Ruth Glass Gentrification In Sociology

Gentrification is most easily understood as occurring in various stages. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, public subsidies and “urban renewal” altered many large cities as sporadic reinvestment battled increasing flight from the inner city to the suburbs. The second significant surge occurred in the post-recession 1970s, encouraged by public-private partnerships and assimilation into national and global economic and cultural developments. At last, in the 1990s, gentrification swelled with rising urban housing markets and increasing capital investment.

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."

As of 2017, the homeless population in the United States of America had increased for the first time since the Great Recession. Simultaneously, urban revitalization is bustling along. Defining gentrification means including the positives such as the advancement of urban life. At the same time, it means counting the negative aspects, which consists of people competing with each other to stay off the streets. Effects such as high housing rates and the displacement demands intensive policies that counter the homelessness triggered by gentrification in urban areas.

Gentrification, by definition, is the process of renovating and improving a house or district to appeal to the middle class. This “process” is very dangerous as it has a notorious reputation of displacing old residents and creating terrible living situations for those it has not displaced. It allows the deconstruction of communities of color, the suffering of local businesses, and the decrease in the public health of residents. Generally, gentrification affects the lower classes ability to live a healthy life by exploiting their ability to afford a means of survival.

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 is a planned or unplanned process where wealthy individuals "displace" poor individuals from their areas of living by purchasing the property and later upgrading it through modernization and renovation (Brown-Saracino, 2013). Ruth Glass coined the term Gentrification in her book London: Aspects of Change in reference to the influx of wealthy individuals to poorly inhabited areas in central London in 1964 (Brown-Saracino, 2013). These rich individuals were referred to as “gentry” hence the term gentrification.

Gentrification was something I was experiencing it first hand without noticing for years and when I did realizing it I believe that gentrification is considered a positive change from a concrete perspective and it may be very difficult and unacceptable for many local people to sacrifice the culture they have valued and built over many generations. In other words, gentrification is a “just” process and although there are sacrifices that comes along with the process to improve the city or a district, it will eventually happen over the course of time for economical and social benefits in a big picture. For example, the city of belmont has been recorded as one of the gentrified areas in the San Francisco Bay Area by Urban Displacement Map and

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.

Since the early 2000s, gentrification accelerated in various New York City neighborhoods. Data shown that about 29.8 percent of New York City has been affected by gentrification in low-income communities (Governing Data 1). This is over a 20 percent increased from the previous decade in New York City alone. Gentrification is a term used to describe displacement or renewal in urban neighborhoods as a result of increasing property values and rent prices. Gentrification has existed since the 1960s but has rapidly increased since then . Gentrification has now become a common and global controversial topic in many low-income neighborhood. Although, gentrification hasn’t always been bad from increasing job opportunities to lowering crime rates. Gentrification has impacted and transformed underprivileged districts in New York City. However, at the advantage of who ? Thus, gentrification has only increased average rates of poverty and infused neighborhoods with “white privilege”.

Gentrification can be defined as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle class taste.” This topic stood out to me because I 've witnessed a great deal of gentrification in my District over the past year. I 've seen increases in rent, new restaurants, hospitals and changes in my district 's culture overall.

According to Stacey Sutton, PhD, member of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy, in her New York Tedx talk, gentrification is fundamentally a social justice problem.” This means that gentrification has many effects to its neighborhood and its residents. One main problem that gentrification had brought was displacement. Due to changes in the urban neighborhood, prices of living had increased, where many of the renters have no choice than to leave the neighborhood because it's unaffordable. As Tom Slater, an urban geographer, said, “gentrification is the spatial expression of economic inequality.” When higher class people moved to an urban area and invest and take advantage to a low property, it raised the property value and displaced the people who cannot afford it, hence, the low income people.

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

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 the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that is conforms to middle class taste. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. Often people who are displaced cannot find affordable housing, and this can lead to homelessness. Gentrification is hurting Colorado families because 1.) it causes prices increases for Denver metro rents, 2.) it displaces and breaks up families, and 3.) offers no affordable housing options for those displaced. () Definition.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reports that Philadelphia expedience the most gentrification between 2000 and 2013. Out of the 356 communities in Philadelphia, only 15% of them have seen the effects of gentrification.