Whether you call it gentrification, a demographic shift, or an economic turn upwards or downwards, the transition of neighborhoods is a trend that New Yorkers have grown used to.

The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development commissioned a neighborhood transition study in 2008. One of its main findings was that gentrification is a double-edged sword. While tax revenues increase and poverty and crime rates decrease, median rents and the rent burden on poorer families tend to increase as a predominantly white single population moves into an area.

Ethnic enclaves have historically defined New York, and have provided a rich cultural backdrop to the city. Some immigrant-centric neighborhoods, though, are feeling the strain of gentrification.

Listen to Culture Shock’s exploration of some of New York’s immigrant neighborhoods below.

Check out this slideshow of the women of the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church preparing varenyky, traditional Ukrainian dumplings:



The plight of Senegalese business on 116th Street in Harlem: