The Negative Effects Of Gentrification

Great Essays
Gentrification has been a big topic throughout the years. Gentrification is when the high and middle class population come into a poor neighborhoods and reclaim them. During this process an abundance of homes are rebuilt and the poorer class are being replace. Gentrification has extremely negative effects on inner city communities that are generally populated by African Americans. These communities suffer from the effects of gentrification for years by losing their homes and businesses to a higher class of people. Many areas that have and are being gentrified are African American communities because of the poverty most people of color live in. When a neighborhood has abandoned buildings or old factories, landlords come in and turn them into …show more content…
Their research defines gentrification as “the process of white people” supposedly claiming back or “reclaiming the inner cities by moving into” African American communities (94). Not only are these white people coming into these African American neighborhoods reclaiming them, but they are breaking up the culture asset of these communities as well. When gentrification occurs, the thought of a community transforming because now the communities are profit driven instead of culture driven. When a community is culture driven it means that the local businesses are owned and supported by the local community members. To add, there is a lot of community communication with a culture driven neighborhood. The lack of communication with the new and remaining old members of a gentrified neighborhood shows the culture shift in the community as well. When looking into African American communities, there is always a sense of unity between all the neighbors, but as the community starts to change members, it starts to notice disperse. Historically, this is shown in the communities of people of color within New York City and is acknowledged by Patricia Valoy in her Everyday Feminism article. According to Valoy, “the truth is that new developments and fancy coffee shops will never replace the social network that helped local residents survive.” They also talk about …show more content…
It is understood that by moving higher and middle class people into these low income areas it makes the neighborhoods a “safer” area. In an editorial entitled “Bring on the Hipsters,” the Economist, a weekly newspaper, claim that gentrification puts “pressure on schools, the police and the city to improve” (2). Although people can argue this is true, there is no evidence that this happened in all areas that have been gentrified. The problem is that cities should not have to move people out of their houses to improve the areas safety and schools. Once these old local members move into new communities they should not have to deal with the same crimes that might have been going on with their old communities. The safety and education system should be the same in all neighborhoods such as African American, low, middle, and high class. The Economist goes on by saying when raising the prices on property, it “also generates more property-tax revenue, helping to improve local service.” This makes it affordable to build “subsidized housing for the poor” (2). Understanding the points that The Economist is making but, there is not documents that show that more subsidized houses are being made to support the lower class community. Lastly, if these house are being built up but not taken care of then who is to say that gentrification will not happen to these “new” areas as

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Gentrification has been a long topic that has been recently discussed as if effects all across the United States. In the podcast “Mouth to Ear” the Black and Latino communities their were renovations to their community when showed that whites were moving into their community. As a result of this rent increased, the area around them started to become more expensive, and this led to low-income residents moving out because they did not have the money, or was force out. The podcasts gave several examples of low-income residents forced out their homes because they did not have the money the landowners wanted. The podcast gave an example of a women living in Bedford Stuyvesant was forced out of her apartment new building owners bought the building.…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Black On The Block Summary

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The multifaceted class interests defines the communities like NKO, which consist of predominantly African Americans. Since gentrification is a familiar story, in which people believe that gentrification is only about improving residents’ living standards. Pattillo’s story is different because she looks at the process of gentrification within a mixed-income community while new residents deftly negotiate their stay with the formers. I enjoyed reading about how Pattillo created gentrification as being a vicious cycle of conflicting inter-class and interracial interests and not just focusing on neighborhood improvements. Although that is very important, I found it to be more enlightening to learn about how race and social status influenced urban development as Pattillo succinctly summed it as “the politics of race and class in the city.”…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bushwick Research Paper

    • 1935 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Formerly known ghetto-ethnic enclave hybrids such as the Lower East Side, Washington Heights, and Hell’s Kitchen have transformed in less than the last fifteen years. With overpopulation and high-rent in the more popular neighborhoods such as the Upper West Side and Williamsburg, these areas which had not been seen as attractive due to their isolation, aged and factory exteriors, and higher crime rates, begun to be inhabited by hipsters and poor college graduates as well as people with jobs such as actors and models due to the proximity to the more popular areas. Areas like these then become so popular and expensive that they could no longer shelter the populations that once defined them. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the diminishing number of barrios in New York City using the examples of the transformation in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan and the beginnings of gentrification in Bushwick, Brooklyn as the backdrop.…

    • 1935 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rina Swentzell Thesis

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The current residents anger is fueled by the utter disregard of new buyers changing the “old” neighborhood culture to suit their profits. Moreover, it seems as if the current increasing property values are a reflection of the middle class movement into current and former low income areas. As a result, the residents of Boyle Height are offended and angry that the gentrification is not only changing the neighborhood’s physical appearance, but also the inclusionary culture. In order to protest, they have utilized their inclusiveness as a weapon to fight and prolong gentrification. Consequently, their collective anger against gentrification might just save what Rina Swentzell felt like she and her fellow student’s lost in their…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Places of their own: African-American Suburbanization by Andrew Wiese examines the forces behind the suburbanization of Black Americans in the 20th century and the challenges they faced in doing so. The author emphasized the importance of black suburbanization for the growth of the 20th century the United States. Establishment of suburbs was critical to the study of Black Americans in the United States. The emergence of suburbs was a representative of the new generation of black American, who were socially and economically advanced compared to the past.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Beginning in the 1960s apartments were filled by “white-Europeans, and white-South Americans, Indian immigrants began occupying apartments. The neighborhood was still unwelcoming to blacks who would settle in East Elmhurst.” (Miyares,2004,p.476) The changes in the neighborhood happened within increments, yet at a fast pace. By the 1990s one could witness “sections of Roosevelt Avenue are transformed into a Latin American city.…

    • 1754 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bensonhurst Research Paper

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Zukin’s article delves upon how gentrification and reubranization influence the authenticity of an urban place. Her article relates to my neighborhood because in the same retrospect as Harlem, Bensonhurst has also undergone an extensive transformation and changes due to the new residents and commercial buildings. Merry’s “Urban Danger: Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers” explores the urban danger correlated with living in a neighborhood with “strangers.” Her article concentrates on a…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The word Gentrification is a process of renovation and revival of deteriorated urban neighborhoods by means of an influx of more affluent residents, which results in increased property values and the displacing of lower-income families and small businesses. In “ Gentrification” a white man lives in a neighborhood with black people in it also and a black family throws out an old mattress and rats make the mattress their home. The white guy gets up extra early and takes the mattress to the dump and when he returns home a black boy calls the white guy racist towards his black family just because he threw out they 're…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This did not simply mean an investment, but the opportunity to make the American Dream a reality. However, real estate agents have not seen any potential to invest in the Black community. First measure was taken by giving the lowest rating in every Black neighborhood regardless of class. Even a middle-class Black was forced to settle in those neighborhoods without consent and desire. With poor maintenance, old and substandard complexes, no potential for improvements and increasing infringement of hazards, the panorama on every Black community seemed…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Residential segregation has a big impact on today’s society. It creates a downfall in the equality of many non-whites. While many people chose to live with others of the same race, those neighborhoods may not provide the best opportunities. The problem starts with poor education then unemployment or low income then bad relationships which can lead to criminal activity. Historically, non-whites tend to live in poor neighborhoods in which they have a lot of contact with people involved in criminal activity (Walker, Spohn, & Delone, 2012).…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Suburban Migration

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages

    While the suburbs continue to have mainly middle class and white people move out to the area, all downsized cities are left with is the huge portion of poor and minority people. With the increasing amount of Latino and Asian immigrants moving into the U.S. cities, this has been one of the main reasons as to why this movement has intensified. The new suburban growth of…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The government is able to invest more in services that are beneficial for the community, since upper class residents contribute more income tax and property taxes, which then increases tax revenues. These services include improving schools, reconditioning of roads and parks, beautifying and rehabilitating the community, and most importantly providing a safer environment. A decline in crime rates is highly desired in a community since it attracts more businesses and residents. Gentrification gives property ownership and diminishes vacant properties, which often have high concentration in crimes. Moreover, the addition of more shops and establishments means more job opportunities for everyone, especially for low income residents.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Main Point 1: What is gentrification a. According to PBS: Flag Wars, gentrification is, “a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district’s character and culture.” [1] i. Basically, they take a lower-income community and try to clean it up so there can be more opportunities to make the economy increase b. Gentrification is a way to build up a community and by doing this the area’s value goes up. i. However, it is mostly seen as a negative term, since people see it as rich people kicking out poor out their communities ii.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Public Housing Failure

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Public Housing in the United States has by many been considered to be a major failure. It has generally failed to provide its residents with a safe environment to live, and outside of the buildings often plagued with violence, segregation, lack of upward mobility, the failure to maintain the buildings for its residents, and unemployment have led to failure in the public housing system. While changes are being made to improve public housing and root out problems such as racism, and corruption within the housing authority, overwhelmingly the history of what was supposed to be a revolutionary way of living for urban poor, has been a failure. Due to the decline of the city at the time public housing arose, racism, and the failure of the federal…

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gentrification is usually blamed for the displacement of lower class residents occurs. As Neil Smith states in his book The New Urban Frontier, “infects working class communities, displaces poor households, and converts whole neighborhoods into bourgeois enclaves.” Neil Smith was a geographer who had similar perspectives to Karl Marx. He believes with the addition of new and wealthy classes, the old classes will be forced out to create more neighborhood of the wealthy classes. Lower-income residents become more isolated from their neighborhood.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays