Seeing Gentrification Behind the Window of a Sicilian Bakery: Reflexive Ethnography and documentary practice in Brooklyn
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Seeing Gentrification Behind the Window of a Sicilian Bakery: Reflexive Ethnography and documentary practice in Brooklyn

Abstract

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.

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