Abstract: for this assignment, I had to pick a topic that interests me about the topics we have been studying throughout the semester. I picked supply and demand because I knew some information about it by which made wanted to learn and know more about that part of gentrification. By which I had to search some articles about my topic because the research I did will make my argument stronger as well as having a trusted resource to look at for clarification and background information on my topic.

Instructor  Megan Skelly  

FIQWS 10015

Fall 2020

Lissette Lucero 

                    Supply and Demand of Gentrification 

Many urban communities around New York City and the world have gone under gentrification. This change has come with both negative and positive impacts for the community. Gentrification doesn’t happen overnight; it takes decades and major factors for a community to go under gentrification. Supply and demand is a big factor of why a community might go under gentrification. The demand for supply causes real estate developers to start bringing what the community needs to stay satisfied and stay in a community that is desirable for living as well as having what they need inside the community. 

I am interested in this idea of the supply and demand that gentrification is part of. What this paper will discuss more about how communities are affected as well as the causes. I want to go beyond just residents’ necessities and look into the big picture of gentrification as well as how the neighborhood goes under a transition. What do the communities need to be or have to be gentrified. How are the traditional residents affected? Who will benefit the most from gentrification? How much power does real estate have over the communities? To what extent does the community have the power to indicate what is good or bad for them or once the community is already going under gentrification the community can no longer have a voice or indications of how they want their community to change. I want to know the factors and the cause that takes the supply and demand of gentrification. Are the supply and demand one of the causes that gentrification brings to the community or supply and demand is what causes the community to be gentrified. 

Supply and demand impact gentrification. As well as to know who is behind the supply and demand of communities that are going under gentrification. I want to inform how not only communities benefit from gentrification but also how long-term residents are negatively impacted. 

I have seen Harlem change a lot in the past four years since I moved into the neighborhood. I didn’t know about the whole thing behind its change until now that I learned about gentrification. Now I know more about how my neighborhood has changed. Back then I only used to see people of color and Hispanics — I barely saw any white people . But now there are people of all colors and backgrounds. There have been many changes in the community from the way it looks and what it has. There are more residential and commercial buildings. Trendy shops and restaurants are opened which consist of a variety of food and clothes, not only that but also health centers and more people as well. Marcuse explains the positive aspects of gentrification as well as how abandonment and gentrification relate to each other. Abandonment and gentrification are connected to the overall results of the community (Marcuse, 2009). Abandonment happens because of a decline in property values. Gentrification, often through private investment, rapidly increases property values. “The estimate of total displacement from abandonment for New York City, therefore, may be between thirty-one thousand and sixty thou-sand households, or one hundred fifty thousand persons annually”(Marcuse, 1985, pg212). Such private initiative improves the quality of housing as well as tax bases. Gentrification attracts high-income households from every part of the city which reduces demands elsewhere, increasing abandonment in other parts of the city. Both abandonment and gentrification drive low-income households next to places where rents are increasing which both also bring positive economic change into the city. The demand for housing creates a positive shift into the economic activity for production to services by high wage geographic areas to low wage areas.  Government reduces the public expense in major areas of abandonment while increasing them in areas of gentrification which is a good thing for the real estate as well as for the community because the government is helping them both. Gentrification causes tax revenue to increase which favors policy leaders that cause them to invest even more.  The new commercial businesses benefit residents who would like better shopping opportunities, yet they disadvantage small-owned businesses because people no longer shop there. This eventually leads to the closure of their business since they won’t generate enough revenue to pay the rent. Big chain stores also benefit low-income communities because it brings supply and wealth by also customizing goods from marketing. Community development groups want new stores and restaurants because it brings capital reinvestment that benefits the community. Private developers used to ignore low-income communities due to crime and low property values, but now they look forward to them and make investments because the land yields higher monetary returns in the future. Gentrification causes higher rents that bring expensive boutiques that change the community outlook as the whole aspect of the community by including social and economic transactions. Figure 1 in Zapakta’s article shows an increase of property values mostly concentrated in Brooklyn and Manhattan. These areas tend to have more minorities living in low-income households. (zapakta, 2009-2016, pg11). Life-style and life-cycle factors have created consumer demand for new resident’s styles. Gentrification also causes an increase in wealth for the gentrifiers that invest in the community, thus leading to job and income growth. 

