BROOKLYN, N.Y. – With more than half of the world’s population living in urban areas, it’s no surprise both the cultural and physical landscape of America’s cities are rapidly changing.
This change is particularly stark in the ever-transforming New York borough of Brooklyn, where former industrial buildings have been converted into high-end condos and long-term residents and business owners are being displaced at a rapid rate.
Thankfully, there is a new voice for the people.
Andy Malone, a 24-year-old, suburban-born punk and recently relocated NYU film student, has become the voice of the voiceless.
“This place has changed; it’s all just coffee shops and cocktail lounges. What happened to the art? What happened to the soul of this neighborhood?” Malone asked from his live/work space that was previously a low-income housing apartment.
The displacement of residents from neighborhoods their families have lived in for generations has caused unrest and discontent, especially among Malone and his D-beat band, Displaced.
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Having spread the message of the evils of gentrification while living in Oakland and San Francisco during the years between high school and college – which he used to “find himself” – Malone decided he needed to take his cause to the East Coast.
“I, unfortunately, saw the same thing happening in the Bay Area, but my loud complaining while waiting in line for brunch or to my friends via Facebook really made a difference,” Malone pointed out as he entered the corporate-run gym he joined when he moved to Brooklyn. “All it takes is one share of an article about Google buses to change the world.”
Wtf is this shit
[…] singer Andy Malone described the recording process in an exclusive sit down interview with The Hard […]
Looks like mad decent satire
Hello folks, if you want to lose weight
you should type in google – CutThermaFat –
it’s good point to start your fight with fat
Funny stuff. All it takes is one share….
not the most hilarious thing i’ve ever read, but it’ll do.
Bitching about coffee shops, while holding multiple cups of coffee, from said coffee shop I would assume
Can the voice of Brooklyn be someone BORN in BROOKLYN… like an actual BROOKLYN NATIVE…. smh….
This is satire, dude.
I’ve lived in these artsy communities for over 16 years in several different areas of NYC. I think the doubly-absurd point the article is trying to make is that a lot of the people who complain about gentrification are the gentrifiers themselves. They usually presume that, even though they’re technically a part of that wave, they’re somehow exempt of its sins, usually by being truer to the creative roots of that community than the other gentrifiers…which we should all call bullshit on, of course.