How Not To Be A Gentrifier

[cawacko]

This article is about the Bay Area but gentrification occurs all over the country. My first thought is what a terrible article. Finished reading and I was shaking my head. Essentially what they are promoting is segregation by class. If you have more money than someone else then don't move into their neighborhood. It's a joke.

And yes, if areas get new amenities and improve prices generally increase. It's how things work.

I'd be curious if anyone here has ever not moved to an area out of concern of being a gentrifier?




How not to be a gentrifier in the Bay Area


On Friday, Galeria de la Raza, a staple of the Mission District's Latino art scene, announced it would be forced to close, citing a 100 percent rent hike. Similarly rising rents have been pushing longtime residents out of San Francisco, though their individual stories may not make headlines. The problem of gentrification is so advanced in the Bay Area that a recent UC Berkeley study found the region is re-segregating.

"Very few people would self-identify as a gentrifier," says Megan Orpwood-Russell, an organizer for housing advocacy group YAH! (Yes to Affordable Housing!). And the lines can get fuzzy.

"If you're moving into a historically disinvested neighborhood and you have educational or some other form of privilege moving in there, you're a gentrifier," explains Anna Cash, associate director of UC Berkeley's Urban Displacement Project.


Socioeconomic status plays a big role — if your income is significantly higher than those living in the neighborhood, that's a surefire sign you're a gentrifier. Gentrifiers are often, but not always, white, adds Cash. And even if you were priced out of your own neighborhood, you could still fit the bill.

"There's no 'get out of jail free' card. You can't do all the right things and absolve yourself so that you're no longer a gentrifier, just like you can't no longer be white," says Cash. "But you can check your biases, acknowledge your privilege, and fight the systems that create gentrification."

You may be thinking that gentrification isn't all that bad. When rich people move in, their money comes with them, which could revitalize an area.

The problem with gentrification, according to those who study it, isn't that the neighborhood is changing, per se. It's that not everyone gets to stick around to reap the benefits. "In many cases longtime residents were asking for these kinds of changes and they were ignored," says Cash.

We asked people who live in some of the Bay Area's most rapidly gentrifying cities if there's any way to avoid being a gentrifier, or at least a stereotypical one. Click through the slideshow to read what residents of Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo and San Francisco want newcomers to know. There's lots you can do to minimize your negative impact on your new neighborhood, from smiling at your neighbors to thinking twice before calling the cops.

"The most important thing is to recognize the history of your neighborhood and city. Don't treat the place like it was a blank slate before white people or gentrifiers arrived," Cash adds.

A great place to start is researching the history of redlining in your neighborhood. Redlining refers to a discriminatory practice by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (a federal agency) that made it harder to get a loan in certain neighborhoods that were deemed "hazardous." Whether or not an area was labeled "hazardous" (a.k.a redlined) depended heavily on its racial makeup. The policy led to "cycles of disinvestment," according to the Urban Displacement Project.

You can also put your money where your mouth is and support mom-and-pop stores and businesses owned by people of color. Activists put together this list of cafes in Berkeley and Oakland that are P.O.C.-owned.

And if you're really upset about gentrification, do something about it, says Orpwood-Russell.

"Participate in local politics. It's the biggest one of all. We need to change the larger systems that perpetuate gentrification."


https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san...o-13293754.php

[Irish Exit]

By their standard, I am a gentrifier. I don't think their standard is correct though.

[katzgar]

This article is about the Bay Area but gentrification occurs all over the country. My first thought is what a terrible article. Finished reading and I was shaking my head. Essentially what they are promoting is segregation by class. If you have more money than someone else then don't move into their neighborhood. It's a joke.

And yes, if areas get new amenities and improve prices generally increase. It's how things work.

I'd be curious if anyone here has ever not moved to an area out of concern of being a gentrifier?




How not to be a gentrifier in the Bay Area


On Friday, Galeria de la Raza, a staple of the Mission District's Latino art scene, announced it would be forced to close, citing a 100 percent rent hike. Similarly rising rents have been pushing longtime residents out of San Francisco, though their individual stories may not make headlines. The problem of gentrification is so advanced in the Bay Area that a recent UC Berkeley study found the region is re-segregating.

"Very few people would self-identify as a gentrifier," says Megan Orpwood-Russell, an organizer for housing advocacy group YAH! (Yes to Affordable Housing!). And the lines can get fuzzy.

"If you're moving into a historically disinvested neighborhood and you have educational or some other form of privilege moving in there, you're a gentrifier," explains Anna Cash, associate director of UC Berkeley's Urban Displacement Project.


Socioeconomic status plays a big role — if your income is significantly higher than those living in the neighborhood, that's a surefire sign you're a gentrifier. Gentrifiers are often, but not always, white, adds Cash. And even if you were priced out of your own neighborhood, you could still fit the bill.

