Is gentrification or gentrifier a controversial term in Pittsburgh (York: low income, section 8)

[slavicamerican]

Originally Posted by ferraris

But Is it different due to race or due to the fact that East Liberty is the only one of those neighborhoods that ever had 200 unit low rent apartment complexes?

Okay, I'm starting to see some similarities.

In DC, the people who feel the most threatened by gentrification are low-income African Americans who are either renting or in subsidized housing. The term gentrifier is used to describe middle-to-upper class whites although it's usually African-American landlords who choose to sell for a hefty profit and subsequently force out the tenants. Or the owners (black or white) of large subsidized housing projects choose to convert from subsidized to market rate. It sounds like this same thing is happening in Pittsburgh. One major difference is that DC doesn't have many (if any, really) working class whites. Latinos here do much of that work.

Goodness knows there a lot of poor whites in Western PA. Are many in subsidized housing? It's making me wonder if the loss of the subsidy is the major driver of the anti-gentrification angst in the poor A-A community. If poor whites aren't being subsidized, maybe that's why they aren't protesting gentrification? Or maybe they just don't mind because people of the same race are moving in?

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by slavicamerican

Who is they?

Originally Posted by ferraris

But Is it different due to race or due to the fact that East Liberty is the only one of those neighborhoods that ever had 200 unit low rent apartment complexes?

Recent Penn Plaza evictions highlight East Liberty's severe lack of affordable housing | News | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper


Gentrification of Pittsburgh's white neighborhoods is largely a factor of owner/occupants choosing to sell their homes for profit, and leaving by choice. You really hear complaints about long time Lawrenceville residents being priced out or forced to leave. As far as race being a factor, I can't say for certain, but it's easier to evict a large swabs of people when they lack political capital and empathy from the public at large.

[slavicamerican]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Recent Penn Plaza evictions highlight East Liberty's severe lack of affordable housing | News | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper


Gentrification of Pittsburgh's white neighborhoods is largely a factor of owner/occupants choosing to sell their homes for profit, and leaving by choice. You really hear complaints about long time Lawrenceville residents being priced out or forced to leave. As far as race being a factor, I can't say for certain, but it's easier to evict a large swabs of people when they lack political capital and empathy from the public at large.

"it's easier to evict a large swabs of people when they lack political capital and empathy from the public at large"

This is true. And I guess poor whites in Western PA are expressing their general unhappiness by supporting Donald Trump, as opposed to, say, Black Lives Matter -- not that they're exactly parallel.

In DC, there's also a larger dynamic of a black city ("Chocolate City"), as the LTR call it, becoming white. A-A's have a storied history here, and it's traumatic to see it changing. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I always heard about the Labor Movement and various European ethnic groups in places like the South Side (Slovak), Bloomfield (Italian) and Squirrel Hill (Jewish). I honestly don't know what parts of Pittsburgh A-A's feel a strong connection, too, which is kind of embarrassing.

[gladhands]

DC really is a special case, and one of the saddest cases of gentrification in the country. Black families stuck it out in that city, when it was one of the worst places in the country. The local government has been hamstrung, and in many cases, forbidden from making changes that could benefit the city, because their purse strings are controlled by a Congress, in which they have no representation. White DC residents have historically been transient, and therefore had very little desire to work for political change within the district. Historically speaking, white people have taken advantage of the benefits of DC, while living in the suburbs. (Have you ever met a white person who was FROM DC?) now that the city has become attractive to white people, the building height limit prevents there from ever being enough housing to satisfy the need

[slavicamerican]

I just read this:

Recent Penn Plaza evictions highlight East Liberty's severe lack of affordable housing | News | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper

It's interesting, because it's the same dynamic as DC, but there are some differences:

1. In DC, there is a large psychological barrier between DC, VA and MD that keeps African-Americans from wanting to leave DC, particularly if it means moving to VA. I'm not sure if there is a parallel in Pittsburgh.
2. In DC, losing subsidized housing is a major blow, because even the bad neighborhoods can be a bit expensive. Isn't there a lot of cheap housing in the Pittsburgh area? The population there plummeted and the housing stock is large, unlike here. I know people don't want to leave their home or neighborhood, but isn't finding affordable housing doable?

