CNUS was recently spotlighted in an article about gentrification in Bed-Stuy that featured the work of Reconnect Brooklyn. The article points to changes and displacement happening in the community and what organizations like ours are doing to mobilize youth and community to advocate for neighborhood empowerment and well-being, including through the Bed-Stuy Human Justice Initiative.
Photo credit: America magazine.
Perhaps most devastating is the reversal of hard-fought social progress. Places long ignored by public and private investment are transformed through the work of local organizations, such as Reconnect or The Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, a human justice policy advocacy think tank in Bed-Stuy. Kyung-Ji Kate Rhee, deputy director of the center, said the process requires direct work with people over months and years. Each individual success provides inspiration and a pathway for others.
But when rent skyrockets and people are forced to move out, the momentum is gone. Decades of work lost to a pen stroke, a signature turning an apartment complex into condominiums.
“Gentrification invests in places and properties without investing in people and the histories that come with those people,” Ms. Rhee said. “That’s the fundamental difference with what’s going on at places like Reconnect.”
Read the full article here.