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The United States is a world leader in development and the proof is in the way of how cities in the country are improving the living conditions of many. While improving the living conditions of Americans, there are drastic effects because of it. These effects can separate families, force people to leave certain areas, and create a bias towards a certain group of people living in a certain neighborhood. Gentrification is one of the biggest problems a city faces during development and it can be seen as a virus that is hard to find a cure to.
Gentrification has displaced families and people, removed schools and amenities from neighborhoods, and has eliminated the culture of a certain area to replace it with the modern needs and wants of high and medium socioeconomic peoples. Gentrification is causing these drastic effects and yet most people do not do much or turn a blind eye. Since gentrification is causing the displacement of families and neighborhoods to disappear, cities should improve the living conditions of certain areas without disturbing who originally lived there and the culture surrounding it, and find ways to make gentrification less disastrous.
Background Info
What does the reader need to know to understand your topic? Context? Gentrification is a process of renovating deteriorated urban neighborhoods by the means of the increase in middle-class peoples and families. The term gentrification was originally used to describe the population shifts witnessed in London’s inner neighborhoods (Gentrification).
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Gentrification has come to encapsulate cultural trends, economic cycles and discrete public policies all across the globe. The causes of gentrification are mainly economic although social causes can help too. Rapid urban job growth, increased traffic congestion, lengthening commutes, and demographic changes create demand for luxury urban housing (Impacts). This means that the large middle class is moving into poorer areas of a city and modernizing it to fit their social and economic needs. Most of the time, these areas are near or in the city for workers to live closer to their jobs and causes the movement of people from suburban areas outside of a city.
Gentrification has been affecting the United States in numerous ways. “In sum, gentrification in U.S. cities has been problematic for low-income minorities, and not just because new middle-class residents displace poor people” (Hwang). Cities have even seen an influx in average home value, change in household incomes, and changes in the college-educated population. Examples of these cities are Brooklyn, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Washington D.C. In the Brooklyn 11211 area, the average home value rose from around $350,000 to around $850,000 in 16 years (2000 to 2016).
The household income in the Brooklyn 11222 area also changed in the same time period from $55,000 to more than $100,000 while the college-educated population in the 11211 area rose from around 15,000 to over 30,000 people. In Los Angeles, the 90013 area had an increase in home value form around $200,000 to around $500,000 in the same time period as Brooklyn. The average home income in the 90014 area increased from around $15,000 to around $25,000 and the college-educated population in the 90013 area increased from around 2,500 to around 4,500. Lastly, in Washington D.C., the 20010 area increased its average home value from around $225,000 to almost $575,000. In the 20001 area, the household income increased from nearly $40,000 to over $95,000.
In the 20001 area, the college-population increased from around 5,500 people to 20,000 people. One can see during these time periods the major increase in home value, college-educated population, and the average home income (Leefeldt). This shows how lower socioeconomic families and individuals were pushed out of these areas and individuals with higher incomes moved into these neighborhoods and took their place. Jackelyn Hwang believed that while cities and governments were trying to use gentrification to attract the low income, poor, minority groups and immigrants to less diverse places, they were actually further isolating them and increased racial segregation and inequality as the actual outcome (Hwang). Gentrification affects the elderly, lower class citizens, minorities, and immigrant peoples.
Jackelyn Hwang believed that while cities and governments were trying to use gentrification to attract the low income, minority groups and immigrants to less diverse places, they were actually further isolating them and increased racial segregation and inequality as the actual outcome. The selection of neighborhoods also builds the case of gentrification. Stereotypes of certain neighborhoods and the races that live in that neighborhood can influence a person’s choice about where they want to live and which neighborhoods to avoid.
Crime, property values, school quality, and local amenities also are counted when people look at neighborhood because it is believed that the best neighborhoods have the best needs for its middle-class residents, while the worst neighborhoods have the least amount of amenities, the schools are bad, and property values lower than others (Hwang). The attraction of new businesses, high skilled workers, major developers, and large corporations, also add to the demand for housing, which in turn, increases the cost of living. The people who originally lived in the area are then priced out of their homes and have to go somewhere in their price range or to less expensive areas. Single mothers, elderly, disabled, and other vulnerable groups who lived in these neighborhoods are then displaced to the areas that gain negative connotations due to the high concentration of its low-income residents. Some could also say that it is a dumping ground for the people who could not defeat the process of gentrification.
Current Conditions
Defining the problem, Why is this problem important? How is this problem occurring today? An example of a city being gentrified is Atlanta. In the late 1950s, Atlanta embarked on its first attempt at urban renewal. Many people at the time translated to “negro removal”. Because of how many black people at the time were being targeted and removed from certain areas and put into more prominently black ones (Albright). This problem worsened in the mid-1960s when the city decided to build a new stadium to house a professional baseball team. A significant portion of the Summerhill neighborhood was wiped away. This neighborhood happened to be predominantly black, as well as the two other neighborhoods near it (Peoplestown and Mechanicsville).
In preparation for the 1996 Olympics, an estimated 30,000 low-income Atlanta residents were displaced from their homes in order to make room for the new Olympic Stadium (now called Turner Field). Landlords saw this as an opportunity to raise rents to because of how close the Olympic venues were, which meant the many who lived in these neighborhoods originally has no other choice but to leave to somewhere they could afford. These neighborhoods were being targeted because of how they were viewed. City officials saw these three neighborhoods as run down, unnecessary, and an easy loss to the city because of how little they were contributing. Atlanta decided to tear them down for this irrational conclusion. Years after the stadiums were built, hundreds of homes were demolished by the city, and thousands of black families in the same three neighborhoods were separated from each other after three interstates were constructed through the heart of their communities (Albright).
