Pros And Cons Of Gentrification
If you are wealthy and, at most times, not a minority then gentrification is for you. I, personally, believe it is a system of deliberate displacement. Why else would the government, realtors, banks, and insurance companies choose to wait until the process of gentrification is in full swing to suddenly want to make improvements on a chosen area? They claim to want to invest in a progressive and prosperous neighborhood. However, this “ideal” neighborhood entails one race of people and a group making enough income to pay for the newer over priced housing put in place by gentrification. I have visited areas before and after the gentrification process and the results are remarkable, in both positive and negative ways. Again, if you are the model
candidate for residency in a gentrified area then you see no problem in the process. It ensures property value ascension, new jobs, improves the neighborhood as a whole, and the crime rates plummet. But, where were all of these positives aspects of a reconstructed and revived neighborhood? I had family living in Long Island City before gentrification. I saw absolutely no effort to even attempt to improve the conditions of the neighborhood. The playgrounds were dirty, it was an industrial area with no aesthetics, and the crime rates were up. As I got older, I returned to Long Island City to find it looked like a replicated part of Manhattan with luxurious apartment buildings and fancy restaurants on every block. I asked my aunt why she moved and she said, “I did not choose to move, I had no choice.” Minorities always get the short end of the stick. They are pushed out of areas, where some have spent the majority of their lives and are more or less forced to live in areas that are often a downgrade from where they used to live. If gentrification could be morphed into a process that truly benefits all types of people, on both ends of the privilege spectrum, then I might be able to say gentrification is a process that should continue on in our city. Until then, I say it is a process that kills off the culture and the history of an area along with adding to structural racism in this country by trying to push all the minorities into selected areas where they get to live in harsher conditions.
candidate for residency in a gentrified area then you see no problem in the process. It ensures property value ascension, new jobs, improves the neighborhood as a whole, and the crime rates plummet. But, where were all of these positives aspects of a reconstructed and revived neighborhood? I had family living in Long Island City before gentrification. I saw absolutely no effort to even attempt to improve the conditions of the neighborhood. The playgrounds were dirty, it was an industrial area with no aesthetics, and the crime rates were up. As I got older, I returned to Long Island City to find it looked like a replicated part of Manhattan with luxurious apartment buildings and fancy restaurants on every block. I asked my aunt why she moved and she said, “I did not choose to move, I had no choice.” Minorities always get the short end of the stick. They are pushed out of areas, where some have spent the majority of their lives and are more or less forced to live in areas that are often a downgrade from where they used to live. If gentrification could be morphed into a process that truly benefits all types of people, on both ends of the privilege spectrum, then I might be able to say gentrification is a process that should continue on in our city. Until then, I say it is a process that kills off the culture and the history of an area along with adding to structural racism in this country by trying to push all the minorities into selected areas where they get to live in harsher conditions.