This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Roommate Belt

Roommate Belt

Brooklyn's "roommate belt" has been widened to include Kensington - hardly breaking news, but its interesting that someone has thought of it as a way to track gentrification. Via the Atlantic Yards Report:

The "Roommate Belt"

Thus, Dasgupta described what she called "Brooklyn's Roommate Belt," zones of Brooklyn--originally neighborhoods like Park Slope and Fort Greene, now extended to Kensington, Prospect Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant--which contain large numbers of unrelated young adults sharing apartments.

While they work in relatively low-wage jobs, their collective income is higher than working-class neighbors, and thus their presence shapes gentrification, making apartments less affordable for long-term families and driving retail that speaks to their needs more than anything.

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Windsor Terrace-Kensington