Economic activity also has negative outcomes because it causes an increase in unemployment, population loss, and decreasing demand for housing for low-income groups. It  also leads to increased demand for office space that decreases the profitability of manufacturing space. When gentrification occurs it causes a negative outcome for low-income residents: they move out of the community because they can no longer afford to live there. When describing gentrification’s economic toll, Zukin says, “By 2006, the drastic decrease in the number of stores in Harlem re-flected the large number of buildings demolished, or awaiting demolition, prior to new construction” (Zukin, 2009, pg. 57). The real estate market plays a big factor in gentrification because it introduces the type of change that is happening in the neighborhood. The supply and demand of gentrification contribute negative aspects to a community. (Zapatka ,2009–2016), discusses all aspects of supply and demand on how the demand occurs for supply to happen as well as in which area is the demand higher for residential purposes or business-wise. The moving in of white gentrifiers into low-income communities causes the retail and houses demand to go up meaning that the demand for new residential condominiums causes the rent to go up for the new apartments; the supply aspect will not be affordable for low-income residents of the community since they will no longer afford to live there. The real estate and landlords are the main cause for the supply aspect of expensive residential buildings which causes gentrification to happen. Such investment of the real estate elites in housing, which renovated old buildings into new units, causes the rent to increase. This price hike brings wealthier tenants and forces the long-term residents to relocate. The change of social consumption of an area and residents is changing the supply of housing meaning that gentrification had to occur first in order for that to happen in which the consumption and production dynamics aspect is continuously shaping each other on middle-class demand and developers’ investment. Homeowners and renters are the cause of rising property values which causes the rent to be only affordable for people that can afford the new apartments which will benefit gentrifiers. The community allows gentrifiers to associate with the property values that cause them to increase by that it causes them to be displaced since they no longer can afford to buy them back or able to live in the new economic income created by gentrification.  

In the already gentrifying community causes, the consumption of housing presents a demand for housing reinvestment. Landlords and developers first see the highest potential profit rate in the community to reinvest. Gentrification reflects capitalism. The supply-side theories focus on the property owner and the demand-side arguments focus on both the owners and the gentrifiers which explain how the supply aspects introduced demand into the community in which gentrifiers are the causing demand and the supply to be given to the residents. Demand predicts supply by which is being given by the results of her five years data plan. (Zukin,1987), adds to evidence about the causes of gentrification into the supply and demand. Also the aspects of gentrification into the community as a whole. It provides evidence on how gentrification affects the community as well as real estate. The problem is that new residents displaced long-existing residents of the community. 

Gentrification is all about supply and demand rather than demographic structure. Investors play a big role in the production side of housing since they make choices on the number of houses the real estate has to invest in the production of residential condominiums. The supply-side focus on the amount of housing and the demand side focus on the behavior of consumers based on what’s available to them for the community to become gentrified, which implies the bigger picture of gentrification on how it’s all viewed under the demand side of consumption.  Zukin explains gentrification brings commercial businesses into the community by how gentrification does not only bring residential aspects but as well as marketing and wealth into the community (Zukin, 2009). By also how the community is being affected because commercial business helps the gentrifying community as well as changing it by affecting certain residents and benefiting others. “In both cases, “supply-side” interpretations stress the economic and social factors that produce an attractive housing supply in the central city for middle-class individuals, and “demand-side” interpretations affirm a consumer preferences, for demographic or cultural reasons.”(zukin,1987,pg131). Gentrification brings commercial outcomes into the community. The problem is that it doesn’t benefit low-income residents since they can no longer afford to pay the rent from their small businesses and benefiting the real estate agent and gentrifiers economically. The aspect of commercial businesses is changing the community. By a neighborhood having new restaurants, cafes, and stores is an indicator of gentrification in the area. By this, it attracts people into the area to shop as well as an increase of desire to move into the community since they have the supply they need in the community. 

