Urban Dispossession: Why Brooklyn?

Brooklyn stands at the epicenter of urban displacement, gentrification, and state-sanctioned land dispossession in New York City. This project investigates how Brooklyn, more than any other borough, became the testing ground for development strategies that devalue Black life and extract Black wealth under the guise of progress.

Historically home to one of the largest Black urban populations in the United States, Brooklyn’s Black communities have been repeatedly targeted by intersecting waves of public policy and private speculation — from 20th-century redlining and urban renewal to present-day rezonings and tax lien sales.

Using a multidisciplinary approach grounded in policy analysis, oral histories, spatial mapping, and demographic data, the project traces how government actors (through zoning, eminent domain, and tax enforcement) and real estate capital have jointly reshaped Brooklyn over seven decades. These forces were not random or isolated — they formed a coordinated and evolving system of dispossession, often hidden behind bureaucratic terms like “blight,” “revitalization,” or “affordable housing.” The result is the ongoing erasure of historically Black neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and East New York.

“Why Brooklyn?” is not just a geographic question. It’s a political and economic one. Brooklyn’s proximity to Manhattan, its undervalued land made so by systemic neglect, and its cultural richness made it both vulnerable and desirable.

Source Urban Dispossession: Why Brooklyn? Published ArcGIS StoryMap