Ii just subscribed to your blog, so you may have addressed this elsewhere, but I am curious about the definition of gentrification. I think of it as what has happened in Harlem or my old city of Somerville, Massachusetts, where the cost of housing has skyrocketed much faster than in other places in the US.
I know housing is expensive comparted to salaries in Albany (and almost everywhere in the US these days), but there is also a lot of blight and poverty and a small tax base compared to needs. The city could use more people with money moving in, who could create a market for businesses to go into all those boarded up store fronts. At what point does that become gentrification?
I think about gentrification in terms of displacement, not necessarily about whether people with money are moving in. Mixed income neighborhoods are actually really great, but the balance is to ensure that longtime or lower income residents are displaced as areas revitalize. Most often we think about displacement from soaring property costs and accompanying rents and higher taxes, but to some extent we can also see cultural displacement happening when the services and amenities in a neighborhood no longer serve/appeal to longtime residents.
All that being said, there are great ways to stave off displacement -- the community land trust model, other forms of ensuring "lasting affordability", rent control, strong tenant rights, etc. The housing publication Shelterforce has some great takes on gentrification!
Ii just subscribed to your blog, so you may have addressed this elsewhere, but I am curious about the definition of gentrification. I think of it as what has happened in Harlem or my old city of Somerville, Massachusetts, where the cost of housing has skyrocketed much faster than in other places in the US.
I know housing is expensive comparted to salaries in Albany (and almost everywhere in the US these days), but there is also a lot of blight and poverty and a small tax base compared to needs. The city could use more people with money moving in, who could create a market for businesses to go into all those boarded up store fronts. At what point does that become gentrification?
I think about gentrification in terms of displacement, not necessarily about whether people with money are moving in. Mixed income neighborhoods are actually really great, but the balance is to ensure that longtime or lower income residents are displaced as areas revitalize. Most often we think about displacement from soaring property costs and accompanying rents and higher taxes, but to some extent we can also see cultural displacement happening when the services and amenities in a neighborhood no longer serve/appeal to longtime residents.
All that being said, there are great ways to stave off displacement -- the community land trust model, other forms of ensuring "lasting affordability", rent control, strong tenant rights, etc. The housing publication Shelterforce has some great takes on gentrification!