Here There Be Dragons Podcast: New Yorkers Respond to Gentrification

Welcome to the second episode of Here There Be Dragons, a podcast about safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences. The episodes that follow will be released weekly on CoLab Radio over the next 2 months. This second episode considers the cultural impact of gentrification.

Neighborhoods that see a rapid increase of wealthy tenets can become foreign to those who know its history. Displacement of long term residents and erasure of cultural landmarks can make these changes feel like a loss or even a theft. Just as violence in the first episode steals our feelings of familiarity, gentrification can do the same thing making once familiar neighborhoods and our place in them seem strange to us.

Each person I interviewed for this podcast also drew a map of their childhood and adulthood in the city, you can find those at colabradio.mit.edu. If you’ve visited or lived in New York and you want to share your experiences with me, download the base map, use the maps in our gallery as your guide and draw your own experiences of safety and danger in the city. And I’ll post them in the gallery. Send those to Jess Myers at ([email protected]). You can also record a comment or question about the episode by calling into 1 888 821-7563 ext. 58258. Some of those might be a part of the final episode in the series.