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There Goes the Neighborhood: What We Really Mean When We Say ‘Gentrification’

A new podcast series in partnership with WNYC.

Kai Wright and There Goes the Neighborhood

March 2, 2016

Residents walk down the street of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, a neighborhood experiencing rapid change.(Milbert O. Brown, Jr. / Howard University)

There Goes the Neighborhood, a new podcast by The Nation and WNYC Studios, takes an in-depth look at gentrification in Brooklyn and the integral role that race plays in the process.

The podcast is hosted by Nation features editor Kai Wright, and is in many ways a follow up to his coverage of the subprime lending and foreclosure crises that crippled black and Latino neighborhoods all over the country. Today’s gentrification would be impossible without yesterday’s economic collapse.

Developers from all over the globe are hunting New York City, looking for deals that will allow them to “revitalize” neighborhoods, and make a few bucks in the process. 

But to many tenants and homeowners, it feels like a violent shove out of the way, especially for black and brown Brooklynites who have lived here for generations.

Add to the drama the fact that the nation’s most progressive mayor has a plan to slow down gentrification, and encourage developers to create more affordable housing rather than luxury condos. Only, people are marching in the street to stop it.

Beginning March 9, listen in on how the process is playing out. Find it on iTunes here.

Listen to all of The Nation’s podcasts here.

Kai WrightTwitterKai Wright is editor and host of WNYC’s narrative unit, and a columnist for The Nation.


There Goes the NeighborhoodThere Goes the Neighborhood, a podcast by The Nation and WNYC Studios and hosted by Kai Wright, takes an in-depth look at gentrification in Brooklyn and the integral role that race plays in the process.


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