds of views he espouses. (The polite word would be "tribalist". The impolite word is worse.)
6
His community is being gentrified and long time residents and local businesses are being pushed out. Housing is becoming unaffordable and people don’t know where to go.
What Adams is really saying in pathetic 'woke' code words like 'Iowa' and Ohio' is that he really wants the whites out of former majority African American neighborhoods like Fort Greene, and by extension out of the entire city. His buddy Espaillat made a similar statement at an Al Sharpton (of course) event.
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/01/21/espaillat-says-he-supports-bike-lanes-despite-mondays-racially-charged-rant/
12
But when my grandfather had a candy cart in Fort Greene Park in the early 1930s, the townhouses were filled with gentry.
White, genteel, old Brooklyn.
14
@B. My family is also from Fort Greene. We fled in 1960 as the area became a crime-filled slum. Now Fort Greene is a desirable area which is great news, but not to Eric Adams because it was the mostly white gentrifiers who took brought the neighborhood back from the near-dead.
11
I know, NYC Taxpayer. The problem is that others do not remember, or do not have family who were here. And so they believe people like Eric Adams.
As Donald Trump so expertly demonstrates, if you repeat a lie often enough, people believe you. Maybe Adams, like Trump, believes his lies.
Will anyone believe me when I say that when I was a toddler, people in our apartment building slept with their doors open to create cross-breezes on hot summer nights? Sometimes the buildings provided louvered doors so that you could have privacy -- certainly not security as we know it -- while catching the breezes. By the time I was older, the storeroom walls of these buildings were stacked with the old wooden louvers -- fire hazards and vestiges of a safer time.
7
Thank to the Dutch and their belief in freedom and diversity, we have New York, in other words New Amsterdam. Their beliefs preserved freedom of religion, and allowed many people of different creeds to thrive here. It is partially why NYC is so diverse, and that it is a city of commerce.
11
@James Igoe
Surely it was that they believed in the guilder more than than simply just freedom and diversity.
3
@TomR They thought that diversity was part of the root of their success.
7
At a speech in Harlem a man running for mayor blows a dog whistle against white Mid-Westerners moving into his town. He received great cheers. And then his argument - in our print edition - is given weight by citing numerous negative "changes" brought about by these new transplants.
Meanwhile, in the Mid-West, if politicians decry large influxes of recent undocumented immigrants into their communities and the numerous disruptions brought about by this phenomenon, what happens? They are called racists. And those immigrants are uniformly portrayed as adding diversity and economic vibrancy to the area.
Notice something here? How about some equal opportunity coverage?
40
You don’t see the difference?
1
How it should have been framed is
''Isn't it sad that New York has become so expensive that people from all over the world as well as people from Ohio and Iowa can no longer move to the city and strive to reach their dream.''
I know who I will not vote for come Nov
26
I know now that I will not be voting for Mr. Adams. Using the Trump playbook for inciting divisiveness and anger is not ok for Democrats. You can’t lambast Mr. Trump and simultaneously accept Mr. Adams comments lest you wish the label of hypocrite.
26
I guess we see where the discourse, politics, and venom of NYC are headed in this new decade-- faster than ever-- in these first few weeks of the new year. And there don't appear to be any Republicans in site. Interesting.
11
@Steve The process of driving out the traditional NYC white and asian middle-class has already begun under deBlasio. Adams and Espaillat are just a little more upfront about it.
6
I once walked from 31st and 7th to 53rd and 6th in 14 minutes flat, during rush hour. I completely surprised myself at the time, because that walk usually takes about 30. I navigated and weaved my way through the crowded streets like a pro. Even though I've lived here my entire life, I truly felt like a New Yorker that day.
8
I was born in Brooklyn. My grandparents came to Brooklyn from Europe and my mother and aunts were born and raised in Brooklyn. My parents, brother and I ultimately moved to Long Island, then to New Jersey- but place of birth and family remaining in Brooklyn should give me New York cred.
That said, I know many New Yorkers who were born and/or raised in either a borough or Long Island , who have relocated back to now-gentrified neighborhoods- they are New Yorkers too. My question is the midwesterners who moved to Brooklyn after college, then on to New Jersey - are they New Yorkers?
2
Why not? Some "Midwesterners" moved to Brooklyn 60 years ago, some more recently, and set down roots. They keep their sidewalks clean and take an interest in their neighborhoods. They go to their jobs and care for their families, friends, and neighbors.
