The gentrification of Spike Lee: He marketed Brooklyn, cashed out and now complains

NY Daily News ^ | 2/26/14 | Errol Louis

[jimbo123]

Spike Lee’s obscenity-filled tirade about the gentrification of inner-city neighborhoods — caught on tape and posted online in all its mother-effing glory — perfectly captured the bitterness, confusion and circular logic that sends most conversations about New York’s ever-changing neighborhoods down a blind alley.

Lee’s torrent of cussing and complaints mostly focused on how well-heeled white newcomers have allegedly ruined Fort Greene, where he grew up. Much of what he said was hilarious (“Have you seen Fort Greene Park in the morning? It’s like the mother-effing Westminster Dog Show!”). But some of it was downright offensive (“You can’t just come in the neighborhood and start bogarting and say, like you’re mother-effing Columbus and kill off the Native Americans.”)

It’s the sacred right of every New Yorker to bewail, blame and bemoan the arrival of the folks who arrive in the neighborhood five minutes after we do, but somebody has to call bull on Lee’s complaints about gentrification. This is a man who has made epic contributions to the phenomenon he finds so troubling. Start with Hatch House, Lee’s 9,000-square-foot palace on East 63rd Street — complete with internal courtyard — which he bought from artist Jasper Johns for $16 million in 2006 and recently put on the market with an asking price of $32 million. My friends in nearby Yorkville have been gnashing their teeth for years, complaining about how rents have risen to insane levels, thanks in part to owners buying and flipping high-end properties.

[jimbo123]

Much taller than him, that’s for sure.