Relation Between Gentrification And Crime

The term Gentrification was coined by a British Sociologist Ruth Glass to describe the movement of middle class families in urban areas causing the property value to increase and displacing the older settlers. Over the past decades, gentrification has been refined depending on the neighborhood's economic, social and political context. According to Davidson and Less’ definition, a gentrified area should include investment in capital, social upgrading, displacement of older settlers and change in the landscape (Davidson and Lees, 2005).Gentrification was perceived to be a residential process, however in the recent years, it has become a broader topic, involving the restructuring of inner cities, commercial development and improvement
However, this is true in certain cases. In the article, “Does Gentrification affects crime rate?” by Scott C. McDonald explains that the newcomers to the gentrifying neighborhoods tend to be more responsible and politically informed and they frequently organize “Citizen Patrols” and “neighborhood watches” (McDonald 168). The crime rates in Harlem dramatically decreased as strict policing become a commonplace. According to the New York Police Department, from 1990 to 2008 the greater Harlem area experienced a 73 percent increase in all complaints. The long term residents say that new white resident plays a significant role in the community patrol (Barker 2011). Because of the white residents the NYPD’s focus on crime in the gentrifying neighborhoods has increased however the safety of these neighborhoods have been ignored for decades. Similar trend can be found in other gentrifying neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick. On the contrary, McDonald also demonstrates that gentrification significantly increase tension between the newcomers and older residents. When gentrification occurs in an ethnic neighborhoods like Harlem, it destroys the bonds that maintained order in those neighborhoods. McDonald gives example of Philadelphia’s Fairmount, a neighborhood that maintained order without police patrols, as gentrification
Although the streets and safer and cleaner now, the residents have conflicting emotions for the change happening in Harlem because the changes are not created for benefits of the residents. In the article, “Mixed feelings as change overtake 125 St” by Timothy Williams explores how the indigenous Harlemites cope with neighborhood redevelopment. According to the article. Resident resent that “they miss having a neighborhood with familiar faces to greet, familiar food to eat and no fear of being forced out of their homes”. The type of feeling as explained by the Columbia University professor Dr Mindy Fulliove is called “Root Shock.” Fulliove further emphasizes that “the pain of losing one’s beloved neighborhood” is equal to uprooting a plant. Between 1960 and 1990 Harlem lost about 35 percent of its population and half of the housing stocks to the private developers. The people who have lived in Harlem at its worst years, a period when crack and cocaine, domestic violence was on the rise, developed a strong attachment to the community. As Harlem is losing to the influx of white middle class people, the indigenous residents feel like a “loss of self.” In 2008, the city council approved rezoning of 125th street which pushed limits of “High-Rise” towers and created a project to build additional 2100