Todays King of the Hills Episode - Gentrification (Chicago, Auburn: low income, home)

[xenourtv]

I do not know if anyone watched todays episode of King of the Hill, but it was all about gentrificaction. Basically it was about hipsters moving into a hispanic nieghborhood due to Peggy making it such a hotspot. The native hispanics were upset, more specifically Hanks friend who was hispanic since that they were changing the identity of the neighborhood. In the end RE agent Peggy (since it was her fault to begin with) found a way to make them move out since most hipsters are rich. They just made there friends knock on the doors of the hipsters making it appear like old white folks are living in that neighborhood since most hipsters want something "different". It was funny.

Do not know the title, if it was new or a rerun, but I think that is a visual example if anyone wants to get a perspective of the negative effects of gentrification and why they are not as welcoming to newcomers. The writer probably might have been a victim of gentrification. You might say they help bring in equity, the change is for the better, but I think most of you know the consequences to it since it has been discussed in this board many times before. I remember visiting my neghborhood a couple months back and while I was walking I told myself, 5 years ago I did not see any of those types of people walking (people who fit that category of being hipster). That was all I saw in the quite literally during my walk. I did not have a car back in the day all I did was walk, so I knew who was living and saw familiar face. Not anymore. I would of loved to stay and make Chicago and call it home but just seeing changes in Uptown and the surrounding neighborhoods over the past 3 years told me this is no cartoon, those hipsters are here to stay and nothing can bring the neighborhood that I loved so much while I grew up in the city back. The true urban life, that is what it is all about, and what hipsters think they are experiencing right now.

[Avengerfire]

I was born and raised in Chicago, but I can see both sides. I will say that the former Uptown or Uptown that anyone under the age of 70 or so can remember is not really something to mourn. Most of Uptown for the most part has been a relative craphole since the late 1940s. It may have been your neighborhood, but it was crap for decades and in some parts is still total crap.

I mourn for the neighborhoods that were doing fine before being "gentrified"; not the ghettos.

[gardener34]

"I mourn for the neighborhoods that were doing fine before being "gentrified"; not the ghettos." Yep some places are just so far down, that anywhere is up. Where the next step for the buildings is condemnation.

[cobolt]

The problem with gentrification is that it although it may in many cases, "clean up" the neighborhood, in doing so it sterilizes it from alot of its ethnic flavor and identity. Kind of reminds me of slapping up big box stores everywhere until one place looks just like another. Gentrification takes away what made a neighborhood unique in the first place.

[LakeShoreSoxGo]

Hipsters, I find particularly annoying. It's like looking at a yuppie in its larva stage.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by cobolt

The problem with gentrification is that it although it may in many cases, "clean up" the neighborhood, in doing so it sterilizes it from alot of its ethnic flavor and identity. Kind of reminds me of slapping up big box stores everywhere until one place looks just like another. Gentrification takes away what made a neighborhood unique in the first place.

This is the "party line" among college-aged hipsters who think they're opposed to gentrification but, really, are affluent areas really all that "sterile" when compared to their low income counterparts? Personally, I find places where every business is either a currency exchange, dollar store, store front church, or taqueria to be sterile. Even the most gentrified Chicago neighborhood and affluent suburb is more interesting than this. At least in those places, I have many shopping, dining and entertainment choices. It may not be PC to say it but the low income and poor are generally not interested in cool bars with live music, restaurants, boutiques, bookstores, theater, or comedy clubs. When you see those, that usually means the neighborhood is gentrifying.

I think if you really thought about it, you'd find that what you really mourn is not the pre-gentrified neighborhood but, rather, what comes there during the early part of gentrification. But it's all part of the same process really. As the neighborhood evolves, it becomes more desirable. Then, rents go up and the smaller creative businesses are replaced with larger ones. Perhaps it is sad but it's the natural way of things. And just because a corporation is big doesn't mean it doesn't offer quality services.

[fine_where_I_am]

It might get even worse than you think:

Report: Nation's Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Moderator cut: copyright

[JCL01]

Originally Posted by BRU67

This is the "party line" among college-aged hipsters who think they're opposed to gentrification but, really, are affluent areas really all that "sterile" when compared to their low income counterparts? Personally, I find places where every business is either a currency exchange, dollar store, store front church, or taqueria to be sterile. Even the most gentrified Chicago neighborhood and affluent suburb is more interesting than this. At least in those places, I have many shopping, dining and entertainment choices. It may not be PC to say it but the low income and poor are generally not interested in cool bars with live music, restaurants, boutiques, bookstores, theater, or comedy clubs. When you see those, that usually means the neighborhood is gentrifying.

I think if you really thought about it, you'd find that what you really mourn is not the pre-gentrified neighborhood but, rather, what comes there during the early part of gentrification. But it's all part of the same process really. As the neighborhood evolves, it becomes more desirable. Then, rents go up and the smaller creative businesses are replaced with larger ones. Perhaps it is sad but it's the natural way of things. And just because a corporation is big doesn't mean it doesn't offer quality services.

Absolutely. I've never quite understood the idea that there is a particular way a neighborhood "should be" or that because a neighborhood was one way at a particular time (or because a particular group of people favor the area), then someone is entitled to keep it that way forever...or that anyone is entitled to live in a certain neighborhood for that matter. Things change...sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. If you don't like where your neighborhood is going I say either do what you can to try to make it more like what you would like (I mean positive things like starting your own business, or working on renovating property...not trying to prevent people from making their own choices) or find a neighborhood you do like. You have to be pretty picky and specific in your tastes not to be able to find a neighborhood (or suburb) that will suit you in a city like Chicago.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by cobolt

The problem with gentrification is that it although it may in many cases, "clean up" the neighborhood, in doing so it sterilizes it from alot of its ethnic flavor and identity. Kind of reminds me of slapping up big box stores everywhere until one place looks just like another. Gentrification takes away what made a neighborhood unique in the first place.

I could not have said it better myself. That is what people are missing when they try to defend gentrification.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by JCL01

Absolutely. I've never quite understood the idea that there is a particular way a neighborhood "should be" or that because a neighborhood was one way at a particular time (or because a particular group of people favor the area), then someone is entitled to keep it that way forever...or that anyone is entitled to live in a certain neighborhood for that matter. Things change...sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. If you don't like where your neighborhood is going I say either do what you can to try to make it more like what you would like (I mean positive things like starting your own business, or working on renovating property...not trying to prevent people from making their own choices) or find a neighborhood you do like. You have to be pretty picky and specific in your tastes not to be able to find a neighborhood (or suburb) that will suit you in a city like Chicago.

Precious few hipsters would live in an area that wasn't in some stage of gentrification, or that they thought wasn't going to undergo gentrification. The anti-gentrification forces just tend to prefer the early stages but don't like the end result. A good analogy would be that I wish today's White Sox game would have ended after the 1st inning when we were winning 2-0. Can't really happen once the game is in motion however. Need to finish all 9 innings. For the person who truly wants the "non-sterile" city neighborhood experience, I might recommend Garfield Park, Englewood, Austin, or Auburn Gresham. Those are unlikely to change any time soon.