Why Gentrification Is Not Necessarily a Good Thing
If you live in an urban area, you’ve probably heard of the loaded term “gentrification.” Per Merriam-Webster, it means “a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.”
While that’s a relatively simple definition, the topic of gentrification is much more complex. City planners, developers, and social justice groups go back and forth between the pros and cons of gentrification, particularly as it impacts minorities—who often make up the populations of the poor urban neighborhoods undergoing gentrification. Here’s a brief look at what you need to know about gentrification.
The history of gentrification
In the introduction of the 1964 book London: Aspects of Change, British sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term “gentrification” to describe how working-class neighborhoods were being invaded by the middle class, ultimately displacing the working-class residents and changing the ethos of the district.
Across the pond in the United States, the same phenomenon was occurring in many major metropolises—with a particular breakdown on racial lines. According to the National Geographic, “[t]he poor communities of color who tend to inhabit neighborhoods targeted for gentrification were often the victims of unfair housing policies from the end of World War II.” (See: blockbusting and redlining.) During the post-War period, the more affluent and largely white crowds departed urban centers for the suburbs in a social phenomenon called white flight. But within a few decades, they returned to take advantage of cheap urban properties, and gentrification took off.
The effects of gentrification
On the positive side, gentrification often leads to commercial development, improved economic opportunity, lower crime rates, and an increase in property values, which benefits existing homeowners. On the negative side, it can lead to the loss of affordable housing, which primarily impacts renters and can cause the displacement of the existing community.
Interestingly, while displacement is often regarded as the primary evil result of gentrification, it’s not as common as you might think. A number of studies have suggested that gentrification does not typically cause low-income residents to leave their neighborhoods, though that doesn’t necessarily mean their lifestyles aren't affected. Because affordable housing decreases in districts undergoing gentrification, new residents are less likely to be a part of low-income groups.
So, how does gentrification begin?
In a nutshell, wealth inequality, which is often tied to systemic racism. “[G]entrification is just one symptom of a greater problem: a political and economic environment in which even well-paid workers spend over half of their salaries on rent, allows almost two-thirds of our country’s workers to be paid unlivable wages, and does not guarantee, or even actively promote, access to necessities like healthcare or quality education,” writes Lindsay M. Miller for the National Civic Review, a publication by the National Civic League. “Gentrification is a problem that can only be manifested where vast wealth inequality already exists.”
The ideal solution to gentrification would be one that allows for the positives of the process to benefit all residents in a community—both existing and incoming—without anyone being displaced. Of course, that’s much easier said than done. It takes an enormous amount of political, social, and racial effort and change to work towards that goal of equal benefits, and as long as there is money to be invested and made in prospective real estate, it's hard to wrangle in the terrible effects.
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