Paul Moses' Reporting Shows Issue of Displacement Transcends Color

Paul Moses - former city editor of New York Newsday, book writer and now professor at Brooklyn College - has always been drawn to stories about the poor and powerless.

When Brooklyn Ron was doing grunt work of street reporting at Newsday several years back, it was Paul who encouraged him to write extensively about the plight of Mexican immigrants, especially undocumented day laborers in Brooklyn and Queens.

Over the past two years - as Paul worked on a a book about St. Francis of Assisi, organized a new Center for the Study of Brooklyn, and taught his journalism classes - he also wrote reams about the current hot real estate market in Brooklyn, and how it hurts powerless renters, homeowners and business people in the borough, some of whom have been forced to relocate (i.e. been displaced).

One case was that of Herb Engler [photo], who for 36 years owned Penn State Fabricators in Greenpoint, where he and his employees cut discs out of aluminum sheets, making cushions for pile drivers.

Wrote Paul in the Village Voice: "Now, his business is set to meet the wrecking ball, and the promised buffer of aid for factory owners has turned out to be about as solid as a press release."

Then there's the retiree Ann Thompson, forced out of her apartment on Fourth Avenue by a rezoning that some say is designed to turn that wide avenue into a Brooklyn version of Park Avenue, with little or no room for folks like Thompson.

There's also retired police officer Roger Owens, whose life as a homeowner came to a noisy screeching halt because of nearby construction that itself was  allowed by rezoning. Writing of Owens' experience, Paul noted, again in the Voice:

"Such is life in the rezoned world of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where even the most rooted property owner can wind up homeless on a minute's notice and where longtime tenants, both residents and businesses, are subject to massive rent increases, eviction, and harassment."

Giving us, in yet another article, the hard experiences of the Jaramillo family, Paul says their case proves the borough is being assaulted by "a flood of dangerous construction" and rising rents, which together are displacing black, white, yellow and brown residents.

All of this brings to mind words uttered by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries several days ago, as he announced the opening of a new "Operation Preserve" to help those facing displacement in neighborhoods near Downtown.

Said Jeffries (in The Brooklyn Paper): “The displacement of low- and moderate-income residents from our community is not a black issue or a white issue, it is all about the color green . . . This must end, and it must end now.”