Spike Lee and Gentrification: Chicago Issue (Humboldt: best neighborhoods, slums, murders)

[Chi-town Native]

8 years old and this analysis is still dead on:

Today's Immigration Battle: Corporatists vs. Racists (and Labor is Left Behind)

[Drover]

Way back when Chi-Town and I were teeny-boppers, it was actually quite common for teenagers to make considerably more than minimum wage just doing menial work. Part of it was that the minimum wage back then ($3.35/hr) was not as effective a price floor as it is now ($3.35/hr would be $6.00/hr today), and part of it was that the supply/demand dynamics worked out much more in favor of the employed versus the employers back then. Throughout the latter half of the 1980s and through much of the 1990s, the economy was extremely robust.

[IntlFalls56649]

What's really changing the class divide in America, I believe, is rural versus urban. I used to live in Chicago (West Loop - loved it - but came back up here to my hometown of International Falls, Minnesota in December for a while) and in the time I lived there, I noticed the 'gentrification' as well as a real uptick in rents that very few people - even with roommates - and even with a full-time job - would be able to afford. The waiting lists for subsidized housing were nearly ten years long. As expensive new condominiums are being built, SRO hotels are being torn down. Gone are the days where a young person could safely live at a place like the 'Y' and, for a budget rate, find their way and live downtown and walk to work.

What I've noticed about areas such as my region is the arrival of urban families with no money, no income, no job skills, and no education. What brought them up here? The free-flowing social service goodies as well as no waiting lists for subsidized housing. Most of them don't work, are on SSI (but are able to walk to the liquor store and smoke lots of cigarettes all day) so the fact that there are no jobs here doesn't seem to be an issue. So why has crime dropped so significantly in places such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and (to an extent) Detroit? Because the new 'ghettos' are in towns like mine. People with no education, money or skills are coming here because the social services they are used to and grew up with have faded away in urban America. The only place they remain are in cities that are so far north they would never have considered coming up here 10-20 years ago, to a town where there's nothing to do and the closest city with 90,000 people (Duluth) is 165 miles south. Much of the criminal activity here is not committed by the tenants of these apartments, as having a felony on your record disallows someone from living in Section 8 housing or getting welfare benefits (I think). It's the grown children, the relatives, the friends from back home that are invited up here and end up never leaving that create the crime problem we have now. So the 'dramatic drop in crime' has simply shifted to newer and smaller communities, and left a police force with little experience concerning gang/drug activity to deal with it. This was not the case a decade ago.

So in discussing gentrification, I am interested to see what will happen in the future. Certainly, there are many low/no income housing units sitting empty in towns like this and the land is very cheap. There are no jobs, but as I said, many people living like this are not looking for work nor are they interested in education. My fear is that the larger cities will be home to the rich, very well-educated and successful, and the smaller, rural towns will be mini-Cabrini Greens. I really hope not, but I could definitely see how that could happen.

It really is too bad. You drive south in Minnesota and what used to be farm towns are now prison towns - as you travel down I-35 from Duluth, you see one state prison home to maximum-security sex offenders, another that holds the maximum security juvenile offenders, others that house federal, white-collar offenders, list goes on.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Drover

Way back when Chi-Town and I were teeny-boppers, it was actually quite common for teenagers to make considerably more than minimum wage just doing menial work. Part of it was that the minimum wage back then ($3.35/hr) was not as effective a price floor as it is now ($3.35/hr would be $6.00/hr today), and part of it was that the supply/demand dynamics worked out much more in favor of the employed versus the employers back then. Throughout the latter half of the 1980s and through much of the 1990s, the economy was extremely robust.

Yep. I had my first job as a "delivery monkey" in the Loop the summer before 8th grade, I worked for a temp firm that provided fairly high end workers like medical technicians and the like, for short term assignments. I carried loads and loads of bags of paystub-related info around, worked my butt off and made a cool $3.50 an hour.

The internet is also a massive factor, as it has clearly made lots of these manual labor-ish jobs obsolete.

[Chi-town Native]

...and to address the whole "choices" aspect of this, while I was on a train every day at 7 am and returning at 530, most of my neighborhood "peers" were breakdancing, playing informal sport-related activities, watching TV, and smoking dope. These were working class white and Latino kids for the most part. And while in middle school those activities (barring the dope) are pretty normal, my point would be that those kids all grew out of that by high school. If you're in your twenties and your idea of life is watching TV, playing an X Box, being bored in a neighborhood park meant for little kids and dulling your brain, don't blame society, look in the mirror.

And this isn't really even a class issue. See that old movie "Kids", I guarantee you that there are plenty of children with wealthy parents growing up in Lincoln Park and the burbs who are that irresponsible as well. I am all for a good party, but that does not have to be mutually exclusive with either holding down a job and/or staying on top of your schoolwork.

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by Drover

Way back when Chi-Town and I were teeny-boppers, it was actually quite common for teenagers to make considerably more than minimum wage just doing menial work. Part of it was that the minimum wage back then ($3.35/hr) was not as effective a price floor as it is now ($3.35/hr would be $6.00/hr today), and part of it was that the supply/demand dynamics worked out much more in favor of the employed versus the employers back then. Throughout the latter half of the 1980s and through much of the 1990s, the economy was extremely robust.

Even in today's tough labor market, babysitters in my area make $15-20 an hour. It helps to do something people need done, instead of just saying "I want a job."

[Drover]

It also helps to have a robust economy that can accommodate a wide range of skill sets.

[oak317]

Originally Posted by BleedCubbieBlue

Spike Lee explains expletive-filled gentrification rant - CNN.com

After reading about Spike Lee's comments regarding gentrification, I tend to agree with him and his take on the "Christopher Columbus Syndrome". Neighborhoods in chicago are being "discovered" and changed with total disregard for the history or existing culture of the neighborhood. How can we find a balance? Is it possible?

Neighborhoods like Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, and the South Loop have all become much safer as a result of gentrification. Is this a bad thing?

I don't think you can compare Chicago to Brooklyn. Chicago doesn't have a real estate problem anything like that of New York City. Meaning, the benefits of gentrification in Chicago far outweigh the costs. Whereas in New York City, the costs (lack of affordable housing, exodus of artists) really bring down the benefits.

[Aleking]

Originally Posted by oak317

Neighborhoods like Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, and the South Loop have all become much safer as a result of gentrification. Is this a bad thing?

I don't think you can compare Chicago to Brooklyn. Chicago doesn't have a real estate problem anything like that of New York City. Meaning, the benefits of gentrification in Chicago far outweigh the costs. Whereas in New York City, the costs (lack of affordable housing, exodus of artists) really bring down the benefits.

Logan and Humboldt are both seeing increases in murders and any decreases in Wicker were simply displaced

[oak317]

Originally Posted by It'sAutomatic

Well put. Spike Lee is a chump and he always has been a chump.

How much did black people moving into Fort Greene or Harlem do to preserve the previous history and culture?

They didn't "preserve" the culture. They gave it the culture it's now known for. The Harlem Renaissance, for example.