Industrialization has led to increased globalization and urbanization over the past 250 years. As urban populations around the world continue to grow, one wonders how that growth effects communities within these urban centers. While economic and population growth have become homogeneous as it regards to metropolitan areas being able to produce on a global scale; studies show that this phenomena contributes to and exacerbates displacement, economic inequality, and cultural/ethnic loss in effected communities. I will discuss how economic growth effects established communities, particularly two of the seventy-seven official communities in the City of Chicago. The narrative of the importance of economic growth and its positive contributions to
The Industrial Revolution made everyday items and transportation readily available, made children who worked in factories happy, and allowed community growth. In Document 3, Charles Knight is explaining the benefits of industrialization which occurred because of the Industrial Revolution since it was happening in 1831. This book Knight wrote was intended to reach the people who protested in Bristol, England, and also people of the working class who were upset with the current working conditions in factories. Charles Knight wrote and published a book therefore he is educated and part of the upper class. He wrote this book to increase employment and to show the people of Bristol the positives of industrializing. However, the reason why the
In the book “The Next Hundred Million – America in 2050” the author Joel Kotkin writes about the future of America when it reaches a population of 400,000 citizens. The central point of this book is that it gives an insight into the evolvement of metropolises, cities, immigrants, businesses, places of worship and families, both in early growing regions and in esteemed older ones. In chapter one: Four Hundred Million Americans it is said that “Suburbs are rarely dominated by one ethnicity, and alongside the temples and mosques you will also find churches and synagogues.” which supports the central point of the improvement and furthering of places of worships which wouldn’t have been so diverse if it wasn’t for the increase of immigrants. In
The Articles of the “Boyd Defensive Development” and “Hwang & Sampson Gentrification” discuss the idea of Gentrification through analytics, examples, and deep research through the city of Chicago during a relative time. The Boyd Defensive Development uses historical and ethnographic research to strategically protect total control of their neighborhoods by white residents and developers. Hwang and Sampson Gentrification uses many social observations with examples from google maps, census data, etc. to reflect effects on Gentrification throughout communities.
Gentrification presents itself when outsiders enter an urban community, commonly densely populated with people of color, and through complicit actions wards off the residents within. As the area begins to gain popularity and appeal, the soaring property prices create an incentive for the property owners to rid of the tenants to make room for the newcomers. Furthermore, corporations begin to supersede homes and exploit defenseless communities. Although the newcomers do tend to improve these previously indigent neighborhoods, it comes at the destruction of the cultures that exist within said neighborhoods. Therefore, the amenities of the communities of color enervate in the name of gentrification.
Gentrification is a method by which poor and working-class neighborhoods in the inner-city are redeveloped. It is a phenomenon that happens when low-income neighborhoods undergo alterations due to an influx of wealthier residents. Kelefa Sanneh starts his article on gentrification with a conversation about the word ghetto; its origins and how the word is now being used in the context of predominantly low-income African American communities. After discussing a debate among sociologists about the usage of the word ghetto, Sanneh points out an interesting turn in popular view: while the term ghetto was once used as an insult, people are now trying to preserve the communities that are described as a ghetto. Later, Sanneh discusses the different
First, they state that gentrification is beneficial to the communities in which it occurs, because it may promote lower crime rates, and provide economic grounding and growth. But these statistics are incredibly deceiving, not unlike the general demographic which facilitates such gentrification. First, while in a purely quantitative respect, gentrification does lead to an exhibition of “growth” (increased business activity and profits, increased population, and an overall higher income level), when examining the outcomes in a more qualitative way, it can be seen that the process is incredibly depressive to established communities. Not only does gentrification drain the established populations financially and lead to their displacement, often even cultural values are appropriated and commonly used phrases take on new meaning; for example, “...social workers endeavor to get ghetto youth “off the streets”, the lowest form of destitution is to be a “bum on the streets”, and the most degraded form of prostitution is to be a “streetwalker” (Erikson). Gentrification, in contrast, promotes the positive value of the street and what is street life.”. Unfortunately, this perfectly embodies the way in which the meanings of terms (in this case, “street”) are connotated in vastly different ways when referring to people of different race and class; as the minority and marginalized populations are
During my interview, Dr. Owens let me know that the U.S. Census Bureau stopped collecting data on income, and referred me to the American Community survey. Furthermore, she gave me feedback on my index for gentrification, and made the suggestion to exclude race and ethnicity since affluent racial minorities can contribute to gentrification. By specifying the factors investigating and listing my assumptions, I give the a general idea of why I think that these factors are important to the operationalization of gentrification, and support my choices with what has been done in past studies. In the discussion section, I reason why this study is significant and how it could lead to subsequent policy changes. By outlining ways in which different audiences can benefit from this study, I show that in addition to extending the existing research, my study has the potential to make societal impacts across various fields. If this proposal were to become a dissertation, this section would be more extensive and would draw upon the results found after collecting all the
The United States of America experienced a nearly one percent population growth rate in 2014 (Lafayette Parish, Louisiana). This growth rate is higher in comparison to Britain, France, and other first world countries. To many, this statement is not surprising. There is always an exaggerated news story about the increasing number of people immigrating to America and how it affects the country. Each woman in America is replacing herself and her spouse by giving birth to an average of nearly two babies in her lifetime (Louisiana). As America grows, more and more people migrate to cities because, generally, living in a city provides an easier life. Cities have plentiful jobs, more housing, and a multitude of places to shop and to eat. Cities also
Inequality has been the country’s timeless struggle. Throughout the course of the United States’ history, there have been processes that have given a certain group of people the upper hand in a circumstance, thus fueling inequality in our nation. An ongoing process that negatively effects the lower-class and benefits the upper-class is called gentrification. Gentrification has been defined as “the replacement of the low-income, inner-city working-class residents by middle- or upper-class households, either through the market for existing housing or demolition to make way for new upscale housing construction” (Hammel and Wyly, 1996, p.250). Gentrification is deleterious because it “revitalizes” areas where low income residents reside in, thus causing the displacement and allows affluent residents to flood the given area whilst changing the entire environment from its original state. In my paper, I will be discussing how the process of gentrification begins and what it entails, define longtime residents, and describe the feelings of displacement felt by these residents.
Gentrification is the process of taking distressed inner city neighborhoods and upgrading them to be more attractive to upscale skilled workers, and major corporations; where the neighborhood is converted to more affluent residential use. Studies profile most gentrifiers to be affluent, young, single, urban professionals and young, married couples who are both wage earners and have no children or small families. Housing improvements, city service upgrades and expansion of the local economy is often attributed to these gentrifiers. There are many New York City neighborhoods in recent years that have gone through gentrification. Some of those neighborhoods include Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn and Harlem to name a few. Gentrification can be positive for all involved if the government is able to employ successful provisions where the negatives turn into positives and existing members of the community won’t become unable to afford to continue to live in their residences due to rising housing costs and thus be forced out to live elsewhere. Support mechanisms must be in place for the current community to be able to reside and blend into the newly redeveloped community.
East Los Angeles (Boyle Heights) is undergoing the process of Gentrification. Gentrification is defined as the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. Some scholars define gentrification as private sector-initiated residential and commercial investment in urban neighborhoods accompanied by inflows of households with higher socioeconomic status than the neighborhood’s initial residents. (Vigdor, Massey and Rivlin, 2002, P. 135). One of the problems with gentrification in Boyle Heights is that the community members that are currently residing and working in Boyle Heights are not middle class and thus, the gentrification does not apply to them. The nature of the problem stems from the unintended consequences of revitalizing a district or a home and history. On the surface, the word revitalization/gentrification appears to be a good thing. However, when revitalization’s sole purpose is to target a specific social economic group, it creates a wave of problems. Some of those problems or unintended consequences, include but are not limited to, displacing families that have lived in a community for decades or even centuries, driving businesses out, create tensions in communities that insight protest and/or unrest. According to research, some potential negative outcomes of gentrification-most importantly, the displacement of previous occupants of urban
Corporations are taking over the urban landscape. In previous years, many upper and middle class families fled to the suburbs to escape the everyday hustle of city life. However, in recent years, city living has become glamorized and thus the movement back into the city has increased. Once blighted inner-city neighborhoods are being taken over and revitalized by corporate leaders in hopes to redesign and yuppify these areas. As more money is put into the area, the higher the market value goes up and as a result, many local residents can no longer afford to live there. While these residents are pushed out, a more ‘desirable’ group of residents move in and thus, take over. This process, known as gentrification, is occurring in many cities all across the nation. In the past, displaced residents could possibly move to another area that was not undergoing this process. However, as we are seeing in Chicago, it is nearing impossibility to move to an area within the city that will not
In addition, gentrification has several ways of being creeping into our neighborhood but at the end the outcomes have been quite similar. Our society has always viewed neighborhoods were minorities live in as being the ghettos, slums, or ‘hoods of America. When many of us come across an urbanized area we generally assume violence, drug trafficking, and overall social pathologies strive these places. Once we hear these “ghetto’s” are under going gentrification, we have a sense of relief and we feel there is hope for these communities. Gentrification may seem a blessing to an urban community by many, but if it were to be closely examine it we would find out it isn’t. Although the process has solved many economic issues within cities by providing employment opportunities, increases in property tax revenues and has diminished violence, the aftermath is far worse. (Freeman) Gentrification has increased the
Gentrification has been a controversial issue both in urban planning and politics primarily due to the displacement of poor people by the rich folks (Shaw & Hagemans, 2015). Many individuals have viewed gentrification as an illegal act that should be avoided at all costs. On the other hand, another group of people believe that gentrification is the way forward to promoting growth and development. With such contrasting ideas, this paper is going to take a look at gentrification from a positive and negative perspective, its effects, and how it can be prevented or contained. Apart from this, the paper will also address the following questions.
The dominant group sets out to create their ideal world, which also forces one to understand community as the “imagined world” of the powerful, how it was created, “and how it changed over time” (269). That leads one to see “the study of community as a socio-cultural process” of creation and interaction (267). Consequently, the social interaction between the powerful group and the weaker ones becomes just as important as the interaction within the dominant group. In this definition of community, Los Angeles becomes a case study for the creation of urban communities in the United States, a study that starts with the Anglo immigration near the turn of the 20th century.