Bed-Stuy on rise – sort of
ONCE CONSIDERED dangerous, Bedford-Stuyvesant has experienced a big turnaround since the start of the new century, state Controller Thomas DiNapoli said in a report released Friday.
The Brooklyn neighborhood has benefited from strong population, business and job growth in recent years, DiNapoli said.
But even with the gains resulting from gentrification, some residents have been left behind.
Violent crime dropped 44% between 2000 and 2016, though the report says crime remains a concern.
Housing affordability is a serious problem, even with twothirds of all apartments in the neighborhood either rent stabilized or public housing.
And home values soared at nearly twice the rate as the growth in Brooklyn overall, from a median of $484,800 in 2005 to $779,400 in 2015.
In 2015, DiNapoli said, 55% of all households in Bed-Stuy spent 30% of their incomes on rent while nearly a third put more than half their pay toward housing costs.
The amount of BedfordStuyvesant residents living in poverty is significantly higher than the citywide rate and grew by about 13% between 2009 and 2015.
The report also found that Bed-Stuy residents suffer from above-average incidences of chronic health problems like smoking, diabetes, new HIV diagnoses, obesity, stroke, and adult hospitalizations for asthma.
“Today’s report shows how far Bedford-Stuyvesant has come, but it also shows the challenges that remain,” he said.
According to the report, Bed-Stuy’s population in 2015 was 150,900, up 25% from 2000, with many of the new residents being immigrants, white or young with higher household incomes than long-term residents.
The median household income is $50,200 for newer residents and $28,000 for long-term residents.
“It’s all about gentrification,” said resident Meca Killiebrew, 35, who holds down two jobs as a social worker and a security guard. “People come in with large incomes and landlords are getting tenants who will pay anything.”
Business growth is also booming— up 73% since 2000. That was the fourth fastest rate of growth among the 55 neighborhoods in New York City.
As of 2015, there were 1,910 businesses, the overwhelming majority of which employed fewer than five people.
Not coincidently, the number of jobs in Bedford-Stuyvesant has also grown, including a 45% bump since the end of the Great Recession in 2009. In 2016, there were a record 17,000 jobs while job growth in each of the past four years exceeded 7%.
“They were selling crack,” said Mike Jones, 44, a truck driver whose family lives in two brownstones they own in the neighborhood. “Now they’re selling apartments.”
“Now we have cops on every corner,” he said. “But they jump out on everything even when it's unnecessary,”
Paul Bertrand, a personal trainer and Manhattan transplant who’s lived in the neighbohood for two years, said, “I like the new Bed-Stuy, but I don’t know the old Bed-Stuy.”