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A unique discussion on gentrification
@tkbey: A unique discussion on gentrification. Can we make it happen in Blackwell, Church Hill, Jackson Ward? theatlanticcities.com/neighborho…
“The neighborhood of Bronzeville on the South Side of Chicago has been gentrifying now for more than a decade. Formerly boarded-up beautiful brick homes along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive have come to life. New construction has gone up on land where high-rise public housing projects were spectacularly imploded starting in the 1990s. Median incomes and property values have soared.
Gentrification, though, means something different in Bronzeville than it does in other neighborhoods. In most U.S. cities the word has generally come to imply the gradual taking of a place from one group (usually poor people, usually minorities) by another (usually middle- or upper-class whites). But in Bronzeville, a historically black neighborhood – once Chicago’s version of Harlem, the city’s “Black Metropolis” – the gentrifiers are black, too.
Some of them have been there for years, ascending the income ladder as the black middle-class nationwide has dramatically expanded. Then there is the sense that others are “returning” 30 or 40 years after the black middle-class left Bronzville. Either way, there seems to be space enough in the neighborhood amid the vacant lots.
READ MORE: How Black Gentrifiers Have Affected the Perception of Chicago’s Changing Neighborhoods
TAGGED: gentrification
I believe in what Bob Lupton calls “gentrification with justice.” Gentrification brings needed value to communities, but if it is not done with justice it displaces the poor and other people who call these neighborhoods home. We need to figure out ways to increase the value of our neighborhoods in such a way that it benefits long term as well as new residents.
I’d like to commend the work in our neighborhood of Urban Hope, which is seeking to address this gentrification problem. Urban Hope seeks to help folks indigenous to the neighborhood become home owners in our neighborhood. Most of these folks do not qualify for traditional mortgage loans, but Urban Hope has developed a process for it to happen. This works because when people are homeowners instead of renters, as property values in our neighborhood rise they benefit from it just as much as new homeowners. Check it out at http://www.urban-hope.org/
Very interesting and encouraging article. Nice to have an example of how re-populating city neighborhoods can work for people at all economic levels. Thanks for sharing, CHPN. Thanks, too, for turning us on to the “Atlantic Cities” website. Lots of great reading about how cities are changing–very inspiring for RVA.
I don’t really see why it matters what color they are. Most people who complain of gentrification point out that they don’t want their home values to go up because then they can’t afford the taxes. The thing is you can’t have it both ways. You can’t want a nice neighborhood with beautiful streets, shiny houses and clean yards but also want to pay little to no taxes or keep your own yard up. The healthiest of neighborhoods contain all income groups though. They just need to figure out how to all get along without being intimidated by one another. Even if all these problems are solved though, you will never cure people’s ultimate fear, CHANGE.
Because, ultimately, it does matter the race of the gentrifier (in this country) due to our long history of racial injustice. Your perception of people is based on racial and class (mid)perceptions of people which are exactly what drive the division of communities in gentrifying neighborhoods. I think Corey said it best though and will leave it at that.
@4 – so are you proposing racially segregated neighborhoods? Because that seems to be what the logical extension of your sentiment would be.
Brett, I would tend to agree with Just a Neighbor, that it matters because of the weight of our own broken racial past. Our own neighborhood is emblematic in that the population patterns have been so indelibly linked to race. As middle class and wealthy whites move back into the neighborhood, we often do not recognize the ways that our racial identity carries certain invisible privileges with it that can pose obstacles to others. I don’t think this is a reason to not encourage new populations moving here– however I do think it requires we be much more thoughtful about how our presence impacts a community for good and for ill, and to steward that accordingly.
Corey, you put it much better than neighbor did. When you express it like that, I think it’s fair to ask that folks moving in to a neighborhood be respectful of those who were already there. It’s probably also the same anytime there is a dramatic shift though.
There’s been a lot of cases when an area hits a slump for a while, the “starving artist” types move in and make a charming community, rich folks start flocking and price out the folks who made it.
Leaving race out of it and just adopting the general rule of “when moving to an area, respect those who lived there before and try to add to what they’ve built versus changing everything” might make this less polarizing.
Many of us would like to do that but aren’t going to want to move to neighborhood where we feel we aren’t welcome. If that happens, you end up with the same patterns of segregation.
yeah, alex…i’m the one who is polarizing, because you have always been the ambassador of friendly. *insertfacepalm*
Where did I say that you were polarizing in there? (Not that I’d disagree with that statement but I was hoping to avoid getting into it with you for once and actually have a discussion about the topic without the ad hominems)
But since you started it and I do always love watching you get all worked up…
You have no idea who am or what I do or don’t do for the community in real life. Hard as it may be for you to accept, it’s possible that not all your neighbors who don’t agree with everything you believe aren’t really assholes (though some of us do enjoy a spirited debate and might occasionally enjoy jabbing you when you go off on a self righteous kick). The fact that we have different opinions of what the most effective ways to solve poverty issues and achieve a color blind society are doesn’t mean that we want them any less.
My arguments have always been with your prescriptions not that there is a problem or that it wouldn’t be nice to solve. I don’t doubt your sincerity though.
There are a lot of people in CH that will never be home owners or involved in anything for the good of the community. They want things to stay just the way they were because they’ve pieced together a life on it. They’ve lived here all their lives, moving from one rental to another with in a few blocks circumference.. They use the corner markets as their grocery store, bank, pharmacy, liquor store, social center, etc. They don’t own cars, they don’t take the bus, they very rarely leave the neighborhood proper. Those people will be run out of this area as more houses are purchased and turned back into single family homes and businesses. These folks won’t be renting from Lava Lofts. Right now it’s like watching a slow tide come in up Marshall Street.