Can gentrification be a force for good?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Let’s start with two key reasons gentrification occurs: a population increase and a housing shortage. Shrinking housing supplies and rising\u00a0real estate\u00a0prices make\u00a0once affordable neighborhoods less affordable. When that happens, more people become willing to either accept a longer commute to work or live slightly farther from their\u00a0favorite part\u00a0of town. In exchange for less expensive and larger houses, they begin buying property on the periphery of the city, \u201cgentrifying\u201d lower middle class enclaves. As property values increase in the gentrifying neighborhood, new businesses\u00a0start to meet the needs and wants of a more affluent demographic. Meanwhile, the poorer people who used to live in the \u201cold\u201d neighborhood find themselves getting pushed farther out<\/a> or, in worst cases, into\u00a0the streets.<\/span><\/p>\n Rising land values and increasing income disparities may make it seem like, for many neighborhoods, the prospect of gentrification is inevitable. But is there a way to gentrify so that communities and the people who live in them \u2014 no matter where they are\u00a0in the financial spectrum \u2014 come out ahead?<\/span><\/p>\n Both the late Brooklyn\u00a0anthropologist, sociologist and urban planner Jane Jacobs and San Francisco\u00a0architect and activist Liz Ogbu answer\u00a0Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n In her 1962 book\u00a0The Death and Life of Great American Cities,\u00a0<\/em>Jacobs\u00a0defended the need to protect the unique character of a neighborhood, including its diversity of houses, buildings, public spaces and diversity of residents \u2014 as part of its identity.\u00a0<\/strong>Jacobs\u00a0also believed that on a micro level, interactions on\u00a0city sidewalks reflect and shape the macro \u2014\u00a0the country as a whole.\u00a0\u201cTrust\u00a0within\u00a0a city is formed over time from many, many little public sidewalk contacts,\u201d Jacobs wrote,\u00a0adding that\u00a0\u201csidewalk contact and safety, together, can thwart segregation and racial discrimination.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, Jacobs did not\u00a0oppose progress. Her point was to recognize the value that exists within a city and then strive to add to it and strengthen it, as opposed to the notion of\u00a0urban renewal, which suggests wiping out the old and building anew. In fact, to Jacobs, writing in her\u00a0Dark Age Ahead<\/em>, gentrification benefits neighborhoods, \u201cbut so much less than it could have if the displaced people had been recognized as community assets worth retaining.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jane Jacobs on Urban Planning\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Jacobs\u00a0blamed urban\u00a0planners. According to them, a shortage of housing simply signals the need to build more housing and to build housing taller. She considered such rapid re-development and\u00a0urban renewal<\/a> potentially dangerous and \u00a0destructive. Urban planners are\u00a0lost in strategic planning, master planning, zoning and landscaping, she argued. These concepts are important, but not at the expense of the role of space, particularly public space, and what fills the space\u00a0between public and buildable space.<\/span><\/p>\n To Jacobs,\u00a0cities thrive on\u00a0diversity, specifically diversity of people and diversity of locations, such as\u00a0parks, buildings, bars and restaurants. Perhaps how\u00a0we develop and address the microcosm of a\u00a0city economy reflects on the macrocosm, i.e., the country, she suggested. In her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities<\/em>, Jacobs lashed out against the Utopian vision of perfect, static designs she called \u201cthe dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and be served.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Alternative? Gentrify\u00a0with Discretion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In her recent\u00a0TED talk<\/a>, architect and activist\u00a0Liz Ogbu<\/a>\u00a0suggests that cultural erasure and economic displacement don’t\u00a0have to be\u00a0inevitable consequences of progress or gentrification.\u00a0She argues that too often we see lower class\u00a0lifestyles bulldozed to make way for higher class\u00a0lifestyles. According to Ogbu, \u201cpoor people don\u2019t hate gentrification, they just hate that they don\u2019t get to hang around to watch its benefits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ogbu goes on to say that,\u00a0\u201cif you\u2019ve ever been displaced, then you know the agony of losing a place that held your story. Imagine walking home from your favorite local spot and opening a letter from your landlord that says your rent has been doubled.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Similar to Jacobs\u2019 counsel\u00a0to listen to local voices to understand what would help rejuvenate or build on a local place without replacing the fabric of the neighborhood, Ogbu suggests that \u201cwe cannot create\u00a0neighborhoods for everyone unless we\u2019re willing to first listen to everyone.\u201d Ogbu goes on to say that she\u2019s never visited\u00a0a gentrified neighborhood where pain didn\u2019t exist and the potential for healing is\u00a0absent. And the\u00a0healing isn\u2019t just for the poor. She asserts that \u201cfor those of us with privilege, we have to have a reckoning with guilt, discomfort and complicity.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The rich or middle class might hear \u201cgentrification\u201d and think about how they\u2019ll get in on a good real estate deal and make an investment that will pay off in the foreseeable future. Even so, the concept of gentrification probably may makes them feel uneasy, even guilty, about those displaced. \u00a0Yes, they want a cool or new or hip place to live, but even so, they don\u2019t want to kick other people out of their homes.