Gentrification In The 20th Century
Gentrification is a phenomenon that is both physical, economic, social and cultural. It involves the invasion of an area before workers or of deteriorating inner city areas by groups generally in the middle classes displacing the original inhabitants. Gentrification involves the renovation and modernisation of these areas to match the requirements of the planned inhabitants. Generally throughout this process there will be a sharp increase in house prices and cost of living in these and surrounding areas, the land will generally be rented to the planned and targeted inhabitants. In particular I am interested in how changes develop in gentrifying areas, where an influx of middle class residents and young creatives or artists to a working class
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In the mid 20th century, as industry moved out of central Manhattan and with that a lot of middle class people. Loft spaces, that were designed for small business became available. So artists moved into them, setting of to live in them and to have studio and exhibition space. At that time during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s this became an unfashionably area for middle class people. Slowly through different processes including that artists made these spaces fashionably again, people wanted to live in these lofts, not just the artist but wealthy middle class people too. Real Estate developers saw that there was a real potential for profit making in that context. So the artists living in these spaces leads onto the development of the phenomena of ‘Loft Living’ that Zukin identifies, she says that artists don't just exploit the change of inner cities by going in to these deindustrialised and impoverished area but they contribute to the process of re investment in those areas, to gentrification as it’s usually called, the movement of wealthy populations to areas where poor people are living. Displacing those poor people and infact as Zukin says “ the main victims of gentrification through loft living are those business owners, who are essentially lower class, and there work force. In time many of the artists who had moved into the lofts in the ‘first generation’ before 1970, also becomes victims of
In the mid 20th century, as industry moved out of central Manhattan and with that a lot of middle class people. Loft spaces, that were designed for small business became available. So artists moved into them, setting of to live in them and to have studio and exhibition space. At that time during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s this became an unfashionably area for middle class people. Slowly through different processes including that artists made these spaces fashionably again, people wanted to live in these lofts, not just the artist but wealthy middle class people too. Real Estate developers saw that there was a real potential for profit making in that context. So the artists living in these spaces leads onto the development of the phenomena of ‘Loft Living’ that Zukin identifies, she says that artists don't just exploit the change of inner cities by going in to these deindustrialised and impoverished area but they contribute to the process of re investment in those areas, to gentrification as it’s usually called, the movement of wealthy populations to areas where poor people are living. Displacing those poor people and infact as Zukin says “ the main victims of gentrification through loft living are those business owners, who are essentially lower class, and there work force. In time many of the artists who had moved into the lofts in the ‘first generation’ before 1970, also becomes victims of