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Is Spike Lee Partially to Blame for Brooklyn's Gentrification?

"I may get in trouble for saying this, but I tend to tease Spike about the fact that he's the one that caused for a lot of the gentrification here in Brooklyn, because he put Brooklyn on the map in a big way, and showed everyone how great and hip and

"I may get in trouble for saying this, but I tend to tease Spike about the fact that he's the one that caused for a lot of the gentrification here in Brooklyn, because he put Brooklyn on the map in a big way, and showed everyone how great and hip and cool it was, and made everyone want to come here," Lewis Lee, Spike Lee's wife told New York Magazine.

Mrs. Lee chimed in on the issue of gentrification during Lee's block party this past weekend in Bed-Stuy to to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of Lee's film "Do the Right Thing,"

"We were here in Brooklyn a few weeks ago," said Mrs. Lee, "and I was like, 'this is because of you.'"

As far as her husband's anti-gentrification remarks earlier this year surrounding the lack of improvement in facilities until there is "an influx of white New Yorkers," Mrs Lee responded, "I think the issue is we need to start taking care of our poorer communities before they become these gentrified places."

"So if we really care about these communities before, and I'll say moneyed people [arrive]— I don't think it's just white people— ...We need to make sure the people have opportunities to get work, and jobs," she said.

"We need to make sure when people are trying to buy houses they can get the funds from banks and not be taken advantage of."




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