Gentrification In A Bakery

Darius spent his entire childhood in Harlem; his family owned a bakery on 125th Street, a neighborhood with an insignificant amount of small, black-owned businesses in the city, and he enjoyed the high school he attended. Saturday morning trips to the bakery were usually never full of unusual sights for Darius until he noticed the construction of a Panera Bread across the street from the bakery one morning. Unbeknownst to Darius, this would mark the beginning of the end of his family’s establishment. The once packed bakery began to lose its loyal customers to the new corporate-run bakery, prompting the family to shut it down after several years in business. Soon, his parents couldn’t afford to pay the apartment bills, forcing Darius and his
Many cities will attempt to improve the standard of living by introducing new stores and housing and inevitably, there will be individuals who would no longer afford to live there. Economic, social, and cultural factors are apart of gentrification and change a city’s appearance, demographic, and culture. Gentrification is a paradox; it can positively impact a city’s dynamics while substantially harming its low-income residents’ standard of living.
Gentrification is the process of renovating and improving an urban neighborhood that conforms to the middle-class taste. One might believe that this type of change is needed in all neighbor; upper middle class and affluent citizens can move into these neighborhoods, providing resources that low-income residents could have access to. For instance, job opportunities emerge and “credit scores of the poor residents improve in gentrifying neighborhoods” (Gillespie 6). If gentrification seems beneficial on the surface level, then why do some people suffer from its
If they fall behind and lose too many customers, then soon, they will be forced to shut down their store. This is especially unfortunate for diverse neighborhoods with residents that heavily rely on stores to sell a wide variety of products from different countries around the world. For instance, Los Angeles has a growing West African community and its downtown area has an abundance of African food and clothing markets. One store, in particular, Kelechi’s Fabrics, was a favorite amongst West African residents and those that enjoyed the culture; the authenticity of the fabric and clothing attracted many. Business was booming until a Forever 21 with cheap dashikis and Ankara print-inspired clothing was built nearby. Kelechi began to lose a substantial amount of customers who would rather pay for cheap fabric and she was forced to close her store. Those who relied on her store for fabrics to sew for events or everyday wear now have to pay high prices to import fabrics directly from Nigeria, Ghana, and other West African countries. Many other local businesses that have specific niches are forced to close down as well due to competition and therefore consequently “kills some cultural traditions and diversity, the precise characteristics that make cities so dynamic and desirable in the first place.”