\u00a0She goes on to say that we can find value in the old stories and the new ones too as long as we \u201cmake a commitment to build people\u2019s capacity to stay, to stay in their homes, to stay in the communities, to stay where they feel whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There are great examples of cities gentrifying all over the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kalima Rose\u2019s in-depth analysis\u00a0Combatting Gentrification Through Equitable Development<\/em><\/a>\u00a0lists four core anti-displacement strategies with a list of tools and examples of cities such as\u00a0Brooklyn and East Palo Alto\u00a0that help\u00a0establish equitable development for current residents. The four core strategies are: stabilize existing renters, control land for community development, build income and assets creation, and develop financing strategies. Rose goes on to provide a list of tools for each of the core strategies, which include: community land trusts (CLTs), limited-equity housing cooperatives, housing trust funds, and inclusionary zoning and below market rate (BMR) ordinances.<\/span><\/p>\n According to\u00a0The Daily Texan<\/a><\/em>, a new Anti-Displacement Task Force was put together in Austin in January of this year\u00a0collaborating with university professors to tackle gentrification. Austinites are discussing government programs based on ideas\u00a0Rose mentions above, including a low-income housing trust fund, rent and eviction controls,\u00a0and a \u201cright to stay\u201d program. Both Ogbu and Jacobs would probably be pleased\u00a0of the task force\u2019s\u00a0primary goal, which is for its members and the residents of Austin to gather, speak and listen.\u00a0\u201cComing out to hear people speak, we are hearing what [Austinites are] going through, what could be done or should have been done a long time ago,\u201d said task force member Yvette Crawford-Lee.<\/span><\/p>\n San Diego-based writer Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi\u00a0said she believes\u00a0rent control can aid in alleviating\u00a0California\u2019s housing crisis. In her article “Demystifying Rent Control<\/a>“,<\/em>\u00a0she argues that\u00a0\u201crent control can help solve California\u2019s housing affordability and homelessness crisis by decreasing displacement and protecting the rights and dignity of working families, the elderly, and long-term tenants.\u201d Since 2016, rent control ordinances have been successfully enacted in Richmond and Mountain View, and\u00a0rent control campaigns are underway<\/a>\u00a0in Long Beach, Glendale, Santa Cruz, Pasadena, San Diego, Inglewood, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and Concord so long as the ordinances are \u201creasonably calculated to eliminate excessive rents and at the same time provide landlords with a just and reasonable return on their property.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On March 18, 2018,\u00a0community members, leaders and organizers gathered in New York for the official launch of the 7-Train Coalition. The coalition \u201cformed to fight gentrification\u00a0and housing privatization and end displacement in neighborhoods along the 7 line (Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Corona and downtown Flushing). The coalition is made up of Queens-based grassroots organizations, including the Queens Anti-Gentrification Project, Anakbayan New York, Migrante New York and the Coalition to Defend Corona.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is to build a bottom-up vision and plan for the community, to come up with our own \u2014 not big businesses\u2019 or nonprofits\u2019 \u2014 ideas of how to improve the neighborhood,\u201d said Mike Legaspi, one of the event organizers. \u201cWhile it\u2019s true there are a lot of things to fix, we as a coalition believe that this development needs to be community-controlled, not corporate-controlled.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Obstacles can present themselves in the form of municipal NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard). Government officials may\u00a0equate gentrification with higher\u00a0tax revenue present another barrier. For example, California legislators are considering enacting statewide rent control and repealing Costa-Hawkins, a law that currently prevents rent control from applying to properties built after 1995.\u00a0 In efforts to alleviate the housing and homelessness crisis, rent control advocates claim that simply changing the 1995 to 2005 will\u00a0dramatically reduce homelessness and improve housing.<\/span><\/p>\n In adding one short sentence to the state law can save 50,000 from homelessness<\/a>, the Sacramento Bee\u2019<\/em>s Daniel Bramzon recently reported that, \u201cin 2017, with virtually no fanfare, the appellate division of the Los Angeles County Superior Court\u00a0wiped out a critical piece of West Hollywood\u2019s rent stabilization ordinance<\/a>. The provision allowed tenants to get reimbursed for attorney fees when victorious in standing up for their rights during eviction proceedings. Because of this provision, tenants in West Hollywood were more likely to have a lawyer with them and, consequently, were some of the least likely tenants in California to be evicted and become homeless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Without this provision, tenants in rent-controlled buildings are not as likely to appeal an eviction with the help of an attorney for fear of losing and being\u00a0responsible to pay their attorney fees.<\/span><\/p>\n In other words, rent control advocates argue, without this provision and similar legislation designed to protect the low-income residents of these neighborhoods, gentrification is likely to continue, pushing out long-time residents and undermining the community as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With rising land values and increasing income disparities, it seems that for many neighborhoods the prospect of gentrification is inevitable. Is there a way to “gentrify responsibly,” so communities and the people who live in them \u2014 no matter where they are on the financial spectrum \u2014 all come out ahead?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[352,349],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"ppma_author":[773],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.alconlighting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/JaneJacobsCartoon.jpg\")
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