The U.S. Gentrification and its Oppressed Residents For the past two decades, gentrification has become a widely-known phenomenon in the U.S. as more wealthy cohorts of population move to quiet and cheap suburban areas instead of bearing the busy and costly lives in a big city. Changes brought by the influx of affluent newcomers in the suburban areas are often praised for fostering urban renewal as well as animating the areas’ local economy. However, the impacts of gentrification cause several types of new problems which now afflict long-time, low-income residents in “gentrifying” neighborhoods. With the soaring prices of the real estate market, landlords’ harassment against low-income tenants, and rising living expenses, gentrification further augments the inequality and conflicts between the poor and rich inhabitants.
Historically, many of the suburban towns and neighborhoods around the major U.S. cities served as homes to poor and minority residents, offering cheaper living spaces due to the marginalized and inconvenient geographical locations with several negative reputations. Yet, given the big cities’ overcrowded environment and expensive living cost, these suburban areas are now popular destinations for people who seek for a less-crowded and affordable neighborhood to dwell. According to statistics by Kolko (2016), in 2015, the population of overall U.S. suburban neighborhoods increased by 159 million people, while only the total of less than 80 million
When a neighborhood is gentrified it will not only change the image of it, but also the services available there (Al-Kodmany 2011, 62-63). In other words, gentrification does not only have an impact on the physical aspect of the land, but also the resources that lie there. During the 90s, the Near West Side neighborhood located near Loop, an up-scale neighborhood, sought drastic changes within the area. The changes in racial demographics in the Near West Side indicated that the health risks that affected minorities dropped in the past decade (1992-2002) (Al-Kodmany 2011,
People that don't make the most such as middle class citizens are constantly pushed and involuntary forced out of their city because of gentrification. Gentrification is the process of renovating and the economic redevelopment from one culture to another using a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. In Downtown Eastside gentrification has been occurring for the past years. In Vancouver DTES gentrification would be doing more harm than good. The effects gentrification would leave in Vancouver DTES are unimaginable. Leaving many homeless, in poverty, culture clashing and with struggles for the low income the middle class people earn. Vancouver is already known as “poorest postal code in Canada. How will the people survive this new modification being done to their beloved DTES?
The classism that gentrification brings into communities cannot be understated, simply because it is one of the negative driven byproducts of it, because when individuals are forced to see homes in their respective communities go for 2 to 3 times the market value for what they were previously going for, it sends the message that those within a higher income bracket are able to dictate the set prices in real estates. Furthermore, this financial inequality goes beyond just the housing market. Areas that have seen the wholesale installment of the businesses that stem from gentrification are often overlooked and not taken in consideration when it comes to the prices set by them. It is almost as if these independent coffee shops, Whole Foods Markets,
I was shocked by the subject matter of this paper. Gentrification has been a focus of my studies as a geographer, and it has always been described as a negative element of human geography. It displaces historical residents by importing households of higher income brackets, which subsequently increases the price of housing to levels affordable to historical residents. Furthermore, it displaces historical residents, more abruptly, by introducing unfamiliar races and faces to the neighborhood, which may make historical residents feel uncomfortable or alienated from their own neighborhood of origin. To imply a global policy of "gentrification as regeneration" the same as saying it is all right to avoid helpful neighborhood redevelopment projects,
In this area there was gangs and trap houses but now there were small businesses and higher income people who were moving in and changing the neighborhood. Gentrification has happened, is happening or will happen in the United States and it is inevitable due to the government supporting it and the power that money has in these regions. Although gentrification does have some pros, it also has some important cons; the first con is the hidden cost that comes with gentrification, the second con is the rents being raised which leads people to becoming homeless. This paper will show the history, effects, benefits, and solutions like putting limits to when and by how much the rent can be raised so that people don’t become homeless. This is not the right time for gentrification because levels of poverty are high and the amount of people in debt is too much for gentrification to occur at this
Beginning in the 1960s, middle and upper class populations began moving out of the suburbs and back into urban areas. At first, this revitalization of urban areas was "treated as a back to the city' movement of suburbanites, but recent research has shown it to be a much more complicated phenomenon" (Schwirian 96). This phenomenon was coined "gentrification" by researcher Ruth Glass in 1964 to describe the residential movement of middle-class people into low-income areas of London (Zukin 131). More specifically, gentrification is the renovation of previously poor urban dwellings, typically into condominiums, aimed at upper and middle class professionals. Since the 1960s, gentrification has appeared in
Avid supporters of gentrification believe that it brings safety and increased revenue to the cities, making them more attractive to outsiders and bringing in more residents as a result. Unfortunately, gentrification does not have that desired effect on neighborhoods. According to Source C, a data review examined 114 examples of gentrification over a five year period, studying several signs of a city’s growth.
