Turning Detroit into Brooklyn will be 'terrible for Detroiters'

An interesting piece on Quartz appeared yesterday called "The Brooklynization of Detroit is going to be terrible for Detroiters," clearly in the wake of the recent New York Times piece, a warning of sorts from people who've experienced the "boons" of gentrification as it happened out in Brooklyn. For those familiar the trajectories of Detroit and Brooklyn there are no real surprises here, but it's a good read for anybody curious about what happened here, and how gentrification played out in Brooklyn. Why read it?

• It's mercifully brief.

• It quotes Scott Martelle, whose Detroit: A Biography (out in paperback last year) is one of the best histories of what the fuck happened to Detroit over the last 70 years.

• It plainly lays out the main problems Detroit has faced with no buzzwords or lipstick.

• It describes how about 20 years of "gentrification" haven't lifted all boats for Brooklynites, but merely changed the contours of a society that's becoming more and more unequal.

• It actually asks a $1 million question: If the process of urban regeneration happens at the expense of others, what does the future hold?