Overall, gentrification has changed the Harlem outlook because now i see new buildings where there were empty lots and old buildings being redeveloped. It’s interesting to see how my neighborhood has changed because now I see a variety of people from all backgrounds. My neighbors are Asians and Dominicans and white people. When I go outside I see new shops and new faces, now I don’t have to go downtown to go shopping or to visit diversity places because now I have all of this in Harlem.  

Marcuse, Peter. “Gentrification, Abandonment, and Displacement: Connections, Causes, and Policy Responses in New York City.” Washington University journal of urban and contemporary law 28 (1985): 195–. Print.

 Zapatka, Beck. “Does Demand Lead Supply? Gentrifiers and Developers in the Sequence of Gentrification, New York City 2009–2016.” Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) (2020): 4209802094059–. Web.

  Zukin, Sharon. “Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the Urban Core.” Annual review of sociology 13.1 (1987): 129–147. Web.

 Zukin, Trujillo. “New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City.” City & community 8.1 (2009): 47–64. Web.

Abstract: I had to have a clear statement of my intended topic focus – narrowed down appropriately, as much as possible because it was a pre-research for my research essay. Adding my rationale for choosing the topic – why am I interested in it and why I want to write about it. This includes the research questions that I will be looking forward to when I am writing my essay. Also with prior knowledge and a brief background of the subject, as well as any ideas I have to proceed as well as angles of exploration as I move forward into writing the final essay. Then I had to do an annotated bibliography that consists of the 3 sources that I have deemed relevant to my topic and proposed research question. 

Instructor Megan Skelly

FIQWS 10115

Fall 2020

Lissette Lucero 

Many urban communities around New York City and the world have gone under gentrification. This change has come with both negative and positive impacts for the community. Gentrification doesn’t happen overnight; it takes decades and major factors for a community to go under gentrification. Supply and demand is a big factor of why a community might go under gentrification. The demand for supply causes real estate developers to start bringing what the community needs to stay satisfied and stay in a community that is desirable for living as well as having what they need inside the community. 

I am interested in this idea of the supply and demand that gentrification is part of. What the paper will discuss  more about how communities are affected as well as the causes. I want to go beyond just residents’ necessities and look into the big picture of gentrification as well how the neighborhood goes under a transition. What the communities need to be or have to be gentrified. How are the traditional residents affected? Who will benefit the most from gentrification? How much power does real estate have over the communities? To what extent does the community have the power to indicate what is good or bad for them or once the community is already going under gentrification the community can no longer have a voice or indications of how they want their community to change. I want to know the factors and the cause that takes the supply and demand of gentrification. Are the supply and demand one of the causes that gentrification brings to the community or supply and demand is what causes the community to be gentrified. 

Supply and demand impact gentrification. As well as to know who is behind the supply and demand of communities that are going under gentrification. I want to inform how not only communities benefit from gentrification. 

Marcuse, Peter. “Gentrification, Abandonment, and Displacement: Connections, Causes, and Policy Responses in New York City.” Washington University Journal of urban and contemporary law 28 (1985): 195–. Print.

Marcuse explains how abandonment and gentrification are opposites. Abandonment arises from a “precipitous decline in property values”, gentrification from a rapid increase. Gentrification improves the quality of housing, contributes to the tax base, and revitalizes important sections of the city through private initiative. Abandonment also drives lower-income households to adjacent areas, where pressures on housing and rents are increased. Gentrification attracts higher-income households from other areas in the city, reducing demand elsewhere, and increasing tendencies to abandonment. Gentrification displaces lower-income people increasing pressures on housing and rents. In which abandonment and gentrification are linked directly to changes in the city’s economy, which have produced a dramatic increase in the economic polarization of the population. Lower-income residents are displaced when gentrification takes place because the buildings and the neighborhoods are too expensive for them. The housing industry shapes the nature and extent of the demand for housing. The demand for housing includes the shift of economic activity from production to services and from high wage geographic areas to low wage areas and abandoned. Economic activity has caused increasing unemployment, population loss, and a resulting decline in the effective demand for housing among lower-income groups in New York City by also causing an increasing demand for office space and decreased demand for manufacturing space in the central city. Displacement from gentrification is between ten thousand and forty thousand households per year. The real estate market is the indicator of the type of change that is occurring in a neighborhood. Gentrification contributes to the increasing residential polarization of New York City by income level, education level, household composition, and race. Government reduces public expenditures in major areas of abandonment while increases expenditures in major areas of gentrification.

