Is Gentrification of Benefit to Low-Income Neighborhoods?

Is Gentrification of Benefit to Low-Income Neighborhoods?

In the recent few decades, middle-income populations have been moving back to urban areas from the suburbs. Urban developers have been working to revitalize urban areas so that they can fit the tastes and preferences of the richer people. This phenomenon was termed as ‘gentrification’ in 1964 by Ruth Glass as she tried to explain the residential movement of high-income earners to low-income areas in London (Zukin 38). Specifically, gentrification is a process of improving or renovating a neighborhood or house to conform to the middle-class taste. This term describes a simple process of developing low-income areas to fit modern standards, but research shows that the process is a much more complex social phenomenon that raises significant ethical dilemmas. The most significant issue with gentrification is the commonly ignored side effects it has on low-income earners. Gentrification has no benefit to low-income neighborhoods because it causes forced displacement of low-income earners, increases discriminatory behaviors toward ethnic minorities, and ruins the traditional cultural practices of people in low-income neighborhoods. Do you need help with your assignment ? Get in touch with us at eminencepapers.com.

Gentrification leads to forced displacement and increased rates of homelessness in poor neighborhoods. When urban developers improve the low-income neighborhoods, they do not do it with the poor people in mind. The main purpose of the gentrification process is to make these neighborhoods attractive to higher-income earners. Their goal in this process is to make profits. Therefore, they buy lower-cost houses with the aim of selling them at significantly higher prices. During the renovation, the developers often take down the homes that are affordable to low-income earners and replace them with high-rise apartments and condominiums (Chong). The significant increase in the costs of the newly developed properties forces the poorer people out of their neighborhoods. As gentrification becomes more rampant, the number of affordable houses for lower-income earners reduces gradually. The result of this phenomenon is the increased rates of homelessness. Therefore, the process of gentrification mainly has negative effects on the low socioeconomic groups.

Gentrification is discriminatory against ethnic minorities. Not all social groups are similarly impacted by this phenomenon. Racial segregation and the continued racism after the abolishment of segregation have played an important role in keeping ethnic minorities in poorer neighborhoods. While people have had the advantage of having access to higher resource allocation when it comes to education, business development, and other resources, that has created significant disparities in income and wealth ownership between white people and ethnic minorities (Rivlin-Nadler). The process of gentrification further continues to put ethnic minorities at a disadvantage because they are the majority of people living in low-income neighborhoods. By taking their homes and turning them into expensive neighborhoods that they cannot afford, gentrification, by extension, is a form of racial segregation. This process excludes the ethnic minorities making up the majority of the low-income neighborhoods from the development that is perceived in the process of gentrification.

Low-income neighborhoods do not benefit from gentrification because it takes away their shared traditional cultures and replaces them with what is perceived to be better. A lot of low-income neighborhoods are communities with shared cultures that they have developed over the decades. Gentrification changes their neighborhoods from a community setting to a consumption-oriented space that is focused more on the financial benefits to the rich and less on the experiences of the low-income earners.  For example, in “Selling off New Orleans: Gentrification and the Loss of Community 10 Years after Katrina”, Fatima Shaik discusses how gentrification replaced the authentic cultures and experiences of the people of New Orleans with new businesses that had no cultural significance. She states that the New Orleans neighborhoods used to be places where “grandparents and great-grandparents taught youngsters to smell the ripeness in a cantaloupe, look for the clarity in the eye of a trout and suck down a raw oyster before buying the sack.” Now, the areas that hold so much memory and cultural significance to the residents are being replaced with apartments for richer citizens, but with no historical memory. When gentrification occurs, it takes not just the houses of the poorer people but also cultures that are very significant to them and their communities. This kind of change makes gentrification a negative occurrence for low-income neighborhoods.

However, some people look at gentrification from a positive perspective claiming that it is beneficial for poor neighborhoods. Patrick Gillespie, in the CNN article “How gentrification may benefit the poor,” discusses some of the benefits that this phenomenon has for the lower income earners. Some of the highlighted benefits in the article include the following. He argues that gentrification creates more job opportunities for people in the gentrified neighborhoods. Additionally, gentrification benefits homeowners in low-income neighborhoods by increasing property values in these areas. Gentrification is also believed to cause an improvement in the quality of life for people in low-income neighborhoods by reducing the rates of crime. In the article, Patrick Gillespie quotes a Columbia University urban planning professor who posits that gentrification does not necessarily cause mass displacement of people. These arguments in favor of gentrification may be valid, but they apply only to a small percentage of the members of low-income neighborhoods. While gentrification may create new job opportunities, only a small percentage of low-income earners benefit from these opportunities. The mentioned increase in property values and improved quality of life also benefit a small number of people in comparison to the people who are negatively affected. As gentrification continues, more people will continue to be displaced by richer people in society. Even though gentrification is not entirely negative, its negative effects on poor people surpass the positive effects.  Some low-income earners may indeed benefit from the renovation of low-income neighborhoods, but the number of people who are negatively affected is higher. Additionally, it is ethical to think about the people who are negatively affected by gentrification, no matter how small of a population they may be. Social policies and practices should not be designed to negatively affect the people who are already socially disadvantaged.

