The gentrification of sensibilities: Politics and aesthetics in a NYC changing neighborhood

Park Slope’s historic character accounts for a strong measure of its lasting appeal. Replete with row houses and brownstones, the neighborhood is distinguished for being the largest landmark district in Brooklyn, and enjoys quiet, tree-lined streets with wide architectural variety. Progressive yuppies and establishment lesbians have long ruled the classy section of the Slope, in particular the “name” streets between 7th Ave and Prospect Park. These days the action is happening all along 5th Ave. and in the so-called “South End” of the Slope, where young people are fleeing Manhattan rents and setting up shop along the F train. Fifth Ave. rivals Williamsburg as the hottest section of Brooklyn, with great spots like rock club Southpaw and incredible restaurants like Al di La and Cucina. With its obvious local charm and intimate feel, this close-knit neighborhood has become an enclave for families and is rich in resources for children of all ages. 

Given this background, this paper aims to address the issue of neighborhood changes and renewal through a specific interpretation key: the nature of the gentrification aesthetics in relation to economic and cultural capital. The interrelations between taste and design sensibilities in a gentrifying neighborhood “has always been symptomatic of a new middle class that is so aesthetically self-reflexive” (Bridge G. 2005:117).

I will examine how the very nature of gentrification practices, in these accounts, remains irredeemably bourgeois both in the structure and sensibilities (codes of legitimacy, eating out at restaurants and other aesthetics displays of cultured consumption in housing and leisure). Most importantly, this case demonstrates that discourses about aesthetics in gentrifying neighborhoods are related to forms of re-presentation and perception, which are essentially political.