Gentrification As A Process : Progress Vs. Culture

There has been a recent phenomenon throughout the United States of gentrification. As older parts of neighborhoods are occupied by new tenants with money, the neighborhood changes and loses its old character. Those who might have lived in those neighborhoods their entire lives are pushed out as rents begin to skyrocket and the surroundings begin to change. This has happened in many neighborhoods. One of the most well known is San Francisco, where technology companies have brought in new software engineers that have caused local rents to skyrocket and people to move out of the area. However, just as importantly has been the influx of new money to Brooklyn, where local neighborhood changes have forced people from their homes, traditional music to be replaced, and old businesses to go bankrupt.

Imagine the home you lived in for decades, being knocked down for a football stadium, shopping center, or new housing. That is gentrification. Webster’s dictionary defines gentrification as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste” (“Gentrification”). Gentrification is not a new subject, as it has been occurring for centuries, dating back to medieval times, constructing forts over villages. Today, gentrification typically occurs in urban settings where buildings are vacant, and most of the residents live in poverty. Gentrification can destroy families, communities, and history. This topic is often at the center of debate for politics and town gossip, as developers are disrupting the current residents that reside in the vicinity. Gentrification occurs all around us, having pros and cons for each project. How is it ethical to kick individuals out of their home, and community for another’s benefit? Questions arise as the development and takeover of land often displaces individuals, their entire families, and livelihood. Temple University is a prime example of gentrification as well as other wealthy organizations, including football teams from the National Football League. The practice of gentrification comes to symbolize the new development and demolition of individual’s lives while trying to benefit the parties involved.

In York and Fig, reporters are analyzing the process of gentrification in Highland Park and getting the opinions of those living through it. Gentrification is the process of renovating a city so that it conforms a higher class. Gentrification has been a controversial topic because in some ways it is helpful but it is also hurting the people who have been in the gentrified city for years.

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.

An issue that that was discussed in class that was resonant to me was on the issue of gentrification. Gentrification is known as the process of renovating and renewing deteriorating communities that are often home of low income families in order to conform to the taste of the middle class. This concept has been taking place for years in a variety of locations all over the country such as San Francisco, New York City and even Los Angeles. I live in an area in Los Angeles known as highland park which is a location that has slowly been gentrified and has altered the lives of many people I know around me. The neighborhood that I am from has slowly been changing due to the fact that it is so close to a very prestigious and well known private college

Gentrification is the process of turning a working class neighborhood into a middle or upper class neighborhood by renovating old buildings then selling them to more affluent buyers. This has been pushing minorities, mainly African Americans, out of their homes and into less fortunate neighborhoods that they can afford. This happens all over the country but has been more common in the last 16 years, as cities population percentages grow the percentage of minorities seem to decrease. Housing in cities have dramatically increased for some reason other than there not being enough room for everyone moving into cities or are they trying to push certain people out such as african americans?

In Mark Davidson’s article, ‘Displacement, Space and Dwelling: Placing Gentrification Debate’, he cites several contemporary case studies where certain deteriorated areas have been targeted for redevelopment and subsequent evictions have taken place. Using several philosophical authors, such as Heidegger and Lefebvre, Davidson’s focuses on the effect spatial metaphors have on displacement, and how these concepts tie into the conceptualization of space. In this paper I will compile a thorough summary of the article and formulate a comprehensive analysis of Davidson’s arguments as well as his sources.

“gentrification has been and still continues to be a critical task when it comes to urban geography of cities, such as New York City and cities around the world as well” (Smith, pg.129).

Gentrification was previously supported by those with “cultural capital” in the arts; people like “artists, writers, teachers, professors.” These people specifically were the main reason that the mainstream middle class was being pushed out of their neighborhoods. Gentrification originally had been used to describe the improvements and modernization of close-to-demolished buildings. With "an increasing desire for the kind of cultural and intellectual pursuits”, it is argued that gentrifiers have been “establishing a new investment climate” that serves to create homes for middle-class caucasians, which pushes out the minorities of the surrounding area. However, this soon evolved with time, as more and more ethnic minorities and wealthy moved

Gentrification is a problem in small and impoverished communities. It's a way for them to push all of the poor people out of their homes and let more of the rich people in. This is a problem is stems from money and it needs to be stopped.

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,

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

By the 1960s many of these urban areas, with the loss of capital, jobs, and so on; began to deteriorate, and property values fell. Currently with the higher costs of property in the suburbs and other communities, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to invest small and gain a big profit; thus, making the once "undesirable" urban properties with their low property values and costs, more "desirable."

Gentrification is characterized as a struggle of power through the process of neighborhood change taking place in three stages; entry, exit, and restoration. Gentrification is driven by private developers, landlords, businesses, and corporations, and supported by the government through policies. (Hang) The “rehabilitation” of depressed urban areas leads to the inevitable exile of it’s lifelong residents. As wealthy interest in less affluent neighborhoods increases, it causes a sociocultural change to occur in those communities. These changes send a shock wave of economic effects. The average income increases and the average family size decreases. The economic eviction of lower income families will result because of increased rent, property

According to Betancur and Lee's articles, gentrification is that the arrival of new, middle-income groups into lower socio-economic communities leads to the displacement of the native residents. Although gentrification is a good way to clean up a neighborhood and improve its value, it caused many social problems, such as the displacement of native residents and the loss of affordable housing. In the process of gentrification, the developers play an important role. The influx of developers in poor areas raise property values and cost of rent that affect negatively on the low income groups. For instance, the artwashing idea truly reflects the impact of the proliferation of developers. The artwashing idea is that more artists, as developers, move