In conclusion, gentrification is not beneficial to low-income neighborhoods. Instead, it is designed to be beneficial to the privileged members of society. Gentrification is inherently an exclusionary practice because it overlooks the needs of the poor people in society for the benefit of the rich. This practice changes the affordable neighbors into places that low-income earners cannot afford, thus displacing them and making them homeless. Additionally, gentrification advances the segregation of ethnic minorities from development by further reducing their access to social and economic resources. Racial and ethnic minorities who have already been disadvantaged have their homes taken away for the benefit of the privileged people in society. Lastly, gentrification takes away the cultures and experiences that are significant to the low-income neighborhoods. It is important to fully evaluate the side effects of the renovation of poor neighborhoods into high rises. There should be a consideration for the poor people who have been turned into collateral damage as the rich continue to build their wealth through gentrification. It may be beneficial to make the process more inclusive of low-income earners to eliminate the effects discussed in this essay.

Works Cited

Zukin, Sharon. “Gentrification as market and place.” The Gentrification Debates: A Reader (2010): 37-44.

Gillespie, P. “how gentrification may benefit the poor” (2015) CNN Money, https://money.cnn.com/2015/11/12/news/economy/gentrification-may-help-poor-people/

Shaik, Fatima. “Selling Off New Orleans: Gentrification and the Loss of Community 10 Years After Katrina” (2015). In These Times, http://inthesetimes.com/article/18298/the-new-louisiana-purchase

Rivlin-Nadler, Max. “Business Improvement Districts Ruin Neighborhoods” The New Republic. (2016), https://newrepublic.com/article/130188/business-improvement-districts-ruin-neighborhoods

Chong, Emily. Examining the Negative Impacts of Gentrification. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy. (2017), https://www.law.georgetown.edu/poverty-journal/blog/examining-the-negative-impacts-of-gentrification/

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Is Gentrification of Benefit to Low-Income Neighborhoods

In “Selling Off New Orleans: Gentrification and the Loss of Community 10 Years After Katrina,” Fatima Shaik states, “It was the place where grandparents and great-grandparents taught youngsters to smell the ripeness in a cantaloupe, look for the clarity in the eye of a trout and suck down a raw oyster before buying the sack. The locals yearned for its return and felt betrayed when it finally reopened in April with chic vendors of specialty foods—an emporium of boutique spirits, nouveau muffins and exotic coffee—no food stamps accepted” (Shaik). In contrast, Héctor Tobar in “Viva Gentrification” exclaims, “In Highland Park, as in other Latino barrios of Los Angeles, gentrification has produced an undeniable but little appreciated side effect: the end of decades of de facto racial segregation. It’s possible to imagine a future in which ‘the hood’’ passes into memory. Racial integration is on the upswing; for that, a cry of ‘Viva gentrification!’ is in order” (Tobar). It is recommended that all articles be read to understand the different aspects of this issue and how these authors approach their argument. At least three articles need to be used in the essay.

The main question is the following: Is gentrification a benefit to low-income neighborhoods?
Other questions to consider are the following: What is gentrification? Who does gentrification benefit, and in what ways? What is lost and/or gained by gentrification?

Articles (If the link does not work, go to the database Opposing View Points in the campus library website or use your preferred search engine)

Gentrification primer reading:
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Reference&currPage=&scanId=&query=&docIndex=&source=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=GALE%7CDICKDY834420944&u=long89855&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CWOAOYM654162960&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=

“Selling Off New Orleans: Gentrification and the Loss of Community 10 Years After Katrina” by Fatima Shaik http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&docIndex=&source=&prodId=OVIC&mode=view&limiter=&display-query=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&catId=&u=long89855&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CIAHMCX379374206&activityType=DocumentWithCommentary&failOverType=&commentary=true

“Business Improvement Districts Ruin Neighborhoods” by Max Rivlin-Nadler
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&docIndex=&source=&prodId=OVIC&mode=view&limiter=&display-query=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&catId=&u=long89855&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CATOUKI564453031&activityType=DocumentWithCommentary&failOverType=&commentary=true

“Viva Gentrification” by Héctor Tobar
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=&displayGroupName=News&docIndex=&source=&prodId=OVIC&mode=view&limiter=&display-query=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&catId=&u=long89855&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CA406312593&activityType=DocumentWithCommentary&failOverType=&commentary=true

“How Gentrification May Benefit the Poor” by Patrick Gillespie
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=&displayGroupName=News&docIndex=&source=&prodId=OVIC&mode=view&limiter=&display-query=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&catId=&u=long89855&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CA434340885&activityType=DocumentWithCommentary&failOverType=&commentary=true