Gentrification has been a very controversial topic in urban planning since 1964, when it was first introduced. Though upper and middle classes can benefit from this process, it can bring significant loss to low income residents. Some people see this process as the one that improves the quality of life, others are left with nothing but hatred for people who took their places and changed their communities. There are different views and opinions on whether gentrification has more advantages or, on the contrary, more negative sides. In this paper there are many researches on gentrification discussed and compared, as well as the methods of gentrification control were offered. Some most famous examples were also considered and analyzed.
Among all the definitions of the term gentrification, the one given in the book “Gentrification” by Lees et al. (2007) describes this process the best: “gentrification is the transformation of a working-class or vacant area of the central city into middle-class residential and/or commercial use.” The academic literature that explains the gentrification process presents different explanations for it. Lees et. al (2014) proves that gentrification origins from the changing industrial structure in the major cities. Rapid shifting of the industries from manufacturing based to service based results in the changes of the working class structures. Thus, mainly working low-income class communities are replaced by the well-educated professionals whose industries are located in major cities. An argument presented by another researcher, Ley (1996), is that the changes in the industry also led to the changes in cultural environment of the middle-class people. They prefer to live in the city rather than to stay in the suburbs. Neil Smith (1979), in his turn, argues that gentrification is the movement of capital and not people. He shows that “the difference between the potential value of inner urban properties and their underlying land values” is the driving force behind the gentrification process. Smith states that this also leads to the growing rent and real estate prices.
In order to understand gentrification better it is vital to look into the history of this process and how it was developed. The term gentrification was first introduced by Ruth Glass, a British sociologist, when describing the flow of middle-class people replacing lower-class worker citizens in certain areas of London. The initial theory states that gentrification is a process driven by middle and high-income people, mostly represented by managers, entrepreneurs and real estate investment companies. The term itself is derived from the word “gentry”, the use of which is dated back to 1500s when there was a feudal system of government in Europe and people who owned land were called “landed gentry”. Later all the land owners moved to the city and all the wealth has been shifted from the suburbs. So the “gentry” disappeared from the history until the process was renewed again after the World War II when white Americans decided to live in the safety of the suburbs. Starting from the twentieth century, many rich people left cities for suburbs, and it marked the city decline across the United States. At the same time poor minorities started moving to the cities and build the low income communities. Beginning in the 1970s, the life in the city won its prestige back, many artists and highly educated people moved back and displaced the poor residents. By the end of the century many cities were prosperous again, and their popularity among the wealthy people resulted in the rise of rent and real estate prices, which put intense pressure on low-income communities. Many researches state that gentrification represents modern capitalism as it “reinforces capitalism through economic demands (real estate) while at the same time displaces a number of urban inhabitants (local residents)” (Lees et al. 2007). Initially this process was limited to western cities of the US only; however, it has spread globally. Nowadays gentrification has been identified in many cities in America, Europe, Australia and China.
The process of gentrification is tightly connected with the racial segregation. The research conducted by Jackelyn Hwang and described in the article “How "Gentrification" in American Cities Maintains Racial Inequality and Segregation” proves that people choose the place where they want to live based on race and neighborhood reputations. The author mentions an important fact that “even after we took into account other important factors such as crime, poverty, and proximity to amenities, neighborhoods with more blacks and Latinos were less likely to continue to gentrify” (Hwang, 2014). This clearly shows that even though people are moving to the cities and choosing places they avoided before, there is still an issue of inequality for racial minority as well as high levels of neighborhood inequality and poverty.
We can see many examples of gentrification process today in different parts of the world. Annalee Newitz (2014) in the article “What Gentrification Really Is, and How We Can Avoid It” shows us the most famous examples of gentrification, San Francisco and Istanbul. The author of the article calls gentrification a form of immigration and it is hard to disagree with this statement. People who gentrify in most cases are strangers, newcomers who are trying to change the city to suit their individual needs and wants. San Francisco has been impacted by gentrification the most compared to other cities in the US and, may be, in the world. This is mainly due to the technological boom, which led to high prices for rent and to very expensive cost of living. The same situation can be seen in Istanbul where the government-sponsored projects have led to the changing structure of the entire neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the residents are forced to move out because of the high rent and they do not get any support from the government. Annalee presupposes, however, that all these changes happen not only due to the moving of wealthy people, or “immigrants”, to the city. It happens also because of some other factors such as nature of urban development, some economics and political factors. Any city has the tendency to constantly develop, to be in dynamic movement so there is no surprise that the whole neighborhoods are being changed and restructured. However, there are still examples when gentrification process goes right and doesn’t bring many troubles to the residents. As described in the article “Black homeowners redefine gentrification”, many black gentrifiers try to meet everyone’s interests (Smith, 2011). They do not only occupy the place and build new shops and houses, but they restore and renew the neighborhood, preserving the culture and traditions of its residents.
Having analyzed all the researches about gentrification, a conclusion that can be made is that there are many drawbacks in this process. It is time now to look at gentrification as a problem and start solving it. There always will be different classes of the society and still they all will need a place to live in, thus, it is important to control the process of gentrification. The community needs to find out about the gentrification as it is, special meetings should be held to teach people about this issue and help them to prevent it. People must understand that the process should be not about destroying the existing neighborhoods and just building a new one, but about its improvement and renewal. Finally, special policies about rent and real estate prices should be implemented that will help people to save their places and not to move out because of gentrification.
In conclusion, gentrification is not just a real estate concept; it’s a deeper process of urban restructuring, a part of a much larger system, the class remaking of an urban landscape. The examples of this process can be found everywhere nowadays and it comes to every big city very quickly. Gentrification cannot be just left out without any control as it affects people’s lives a lot. First of all, it is important to make changes to the ownership structure of the land and buildings as it is one of the main methods of controlling the process. There should be non-profit neighborhood organizations that own the land in order to maintain fixed prices for rent and real estate that everyone can afford. People should know the concept of gentrification and what it means; they should understand how to avoid immense changes it brings into their lives.
References
Hwang, J. (2014). How "Gentrification" in American Cities Maintains Racial Inequality and Segregation | Scholars Strategy Network. Scholarsstrategynetwork.org. Retrieved 4 April 2016, from http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/how-gentrification-american-cities-maintains-racial-inequality-and-segregation
Lees, L., Slater, T., & Wyly, E. (2008). Gentrification. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Smith, N. (1979). Toward a Theory of Gentrification A Back to the City Movement by Capital, not People. Journal Of The American Planning Association, 45(4), 538-548. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944367908977002
Newitz, A. (2014). What Gentrification Really Is, and How We Can Avoid It. ArchDaily. Retrieved 4 April 2016, from http://www.archdaily.com/540712/what-gentrification-really-is-and-how-we-can-avoid-it
Smith, J. (2011). Black Homeowners Redefine Gentrification. MadameNoire. Retrieved 4 April 2016, from http://madamenoire.com/67309/black-homeowners-redefine-gentrification/
