Gentrification at at Glance

     Gentrification refers to the buying, along with renovating, of houses within urban neighborhoods. This process leads to higher property values, and in turn, displaces lower-income families and small businesses. This concept is thought to be a result of increased interest in a certain area or environment. "In a community undergoing gentrification, the average income increases. Poorer pre-gentrification residents who are unable to pay increased rents or property taxes may find it necessary to relocate." The typical "gentrifiers" are affluent and have professional-level service industry jobs and favor a large consumerist culture. While it is not always the case, young, single women, artists, and the gay community are those who are often identified as gentrifiers.

Maxine Wright gives a primary account of the effects of gentrification in her poem "Planned Obsolescence," performed at CUPSI (College Union Poetry Slam Invitational) this year.

Maxine Wright - "Planned Obsolescence" (CUPSI 2015)

While there are some positive aspects of gentrification, they really only benefit those who are new-comers to the area. There are many downfalls and consequences. Some of these include, but are not limited to: loss of affordable housing, commercial/industrial displacement, loss of social diversity, community conflict, and homelessness. The Gentrification Reader defines the displacement of those living in urban areas that can no longer afford it as the "forced disenfranchisement of poor and working class people from the spaces and places in which they have legitimate social and historical claims." Those who are displaced are usually minority, elderly, or transient groups. The displacement can happen for a number of reasons, but there are two defined "waves." The first refers to those who are currently renting. With the increased interest in the area, there is no motivation for landlords to keep the current renters they have over the affluent renters looking for a place to live. The second "wave" focuses more on the owners of residential units. The rise of property values leads to increased tax assessments, and many are not able to cover this expansion in cost. Those who suffer the impacts of gentrification lack the economic resources that are necessary to both compete with and fulfill these changes, as well as historically/statistically lack political power. Therefore, they are easily exploited  and are eventually forced to leave due to their "inability to resist the gentrification process."

*If the poetry piece was something that interested you, take a look at some information on Poverty SLAM, a program made and conducted in 2014 in hopes of inspiring teens to find responses to poverty through both a summit as well as a competition: https://www.ujafedny.org/event/view/povertyslam-webinar/.

Additional information and an extension of the discussion appears in our post on the reaction between resorts and slums.

Works Cited:

Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly, Gentrification Reader, p. 196. © 2008 Routledge.; Rowland Atkinson and              Gary Bridge, eds., Gentrification in a Global Context: the New Urban Colonialism, p. 5. © 2005 Routledge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentrification#Gentrifier_types

https://www.ujafedny.org/event/view/povertyslam-webinar/