#brian benjamin

Realtors have increasingly resorted to a practice of renaming neighborhoods and redrawing traditional neighborhood boundaries in order to rebrand an area as more desirable for affluent New Yorkers. These actions are not without consequence. First, realtors are artificially inflating housing prices in newly renamed or redrawn neighborhoods to the detriment of working families and middle class residents struggling to remain in increasingly unaffordable communities. Second, neighborhoods are often renamed without regard to its history, culture, character and tradition, thereby resulting in changes to the cultural and historic landscape of New York City.  Third, prospective homebuyers and tenants are compelled to pay higher rents or purchase prices than they might otherwise confront.