The Pros And Cons Of Gentrification

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.

The Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities defines Gentrification as “The transformation of low-income and working class neighborhoods, driving up housing and other real estate prices and causing the displacement of long-term residents, businesses, and institutions.”

Gentrification is damaging neighborhoods because it forcibly displaces the lower income residents on the streets to make room for luxurious more expensive apartments. The term gentrification means to conform to middle-class taste, which is exactly what is happening to places like the Mission District, Placita Olvera Street, East Los Angeles, and many more urban areas. Not only are our neighborhoods being gentrified, but also so is our food.

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.

he Matthew Effect states that people who are initially more successful than others are rewarded with opportunities that allow them to succeed further. For example, as children, hockey teams can be organized by players’ initial talent. That initial talent brings a select group of hockey players together so they can practice and become even more successful than they would have been without practice. In other words, the small advantage that the “talented” hockey players had only gave them opportunities to gain more advantages. As said by Gladwell, “...if you separate the ‘talented’ from the ‘untalented’; and you provide the ‘talented’ with a superior experience, then you’re going to end up giving a huge advantage to [the ‘talented’]” (Gladwell 25).

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.

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.

The term Gentrification was coined by a British Sociologist Ruth Glass to describe the movement of middle class families in urban areas causing the property value to increase and displacing the older settlers. Over the past decades, gentrification has been refined depending on the neighborhood 's economic, social and political context. According to Davidson and Less’ definition, a gentrified area should include investment in capital, social upgrading, displacement of older settlers and change in the landscape (Davidson and Lees, 2005).Gentrification was perceived to be a residential process, however in the recent years, it has become a broader topic, involving the restructuring of inner cities, commercial development and improvement of facilities in the inner city neighborhoods. Many urban cities like Chicago, Michigan and Boston have experienced gentrification, however, it is affecting the Harlem residents more profoundly, uprooting the people who have been living there for decades, thus destroying the cultural identity of the historic neighborhood.

Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.

Gentrification. What comes to mind when you hear this word? What connotations are associated with this term? Most people associate this word with a negative connotation, while others believe it to be positive. However, gentrification is an inevitable process that cities go through and it brings about positive and negative changes because it can improve the lifestyle of the residents of the communities, but it can also result in the displacement of lower income residents, and spurs socioeconomic conflicts between long-time residents, new-time residents, and even the government in the city.

Gentrification would have the potential to be good if the people who have been long-time residences got to live in and enjoy the new community. Unfortunately, the opposite often takes place with gentrification. Current residents often get evicted and displaced due to rising rent and new demands by the people coming in. The people getting displaced are often minorities who get evicted from their own neighborhoods before being able to experience the changes for themselves. Before people are forced to leave, the state gives them a voucher. A voucher is a discount the state gives you to leave and go to another town. With this voucher you can only go to certain places. You can only go where the voucher tells you to go. For example, if you currently live in South Central, Los Angeles and the voucher says you can move to Watts, then can

First of all, one of the reasons to why gentrifiers should stop the process of modifying cities is displacement. Displacement is a bad consequence because buildings are being placed in a bad neighborhood. For example, Source 4 includes a link to a poem about a crime that took place in the San Francisco’s mission district, three latino immigrants were brutally beat and injured by a white man with a crowbar. He is the owner of a brand new bar on 16th street. A man named Paul Flores wrote a poem to address the problems that gentrification has caused in our cities. In his poem he repeatedly asks, “Are you doing that crowbar thing?” He then mentions, “Doing that Forget about El Centro del Pueblo thing and volunteer at the pirate store instead thing?” This is clearly a great example of displacement being a consequence of gentrification. The gentrifiers are so concentrated on making money but don’t realize that placing a building with a completely different background than the rest, can result in

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.

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 today’s society, it may seem that gentrification can eliminate poverty and increase neighborhood opportunities. Low-income residents and property owners will be the first to be altered by gentrification. In an email to the editor at the Atlantic, Freeman, the director of the Urban Planning program at Columbia states “ Gentrification brings new amenities and services that benefit not only the newcomers but long term residents too. Full service