The author is reporting on the process of gentrification through the lens of a recently deceased photographer who took after Jacob Riis in documenting changing communities in NYC. He's not offering a plan to stop it or calling for social revolution, really. Just an interesting read to me. The points you bring up are the the same ones that Arlene Gottfried brings to light in modern New York, through photography. None of the people involved or mentioned in this article, with a hard maybe the exception of Riis, have done anything to fix the problems you're highlighting.
Awesome photos. I do, however, object to the awful Medium blog design. I have a wide screen that's not 1080p. Spare me the nonsense. Those blurry grey lines in the bottom half? That's the upper third of the jumbotron photo.