From Extravagant Movie Theatres to Lowly Bomba Houses: Investigating the Degeneration of City Spaces Along Claro M. Recto Avenue, Manila

Through a multitude of significant changes physically, conceptually, economically, and more, the societal reformation of cities in the Progressive Era had set themselves as the foundations of American civilization. The juxtaposition between the rich and poor statuses in these urban areas show the drastic separation within developing cities. Through this division caused a wide variety of living conditions, the majority of which held the overcrowded sections of cities where the population mostly stayed while the higher end communities had more luxurious lives. Through this success of entrepreneurship and economic growth from all aspects in cities, the entire landscape, both physically through innovative architecture and the perspectives outside rural and suburban areas had on them, had transformed for the better in these areas.

This included Air, land and water polluting, derelict warehouses and churches, high levels of graffiti, and also a large amount of traffic congestion. Some houses were in such a poor state, that they fell down with people living in them, resulting in a number of tragic deaths. The city had rapidly fallen into a state of ‘inner city decay.’

“Words are not passive; indeed, they help to share and create our perceptions of the world around us. The terms we choose to label or describe events must, therefore, convey appropriate connotations or images of the phenomenon under consideration in order to avoid serious misunderstandings. The existence of different terms to describe gentrification is not an accident, neither is the plethora of definitions for it” (Palen & London, 1984, p. 6). SAY SOMETHING Peter Marcuse (1999) argues that, “how gentrification is evaluated depends a great deal on how it is defined” (p. 789). Defining gentrification properly is necessary for anchoring an analysis of neighborhood change, particularly in light of recent scholarly efforts to replace the term (to describe the process) with less critical names like: ‘urban renaissance’,

The gentrification process can be seen through the demographic and physical changes of the South Parkdale neighborhood. Gentrification is “the invasion of working-class areas by the upper- and middle-classes, who upgrade shabby, modest housing into elegant residences, resulting in the displacement of all, or most of the original working-class occupiers”. (Lyons, 1996) South Parkdale is a neighborhood in downtown Toronto that faces problems of gentrification. This problem has been ongoing since the nineteen fifty’s’.

In the constantly changing economy of cities, the growth of city housing is oftentimes neglected. In “Cities Mobilize to Help Those Threatened by Gentrification” Timothy Williams recounts how gentrification has evolved over the years. Mentioning how cities have changed in order to appease the younger professionals, Williams shows how the city itself is in jeopardy due to the tax increases. Slowly loosing their faithful residents as well as historic culture cities face a big deal. Williams gives quotes from faithful residents, “…long time homeowners are victims of the success story”, (Williams 346). In “Cities Mobilize to Help Those Threatened by Gentrification”, Williams uses his credible quotes and modern statistics to generate the reader’s emotions, with desire to change how city officials go about gentrification in culturally infused cities.

Gentrification is an existential threat in the Bay Area due to urban renewal, spatial capital, and inequity. This threat can best be described as the process of residential or commercial use of an urban area shifting towards higher economic classes (Center, 199). The process of gentrification has caused many native residents to be displaced from their homes, as well as being forced to move further out of the area or become homeless. Neighborhoods that were once oasis’ for the working class are shifting and becoming too expensive for the people who live there. Food and job insecurity are two forms of inequity that contribute to gentrification practices. These three factors are key in the gentrification that is threatening Bay Area residents.

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

The study of urban spaces, especially with respect to gentrification, has increased dramatically in significance and relevance in the past several decades. With the resurgence of city living’s popularity, urban revitalization has occurred in neighborhoods across the United States and brought with it significant economic and social change.

As a neighborhood that has always been regarded as low-income the newly renovated downtown and plaza area is a distinct contrast to it. “El Segundo Barrio had some of the worst housing conditions in the country. Once compared to the poor, slum areas of Kolkata, India, the city gradually made improvements to the neighborhood.” (Natassia Bonyanpour). Gentrification can be threatening to the history of this neighborhood, but the remnants of the early days of immigration, the “Chicano” movement and “Pachuco” lifestyle of Zoot Suits and black leather pointed shoes, will always be embedded into the street signs and sidewalks, as long as people still call the neighborhood

Demitress Ewers Mr. Vandyke English 103 04 February 2016 “Gentrification: Affecting the Poor” Imagine if you have built a life in a community for generations and big project developers push you out of the community. In today’s society, this would be labeled gentrification. Gentrification as a universal definition, pertains to the process of renewal and rebuilding, accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.

Many families have been replaced in order to create a more refined neighborhood suitable to the tastes of the middle class. Benjamin Grant brings forward the idea of the positive effects of change and Barbara Eldredge presents insight to the negative effects of gentrification. Gentrification - “the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district’s character and culture” became a common shift in the early 1960’s (Grant). The definition of gentrification has gone through

Gentrification is a practice that cultivates social displacement. This change is revealed in the change of the neighborhoods environmental aesthetics, engrossed by the belief that a rebirth of the older city was in the making.

These are some of the alternative solution to posed gentrification at the city of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. So, have in mind that gentrification is controversial process. It’s clear enough that it only affect the urban development of the cities. But the problem of gentrification needs to be research more for feather results.

As a process, gentrification has had both a negative and positive impact on the society as well as affected the economic status of the involved countries or towns. As a way

“The best that can be said of the conception is that it did afford a chance to experiment with some physical and social planning theories which did not pan out. “ This quote reflects Jane Jacob’s philosophical ideas in an attempt to criticize the social housing’s design approach and its associated urban planning in modern era. “The physical and social theories” outlines the urban planning idea of social housing (Utopian idea) and according to Jane’s statement, such experiment of these theories were deem to be unsuccessful. It is inevitably certain to some extent that a provocative statement towards modern era social housing approaches would hold true due to the minimal success the plans brought to the city, such as solving the working class commendations temporarily. Nevertheless, it is a failure to deliver long-standing social improvements corresponded with the increasing suspicion of modernism, one cannot simply attribute ill fate to its “innovative physical features” (As Jane said, the Utopian and Utopia), but should rather considered a range of other elements in the larger aspect of society: factors such as difficulty of racial integration, problems of financing and management, lack of bridging between architecture and planning, as well as the increasing preference of suburban lifestyle from the rising mid class. These problems reflected evidently in some stereotypes of social housing communities built in the modern era such as Pruitt-Igoe, sunny side Gardens, Paul