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Banner on Valencia Street Addressing Mission District Gentrification
Last year, it took me roughly six weeks to earn $5,800.
This is significant because during the late
eighties and early nineties my mother received
public assistance, subsequently she and I lived off of
$5,800 for an entire year.
Yes, $5,800 per year.
Given these facts, last year, I thought a lot about the ways
in which I could personally serve as a gentrifying
factor in my hometown of Oakland, California.
Often times, in popular media, there is very little talk of
gentrification, or if there is, it is discussed in vague terms,
such as"those hipsters are moving in" or "those
white people are moving in" or "this area is becoming nicer."
Gentrification has very little to do with white hipsters
moving into the 'hood and everything to do with process of people
who earn higher incomes moving into neighborhoods
where folks reside who are earning comparatively lower incomes.
If I am a Black women, in Bed-stuy, East Oakland or the South
Side of Chicago, and I earn $60K per year and I am willing to
pay $1000 for an apartment that everyone else, who earns
between $10-15K/year, pays $500 per month, then I am
serving as a force of gentrification in this neighborhood. It bears
being stated that I in may ways I am a gentrifying force in the
same way that a white person earning $60K who moves into
the same community.
A more sustainable, honest and
comprehensive conversation about gentrification would
involve a discussion of the income of the gentrifiers
and not just the race of the gentrifiers.
Wikipedia defines gentrification as,
...the change in an urban area associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class area. The area experiences demographic
shifts, including an increase in the median income, a reduction in
household size, and often a decline in the proportion of racial
minorities (if such minorities are present).
More households with higher incomes result in increased real estate
values with higher associated rent, home prices, and property taxes.
Industrial land use can decline with redevelopment bringing more
commercial and residential use. Such changes often result in
transformation of the neighborhood's character and culture.
Most of what I understand about gentrification is derived
from brilliant scholar and professor at City University New York,
Neil Smith.
Professor's Smith scholarship is meaningful because he discusses
gentrification not only as it pertains to urban communities
but also on a global scale. In an interview with Jens Sambale,
Volker Eick of Policing Crowds, Smith writes,
Early examples of gentrification
might include the Islington area of London or Greenwich Village in
Manhattan but by the 1970s there were many recorded cases of gentrification in Europe, North America and Australia. In Berlin, early examples of gentrification
were recorded in Schöneberg and Kreuzberg, among other neighbourhoods,
but the fall of the Berlin Wall released a huge stock of housing that
had undergone considerable disinvestment, leading to a widespread gentrification of Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte.
Smith goes on to write about gentrification saying,
Gentrification
occurs in urban areas where prior disinvestment in the urban
infrastructure creates urban neighborhoods that can be profitably
redeveloped. In its