"There's no 'get out of jail free' card. You can't do all the right things and absolve yourself so that you're no longer a gentrifier, just like you can't no longer be white," says Cash. "But you can check your biases, acknowledge your privilege, and fight the systems that create gentrification."

You may be thinking that gentrification isn't all that bad. When rich people move in, their money comes with them, which could revitalize an area.

The problem with gentrification, according to those who study it, isn't that the neighborhood is changing, per se. It's that not everyone gets to stick around to reap the benefits. "In many cases longtime residents were asking for these kinds of changes and they were ignored," says Cash.

We asked people who live in some of the Bay Area's most rapidly gentrifying cities if there's any way to avoid being a gentrifier, or at least a stereotypical one. Click through the slideshow to read what residents of Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo and San Francisco want newcomers to know. There's lots you can do to minimize your negative impact on your new neighborhood, from smiling at your neighbors to thinking twice before calling the cops.

"The most important thing is to recognize the history of your neighborhood and city. Don't treat the place like it was a blank slate before white people or gentrifiers arrived," Cash adds.

A great place to start is researching the history of redlining in your neighborhood. Redlining refers to a discriminatory practice by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (a federal agency) that made it harder to get a loan in certain neighborhoods that were deemed "hazardous." Whether or not an area was labeled "hazardous" (a.k.a redlined) depended heavily on its racial makeup. The policy led to "cycles of disinvestment," according to the Urban Displacement Project.

You can also put your money where your mouth is and support mom-and-pop stores and businesses owned by people of color. Activists put together this list of cafes in Berkeley and Oakland that are P.O.C.-owned.

And if you're really upset about gentrification, do something about it, says Orpwood-Russell.

"Participate in local politics. It's the biggest one of all. We need to change the larger systems that perpetuate gentrification."


https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san...o-13293754.php

gentrification started when a European settler tore down a birch bark Lodge and built a Log Cabin. Gentrification has been going on a long time.

[tinfoil]

Step 1) Complain about lack of investment in blighted areas
Step 2) Complain about investors in blighted areas
Step 3) Languish in self pity

[cawacko]

Step 1) Complain about lack of investment in blighted areas
Step 2) Complain about investors in blighted areas
Step 3) Languish in self pity

Those first two on spot on. In a perfect world it would be great to have amenities nearby and dirt cheap rents but it doesn't work that way.

[tinfoil]

For the record:
I bought a dump in the redneck ghetto. Just dumped 15K into renovations but I added a second bathroom and created a extra bedroom while making the main bathroom three times as big as before. Also added a dishwasher and a garbage disposal. All new plumbing and water lines with the new plastic lines so no more freeze threat in the crawl space. Turned a useless couple of closets and a silly laundry room into a bedroom and made the main bathroom 120sqft with room for laundry machines. Went from a two bedroom upstairs with no bathroom and as small as a bathroom could possibly be as the only bathroom for the house downstairs. Now it's a place where a family could live comfortably and the kids don't have to walk down the stairs to take a leak. Also had to raise the ceiling in the stairwell. It was so low that you had to duck under it. Raised that shit up to a nice 8 foot clearance so you can get furniture up the damn stairs. No idea how they did it before. LOL

I'm a gentrifier. Making shit better than it was and useful for the next generation

[cawacko]

You hear a lot that kids, especially minority children, suffer growing up in poor areas for a litany of reasons. One proposal that has been floated has been to give certain poor folks vouchers to move into well to do neighborhoods. Studies claim these children do better in that environment.

Gentrification is essentially the same thing except people are moving into poorer neighborhoods (or what once were poorer neighborhoods) and improving them. Maybe vouchers needed to be given to certain of those already in the neighborhood so they can stay?

Ultimately I think the market should dictate where you live in that you live where you can afford. But if the goal is gov't involvement to prevent neighborhoods with no economic diversity what else can be done?

[PostmodernProphet]

commute, like God intended you to do......

[laugh001]

Thanks for the post! This is very interesting and eye-opening.

Classism is pervasive and subtle, but not entirely inadvertent.

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Vote for expanded housing

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Step 1) Complain about lack of investment in blighted areas
Step 2) Complain about investors in blighted areas
Step 3) Languish in self pity

It wouldn't be a giant problem if restrictions on building new housing did not cause rent to skyrocket

This is a much better problem to have than the urban blight we experienced decades ago anyway

[Getin the ring]

I have no problem with people living in an area beyond others means, and wanting to keep it that way.
To me it's like sending your kids to a private school, knowing a certain population of people can not afford it, and that being one of the reasons.
It's a free capitalist country, money creates status.

That being said I have no problem with people that want to move into downtrodden properties and trying to upgrade the area either, if they so choose.

What I do have a problem with is cities and towns forcing lesser income properties among those that have purposely bought to avoid just that.