Streetnotes

What scholars think of as gentrification is often associated with more expensive and aesthetically elegant cafes, restaurants, and boutiques that appeal to the high-class consumers’ tastes.  Yet, as I have discussed, it also means the displacement of working class residents and their stores.  There happened to a bakery in the south part of Park Slope, a place where coffee cost less than a dollar, but the rent jumped up from four thousand dollars a month to a whopping five thousand dollars a month. So, what might be the real face of this transition?  Perhaps the one of Signora Enrica , one of two old Sicilian sisters that used to own an old-fashion Italian Bakery.  In the photo ( See Figure 1, Seeing the neighborhood change ) it is the last day their store will be open and she is there, working as always, behind the counter.