As long as they love JH as much as we do, I don't care who moves here. My point is, some people on this board define "gentrification" as white professional American people moving here and treat it as a bad thing. Yet if non-white/non-American people move here it's not gentrification and it's something to be celebrated. I think anyone who thinks JH is awesome and is interested in JH continuing to be awesome is a fine neighbor, whther they are white or not, American or not, professional or not.
I just think there's a high level of hypocrisy (not from you specifically, I mean in general), in webboard posters who love organic and independent coffeehouses (myself included) who get upset when their neighborhood is "gentrified." Hello! I am young, I am clearly urban, and I am a professional. And I am guessing the majority of people on these boards are at least 2 out of 3 if not all three.
It's only gentrification if the people get there AFTER you. 
sorry for jumping in on the nerd v geek convo, but i'm new to the board and wanted to chime in about the somewhat principled discussion about gentrification on this thread. i'm a 30yr that grew up in elmhurst with a family business in corona then in jackson heights and i currently live in astoria, i am a small business owner with a college degree and i'm latino. this is a small snapshot, so its a bit more clear with regards to where i'm coming from. gentrification as a process is an anticipated result of changing economic realities, housing trends and in the case of urban america its reeks of a reversal of white flight as people of color and the poor have moved into the suburbs, resulting in "flighters" fleeing back to the city they left in the first place. but all that aside it seems to me that the whole anger or anxiety about gentrification has more to do with competing interests in JH than race or class antagonisms. before the current wave of gentrification, Colombians and other latinos gentrified this neighborhood (i'm speaking of the JH, from 80th to junction blvd or so)pollos a la brasa mario, chivito de oro to name a few have been in the "nabe" since the mid to late eighties. that being said it seems to me that the existing antogonisms have more to with systemic problems than with people's interactions. as a business owner who is fluent in spanish and english, i've always had , with few exceptions, positive experiences with people trying to communicate in the nabe. but where residents who visit latin market try to speak spanish and vice versa the city, the NYPD, the community board, the DEP and the Landmarks commision (whatever the official name is) have been nothing but antagonistic to the local business. the whole landmark designation to 37th ave has bogged down local business in such administrative muck that we are discouraged from doing any renovations or changes because its more work to get a job approved than to the actual work, e.g. changing the awning on my storefront involves, a DoB permit to the work, DEP approval, Landmarks commission's inspection and approval and if we need a variance (like adding lights) we need to go through a community board hearing. and that's assuming our plan (prepared by a licensed awning contractor) is a go from the DoB.
these processes make small projects that can better accommodate the changing population very difficult to do, lessening our capacity to compete with corporate mega chains that have begun to invade the hood, i.e. subways, taco bell, starbucks who can afford the lawyers, have the time and have a strong command of the english language.
with out continuing to be as verbose, the gentrifictaion issue, in JH has i think been far less damaging than in other neighborhoods, considering that this has been a diverse neighborhood the more recent change, but this issue of competeing interests has to mediated somehow, or i fear that only side will win thereby destroying what we love about this diverse JH
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