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Old 04-09-2015, 10:46 AM
 
1,376 posts, read 1,305,018 times
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Gentrification doesn't even really have to follow the old, artists and gays find old houses in sort of rundown inner neighborhood, galleries and coffeehouses follow, then come hipsters, yuppies, and weekend tourists. Now days it seems like there's neighborhoods that go straight from sort of lower/working class to upscale restaurants and condos in short time--they skip the whole waiting for artists to start to gentrify an area, just go right to the new urban redevelopment model(funded by big developers). In part though in a lot of cities out west, almost all the denser lder core neighborhood with pre-1940s housing or streetcar suburbs have seen some gentrification to various degrees--because those neighborhoods have been high in demand and there's a limited amount left(though in the Midwest and Northeast there's much more of the older styles).

On the other hand there's also a sort of lesser echo gentrification that takes place these days. With inner neighborhoods more and more expensive--and real estate either owned by people who bought years ago when it was cheaper or have the equity to buy in competitive markets or those willing to settle for a small condo--those that want to live in the city and maybe settle down and have a home and family but have middle class incomes are now ending up in the outer neighborhoods of core cities or inner ring suburbs. Like a lot of people I know in Portland or Vancouver or Seattle or SF Bay areas who are about my age(mid-30s) and want to buy a place end up moving further out--and though we're not hipsters(too old and busy to go out to trendy bars all week) or at we're not wealthy yuppies(though we might like some of the same restaurants)--we end up bringing a new market for restaurants and businesses as we move further out. It's sort of another example of gentrification though none of us are artists or hipsters at this point, most of us work fairly boring office jobs and might be starting families--but we are changing the neighborhoods we end up in as well. Maybe we're just yuppies with less money...

Last edited by CanuckInPortland; 04-09-2015 at 10:57 AM..
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Old 04-09-2015, 11:38 AM
 
Location: Lakewood OH
21,695 posts, read 28,321,279 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foo cities View Post
Seattle, Seattle, Seattle and Portland, Portland, Portland, Portland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a sad story. They used to be mellow and cool. Now, they're very expensive and have the California urban chaos.
That's what I was thinking when I made my last post. I lived in what is now a very trendy neighborhood in Portland for 28 years. When I first moved there it was a bit on the shabby side but being improved in a good way. It didn't need much.

Through the years though, with rents skyrocketing and housing prices soaring the improvements or gentrification or whatever you want to call it has turned it into just another boring copy cat city neighborhood; over priced, over crowded and typical of that which is sought after today by the yuppie crowd. The best of these great places is often being torn down not because there is anything wrong with the present structures, but because they are not large enough to accommodate the numbers of yuppie and hipster types who flock to live there now .

The real improvements to the neighborhood were made decades ago. Now it's more a matter of destruction of what made it unique. But of course those who flock there today have no idea of what it once was.

This is not uncommon in many cities of today from what I see on CD. It's just what people seem to be looking for.
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Old 04-09-2015, 06:59 PM
 
Location: Western North Carolina
7,984 posts, read 10,547,687 times
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It has everything to do with the big income divide. In many of these cities these days, you're either in, or you're out. You either make enough money to live in a decent part of town, or you qualify for enough welfare and government assistant to live in the low income areas. If you are somewhere in the middle and want a decent home and life, you have to get out.
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Old 04-09-2015, 07:02 PM
 
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
7,010 posts, read 11,904,295 times
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Omaha nebraska!
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Old 04-10-2015, 12:08 AM
 
Location: Seattle, WA
60 posts, read 102,505 times
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New York or Los Angeles stand out to me the most. Honorable mentions go to Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Dallas.

Basing these off of rich/poor gaps for the most part.
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Old 04-10-2015, 10:34 PM
 
4,899 posts, read 6,185,913 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 11KAP View Post
all that hard-earned rent money people
were paying for the last 30 years made
it easier for the yuppies to buy up the city
and stay, while the regular working people
have to find somewhere else to live.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimrob1 View Post
I don't know about every city but what you described is a good description of Yuppies in Portland. My discomfort with them was I lived right in thier main neighborhood.( The Pearl District of Portland. ) Or I should say they became the majority resident. I felt very much the outsider. Everything became high end expensive stores and businesses. The only everyday businesses to go to that were not high end were, Safeway, Subway, Quizonos, Rite Aid and some banks. Everything else was doggie botiques, doggy hotels, Expensive cafe's, dress shops, and other high end shops. Anything and everything to let it be known that the Yuppie was the target resident, and everyone else was just more tax revenue. Very unwelcoming feeling. Now and then some of these Yuppie residents showed some minor level of friendliness, However many wouldn't give you the time of day. They would walk up and down the streets, with thier eyes focused on thier IPhone. I think the lack of common courtesy, and the focus on themself to the point it is nauseating was my biggest dislike about them. Perhaps if one got to know some of them or they allowed that. Then a different impression might be formed. They just seem very self centered and rather thoughtless. When I would see them in public places, they seemed so much younger than I was at their age. I noticed many seemed younger in behavior than thier actual age. I mean these people are well into thier 20's 30's and even 40's Some seemed rather immature to come right out and say it. I felt a number of them could have used a few years in the military to grow up some.