The source is useful because it explains the negative aspects of gentrification as well as how abandonment and gentrification relate to each other. It also adds more explanation about gentrification. This source adds a particular perspective about the whole picture of gentrification. I am adding this into my research paper to indicate how gentrification is something to look into and be well informed as well as have some understanding of the causes and effects of it.    

The topic and focus of my essay are about how abandonment and gentrification are connected in the overcome results of the community. My argument will be about the changes a community goes through under gentrification. The connections I am beginning to see between my source with my research paper is about the aspects of gentrification as a whole and how abandonment contributes to my arguments. Abandonment happens because of a decline in property values while gentrification from a rapid increase. The private initiative improves the quality of housing as well as tax bases throughout gentrification. Gentrification attracts high-income households from every part of the city which reduces demands elsewhere that increases direction to abandonment. Both abandonment and gentrification drive low-income households next to where pressures of the rents are increasing which they both also bring positive economic change into the city. When gentrification occurs it causes a negative outcome for low-income residents to move out of the community because they can no longer afford to live there. The demand for housing creates a positive shift into the economic activity for production to services by high wage geographic areas to low wage areas. Economic activity also has negative outcomes because it causes an increase in unemployment, population loss, and decreasing demand for housing for low-income groups and also causes an increased demand for office space that decreases demand for manufacturing space. The real estate market plays a big factor in gentrification because it introduces the type of change that is happening in the neighborhood. Government reduces the public expense in major areas of abandonment while increasing them in areas of gentrification which is a good thing for the real estate as well as for the community because the government is helping them both. Abandonment needs to happen first for gentrification. 

  Zapatka, Beck. “Does Demand Lead Supply? Gentrifiers and Developers in the Sequence of Gentrification, New York City 2009–2016.” Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) (2020): 4209802094059–. Web.

Zapatka introduces how White gentrifiers moved into poor and working-class neighborhoods which causes the retail and housing demand to go up, thus driving up the housing prices. According to production theorists, landlords, and real estate agents changing the supply of housing increases gentrification. The real estate elites invest in housing by renovating old buildings into new units that increase rents and attract wealthier tenants by which long-term tenants are being evicted. Hybridists groups argue that both changes in the social composition of an area and residents are changing the supply of housing due to gentrification. And also the consumption and production dynamics continuously shape each other on middle-class demand and developer’s investment. Both demographic and economic changes are readily observable during gentrification. The consumption of housing presents a demand for housing reinvestment. Demand and supply lead to gentrification. Landlords and developers reinvest in neighborhoods with the highest potential rate of profit. The dynamic of gentrification reflects the neoliberal nature of capitalism: maximizing profits and utility from valuable capital. The real estate elites are responsible for maximizing the profits, therefore they are “active pioneers” and not reactors to gentrification. The supply-side focuses on the property owner and the demand side arguments focus on both the owners and the gentrifiers. The five years data that she measured indicated that the real estate will increase in the future in preparation for gentrifiers. According to the New York City census data the denser the community, the higher the property values and gentrification. The results of her five years of data gave a result that demand predicts supply. Also, the moving of new residents into the community causes gentrification to happen early. 

This source is useful because it adds evidence to my research paper about the topic I am discussing the supply and demand of gentrification and how it contributes to my argument on which aspect of gentrification argues the supply of demand by which happens first the demand and supply theory first of gentrification or gentrification first for supply and demand to occur. This article discusses all aspects of supply and demand on how the demand occurs in order for supply to happen as well as in which area is the demand higher for residential purpose or business-wise. It also talks about the causes of the supply and demand aspects of the community that is going under gentrification. 

The sources argue a lot about the supply and demand theory of gentrification in which gives me concrete evidence about how the supply and demand lead to gentrification in which is one of the topics my research paper focuses on. This article shows how the moving in of white gentrifiers into low-income communities causes the retail and houses demand to go up meaning that the demand for new residential condominiums causes the rent to up for the new apartments the supply aspect will not be affordable for low-income residents of the community since they will no longer afford to live there. The real estate and landlords are the main cause for the supply aspect of residential buildings to be so high which causes gentrification to happen. By the investment of the real estate elites in housing which renovated old buildings into new units that cause the rent to increase which brings wealthier tenants that harm the long-term residents from that community to be relocated. The change of social consumption of an area and residents is changing the supply of housing meaning that gentrification had to occur first in order for that to happen in which the consumption and production dynamics aspect is continuously shaping each other on middle-class demand and developers investment. Both demographic and economic changes are big aspects of gentrification as well. In the already gentrifying community causes, the consumption of housing presents a demand for housing reinvestment. Landlords and developers first see the highest potential profit rate in the community in order to reinvest. Gentrification reflects capitalism. Supply-side focus on the property owner and the demand side arguments focus both the owners and the gentrifiers which explain how the supply aspects introduced demand into the community in which gentrifiers are the causing demand and the supply to be given to the residents. demand predicts supply by which is being given by the results of her five years data plan. 

 Zukin, Sharon. “Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the Urban Core.” Annual review of sociology 13.1 (1987): 129–147. Web.

Zukin indicates how gentrification incorporates it by production and consumption rather than the demographic structure or individual choice. The investors make choices in the amount of housing the real estate has. Gentrification could affect social dynamics. The supply-side focus on the amount of housing and the demand-side focus on the behavior of consumers based on what’s available to them in order for the community to become gentrified. Both homeowners and renters cause property values to rise when their interests are different. The grants offer incentives for urban renovation. Pre-gentrification residents have lower-income than the new gentrification residents. Existing residents allowed the gentrified to associate with the property values will increase which leads to their own displacement. When community organizations fight against gentrification they act as “vanguard of the bourgeoises”. When new residents come into the community it increases rents and commercial use that causes the already existing residents to relocate. Since tax revenue increases during gentrification policy leaders tend to favor it.  Life-style and life-cycle factors have created consumer demand for new resident’s styles. Gentrification allows for an increase in capital that includes a cycle of increasing wealth. The supply-side argument provided the resources for gentrifiers to make a decision about moving to the gentrified community. Historic preservation acts as a profit by producing goods and services for a “preservationist” consumption.  Gentrification produces cultural goods and services who seek housing in central city areas by providing short turns of insertions into the urban economy and by contributing to the downtowns cultural capital by resigning housing prices in which they can no longer afford to live in. Gentrifiers respond to economic institutions. Property values rise in middle-class residential areas that cause an increase in jobs for high statues consumption. Gentrifiers are in the expansion of middle-class styles of life and a market situation that creates lifestyles in the community. 

This source is useful for my research paper because it adds to evidence about the causes of gentrification into the supply and demand side of my argument. It also adds aspects of gentrification into the community as a whole. It also adds perspective to the arguments I am discussing for my research paper. It provides evidence on how gentrification affects the community as well as real estate. 

The focus of my essay will be about the effects that gentrification has on the community. The problem is that new residents displaced long-existing residents of the community. My argument from this source is how the supply and demand are affecting the community. The connection I am beginning to see between my source and my argument is how gentrification is all about supply and demand rather than demographic structure. Investors play a big role in the production side of housing since they make choices on the number of houses the real estate has to invest in the production of residents. The source indicated the supply-side focus on the amount of housing and the demand side focus on the behavior of consumers based on what’s available to them in order for the community to become gentrified which implies the bigger picture of gentrification on how it’s all viewed under the demand side of consumption. Homeowners and renters are the cause of property values to go high in which it causes the rent to be only affordable for people that can afford the new apartments which will benefit gentrifiers. The own community allows gentrifiers to associate with the property values that cause them to increase by that it causes them to be displaced since they no longer can afford to buy them back or able to live in the new economic income created by gentrification. When the community wants to fight against gentrification they act as “vanguard of the bourgeoises”. Gentrification increases rents and commercial use that causes the already existing residents to relocate.  Gentrification causes tax revenue to increase which favors policy leaders that cause them to invest even more.  Life-style and life-cycle factors have created consumer demand for new resident’s styles. Gentrification also causes an increase of wealth for the gentrifiers that invest in the community. The supply side allows gentrifiers to move into the community. Gentrification also causes an increase in jobs in the community. 

Abstract: for this essay, I had to write a summary and response to the topic of my choice. Which included a component where I briefly summarize my chosen text, as well as analyze it using the 10 rhetorical terms we’ve discussed in class, which includes at least 2 direct quotes from the original text. Then, I explained my choice of the creative genre using the same consideration of rhetorical terms. finally, I had to a creative project component where I embody my personal response to the text I picked.

Instructor Megan Skelly

FIQWS 10115

Fall 2020

Lissette Lucero 

“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” by James Baldwin first asserts that the status or use of Black English is deeply rooted in American history and rests in the role of language in society. The essay explores the importance of understanding language in multiple contexts. By focusing on the racial components of language that are conveyed by the label “black English,” Baldwin points out not only the positive values but also the underlying necessity of this distinct language. Countering many assertions that the use of Black English represented an inability to speak “standard” English, Baldwin primarily stresses the positive aspects of African Americans’ development of a distinct vernacular, and that American Blacks had to become bilingual in order to survive in a racist society.

In the essay, “If Black English isn’t a language, then tell me, what it is?” by James Baldwin, the author goes into depth about what a language is and also what it represents by indicating the role language plays. Baldwin discusses that black English is an important part of the community and culture and it has been involved based on the experience faced in America. He involves this idea by using his personal experience and also including the background of other languages. He appeals to the Americans who don’t understand the concept of black English with a critical, persuasive, and informative attitude. Since Baldwin is trying to educate Americans who have no idea of what black English is, the language used in the essay is well-informed because he knows the struggle of speaking black English by providing his own experiences. The genre is a persuasive essay structure since the introduction aims to get the full attention of the reader. Baldwin makes a cogent, well reasoned, and passionate argument about black English as a language and not a dialect and effectively supporting his claim by giving in-depth details. He states, “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate. (And, if they cannot articulate it, they are submerged.)”( Baldwin ). In other words, Baldwin believes that languages come to life to be able to communicate and describe our thoughts and emotions to one another. He says that language is also powerful and it can be dangerous and that it can reveal one’s private identity, hidden hopes, and can either disconnect or connect one to the community. Language gives us the power we can mistreat, it can allow us to reveal things that are better undiscovered. Baldwin himself writes, “A language comes into existence by means of brutal necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey.” ( Baldwin ). Baldwin’s point is that whites educated blacks for the wrong intentions. It was brutal, they were only taught how to communicate with whites, to be taken advantage of. We use languages as a form of communication, we give word meanings, we give word placements, such as bad or good. We put words into categories. We convey with words what we want, whether it is good or bad, hurt people with our words. And we make languages to separate one another and make it known we are all not the same. The medium is an essay for its audience to get educated about the topic of black English. The purpose of this essay is to inform Americans about language not only in black English but the language in general and the power it holds in society. The constraints from delivering the information from the essay will be a video because not everyone will take their time to look it up and have an interest in learning black English. The fact that in this American society, believe that language is what they make it and nothing else. Different regions have been forced into turning into what the people in power decide to make it instead of allowing cultures their individual right to evolve as they see fit.  

