The Bellman.
sell-out zone
Monday, July 18, 2005
More on gentrification
I'm slowly researching the gentrification issue, so maybe I'll come back with a long entry one of these days. In the meantime, let me say that the responses to this post are helpful, though still in the neighborhood of things I've heard before. My basic issue with the various anti-gentrification arguments is that they seem to say gentrification is the problem where it looks to me as if the problem is something else.
So, for example, the displacement argument (as it might be called) blames gentrification for pushing established populations aside in preference for more economically successful populations. But isn't the real problem here that certain established populations have been unable to compete economically? And doesn't that phenomena also explain how the relevant neighborhoods became so run down?
Or, to take another example, the aesthetic argument (again, my label) blames gentrification for promoting new development which is less attractive than the old neighborhoods. Here I would be inclined to say that the problem isn't gentrification, but is rather the fact that our contemporary aesthetic is bland and uninspired.
Maybe, though, my confusion here is merely grammatical. It could be, I suppose, that the term 'gentrification' is meant to refer to this range of underlying phenomena rather than to some independent thing.
So, for example, the displacement argument (as it might be called) blames gentrification for pushing established populations aside in preference for more economically successful populations. But isn't the real problem here that certain established populations have been unable to compete economically? And doesn't that phenomena also explain how the relevant neighborhoods became so run down?
Or, to take another example, the aesthetic argument (again, my label) blames gentrification for promoting new development which is less attractive than the old neighborhoods. Here I would be inclined to say that the problem isn't gentrification, but is rather the fact that our contemporary aesthetic is bland and uninspired.
Maybe, though, my confusion here is merely grammatical. It could be, I suppose, that the term 'gentrification' is meant to refer to this range of underlying phenomena rather than to some independent thing.