When I moved away from Portland my contact with that type of resident ended.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FOReverxpeace View Post
I'm surprised there aren't enough responses for NYC. NYC is the #1 yuppie city, followed by LA and Chicago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minervah View Post
The areas though are not necessarily always high crime. In my neighborhood, it was the elderly and lower income people who were forced to move. It was not a high crime area. It was simply an area with inexpensive housing inhabitated by people who remained in the neighborhood for years after the area had been cleaned up of whatever petty crime that had previously discouraged some from moving here.

But then people from other areas realized what a bargain they could get with fixer upper homes and they moved in. They sold them to yuppies. Rental building owners began raising rents. The neighborhood never really needed a whole lot of improvement. It just became more expensive because those who could afford it were willing to pay the prices that people were now charging.
Quote:
Originally Posted by key4lp View Post
Grew up in a Chicago blue collar and middle class neighborhood which also had many immigrants.
Wouldn't change it for the world. It is great when a distressed area can turn around but some
areas in Chicago which I'll term as "yuppified" stripped the character and charm of the neighborhoods.
Local ethnic, mom and pop shops, bars and restaurants were not frequented by the yuppies who
were not explorers & felt more comfortable with some of the posts above i.e, Starbucks, Whole Foods,
doggy boutiques....get the mentality. The neighborhood demographic was narrowed to a specific
age range. Lack of diversity which would include younger and older generations talking to each other
and helping each other went by by.
Many who moved in these areas came from the suburbs or from other parts of the country & claimed
their domain and opinions on how things should be in their new city.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minervah View Post
This and all the other quotes that were made in this post are exactly on target. I also grew up in Chicago neighborhoods of this type. My dad was a blue collar worker and our Chicago neighborhood was as blue collar as you could get. We had what peope say they want today, walkable neighborhoods with public transportation and local ma and pa shops but it wasn't considered "cool" or "trendy" and we didn't to pay a steep price from them. Nor were they high end like Whole Foods or Fancy restaraunts or expensive little shops but were usually owned by first generation European immigrants.

While one does not have to use the word "ruined" by yuppies there are words that can certainly be used to show the changes not only of our neighborhoods but the general trend in which this country is going. That trend to me is that the rich are getting richer and the middle class is slowly getting strangled and pushed out of their niche and more and more into lower standards of living.
^^^agree. I too grew up in Chicago and lived close-by in a neighboring state (job relocation).
I find it rather sad when I see some neighborhoods and what was lost due to gentrification which
Jimrob described. I have also noticed (after being on this site for a short time) that many younger
people than myself (and yes yuppies) see blue collar workers as secondary citizens, which
is confusing since there are many blue collar workers with an college education.
As a boomer we too lived in the city, had an college education, supported small business owners,
took public transportation, engaged in conversations with people of all ages, took pride in our homes,
and neighborhoods and did a lot of walking (to get to the drug store, grocery store, etc...)
Many of the gentrified neighborhoods all filled with corporate retailers. Example by the Univ. of
Illinois (Circle Campus) the Italian neighborhood is a facade and there is a major shopping district
with corporate stores where we can see anywhere in any town or city in the States.
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Old 04-11-2015, 03:32 PM
 
Location: Central Maine
2,866 posts, read 3,613,332 times
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States: Vermont. The hippies, the yuppies, the 2nd home owners, the "back to earth" types, the trust fund kids.....
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Old 04-11-2015, 03:36 PM
 
Location: Avignon, France
11,113 posts, read 7,848,534 times
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Out with the old.... In with the new.
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Old 04-11-2015, 04:18 PM
 
Location: Lakewood OH
21,695 posts, read 28,321,279 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney123 View Post
Out with the old.... In with the new.
That's the exact kind of cavalier attitude that is causing a great divisiveness in our country today. To dismiss the displacement of low to lower middle income citizens of a city simply as "new" or "progress" is nothing more than the justification of the destruction of other people's lives.

It isn't a matter of "old" and "new." Who says in every case that "new" is better than old? Not when it promotes overcrowding, filth and a lost sense of community. That's what happened in my former yuppie gentrified neighborhood. If that is "new" I'll take "old" any day.
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Old 04-11-2015, 05:08 PM
 
Location: Florida
11,669 posts, read 17,839,289 times
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Stamford, CT has been majorly yuppified over the past decade. Numerous overpriced luxury apartments all over the place. They are very pretentious, snooty people who feel the need to show off and be sophisticated. I can't stand it. Technically I'm a yuppie myself, but I do not identify with that kind. That's why I purposely chose to live in Norwalk instead, which is a far more grounded city with a larger middle class and far less yuppies.
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