Was Spike Lee right about NYC gentrification?

Spike Lee certainly didn’t hold his tongue this week at an event in Brooklyn when an audience member asked him about gentrification.

The famed director was asked about gentrification at a talk in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Lee’s long-time home and rapidly changing neighborhood that in many ways reflects a changing New York City.

Lee is not a fan of gentrification – when middle-class residents displace low-income residents – and he didn’t hold back saying, “Let me just kill you right now. [B] ecause there was some bullsh*t article in the New York Times saying ‘the good of gentrification…I don’t believe that,” said Lee.

The Times and other outlets have been trying to make the argument that gentrification is a good thing for communities, even though it displaces families who can no longer afford to live in a neighborhood as property values go up and rents skyrocket. While it’s true that communities become safer and improve over time, many community residents, including Lee, have a point when they ask why it takes an influx of white middle-class residents to improve living conditions.