Despite the author's hysterics, gentrification is a complex issue with positives and negatives on both sides. That said, I'd like to toss in an interesting historical perspective here.
Gentrification is something that happens primarily to predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the US, and one of its effects is eventually pricing the poor black community out of the neighborhood. But here's a question... where are the middle class black families?
Historically, racial segregation happened across economic boundaries. A black doctor or a black lawyer was still black, and unwelcome in white neighborhoods. This meant that historically black neighborhoods had a rich, vibrant economic culture, with wealthy members of the community living among the poor, supporting local business and providing role models for youth.
With the success of the civil rights movement in the 1960s came a new geographic social mobility for black professionals. Those who could afford it could now move into nicer, cleaner, safer, white neighborhoods. And they did so. And the more it happened, the worse the black neighborhoods got, creating more pressure for those who could afford to leave to leave. Eventually, the historically black neighborhoods were stripped down to ghettos, dominated by gang violence and devoid of the local businesses that once served the middle class. Soon, the only opportunity for jobs and social advancement was outside the neighborhood, and poverty grew even worse. It's a terrible cycle.
This was aggravated further by the (illegal) practice of redlining, where banks colluded to deny funding to entire neighborhoods, depressing real estate prices and driving homes and businesses into foreclosure. (White) developers could then swoop in and buy land at fire-sale prices, building out the new infrastructure for a wave of gentrifying whites looking for cheap nice houses in the heart of the city.
Think about this, and you can see the resistance to gentrification. Historically, it's been nothing but trouble for the people already in a neighborhood.
Gentrification is something that happens primarily to predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the US
Gentrification is something that happens to primarily poor, and primarily urban neighborhoods. These also tend to be disproportionately minority neighborhoods (of a variety of ethnic minorities, but blacks are prominent among them in pretty much every region of the US, while the mix of the rest varies from region to region), but its more about economic class than race, which is mostly a distraction.
Think about this, and you can see the resistance to gentrification. Historically, it's been nothing but trouble for the people already in a neighborhood.
Its nothing but trouble for current residents for reasons that have nothing to do with the history of the racial history you recount (which is generally accurate); bringing rich people and high paying jobs (already filled by rich people, or for which the poor current residents aren't qualified) to where poor people are doesn't help the poor people, it just pushes them aside.
Yes, it's a class thing more than a race thing at this point. I probably should have tried to make that more clear. :/ It was a race thing historically, but now the racial line is incidental to the class line.
I do think African-American culture is a unique case, though. Immigrants tend to be socially (upwardly) mobile and get out of the ghetto in a generation or three. The old black neighborhoods are different, much more trap-like and harder to escape.
Comments
Despite the author's hysterics, gentrification is a complex issue with positives and negatives on both sides. That said, I'd like to toss in an interesting historical perspective here.
Gentrification is something that happens primarily to predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the US, and one of its effects is eventually pricing the poor black community out of the neighborhood. But here's a question... where are the middle class black families?
Historically, racial segregation happened across economic boundaries. A black doctor or a black lawyer was still black, and unwelcome in white neighborhoods. This meant that historically black neighborhoods had a rich, vibrant economic culture, with wealthy members of the community living among the poor, supporting local business and providing role models for youth.
With the success of the civil rights movement in the 1960s came a new geographic social mobility for black professionals. Those who could afford it could now move into nicer, cleaner, safer, white neighborhoods. And they did so. And the more it happened, the worse the black neighborhoods got, creating more pressure for those who could afford to leave to leave. Eventually, the historically black neighborhoods were stripped down to ghettos, dominated by gang violence and devoid of the local businesses that once served the middle class. Soon, the only opportunity for jobs and social advancement was outside the neighborhood, and poverty grew even worse. It's a terrible cycle.
This was aggravated further by the (illegal) practice of redlining, where banks colluded to deny funding to entire neighborhoods, depressing real estate prices and driving homes and businesses into foreclosure. (White) developers could then swoop in and buy land at fire-sale prices, building out the new infrastructure for a wave of gentrifying whites looking for cheap nice houses in the heart of the city.
Think about this, and you can see the resistance to gentrification. Historically, it's been nothing but trouble for the people already in a neighborhood.
Gentrification is something that happens to primarily poor, and primarily urban neighborhoods. These also tend to be disproportionately minority neighborhoods (of a variety of ethnic minorities, but blacks are prominent among them in pretty much every region of the US, while the mix of the rest varies from region to region), but its more about economic class than race, which is mostly a distraction.
Its nothing but trouble for current residents for reasons that have nothing to do with the history of the racial history you recount (which is generally accurate); bringing rich people and high paying jobs (already filled by rich people, or for which the poor current residents aren't qualified) to where poor people are doesn't help the poor people, it just pushes them aside.
Yes, it's a class thing more than a race thing at this point. I probably should have tried to make that more clear. :/ It was a race thing historically, but now the racial line is incidental to the class line.
I do think African-American culture is a unique case, though. Immigrants tend to be socially (upwardly) mobile and get out of the ghetto in a generation or three. The old black neighborhoods are different, much more trap-like and harder to escape.