The essay was really meaningful to me since I am bilingual and I personally connected with the arguments being said in my daily life and how language can be misinterpreted by a person that has no idea of the language. My creative writing consists of a meme because I felt that it would go perfectly with the topic I choose since my piece is more of making fun of the English language and that it might not be as powerful as how others might view it. My attitude towards the meme is humorous since the essay consisted of historical components and daily problems that many people go through. I picked a meme in order to convey the power of language and how sometimes a language especially the English language can sometimes make no sense at all but is still right. The medium is a photo. The stance of the meme is making fun of the English language and how ridiculous it can be. The language is simple and easy to be understood and it points right into the purpose of the photo. The exigence is no urgency since not for educational or motivated purposes but just for fun. The constraints will be a poem since it will take the humor out of the picture and not everyone will want to read a poem when they can just see a picture. I am sharing my response because I wanted people to see how language doesn’t have to be this powerful tool to turn or identify just one specific race or social class but everyone since language is what we as individuals want to be shared as. 

Abstract: while doing this essay I had to think and have the courage to share something that is private but this story was a good one to share because it had everything In order to write a narrative essay about a significant event in my life where literacy and/or language changed my outlook. It includes rhetorical situations and the structure of a formal essay such as a well-told story, Vivid detail, and some indication of the narrative’s significance.

Lissette Lucero 

Instructor Megan Skelly 

FIQWS 10115

Fall 2020

                “Unforgettable mistakes”

It all started that April, the room was big enough to fit thirty students but there were only eight during that time. The big windows let me see the leaves falling from the tree that morning, the noise from the children’s playing in the playground suddenly became silent. When I heard my name being called by my ESL teacher who was sitting at the end of the table. He was looking down at the big textbook telling me that I had to read paragraph number two. The moment it was my turn to read my hands became sweaty, the cold freeze from outside didn’t help the cold sweat I felt at that time, my face became so read the moment I started reading, all those eyes looking at me made me anxious. At that moment my mind went blank, everything became silent, the voices were gone, I felt alone in that big room full of books, and computers, you may ask yourself why? Well, a year has passed since I first came to this country, and every day I had to attend a special class to learn English with students that already knew perfectly English, but needed some help with their writing since they lacked writing in English perfectly. For me, that class was for learning English. In my native country, I had a class in which we learned English but we only learned from what a textbook gave us but that wasn’t an English to communicate with since it only consisted of the alphabet and basic pronouns. And we all spoke the same language and had the same culture. But those kids were all from different places that consisted of different languages and cultures. 

 In the middle of my reading, I missed pronounced a word that made one of my classmates laugh and repeat the word I just read how I pronounce it, which made the rest of my classmates’ laugh, and that made me feel embarrassed and wanting to disappear. The only thing I wanted at that time was to hide from all the eyes and laughter but I couldn’t. I had to stay there pretending that everything was fine as if it was just a joke and not something to be taken seriously, as they will put it, but in reality for me was more than just a joke. They made me feel uncomfortable in my own body. That beautiful sunny day suddenly became gloomy. Those two minutes for me felt like I was in that class for hours as if timed became slower than usual. When the class ended I went to the bathroom and started crying. The incident made me feel insecure about reading out loud or just participating but it also made me work harder and learn English faster to be able to understand my classes better and have better grades. I was able to learn a new language at a grown age pretty fast since for kids older than three it makes it more difficult to learn since they can’t longer easily absorb information. I constantly looked for ways to improve my English and study hard every day. 

That incident made a big impact on my school life because I never participated or talked with my classmates. It also gave me a lot of low self-esteem in my life that still haunts me to this day because of the fear and anxiety I get every time I have to read out loud. After that I would always rehearse lines and perfectly articulate my words in front of people in my head, but can’t physically say what I want to say properly in front of people when I’m put under the spotlight, my anxiety always gets the best of me. I feel that I’ve improved over the years, but still get this very often in a new group of people. I learned to handle it better and make myself enjoy reading comfortably since I realized that we all make mistakes and we learn from them and that it is okay to mispronounce words but its not okay to let an event control your life. 

From writing this piece I learned from myself that I am capable of writing things about myself and putting a story together not only for me but for others to read and probably feel related to it or just learn from it. I also learned that I am in charge of my writing and I can develop my story anyway as I want it and the final product depends on me and how I want my readers to interpret my story. It helped recall memories from which helped me become the person I am now. Not from my writing but from my classmates’ work, I learned how to revise my work and look for details that can help my story and to see what my writing needs to improve. Regarding my writing process, I could have put more time and effort into my story and make sure that what I intended to share is right and well done. I could also revise my work to make sure there aren’t any mistakes or have someone else read it since sometimes I can’t see my mistakes. When it comes to grading myself, it makes me be more critical about my work since I tend to be hard on myself since I know I could have done better and that I need to improve more as a writer. It also helps me to improve my writing since I can see in what category I need to improve or do better and also see my strengths and weaknesses. 

My essay narrates a specific incident in the form of a story 20-points. 

I incorporated vivid details in 20-points. My essay explains why the narrated event was a significant 20-points. My paper’s structure is well-organized and coherent 10-points. My paper’s conclusion summarizes my work presented 10-points. My writing is polished 10-points. 90/100. 

Abstract: I have done many writing for my fall 2020 FIQWS Gentrification and cultural identity of Harlem: writing section 10115, by which this pages will consist of my writing process throughout the semester.

Gentrification is all about supply and demand rather than demographic structure. Investors play a big role in the production side of housing since they make choices on the number of houses the real estate has to invest in the production of residential condominiums. The supply-side focuses on the amount of housing and the demand side focus on the behavior of consumers based on what’s available to them for the community to become gentrified, which implies the bigger picture of gentrification on how it’s all viewed under the demand side of consumption.

 Gentrification reflects capitalism. The supply-side theories focus on the property owner and the demand-side arguments focus on both the owners and the gentrifiers which explain how the supply aspects introduced demand into the community in which gentrifiers are the causing demand and the supply to be given to the residents. 

The demand for housing creates a positive shift into the economic activity for production to services by high wage geographic areas to low wage areas.  Government reduces the public expense in major areas of abandonment while increasing them in areas of gentrification which is a good thing for the real estate as well as for the community because the government is helping them both. Gentrification causes tax revenue to increase which favors policy leaders that cause them to invest even more.

https://lissette.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/14504/files/2020/12/research-paper-2-3.pdf

Gentrification in Harlem has occurred for a long time and is still going on today since the 1970s demographic and economic realignments over the past few decades. Harlem has been redeveloping many of its old buildings and building new developments for future residents since many of those abandoned buildings are own by New York City and being sell to the real states for a good price and building them for middle-class residents or people that can afford these new developments. Harlem stretches for more than two miles north of Central Park in Manhattan. Gentrification involved a symbiotic change in social class and physical housing stock, giving indicators from the US census, the most sensitive indicators of gentrification have involved a combination of income and rent data.

The abandonment and destruction of Harlem lead to gentrification because many people were dying and the overdoses of drugs, no educational understanding as well as people having little help to treat all the bad things happening. Crack is a devastating effect on young people in the community. Many people spend all their savings on crack.

At first, I was really confused about gentrification and the whole aspect of it. I didn’t want to learn about Harlem and why it changed because it was a lot of reading and writing to do. But later on, I started to understand the whole thing behind gentrification that made me curious to learn more about it. I started asking more questions and participating that made me enjoyed learning about a community I lived in for a long time. I never really asked myself or anyone about the change in Harlem and what was it cause for it. I was uneducated about its change and didn’t know that it has been doing so for a long time. Due to this class and all the assignments as well as the professor’s lesson I was able to learn about gentrification and what aspects it brings to a community as well as the people behind it. Now I am able to educate and see a community changing and being able to have explanations on why the community is being redeveloped. This class helped me think critically as well as learn how to read and write well-developed essays and sentences since I learned new things each week and putting them all together at the end. It went from step to step and how at the end it all connects to make a strong well-written project/essays. All the things I learned in this class also helped me in my other classes.

I have seen Harlem change a lot in the past four years since I moved into the neighborhood. I didn’t know about the whole thing behind its change until now that I learned about gentrification. Now I know more about how my neighborhood has changed. Back then I only used to see people of color and Hispanics — I barely saw any white people. But now there are people of all colors and backgrounds. There have been many changes in the community from the way it looks and what it has. There are more residential and commercial buildings. Trendy shops and restaurants are opened which consist of a variety of food and clothes, not only that but also health centers and more people as well.