Repressed Real Estate Case Study

The documentary San Francisco 2.0 examines how San Francisco city officials have given tax breaks to the Silicon Valley tech industry to move to San Francisco. These new techs companies have brought in a lot of wealth to the city, but at a cost. The majority of the low-income natives are being evicted or having their rents raised so high that they can't afford them. The gentrification of the city has impacted low-income districts (for example, the mission district known for its Latin immigrants) that the residents and the culture are being displaced. I believe the documentary is important for the study of the issue of gentrification because San Fransisco was known for being-counter culture, caring for the arts and for civil progress. The housing

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.

Technological environment in Baltimore is advancing. Some consider it Baltimore to be an innovative culture. The NSA (National Security Agency) recently appointed some companies to help with federal cybersecurity, such as Lockheed Martin, Verizon, and Baltimore’s own Maddrix company. Also the newly formed Parking Panda, which is one of Baltimore’s hottest startups that has raised 4.7 million in capital from its online parking marketplace that enables parking spot owners to rent their open spots. Baltimore also hosts its own

Gentrification is a major reason for the increase in rent prices throughout New York City. Harlem rent prices have gone up over the past years because of new condominiums and businesses that are being built in neighborhoods. The displacement of residents leads to an increase of people becoming homeless in the city. According to the author, Ivan Pereira, “Harlem saw a 9.4 % average rent price increase during that same period from $2,191 last year to $ 2,397 in January” (Pereira 1). The change causes longtime residents to move out because of a variety of factors including unaffordability, pressure from property owners, diminishing or lack of stores that cater to them and many more. The more condominiums and business’s being built makes living

particularly true because the Troost avenue of today is a lot different than what it used to be, a lot of new businesses

Acquired spacial capital leads to privilege over resources and other people. The space available to certain residents is where they will end up, and if there is no opportunity for growth of capital they will always be stuck in the same class bracket. Developers use of local land policies are an example of spatial discrimination (Self, 278). A form of spacial discrimination is the politics of mobility in San Francisco, which increases the gentrification of neighborhoods and reduces the amount of space available to build housing (Henderson, 78). Privileged dot-commers obtained cultural and social capital had during the internet boom, which allowed them to change the entire culture of some neighborhoods (Center, 216). Spatial capital and privilege are key factors of the threat of gentrification on the Bay Area, which contribute to

The Meatpacking District in Manhattan may be getting some competition: the Mini-Meatpacking District. In a neighborhood that has been not-so-slowly gaining developer interest for some time, Harlem, known for Columbia University and the golden age of jazz, is experiencing the beginning stages of a neo-revitalization of sorts.Though the subdivision of West Harlem has been straddled with the diminutive moniker of “mini”, the emergence of boutiques, trendy restaurants will inevitably cast aside the name. New York’s tax exemption perks to stimulate the district’s development has been the impetus for the influx of an increasing number of working professionals and Columbia University students into the area.

In order to understand why developers targeted Harlem for gentrification, it is crucial to discuss the causes of gentrification. As the time has progressed people’s preference have changed. The inclination toward fewer children, higher divorce rate, women in the workforce and the postponement of marriage have encouraged people to settle in urban neighborhoods. Young women’s participation in the professional

Mayor Ed Lee plays a role in this crisis by pushing policies that provided tax breaks to companies who set up along the once neglected mid-market area, such as twitter. The city I fell in love with that was once filled with artists and embraced inclusivity is now a magnet for white-collar techies and luxury apartments, leaving the working class behind and the poor even

The first wave of gentrification ended when the dot com bubble burst and the number of Ellis act evictions plunged. In 2005, however, after new technology companies like Google, Facebook, and cisco began attracting thousands of high-paid employees to the bay, the number of Ellis evictions tripled.1 In 2013, Ellis evictions grew 175 percent from the year before.1 The companies moved to the south bay but the city attracted many of these young techies. The techies would live in the city and end up commuting to the Bay area. During that time more than half of the Ellis evictions were carried out less than a year after a building had changed hands. Since 2011, 69 percent of the evictions have occurred n the mission no more than a few blocks from the private tech company’s shuttle bus stops.1 The Companies provide shuttle bus service to the city in order to carry their employers in to the bay. Not only do the buses cause overcrowding of the streets but they also traffic and a trend of living more than 30 miles from work. The tech workers flooding into the Mission creates the profit motive for landlords to push people out. Whether the individual tech workers are conscious of it or not, they are complicit in the process of gentrification. The Google bus protests struck a nerve because they highlighted how the Tech sector is facilitating the forced displacement of families.

Like many other urban neighborhoods Flatbush has its fair share of political, social and economic issues. The latest political and economic dilemma is the City’s decision to hand over a local neighborhood market to developers says (Olivier 2015). Developers will used this prime real-estate to build a 10 story building that will provide both at market and below market rental units. The development will provide ½ of its units to individuals and families earning 130% of the area median income which is equivalent to $ 100,000. Thirty percent will go to individuals earning $ 77,500 and 20 % those earning $46,500. The development

One of the major issues with big corporation moving in is that they affect the overall real estate of the local town. This means that as more and bigger corporation move in the price of real estate increase. As the price increase local business are left defense less. This is because big businesses try to acquire prime real estate. This further increases competition and those who can afford to pay remain, while those who are unable to pay are forgotten. A local resident of Blacksburg Mr. Comaratta, who uses to be an assistant manager at Crossroads, a locally owned music and record store stated, “They raised our rent from $4,200 to

Although its long played second fiddle to Midtown and Downtown Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn is one of the hottest office markets in the New York metropolitan area – and with good reason! The neighborhood has much to offer prospective tenants, including affordable rents and an excellent transportation infrastructure. For companies seeking a more affordable alternative to Midtown and Lower Manhattan that’s fairly easy to get to, Downtown Brooklyn is hard to beat. A 2004 rezoning by the Bloomberg Administration has also helped to usher in a wave of new developments throughout the neighborhood. Anchored by MetroTech Center, the area is home to a thriving economy based on technology, creative services, finance, government and educational services.

Jeremiah Moss, in his article in NY Daily News, titled “The NYC we love is disappearing: It’s becoming a hollow city for hollow people”, wrote that “wherever the towers of big development rise, the rents rise with them”. 2 He declared that the median rent for vacant apartments is about 60% of median income. And for business spaces, the landlords are doubling, tripling, even octupling the rents or denying lease renewals. They preferred to leave the spaces vacant for months or years, waiting for the highest bidder with the very high rent fee, such as $40,000, $60,000, $80,000 a month. This caused small businesses to close down.

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