Podcast Junkie: There Goes the Neighborhood

Podcast Junkie is a bi-monthly podcast highlight by Brooklyn writer, scholar, and creative, Brittany Bellinger. Check back here every two weeks for a new Podcast to help you through the work day or power through that workout. Join me as we dive into the world of culture, entertainment, politics, and more through our headphones. 


I’m back with another great podcast for you to check out. Podcasts are perfect for staying focused without getting distracted. Listen to them while trying to figure out Excel at work or when you’re staying fit at the gym. This is the closest I’ll ever get to indulging in an audiobook, and it serves as a happy medium between turning on the radio or reading.

Gentrification has been a buzzword in the media for the past few years. The definition has changed to fit the context of whatever news story is interesting at the time. When it comes down to it, gentrification has been used to displace long-term residents by making cities appealing to people in a higher tax bracket. Those over-night changes come in many forms from quaint coffee shops to organic markets. However nice those things are, they are not marketed towards the local residents, providing jobs, or increasing affordable housing. In cities all over America, neighborhoods are losing their cultural fabric and their names.

In the center of the conversation has been my hometown, Brooklyn. There have been SNL skits featuring the changes that have taken place in Bushwick that will make you laugh and question. With the impending rezoning plan that Mayor De Blasio has in the works for New York City many people are trying to figure out how this will affect residents. The Nation and WNYC studios have decided to get us some answers in the form of a weekly podcast.


Street Art in Gowanus. Photo by JW Photography. 

Street Art in Gowanus. Photo by JW Photography. 

There Goes The Neighborhood is a podcast that centers on rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhoods and answering the questions we are all thinking. The team interviews residents, developers, landlords, local organizations, and politicians. It is an inclusive conversation that investigates how race, class, and history have brought us to the current state we’re in. The episodes are short and concise, but they pack dense hard hitting truths.

Unlike other podcasts on topics such as city planning you don’t need to know anything about what’s going on in order to listen. There Goes The Neighborhood doesn’t claim to know how to solve these problems. At best, it allows you insight in order to form your own opinions. Give it a listen and let me know your own thoughts on how Brooklyn has changed.

 

Listen here: There Goes the Neighborhood

Best episode to start with: Episode 5: Williamsburg, What’s Good?