There are some things in the article here that strike me as a bit off.
The multigenerational Dominican family that had to move out when the mom died? The rent control laws are written such that rent controlled apartments can be passed down to cohabiting family members. I dunno if someone in the family dropped the ball on doing this, or if there was landlord malfeasance, or what, but that’s not typically how this would go.
Willets Point being the valley of ashes from Gatsby? Nope, that was the current site of Flushing Corona Meadows Park, which is across Northern Boulevard from Willets. (To the south/southwest.) Here’s an aerial view of the whole area from the 1920s, per Wikipedia:
Complaints about the eminent domain & upzoning process that’s led to the (ongoing) buildout of Columbia’s Manhattanville campus? Okay, I get objections about the process; I’m uncomfortable with aspects of this too. But the area was a worn-out postindustrial district that was frozen in time circa 1981. The main things that were displaced – and that were filing lawsuits against the eminent domain – were a sketchy gas station and a multistory self-storage building, fer crying out loud. (I live about 20 blocks from the area, btw.)
There are important issues the article raises, but in the big picture positive things are happening that leaven the loss of valuable old things, and the author’s editorial perspective minimizes this in favor of bleakness overall. This is the same issue I have with Jeremiah Moss’s Vanishing New York blog. Whom Baker, of course, cites approvingly.
