Brooklyn Professor Asks: 'Is This How Black Bed-Stuy Dies?'

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BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — What color is the Bedford-Stuyvesant of the near future?

In a recent Daily News op-ed, called "Is This How Black Bed-Stuy Dies?", Brooklyn College journalism professor Ron Howell worries that gentrification in the neighborhood could be altering its demographics — as well as its historic sense of community — beyond repair.

“The 2010 census showed that the white population of Bed-Stuy increased more than sevenfold over the previous 10 years, an astounding demographic shift," Howell writes.

He writes of Brooklyn deed scammers, or “Trump-like blood-suckers," who can be seen "canvassing the community, offering cash to elderly, long-time deed-holders at a third of the price they'd get if their buildings were sold on the open market.”

Howell also expresses hope in his column that efforts to landmark parts of the neighborhood could protect them from new developments.

In a recent interview with Patch, Howell, 67, called himself third-generation Bed-Stuy. His mother, who still lives in the neighborhood, was born there in 1925, he said — and before that, his grandmother, in 1901.

“I think being there is what keeps her going,” Howell said of his mother. “That she’s in the house where she’s meant to be.”

While he has since lived in other places, Bed-Stuy remains "the place that’s meant everything to me,” Howell said.

He said Mayor Bill de Blasio’s focus on mixed-income housing development is “admirable,” but worried that the area might be overtaken by tall buildings.

Throughout his childhood, “I could always see the sky,” Howell said. “I think it affected my sense of who I was and what beauty was.”

The professor said he would like city officials to make it easier for the children of Bed-Stuy residents to secure home loans — helping them make a life here, too.

Because above all, Howell said, maintaining ethnic diversity in Bed-Stuy will be integral to preserving its inimitable character — instead of letting it become overwhelmingly white and wealthy, as has happened in other Brooklyn neighborhoods.

And while he said he hasn’t personally been treated poorly by any of the neighborhood's newer, white residents, Howell said he often hears such stories from other locals. So he asked that we encourage newcomers to enter Bed-Stuy with “an openness of mind and heart” — to “be aware of and sensitive to” the area’s rich history and endangered culture.

Read Howell’s full op-ed in the New York Daily News.