Better than people who do not keep their sidewalks clean. Or who do not take care of their families. Of any color.
I've had noisy white neighbors and noisy black neighbors.
My only real commandment: Behave yourselves. A little courtesy goes a long way, no matter your social class, color, or religion.
11
@B. It would be interesting if Mr. Adams family came to NYC from the great migration. Regardless, I think he would be mortified to see what politicians were saying about that group of new entrants to NYC circa 60 years ago...
5
I would be surprised if he didn't know. If his parents/grandparents never recounted the racism they were greeted with when they arrived in NYC. All "immigrants" have faced the same unwelcome. My family arrived 1972. I very much remember what it felt like being bullied by "American" kids, and Teachers, for being an Italian immigrant.
1
The author of this article failed in their duty to report the amount of money Adams has taken from real estate, the actual creators of gentrification. Focusing on the racial element of the message obscured the fact that it is Adams and the whole corrupt political class created the conditions for displacement. Adams supported the IDC, his biggest supporters when he was a senator was Glenwood Management - based in Long Island no less-and has rarely found a real estate Rezoning he could say no to.
Finally, when pressed later on he walked these comments back showing he’s not a New Yorker, he’s got no spine.
21
This is pandaing 101
Welcome to the race to Gracie Mansion.
And he has the nerve to say this when he takes money from the real estate lords.
17
@David
Do you mean "pandering"?
6
@Lifelong Reader
Correct
Thank you
2
If you think DeBlasio was bad, wait and see what happens if this
Twisted individual gets in.
21
It is not Iowans who are raising the rent. It is not Ohioans. It is New Yorkers and Brooklynites who are raising the rents on buildings they own. How will you stop that Mr. Boro President?
28
@NYCSandi. Or maybe the question is does Adams wants to stop the profiteering by those "natives", who donate to his campaign?
2
Housing prices go up all over - when you can't afford them you have to live somewhere else. I can't afford to live where I work or where I grew up, that's just reality. Don't see the wisdom in pointing fingers at whole groups of people.
Also, my son lives in Williamsburg where he moved after college. His great great grandparents were people of color from Barbados who settled in Bed Sty around 1900. Nothing is as simple as some politicians would have us believe.
18
Where do they go? The neighborhoods where working class could live are being gentrified. But New Yorkers still need doormen, drivers, nannies, home health workers, hospital orderlies, cashiers, postal workers, light bulb changers—you know, workers.
We need less trust fund hipsters using our city to extend their college bar crawl days and less buildings with 5k rent. I decided some years ago that you need 20 years as a resident to be considered a NYer by me.
12
We need fewer deadbeats who think they're above buckling down in school, and then complaining there are no jobs for them, no matter what their color is, no matter where they live.
11
@Will With due respect, unless you're a native American from a group that once occupied Manhattan, you are a transient in NY. 20 years? Try 200,000 years.
9
They are working low wage jobs. Sometimes two low wage jobs and trying to send their children to college.
To begin with. There are native New Yorkers, that is folks who were born and essentially raised here -- and then there are New Yorkers who were born elsewhere, but who have lived here long enough to become what you call a "New Yorker".
But in the end it really all comes down to having the right amount of attitude, chutzpah and street knowledge of a city that consumes people as easily as it spits them out.
That said, given the amount of gentrification and the vast influx of luxury housing in neighborhoods that were long-established ethnic communities (Harlem comes to mind), it's understandable how sometimes comments are made in exasperation, whether it's by Eric Adams or not.
Most of us who were born here have no problem remembering a New York that was quite different than the way it is today -- I for one, never thought it would be more expensive to live in Brooklyn than Manhattan. Surprise!
But NYC is a big place.
Let's all just try to get along and enjoy it.
24
@N. Smith, thank you, but I do not believe it is understandable that comments like this are made. Remember, my party--the Democrats--have rightly denounced Donald Trump for comments that send the wrong message--"coded" messages, some will say, for example, when he said that white nationalists marching on Charlotte were similar to those protesting them: No, they're not, and he was taken to task for that.
Eric Adams is a political leader in my home borough, Brooklyn, where I was born and raised and lived until I moved to the Bronx years ago (closer to work). My family is still in Brighton Beach and Flatlands. Mr. Adams must offer a definition of "those who have lived here"--does that mean that immigrants from Central America and Asia also are not welcome? From Eastern Europe? The Caribbean? It's a giant non sequitir that inherently suggests chauvinism. As for gentrification: I know a number of young college graduates--including whites--raised in the Bronx, went to College, and now rent apartments from African-American landlords in Bed-Stuy. I would say they are New Yorkers.
