Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the cooperation and contradictions among working class residents and incoming cultural workers in preserving affordable housing, and the urban commons in the face of displacement processes precipitated by globally oriented municipal and national schemes in the United States.

Paper long abstract:

New York City, which has a long history of commitment to public investment in higher education, public housing, rent control, municipal hospitals, and mass transit has become one of the most unequal cities of the 21st century. My long term research in a Brooklyn neighborhood has shown that for working class and middle income New Yorkers it is more difficult to raise a family and enjoy the benefits of the city than it was a generation ago. While New York City spent about $1billion on economic development programs in 2007, they were focused on tax cuts for luxury condominiums. Over the decades, social movements have been calling for municipal funds to be redirected to the development of a broader public welfare, on living wage work, on affordable housing and on the strengthening of all urban neighborhoods in terms of education, health care and a green environment. In my research I have found that cultural workers in poor working class neighborhoods in New York City have contributed to the social mobilization to protect local residents from environmental pollution, as well as massive urban redevelopment and residential displacement. This paper explores the cooperation and contradictions among working class residents and incoming cultural workers in preserving affordable housing, and the urban commons in the face of displacement processes precipitated by globally oriented municipal and national schemes in the United States.