Disadvantages Of Global Gentrification

Webster’s Dictionary defines gentrification as “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” This sounds frightening to lower class citizens. However, Justin Davidson, author of “Is Gentrification All That Bad?” claims “Gentrification doesn’t need to be something that one group inflicts on another; often it’s a result of aspirations everybody shares.” Gentrification does not need to be the rich pushing the poor out. It can be the rich and the poor working together to make their city a wealthier and safer place to live. Gentrification improves communities by allowing more economic growth for all.

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.

First, let's start with what gentrification is. Google defines it as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste”, but the image Gentrification usually evokes when brought into discussion is hipsters moving into a run-down but charming neighborhood and transforming it into something completely different. What is a hipster? Some may call them the fairy godmothers of the once neglected area, and others may refer to them as the monsters that are displacing families to make an artisan beard oil shop, but we’ll touch on that later.

During the past few years, gentrification has been on an uprise.“Nearly 20 percent of neighborhoods with lower incomes and home values have experienced gentrification since 2000, compared to only 9 percent during the 1990s.” Gentrification is happening in areas that supposedly need a change, such as the low-income neighborhoods in New York City, Minneapolis, Seattle and Washington, D.C.Factors such as uniqueness, accessibility, the energy of the neighborhood and reasonably priced homes attract gentrifiers. It has altered many cities in the country. Gentrification can be defined as the procedure of reestablishment and remaking due to the flood of prosperous individuals into falling apart and low-income areas that frequently displaces poorer

Although a rapid phenomenon, the process of gentrification initially starts at a slow pace. According to Biro (2007), “When low income houses are renovated they reach a higher quality and therefore are marketable to buyers who can afford to pay a premium for homes with better quality characteristics.”(p. 42) The individuals who cannot cope with the gentrification process due to

Gentrification is the process of renovating a city or neighborhood to offer modern places to work, play, and eat. Supporters argue that it brings economic growth and prosperity to the city, while decreasing poverty in the area. However, residents of these areas claim that gentrification has ruined the culture of the neighborhood while driving out low-income residents. While it is important to maintain cities and prevent them from wearing down over time, gentrification provides too many burdens on the citizens for it to be effective.

Gentrification is the term used for the process of renewal and rebuilding of an existing urban district, accompanied by the arrival of wealthier people, an increase in rents and property values, and the transformation of an urban district's character and culture. It is a term often used negatively because of it's suggested displacement of poorer communities by affluent outsiders. It is also seen by proponents as an urban planning strategy because it is meant to minimize the growth of urban slums and revitalize crime-ridden, poorer communities. This is not always the case when gentrification harms the low-income populations by exacerbating affordable housing problems, destroying long-standing social ties, and re-segregating the urban housing

Gentrification is the process of buying and renovating houses and store the housing in urban neighborhoods, which results in increase property values and replacing the lower income and small businesses. Once gentrification happens, rental units are often change to a more luxury housing or condominiums that are available to be purchased. As real estate changes, land use is also altered. Before the gentrification happens, the area usually consist of low-income family housing and sometimes light industries. But after the gentrification, it shifts the housing in an urban community lifestyle, along with businesses, office, restaurants, retails, and other form of entertainment. Because of this gentrification, it significantly affects the area’s character and

When considering the complex definition and various factors involved in this process, one thing must remain clear that it is driven by the private sector and is the result of capitalism's relentless pursuit of profit. The very sector of society that has control and influence over all levels of government in the United States, and is thus able to create policies that help to facilitate and increase gentrification in communities around the country, as well as those outside the United States. This far-flung reach is due to the nature of multinational corporations

Picture living in a torn down neighborhood, a neighborhood that has been there for years. Now jump forward 10 years and picture that torn down neighborhood with new luxury construction sites. Throughout the Washington DC metropolitan area many people suffer because of these gentrified changes. Not only are lower-class residents affected by this change, but so are some middle class residents who have experienced job layoffs because of technology advances, cutting costs, or relocation. The tribulations of homelessness within society leads to the reasoning’s most cities become gentrified within the U.S Many sociologist discuss how ethnicity, social class, education, family backgrounds and the inequality of income, contribute to the reasoning most

Human Geographer David Ley defines Gentrification as “the transition of inner-city neighborhoods from a status of relative property and limited property investment to a state of commodification and reinvestment.” (Ley Artists 1) In the past 50 years gentrification has swept over cities across the globe and has completely reshaped the way people think about why people live in certain neighborhoods. British sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term gentrification in 1964 to describe what was happening in the London borough of Islington, where Indian immigrants were being forced out in favor of creative young professionals. (Thomson). The term comes from the old english word gentry, which generally means wellborn well-bred and upper class people. For the most part of the last five decades gentrification has made large cities and downtown urban areas safer, more desirable for commercialization, more affluent, greener and more eco-friendly and has played a role in the vast change of demographics of many neighborhoods. This ‘urban renewal’ has been subject to many political debates, academic studies and research to figure out its positive and negative impacts on the socioeconomic nature of the cities it takes place in. Here on the eastern seaboard of the US we see gentrification in every city from Center City Philadelphia, to Chelsea, to Columbia Heights in DC. However this movement to gentrify is not reserved for the

Gentrification has its pros and its cons. Gentrification promotes community well-being, but also promotes displacement of the lower classes and inequality through this displacement. Purchasing these low-cost properties and turning them into high-class communities minus the gates promotes social and racial inequality. The process of gentrification motivates the economy, but the cost of displacement is much higher to the displaced citizens. The cost of displacement is burdensome to the already lower class of citizens being displaced.

Gentrification is a very popular topic on whether the fact that it’s a good thing and or a bust for neighborhoods. It’s not only a moral in society, it’s happening around everyone. As Urban communities are being affected, homes being destroyed and bought out by the government, residents are faced with the struggle to stay in a home and not be relocated. A man named Justin Davidson, a music critic and a background for architecture, knows a bit about this topic. With his knowledge about architecture, he gives a speech, “Is Gentrification All Bad” and he understands how gentrification is good but withal deplorable. Davidson gives statistics backing up his justifiable answer. He gives plenty of reasons from other sources about the pros and cons, but his own personal belief is that gentrification can be good. With that, Davidson intends to speak to the people of neighborhoods who think that they need this type of improvement. Personally, I don’t think I’m a part of the attended audience because my neighborhood is well developed and displayable.

It is worth noting the difference between gentrification and “incumbent upgrading” in which current residents improve the neighborhood’s housing value with no apparent population change (McDonald, 1986). Furthermore, McDonald stated that the mere increase in value of real estate in a neighborhood does not qualify as gentrification. This is due to the fact that the increase in value can be the result of inflation in the housing market on a national scale. There are many theories of the causes of gentrification. Some believe that the younger or wealthier people move to urban neighborhoods as a way to reconnect with the community while gaining more cultural awareness. There is also the theory of the real estate having a low price tag. The low cost of land attracts buyers who are interested in renovating the business for a large financial

According to Dictionary.com, “gentrification is the process of renovating houses and stores in urban neighborhoods to fit the middle or upper-income families, raising property value, but often displacing low-income families.” Gentrification has been an idea since the 1960s and had an effect on countless cities and neighborhood communities. Gentrification was first used by Ruth Glass in her book London: Aspect of Change in 1964, she noted that ¨gentrification can progress rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced, and the whole social character of the district is changed.” Nonetheless, gentrification has helped revive many cities and revolutionize them, especially with technological