This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

In the Bay Area where I've lived for a couple decades now,

I've watched the front line of gentrification move further and further east. This show is based in Oakland

as you probably know. And Oakland's quite big and heterogeneous so you can never really talk

about it as one thing, but in the last couple of years rents have been going up and the fear is that

rents will continue to go up to a point where only wealthy tech workers can afford it.

This phenomenon is not unique to the bay.

East New York, a residential neighborhood on the eastern edge of Brooklyn is going through this now too.

In the 1960s, East New York rapidly transformed from a mostly white working class neighborhood to an underserved community of mostly black and brown New Yorkers

neglected by both society and policy.

But now as New York City rents skyrocket, East New York is staring down a wave of gentrification

that will forever change the character of this neighborhood that 120,000 people call home.

WNYC in New York and the Nation magazine

have teamed up for an in-depth look

at the gentrification of Brooklyn.

They call their series,

there goes the neighborhood.

Today we're showcasing an episode from this ongoing series.

That's really fantastic.

It turns back the clock and looks at how this new, rather unlikely hot spot for gentrification got to where it is today.

This is episode three of There goes the neighborhood, Turf Wars,

presented by Kywright of the Nation magazine. How can I get a latte?

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