What do you think about gentrification?

[Saiyan Lusitano]

I've thought about this from time to time. There are some cons but overall gentrification is an excellent step forward for a city/society, the main problem with gentrified cities is that the poor people who can't afford anymore lose their houses and therefore, become homeless - or have to move somewhere else where they can stay or have family members that can give them a roof.

In theory, if many cities around the world were gentrified it would be a much better place as it would decrease crime, poverty and trashy cities. Again, the issue here would also be the original residents whom would happen to be poor would be left without a roof and unemployed people couldn't afford to live there anymore. Not to mention that senior retired people sometimes barely have enough for the essentials.

The solution? Make an exception for the residents who have lived there all their life, or at the very least, apply an increase but one that wouldn't leave them ruined.

Gentrifying cities is a wonderful Utopian concept but as we all know, those that are hungry with power and money just don't give a crap about those who can't afford -- Well, not totally. If it were a family member (who they didn't have any issues with) they would be given a pass.

And lastly, the worst case scenario that could happen for a gentrified city - The poor and criminals would gang up against the new residents to banish them out because they feel they "own" the city as they were there before them.

 

[FAST6191]

Watching it all play out is an interesting thing, New York and London being the main case studies for me, albeit with side stories from warmer places with nice beaches within travelling distance*. As long as the population continues to increase, and cities maintain a status of being desirable places to live, it seems an inevitability. That said the population increase is seemingly not an assured thing so that could get fun when that properly kicks in.

With all this being said the way a lot of places are setting about it does seem like it is screwing over people that live there, and while my sympathies are limited I can see it being hard having to move out of somewhere you might have grown up and know people/places.

*I don't live in London but in the last 20 years a combination of high speed rail links and London in general has seen the place go from a few crazies commuting, or maybe getting a hotel in London for the week, to a sizeable portion of the place doing it and a lot of property sales happening to those from there or that do commute. I do some occasional work for an estate agent and as most of that is watching a percentage bar crawl up I get to listen to conversations happening, so often do I hear London types wander in with cap in hand hoping that their meagre pot would get them something. While said pot in London would be a deposit on a crappy flat, here it is enough to outright buy something. At the same time that does represent for many people I grew up with a 25 year mortgage between two people for what others moving to the place have the cash on hand to buy, and several wanting to do that have already lost out while they wait on approval for that property.

At the same time I do find it amusing when those that drove up the prices in turn complain quite loudly when the restaurants and concerts are expensive or far away, and paying someone to come clean your toilet gets expensive as you get to pay for them to travel hours each way. This goes double when said people might have previously uttered the phrase "a rising tide lifts all ships". Individual residents seem not to be a problem as much as their kids -- even if you only have two kids and you yourself want to stay that means more houses are needed.

While the human cost of such things is worth pondering what I really enjoy are all the little edge cases and things that arise. For instance I saw one from New York where there were some rent controlled apartments (fixed rent/very strictly regulated increase in rent places so people don't get pushed out), though in the same building was more free form rentals. The building owners put in a nice gym in the building but only allowed it for the non rent controlled peeps and it kicked off. http://ny.curbed.com/2015/4/4/9973886/gym-that-bars-rent-stabilized-tenants-may-be-discriminatory

Personally I might not quite have achieved the ideal of nothing I can't walk away from in 20 seconds, mainly as it will take me a couple of hours to load things I want to keep into a van. The notions of job security went away about 10 years before I was born, and a job for life about 20, but also any notions of social standing based upon having that and the type of living arrangements you might keep. This means the idea of "putting down roots" just seems silly to me.

 

[BlackWizzard17]

Being someone who grew up in New York my whole life I can say your solution is not the solution that can work at all. Gentrification is obviously something that is going to continue to grow and of course from my perspective I see it doing more harm to the community especially when you don't consider visitors or new residents from outter states as being part of the community. Time after time I start to notice from music to tv shows that this is a brought up topic. There always seems to be in common with these main points; Raise in homes and landlords kicking their residents out because if the raise in rent that cannot be paid, environmental changes to the community that the people have known and love, an increase in more areas populated by "rich white" people, and yes even a new Starbucks and other establishments in an area just to get the attention of these non new yorkers.

Being a big fan of hip hop rap of the 90s it's easy to see the changes from just 27 years ago. (coming from a bronx man) I noticed how places like brooklyn and Queens have changed so much over time it's unbelievable and it's starting to become something unfirmiliar to the people who have lived in their homes rented by their great grand parents. Its forcing the ones out when it's already a tough living for them in the first place, making it hard to compete for the place they only know. It's crazy because I lived in a pretty decent area in the bronx before moving and this once store that was here for years just totally changed into a coffee or tea shop (can't remeber) and it felt out of place compared to the neighborhood.

 

[Veho]

Stimulating the local economy to the point where the original residents can afford to renovate the place would be better than artificially inflating the cost of living and ultimately driving the original residents and businesses out. This is not a sustainable practice.