Like many urban areas, Austin, Texas has seen a monumental growth in housing and real estate prices as a result of gentrification. Areas that were once affordable to lower income families such as the eastern part of the city were now steadily becoming unattainable for many, which in effect priced people out to outlining suburbs of Round Rock and Pflugerville, a inconvenience to many who now had to make longer commutes into the city. Therefore, as a result, some of its very own citizens decided to fight against this unequal system and attempt to make housing more affordable for local residents through the creation of community owned land trusts. These trusts act as a nonprofit that acquires pieces of property or land with the sole stated purpose
Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.
The U.S. Federal Government should end gentrification. Gentrification is defined as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste”. Dating back to the early 20th century Gentrification has been around for a while, yet it wasn’t until the 1970’s when gentrification really started shaping our American metropolis. The middle to the upper middle class swooped in to change poverty ridden neighborhoods all throughout the United States. From cities on the west coast such as Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to the east coast cities such as Boston, New Orleans, New York city, Georgetown, and Washington DC. These cute hipster neighborhoods we all shop at, drink local coffee, and get our clean eating fill at seem like a great benefit to the city. Yet what
Living in a highly urban city (NYC or LA) in the United States, one tends to hear the phase “gentrification” in everyday conversation. As an example, a New Yorker maybe asked what part of Brooklyn he resides in and he answers the “gentrified part”. Although the word gentrification has settled in the contemporary language of city dwellers, the process of gentrification is a controversial issue for all parties involved. Gentrification is defined as the “process of renovating and improving a district so that it conforms to middle/upper-class taste” (Oxford). Gentrification improves depleted neighborhoods/areas due to upper/middle class buyers purchasing large majorities of the properties in a specific area and renovating it.
Gentrification has become a common phenomenon throughout many major cities in the United States and it is impacting millions. Gentrification can be dated back to the urban renewal and slum clearance, and post war reconstruction programs implemented during the 1950s and 1960s Schaffer and Smith 1986). Although the main idea of gentrification is to, from an economic standpoint, rebuild the city and redevelop its urban core, some people are in fact negatively impacted. There seems to be a trend on the groups of people effected. Many families are being displaced from their homes due to the fact that the city is redeveloping the “urban core” and attracting many young, affluent people to live in areas surrounding it. Although, the benefits of gentrification are seemingly attractive to the governments and cities do they really outweigh the benefits of those being unable to afford the housing and being moved out of areas they have lived in for generations just to be displaced into just as impoverished of an area as before.
In theory, gentrification is a grand idea, with mainly good intentions, but like everything in society that functions through capitalism, someone has to lose. Perhaps if the cultural and economic aspects of gentrification were clearly distinguished and dealt with separately, it would be possible for future policy intervention to make it more functional. Regardless, this problem can only be solved by the forging of interest of the “urban pioneers” and the original neighborhood
Since the evolution of man, it is evident that humans have only seen the land for its material value. People have consistently taken advantage of the Earth’s limited resources driven by greed and self interest. This can be seen in old pieces of writing like, “Undaunted Courage” and “The Indian Removal”, to more recent pieces like, “Is Gentrification a Human Rights Violation?”. To this day, man continues to take advantage of and exploit the land for their own economic benefits.
Gentrification Is a problem in possibly the oddest geographical problem of our modern day society. Cities throughout history have been known to be poorer and more lower class areas. In order to cope with this life style they had created a rich history and culture unique to the city. This culture then had attracted younger more wealthy people and as this trend continued, minorities and those lower on the socio economic scale had been pushed out to make more room for these richer consumers. Thus leading to our problem, the gentrification of cities. Author, Thomas B. Edsall, takes a deeper look into this problem with his article “The Gentrification Effect”.