Gentrification

Gentrification is a process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. This is a common and controversial topic in politics and in urban planning. Gentrification often increases the economic value of a neighborhood, but can force out low-income residents due to the increased cost of rent and higher cost of goods. One by one, many of the working class neighbourhoods of London have been invaded by the middle-classes—upper and lower. Shabby, modest mews and cottages—two rooms up and two down—have been taken over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive residences ... Once this process of 'gentrification' starts in a district it goes on rapidly, until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.Artists, writers, musicians, affluent college students, homosexuals & hipsters, and political activists move in to a neighborhood for its affordability and tolerance.Upper-middle-class professionals, often politically liberal-progressive (e.g. teachers, journalists, librarians), are attracted by the vibrancy created by the first arrivals.Wealthier people (e.g. private sector managers) move in and real estate prices increase significantly. By this stage, high prices have excluded traditional residents and most of the types of people who arrived in stage 1 & 2. Gentrification is a process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. This is a common and controversial topic in politics and in urban planning. Gentrification often increases the economic value of a neighborhood, but can force out low-income residents due to the increased cost of rent and higher cost of goods. Gentrification often shifts a neighborhood's racial/ethnic composition and average household income by developing new, more expensive housing, businesses and improved resources. Conversations about gentrification have evolved, as many in the social-scientific community have questioned the negative connotations associated with the word gentrification. One example is that gentrification can lead to community displacement for lower-income families in gentrifying neighborhoods, as property values and rental costs rise; however, every neighborhood faces unique challenges, and reasons for displacement vary. The gentrification process is typically the result of increasing attraction to an area by people with higher incomes spilling over from neighboring cities, towns, or neighborhoods. Further steps are increased investments in a community and the related infrastructure by real estate development businesses, local government, or community activists and resulting economic development, increased attraction of business, and lower crime rates. In addition to these potential benefits, gentrification can lead to population migration and displacement. However, some view the fear of displacement, which is dominating the debate about gentrification, as hindering discussion about genuine progressive approaches to distribute the benefits of urban redevelopment strategies. The term gentrification has come to refer to a multi-faceted phenomenon that can be defined in different ways. Gentrification is 'a complex process involving physical improvement of the housing stock, housing tenure change from renting to owning, price rises and the displacement or replacement of the working-class population by the new middle class.' Historians say that gentrification took place in ancient Rome and in Roman Britain, where large villas were replacing small shops by the 3rd century, AD. The word gentrification derives from gentry—which comes from the Old French word genterise, 'of gentle birth' (14th century) and 'people of gentle birth' (16th century). In England, Landed gentry denoted the social class, consisting of gentlemen. Although the term was already used in English in the 1950s – for instance by Sidney Perutz and in Warren's Weed – British sociologist Ruth Glass was first to use 'gentrification' in its current sense. She used it 1964 to describe the influx of middle-class people displacing lower-class worker residents in urban neighborhoods; her example was London, and its working-class districts such as Islington: In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Health Effects of Gentrification defines the real estate concept of gentrification as 'the transformation of neighborhoods from low value to high value. This change has the potential to cause displacement of long-time residents and businesses ... when long-time or original neighborhood residents move from a gentrified area because of higher rents, mortgages, and property taxes. Gentrification is a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a community's history and culture and reduces social capital. It often shifts a neighborhood's characteristics, e.g., racial-ethnic composition and household income, by adding new stores and resources in previously run-down neighborhoods.' Scholars and pundits have applied a variety of definitions to gentrification since 1964, some oriented around gentrifiers, others oriented around the displaced, and some a combination of both. The first category include the Hackworth (2002) definition 'the production of space for progressively more affluent users'. The second category include Kasman's definition 'the reduction of residential and retail space affordable to low-income residents'. The final category includes Rose, who describes gentrification as a process 'in which members of the 'new middle class' move into and physically and culturally reshape working-class inner city neighbourhoods'. Kennedy & Leonard (2001) say in their Brookings Institution report that 'the term 'gentrification' is both imprecise and quite politically charged', suggesting its redefinition as 'the process by which higher income households displace lower income residents of a neighborhood, changing the essential character and flavour of that neighborhood', so distinguishing it from the different socio-economic process of 'neighborhood (or urban) revitalization', although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. German geographers have a more distanced view on gentrification. Actual gentrification is seen as a mere symbolic issue happening in a low number of places and blocks, the symbolic value and visibility in public discourse being higher than actual migration trends. Gerhard Hard, for instance, assumes that urban flight is still more important than inner-city gentrification.Volkskunde scholar Barbara Lang introduced the term 'symbolic gentrification' with regard to the Mythos Kreuzberg in Berlin. Lang assumes that complaints about gentrification often come from those who have been responsible for the process in their youth. When former students and bohemians start raising families and earning money in better-paid jobs, they become the yuppies they claim to dislike. Especially Berlin is a showcase of intense debates about symbols of gentrification, while the actual processes are much slower than in other cities. The city's Prenzlauer Berg district is, however, a poster child of the capital's gentrification, as this area in particular has experienced a rapid transformation over the last two decades. This leads to mixed feelings amidst the local population. The neologism Bionade-Biedermeier was coined about Prenzlauer Berg. It describes the post-gentrifed milieu of the former quartier of the alternative scene, where alleged leftist alternative accessoires went into the mainstream. The 2013 Schwabenhass controversy in Berlin put the blame of gentrification in Prenzlauer Berg on well-to-do Swabians from southwest Germany saw the widespread use of inter-German ethnic slurs which would have been deemed unacceptable if used against foreigners.