In the process, 1,195 public housing units were gone, and by 2000, only 78 of the families from the former public housing were rehoused in the shiny new development. 7% of the pre-Olympics population stayed or came back to their original neighborhood. The project launched a new agenda that resulted in Atlanta becoming the first US city to completely demolish all of its housing projects, eliminating 17,000 units of public housing (Albright) Effects of this process can still be seen in Atlanta’s Summerhill, Mechanicsville, and Peoplestown neighborhood, and currently they are going through the same thing so many years ago. Atlanta is trying to push residents out of these neighborhoods by any means necessary and for the few who refuse to go, the city is raising the prices of houses trying to force them out.
Causes
What is contributing to or causing the problem? The growing demand for houses by working class and high-income citizens is adding to the problem of gentrification. Three students at the University of Pennsylvania have stated “The causes of gentrification are principally economic. Rapid urban job growth, increased traffic congestion, lengthening commutes, and demographic changes create demand for luxury urban housing.” They also stated that because of this demand, limited urban housing supply and the high costs of housing called established neighborhoods “creates supply-side pressures for the renovation of low-income neighborhoods” (Impacts). In another source by Dereck Hydra. Hydra states the forces driving the current gentrification pattern to originate from multiple levels. These include global, national, and city dynamics (Hydra).
In addition to this statement, Hydra suggests one reason for the gentrification process to speed up. He says it is because of the rising number of work hours and lack of leisure time Millennials are facing in today’s society. These are driving the desires that cause the want for Millennials to live in close proximity to a city and their workplace. By moving near work, Millennials commute less and can spend more time enjoying the amenities of the city has to offer. The cause of millennials wanting to move to a city for all it has to offer causes a city to offer more amenities to appeal to its new influx of people and make them want to stay there. There is an exception to this, however.
Research shows that there is a sizeable number of Millennials who do not work in or around a city but actually commute out to certain job-rich suburbs. This means that something else, besides the short commutes, is attracting Millennials to inner-city neighborhoods. Hydra mentions two other researchers who suggested that some educated Millennials prefer the central city versus the suburbs because of its density of service amenities. These include things such as third-wave coffee shops, craft-beer gardens, and bike shares (We can see this happening all around the country with things being started up like Jump and Bird, scooter and bike sharing companies to help transportation in a city, Starbucks, cafes, shops, etc. opening in inner-city neighborhoods, and the renovation of neighborhoods to fit the wants and needs of people who want to integrate in that area) (Hydra).
Another example Hydra states is increased racial tolerance. He states that it might be an important predictor (beyond and in addition to housing, work hours, and crime) in explaining why young professionals are flocking to low-income minority neighborhoods. (Hydra) As stated before officials know who is causing gentrification, and why it is happening, but what happens after is not always what they wanted to turn out. The effects of gentrification are the true reason why it is frowned upon and why so many see it as a major issue.
Effects
What is the impact of the problem on society? In the world? During gentrification, an area of a city experiences an influx of new residents, renovations of many houses, the addition of amenities to suit the public, parks and recreational places, and so much more. Socially and economically, gentrification can cause the isolation of some people and cultures. political and cultural displacement breeds intense social tensions in a community. This can limit meaningful and beneficial social interactions between longtime residents and the newcomers. This can result in microlevel segregation meaning one culture may not associate with the other, causing awkwardness between the groups of people (Hydra).
In some other cases, gentrification can be associated with cultural and political displacement of families and peoples. Some areas that may have been dominated by a group of people sharing the same culture, of the same political party could be integrated with another culture or apposing party. This can have an effect in an election when a specific area of a city that usually votes in favor of a particular party candidate, can cause the vote to swing or shift and the candidate might not win that areas support anymore.
Some gentrifying areas that were once dominated by low-income minorities demonstrate an association between the movement of upper-income people and the loss of minority political representation. Dereck Hydra reminds people, “It was presumed upper-income people moving to low-income neighborhoods would bolster civic society, and it appears, in some circumstances, it has” (Hydra). While political can affect the people living in a gentrifying area socially and economically, political displacement can be linked to cultural displacement. This is a change in the neighborhood norms, preferences, and service amenities.
In certain views, the changing of norms may be positive under the conditions of counteracting norms of violence or a lack of health-producing amenities and activities (Hydra). But when the changing affects or offends some people who were originally living in the area, it is a problem. To change their culture without permission is like taking away someones human rights. It is morally wrong and should be frowned upon. An example of this type of gentrification can be seen when an area once dominated by a certain minority group gets integrated with high-income residents. The political representation of that group gets diminished or lost completely. Gentrification is the silent killer of cultures surrounding neighborhoods and it only gets worse from this point on.
Counterclaim
What is the other side saying? What are you going to have to refute in your paper? Although gentrification has a large sum of negative effects, there are cases where gentrification does benefit a city and bring new income in for some. In modern popular media sources and political debates, gentrification is often depicted as the process in which middle-class whites move into and thus integrate minority neighborhoods. While some of this is true, research shows that gentrifiers prefer already white neighborhoods. This research also shows that they are least attracted to black neighborhoods but see Asian and Latino neighborhoods as middling options (Hwang). A recent study by NYU’s Furman Center suggested that residents who lived in gentrifying areas gained benefits because of it. They received higher pay, lived with less violence in their community, and had better access to education for children.
All these amenities came with gentrification and you can see how they have benefited the families living them. A second study from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank found that there had been less displacement of existing residents from gentrifying neighborhoods than what was commonly feared. The study also found out that the families and people who did leave the area being gentrified were not necessarily more likely to move to lower-income neighborhoods (Cortright). Gentrification does bring benefactors for some and the research shows that some people do not get displaced by gentrification at all and gain benefits in its place.
