Actually, there are a few areas that 20-30 years ago were sh!tholes and have been gentrified as the yuppies have been driven out of Manhattan because the island is way too costly to live in. Fort Greene and the area near the Navy Yard come to mind. I grew up in the Bronx. There are absolutely no neighborhoods there that have gotten better. It is a destroyed borough and will never recover. So sad because my neighborhood was a nice place to live in at one point. Never needed a car. All your needs were within walking distance. Rents were decent. And living in a pre-war art deco apartment building with a sunken living room and 12’ ceilings and oak parquet floors with walnut inlays was the bomb.
Manhattan is and always will be what it is. But if Mayor Comrade gets his way, Park Avenue better watch out because he’ll put Section 8 housing wherever he can.
You’re right about De Blasio!
And no, I imagine Brooklyn isn’t going back to what it was before the ‘60s. But even Bed-Stuy is fast gentrifying right now. I think Brownsville may be the last outpost to gentrify, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s started there, too.
Oh, and no car needed for lots of areas in Brooklyn now, and still some very nice housing stock to be brought back—though a lot of the original features need to be replaced.