Connect with your neighbors…that’s 'How To Combat Being A Gentrifier 101'
- Musa, 28, future landscape architect.
Is a New Yorker born or made? Every Thursday, natives and non-natives dish on city life in a Q&A.
Musa is a New Yorker through and through. Born and raised in Flatbush, the 28-year-old graduate student and intern has the patience of a saint. This was apparent on the day we met for his interview, when the skies above Brooklyn opened to biblical proportions just minutes before we were due to talk at one of his favorite spots in the city, Louis Valentino, Jr. Park in Red Hook. His quick thinking meant we met him in nearby Gowanus instead, where he waited, apparently unfazed by the torrential downpour, under the awning of a deli. My boyfriend, through whom I met Musa (they played baseball together at Oberlin College) and who drove me to the interview through the downpour, suggested we do the interview in his car. This Q&A—Know the Score NYC’s first!—is the result of that hilariously chaotic meeting and chat between the three of us.
To find more of Musa’s sage tips about living in New York, follow us @knowthescoreNYC on Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe below.
What did the New York that you grew up in look like?
Musa: Quintessential New York. That slang, that grittiness, that was very much a part of my childhood. I think a lot of what made me feel I was in New York was this “me against the world” toughness.
I was just talking about this with my girlfriend, about my connection to New York and getting older, maturing, and what that means for the part of me that was like, “I’m so New York, I’m from here.”
It sounds almost like the way that New York's changed, you feel like you've been swept up along with that change.
Yeah, 100%. Working, I am definitely one of the only ones from New York through and through. Just the way I talk, the way I dress in the office. It's something that I really don't want to give up, but it feels like [for the sake of] professionalism and moving up in the world…you have to maneuver.
What’s your favorite memory growing up in the city?
A couple weeks ago, I was up in the Bronx visiting my aunt and uncle, and I saw this group of kids coming from the Van Cortlandt ball fields. It took me back to high school baseball days where you're carrying your backpack and your bat, you're in your slides, half-uniformed. You just were with your crew, shooting the shit.
The best memories I have that really scream New York are heading to baseball games with my high school team. We would cause an absolute storm on some of these trains! We did not care, we were clowning on the train from West 4th to 103rd, so we're on the C train for a minute. We're causing a scene. Absolute foolishness. But it was the best time ever. I feel bad now for those people on the train because we made it ours. When I saw those kids, I was like, “man, those were some of the best memories I ever had of baseball in New York, kicking it with friends.”
What's one quality that you think growing up in New York instilled in you that you would not get anywhere else?
Being curious without being disrespectful. You grow up around so many different people here, so many different walks of life that you're confronted with at such an early age that, by the time I got to Oberlin, I think, there were a lot of people who had never been around certain demographics.
What's your favorite thing to do in the city?
Hanging out with my native New Yorker friends. I really value the time I get to spend with the people I grew up with here. I love Prospect Park, I love being in a park and just, like, relaxing. I love going on bike rides and I like being able to take the train to almost anywhere.
Have you ever thought about leaving New York?
Yeah, I mean, what New Yorker doesn't? Sometimes you do feel trapped here and feel like there's so much of the world to see. That can weigh on you.
But everywhere I go is not as good. I'm an urbanist at heart, I guess. I love cities all over, but something about New York stands out above the rest.
Okay, give me your most New York anecdote, a story or an incident that happened to you that could only happen here.
I was on a train going to high school one time and the train was packed. People were annoyed and upset, and this houseless lady walked through, and she wasn't really begging, she was just having her own experience. For some reason, she stops and starts talking to me even though I had my headphones in. I'm zoned out, and she started having this whole conversation with me. Everybody else is ignoring her but we ended up conversing. And I think this lady to the right of me was getting a good chuckle out of it. She was super loud, saying “you're not partying yet? No girls? No drugs?” And I'm just giving her honest answers on the way to school. I must have been in 10th or 11th grade and the whole train knew what was going on in my life.
Hahaha. How would you describe your relationship with the city now?
My relationship with the city feels fleeting, going back to what we talked about with my professional life. I work near the Citibank building and [during my commute] have to merge on the street with all these people headed to Citibank. So many of them are obviously not from New York, and they just come here to work. There’s no swag. It's just like one blob, and I have to physically immerse myself in it to get to where I want to be every morning.
That being said, going to public school again in Harlem has reconnected me to the city that I like, because I spent a lot of time in Harlem in high school. A lot of kids from my school were from Harlem. To see that demographic stronghold resist against all of everything going on is really motivating and inspiring.
My relationship with the city has changed because I'm working towards a professional career. Responsibility and having bills to pay makes it a little more challenging in ways that I didn't have to think about when I was younger.
How can someone who's moving to New York plant their roots without ripping up someone else's?
There are responsible ways to look for housing. Also, connect with your neighbors. That's the weirdest shit when people live here but don't interact with their neighbors. That's the strangest thing to me. And that's how to combat being a gentrifier 101. Make small talk and make the effort of that connection. I feel like too many people don't do that.
What do you want your impact on New York to be when all is said and done?
As a graduate student and intern, future landscape architect, I want to get back into teaching and show people that there are ways you can take agency. Designing it for the people who are from here, I think there's a lot of nuance. It gets lost in bureaucratic this-and-that, but I do think being in those conversations, being in those rooms as a native New Yorker will be really powerful, and I hope to utilize being from here to the fullest extent now and when I’m higher up in the world.
I’m sure you will.
Thank you for reading. For more of Musa, follow @knowthescoreNYC on Instagram.
Want to be featured? Email me! isabeltogoh@outlook.com