10
@N. Smith
I've never liked Eric Adams, but the exasperation is completely understandable. The City welcomes new, shiny faces each year, often white Americans from other parts of the country, people with good educations and money, while many of the black and brown people who've lived here for generations are still struggling, forced to look on as they feel estranged from their own neighborhoods, which nobody cared about until they became attractive because of lower rents. Now, basic necessities in the area are climbing in price. Luxuries they can't hope to afford are being sold in every shop. Everyone else is having a party, but their invitation seems to have gotten lost -- again.
Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio and his completely incompetent chancellor, Richard Carranza, are hacking away at the few good schools in the NYC public education system, while doing nothing meaningful to improve all schools, many of which are abysmal. The one route of escape for a poor person is blocked.
10
@Barry Moskowitz
Adams is talking about middle-class, white gentrifiers. People who move in and treat the black and brown people around them like part of the landscape, not their neighbors.
I find it difficult to believe that most of the landlords in Bed-Stuy and other affected areas are black or Latinx, but you are free to provide statistics. Were the wealth truly being shared, no one would be complaining because newcomers would be a boost for everyone.
7
“New York City belongs to the people that was here and made New York City what it is,” says Mr. Adams, who was born in Brooklyn.
_ Mr. Adams is absolutely wrong. The people who made NYC what it is are the ones with the energy and courage to come from all over the U.S. and other countries and make a new life. People like Mr. Adams and I are New Yorkers only because our parents or grandparents had that energy and courage.
50
As a transplant who I would like to think has contributed something to this city, rather than being the white invader he makes me out to be, Eric Adams has disqualified himself from receiving my vote.
53
@CP: Thus proving Mr. Adams's point! You are being petty.
1
@L, Why? Please explain.
We’ll see how long this hate last when it’s time to close the city’s deficit
12
What makes someone a New Yorker is that they welcome EVERYONE to join in this great, fantastic, melting pot.
35
The rise of inequality has little to do with the people that come to New York, those immigrating from outside the country or those migrating from inside the US. Like most, they come for a better life, for work, and for family. Without a doubt, they are part of what makes New York thrive, make it safer, and provide its diversity.
On the other hand, there are sweetheart deals to developers to make luxury high-rises, a dearth of affordable housing development, short-term rental industries reducing housing supply, opaque legal vehicles allowing foreigners to park their money here, and a financial industry that pays highly and earns outsize profits. Cities are magnets for inequality, and there is little being done to rein it in, to make life equitable for those not part of the upper strata.
Adams is little better than Trump and his nativists, blaming immigrants for the problems of economic and social inequality, and using that blame to manipulate the ignorant.
52
@James Igoe
Adams isn't blaming immigrants. He's blaming privileged, educated, moneyed usually white people who move to historically black and brown neighborhoods whose presence drives up the price of rents and local goods and services.
He does have a point.
4
@Lifelong Reader
Maybe I used the preposition incorrectly. I meant to say that he was like Trump, in that Trump blames immigrants, and uses that to manipulate his base, avoiding the actual cause of their problems.
Adams does not have a point. He is blaming NYC transplants for problems that are the result of large scale issues, specifically inequality and corruption. His blame is misplaced.
6
"Historically black"?
Okay. If you mean recent history.
5
According to the NY Post, Fairway is closing all stores, including the original Upper West Side location.
Surely this merits NY Times coverage?
Many issues - the end of a once independent store, the proliferation of suburban chain stores throughout Manhattan, private equity’s destructive nature, the impact on the Upper West Side, the likely outcome of an increase in ecommerce delivery (trucks) etc.
24
You mean I'm losing my Fairway in Red Hook?
Decades ago, it became a destination for us: do the shopping, park the wagon before buying milk and checking out, go out and breathe in good New York Harbor air and the particular scent of the harbor's water, see the sunset.
Awful.
Awful, too, for the really nice people who work there. Especially awful for them -- Fairway was a good employer, finding people jobs after Sandy and then bringing them back.
Lately there have been fewer shoppers, fewer employees around, and we feared for the store's future. I guess it's here.
21
Many hardworking people will lose jobs at the stores, warehouses etc. Also impacts on suppliers.
10
@SLM The fault lies with the owners of Fairway, they tried to expand too much too quickly and lost a lot of money.
9