Ted Audio Collective

As I've mentioned before, I grew up in New York City, specifically in Harlem.

And I recall a time when a decent number of my parents' friends moved out of our building.

There was a movement to restore some of our neighborhood's local brownstones, and many

of them were interested in becoming homeowners.

The city even offered a brownstone lottery to offload about a dozen abandoned homes

for cheap.

I'm talking thousands of dollars.

These were homes often over a hundred years old, with so much character and history.

However, many were also in various states of disrepair, boarded up windows and doors,

graffiti on the walls, ivy growing up the sides, and empty.

Many of those brownstones were restored to their former glory, and some folks who got

in then now have homes worth millions of dollars.

And I can't tell you what Harlem residents would give today for the opportunity to get

a brownstone for an affordable price.

But they can't, because today so many of the buildings in Harlem were fixing are being

bought by non-Harlemites and developers, then sold for millions of dollars pricing out

some of the locals.

This is your classic example of gentrification.

Gentrification isn't unique to Harlem.

It's happened in other parts of New York City and around the country.

In Baltimore, Washington DC, San Diego, the list goes on.

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