What is gentrification

2. What is gentrification • A very questionable process • that allows urban developers to take low income neighborhoods / inner city crime neighborhoods and convert them into upscale communities • These neighborhoods are developed with condominiums, lofts and other upscale renovated homes for wealthier tenants

3. The original residence • Usually can’t afford to pay the higher rent or qualify for mortgages so they are forced into lower income areas with higher crime rates. • Businesses that originally serviced these residence may have to close or sell to investors to make room for more upscale cafes, bistros, boutiques and other businesses.

4. Gentrification History • Gentrification is not new and can be dated back in USA to the 1950 as city planners and developers created ways to eliminate urban decay. • Politician along with landlords with Government funding for urban renewal financed the gentrification of poor neighborhoods. (SW/ DC and Haight-Ashbury San Francisco)

5. Who Benefits ? • In most case gentrification benefits developers and landlords and leave original residents trapped because they can’t afford to leave the area and can’t afford the increase rent. • This can lead to frustration and confrontation between the original residents and the new affluent residents.

6. On the backs of the disenfranchised. • For some businesses and from some individuals perspectives gentrification creates better neighborhoods, and results in higher taxes for cities. • Cities can then can create more and better services for its new residences at the expense of displacement of the original inhabitants.

7. Chester HartmanAn Urban Planner and Author • Says the concept of “right to displace” suggest that residential owners can drive out nonowners. Those who are displaced are disproportionately nonwhite, elderly, poor and from large households. • Hartman suggest the Displaced are forced into a biased housing market, where they are often forced to settle for more expensive and less adequate space. • Hartman argues that this should be met with a “right to stay put,” and that measures protecting marginal groups from gentrification should be put into place.

8. The advocate of Gentrification • Most who advocate for the good of gentrification suggest that “Sometimes the solution is to help current low-income residents find suitable and affordable housing elsewhere before allowing gentrification efforts to completely overtake the affected area”. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-gentrification.htm)

10. The moral obligation • The main argument against gentrification is the moral issue. The obligation to stop negative effects gentrification has on communities/population. • remedies: Inclusionary zoning- ordinances requiring the building of new housing for the original low and moderate-income residence intermixed with upscale housing.

11. Center of Disease Control • The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a webpage discussing the adverse effects gentrification has on health. It provides a list of policies that would inhibit gentrification in order to prevent these impacts. http://www.cdc.gov/HEALTHYPLACES/healthtopics/gentrification.htm. • Let us defer to solutions ,remedies and alternatives suggested by the CDC.