[gladhands]

There are other affordable neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, but most will lack the walk ability and transit options that East Liberty has. Moving poor people away from transit and jobs is always a bad look.

[theta_sigma]

Gentrification tends to benefit communities with higher owner occupancy. When you own in a gentrifying neighborhood, yes your taxes might go up, but your property becomes something you can really cash in on. When you rent, you just get evicted and told to go live elsewhere. Home ownership is much higher for white people than black all over the country, for a variety of reasons. As a result, gentrifying a white neighborhood means grandma can cash out when she needs to move into a home (this is literally happening in my family right now). Gentrifying a black neighborhood means booting people out of their neighborhood permanently.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by slavicamerican

I feel like I could write a book on the race/class-based gentrification dynamic in DC, but I don't have a feel for whether anything like this is going on in Pittsburgh.

Please enlighten me!

Yes, gentrification has become a dirty word to many here. Pittsburgh used to have the hard working middle class vibe. It was truly an Affordable city. The character has completely changed. Race isn't an issue. The arguments are based on class. We have hipster neighborhoods that are only accessible to the upper income levels while the middle class and poor neighborhoods decline. Parts of the city resemble Brooklyn, NY more than the old Pittsburgh. The COL has risen drastically over the past two years and keeps going up while the region struggles with an average economy. Many of the middle class and poor are leaving the city/county for the exburbs. Residents are escaping the high COL, high taxes, crime, educational system, and old housing stock.

The trendy neighborhoods are fantastic, if a person can afford to live there.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by bluecarebear

Yes, gentrification has become a dirty word to many here. Pittsburgh used to have the hard working middle class vibe. It was truly an Affordable city. The character has completely changed. Race isn't an issue. The arguments are based on class. We have hipster neighborhoods that are only accessible to the upper income levels while the middle class and poor neighborhoods decline. Parts of the city resemble Brooklyn, NY more than the old Pittsburgh. The COL has risen drastically over the past two years and keeps going up while the region struggles with an average economy. Many of the middle class and poor are leaving the city/county for the exburbs. Residents are escaping the high COL, high taxes, crime, educational system, and old housing stock.

The trendy neighborhoods are fantastic, if a person can afford to live there.

This is hilarious, because the Brooklyn New York you're referring to is only 10-15 years old, and itself the product of gentrification. Brooklynites benoaned and continue to bemoan the changes. It's happening in every city in the country, and compared to others, Pittsburgh is stil quite affordable.

[SteelCityRising]

I live in a historically working-class predominantly white neighborhood, Polish Hill, that has been undergoing rapid gentrification in recent years due to its location---walking distance to Downtown or Oakland. At least two white friends of mine have been gentrified out of the neighborhood since I moved here in 2010 when their landlords decided to renovate their places and increase the rent, looking to cash in on the Apple/UBER types who work down the hill in the Strip District.

You'll never hear about the plight of poor working-class white renters being gentrified out of their longtime neighborhoods on here by wealthier whites because nobody cares unless those being displaced are African-American. Whites are told "dems da breaks" when they are gentrified out while everyone jumps through hoops to empathize with and try to accommodate blacks who are being gentrified out. White Guilt is strong here, especially because our ancestors forcibly removed blacks to make way for monstrosities like the former Civic Arena.

Overall there are still some (not many) safe, affordable, convenient neighborhoods in the city for working-class renters. The number of neighborhoods fitting that category has decreased since I moved here, though, and I expect that number to be scarce in another 5-10 years when I foresee places like Troy Hill, East Allegheny, Manchester, Greenfield, Garfield, Hazelwood, and Brookline to no longer have affordable rentals.

Most on here are upper-middle-class white homeowners, so don't expect many to be "in touch" with how and where gentrification is occurring in Pittsburgh.