It’s been almost seven years since the New York Times wrote about the south Bronx transforming into a hip and gentrifying “SoBro,” citing an influx of white residents, artists, croissants and mesclun salad greens. Just last month, the Times ran a similar article, by the same author, once again boldly declaring gentrification in the south Bronx – now on the lower Concourse.

Yes, according to the 2010 Census, there is some small statistical evidence of an increase in the number of white residents (up by about 500) in the lower Concourse area, though the sample white residents cited in the article work as a grant writer, guidance counselor and a schoolteacher.

The premise of both articles, though, is that these neighborhoods are now “livable” enough that white people would consider living there, even though many of the improvements and features of the neighborhood are made possible by longtime black and Latino residents, including those with higher incomes.  Keep in mind, however, that almost all of the population gains in the Bronx, including the south Bronx, are driven by huge gains in the Latino population, as new Latinos in the last decade outpaced new whites by a ratio of 35 to 1. This overall increase in the Bronx’s population would not have happened without new affordable housing projects popping up on remaining vacant land in the south Bronx.

What is most disturbing about these types of articles is the willingness to jump straight to the gentrification conclusion, with only the slimmest evidence of some factor that could possibly (but not necessarily) accompany actual gentrification. In doing so, the Times appears interested in propping up real estate values (or at least discovering the next hot neighborhood) without regard for the consequences their declarations could have.

Real gentrification brings waves — not drops — of higher income newcomers, increasing demand for housing, driving up rents and real estate values, thereby decreasing affordability for working class residents and often leading to displacement. Currently, the Bronx is overwhelmingly the recipient of residents who have been displaced from other parts of the city that are actually gentrifying, such as Harlem, Washington Heights, and parts of central Brooklyn.  Meanwhile, private equity investors gambled heavily on gentrification in the Bronx this past decade and lost, while the housing stock, tenants and neighborhoods suffered the most. Outfits like Ocelot, Milbank, SG2 and many of the banks that financed them focused on the “upside potential” in local apartment buildings, hoping to displace low-rent-paying tenants and filling those units with newly arrived higher income earners.  The Times does the Bronx a disservice by disregarding the possible link between their headlines and these consequences.

Additionally, just because a working class neighborhood now has “a yoga studio, arugula and organic spinach at the local Foodtown supermarket, a weekly farmers market in the warmer seasons and a new deli that sells croissants” — as the Times writes of the lower Concourse — we should not have to start worrying about speculative investing or longtime residents being displaced.

Here in Norwood we also have organic produce at our Foodtown, a yoga studio, three farmers markets within walking distance, and croissants. Additionally, even though our white population is down about a third in the past decade, we still have about five times as many white residents in Community Board 7 than CBs 1 and 4 combined (10,000 to 2,100). Yet who would declare gentrification in our humble northwest Bronx neighborhoods?

Racial and income diversity are good things, as are livable neighborhoods with access to basic services, and many organizations, community residents, small business and the City continue to work on bringing new resources and amenities to lower income neighborhoods, specifically for the current residents to enjoy. While these shops, farmers markets, parks, bank branches, etc., may make a neighborhood more attractive, they do not equal gentrification, and claiming it does is both a stretch and reckless.

–Gregory Lobo Jost, a Norwood resident, is deputy director of University Neighborhood Housing Program. 

Editor’s note: A version of this article appears in the April 5-18 print edition of the Norwood News. This article represents the opinion of the author, not the Norwood News.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.