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New Orleans uptown projects have been torn down and replaced with mix-income developments, its working well as far as I know. The projects were like Cabrini Green, I don't think anyone is/was fighting it.
I hate gentrification....
That and most long time DC residents are resentful over it, especially since the newcomers act like they are afraid of black people from the area.
DC has racial tensions. Police treat newcomer yuppies (who are mostly white) way different than people who are from here (Who are mostly black).
Because of DC's gentrification the rent here is getting so high that its comparable to some parts of Manhattan.
There is no longer a sense of REAL community.
I can go on about this all day but I don't feel like making myself mad about it.
Gentrification is not a bad thing, it's using valuable land in the most profitable ways possible. It just sucks for the inner-suburbs that have to take in and support the displaced hoodlums.
Gentrification is not a bad thing, it's using valuable land in the most profitable ways possible. It just sucks for the inner-suburbs that have to take in and support the displaced hoodlums.
There's a very interesting film about this very subject: Flag Wars, should be Netflixable. I got mine from amazon.com. It's extremely interesting, but it's also a real downer.
It focuses on the gentrification on the east side of downtown Columbus, Ohio.
The older black residents of the neighborhood are overwhelmingly elderly, families rooted in they area, and financially completely unable to afford to maintain their property, which has been in their families for eons. These are large, old victorian houses. They are too destitute to rehab the neighborhood, and the younger element in the neighborhood has drifted into criminality. There's one black neighborhood activist - an artist who runs some arts programs for kids who is a real kook but his heart is in the right place, and he's fighting a losing, one-man battle against both the forces of gentrification, and the worst elements in his own community. Many of the black residents are extraordinarily homophobic.
This is pertinent, as the overwhelming majority of the gentrifiers are white, male, gay, out, and well-off. They are snapping up properties in the neighborhood, the availability of some is gleaned from reading obituaries in the local paper. They have sunk a lot of cash into the neighborhood, and are turning it into outwardly a picture perfect example of urban neighborhood revitalization. Many of them are guided into the neighborhood by a lesbian real estate agent who is a total shark, from a business standpoint, and many of the new gay residents are extraordinarily racist, and very casual in not making any attempt at camouflaging the fact.
The most vocal individuals on both sides of the debate, as presented in the film, are intensely unlikable people - which is important to remember this is a film, so it has been edited for narrative consistency and dramatic flow, so it's a safe bet that there were people on 'both sides' of the debate whose take on things was a bit more open and nuanced. Still, a very interesting film - it does show quite clearly how complex the issue can be, how overly sensitive some people can be, and how the history of past bigotry can really lock different groups of people into an inability to easily comprehend other points of view. It's a disturbing film, because it just doesn't let you off easily, no matter what your point of view.
In my own family, I've seen both sides of this. I have a cousin who - with his wife - bought an old rowhouse in Washington in the early 70s, when you could actually by a rowhouse near Rock Creek Park cheap (!). They renovated the place top to bottom, and stuck around for more than a decade. They moved back to NC when his dad developed a terminal illness, and when they sold the place, they made quite a profit from it.
On the other hand, I also have a great aunt (90 years old), who lives where her oldest son (my 2nd cousin - a cancer survivor) in a craftsman bungalow in a section of Charlotte that was terrifying until about a decade ago. It's a corner lot, and about 1/2 mile west of uptown Charlotte. What was once ghetto as ghetto gets suddenly became a neighborhood of going to the mailbox, and at least once a week for probably a year straight, there would be a "we would like to buy your house" letter in the mailbox. As both residents were disabled, but were able to maintain the property, with the help of family, and given the expensive ugliness of the teardowns going on on other lots elsewhere on the same street, they've stubbornly remained in the house. Even in a recession, the real estate bubble-and-crash in Charlotte was mild enough that they still get those letters - more like 4 or 5 a month, instead of the 15 or more a month than they used to get, but it's a simultaneous source of irritation and amusement.
So I can see the benefits - I've been inside the benefits. I can also see the drawbacks. I know both sides of it personally. It's not an easy debate - nothing but emotions and paradoxes.
Gentrification is unique for each neighborhood in Philadelphia. Some residents welcome the newcomers because of the decreases in crime and increases in home values. Other neighborhoods actively fight the change and feel that they "own the neighborhood", such as Point Breeze in South Philadelphia.
I feel it should go both ways. Newcomers should respect that they are in fact "new residents" and generations of families have been there before them but older residents have to accept the fact that places change over time.
I hate gentrification....
That and most long time DC residents are resentful over it, especially since the newcomers act like they are afraid of black people from the area.
DC has racial tensions. Police treat newcomer yuppies (who are mostly white) way different than people who are from here (Who are mostly black).
Because of DC's gentrification the rent here is getting so high that its comparable to some parts of Manhattan.
There is no longer a sense of REAL community.
I can go on about this all day but I don't feel like making myself mad about it.
They're afraid for a reason. Compare (mostly black ) SE's crime rates with (mostly white) NW's. It's night and day. Remember, tourists used to be afraid of DC for a reason too. Gentrification is the best thing to happen to this area.
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