![]() Gentrification is a concept derived solely by humans and for humans. We created the social structure and rules by which we live today in order for this to even occur. Prior to that we were hunter-gatherers, tribesmen, and subsistence farmers, living off the land (Price 112). The evolution of thought, science, as well as human greed has gotten us to the modern 21st century architype we now use today. There is a class system brought about by humans in which social class and wealth create differences. There has always been a power struggle throughout animal existence. Humans, lions, spiders are all tops of food chains in their own respect, and are constantly struggling to keep it. However, many humans that don’t have the same food-chain advantage are those without money, also a made-up artifact derived from humans. Having a lot or having a little; this difference delegates whether or not one can afford to live in a certain district. The same could be said to occur in animal kingdoms, the most powerful animals can lay claim to a certain territory and protect it…until something more powerful comes in and takes over. That animal is usually government…or a revolution! According to PBS gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district’s character and culture (Grant). Basically outsiders or the wealthy come into an area and buy up the “blighted” properties and create new development that attracts the wealthy to invest and buy a house or apartment or business there. This outsider view is completely disregarding the existing neighborhood fabric that has been there for generations. The same happened in the pioneering days when settlers took over the land from natives, completely disregarding their land or opinions and attempts to fight back. This has happened throughout history worldwide. Some might argue that this is a natural cycle that occurs in nature, that eventually the more elite members of the species will take over. The larger lion will fight the weaker one and take over the pride, the larger wallet will buy out the lower-class citizen. One might also say that gentrification is a natural process in cities. That areas eventually become obsolete and underutilized as trends and waves of people come through. Different generations continually move into cities as well as move out. New architecture for the time period comes into style, but fads eventually change and that area is no longer “high-end” and up-to-date. That then becomes an area where investors might forget about and lower end business thrives once again; that is, until the next wave of investors comes along to revitalize the area again, creating the cycle of gentrification on an area. As sprawl occurs and business in downtowns expand, the poorer surrounding metropolitan areas become prime real estate. There is no more room to go up in the downtowns and planners and investors must look towards these neighborhoods. Urban gentrification manifests most visibly at the local level, as dilapidated low-rent neighborhoods are transformed into polished high-rent havens for the middle class through a process of disinvestment and reinvestment which results in the displacement of the lower income tenants; however this localized transformation is in fact the product of uneven development, and specifically the shifting of capital investment in both a sectoral and geographical sense, occurring at several larger scales, from the regional to the nation to the global (Darling 75-91). Are these people being forced, per say, to sell their land/home/property? Yes and no, the property values increase in the area as other parts of it get built up, oftentimes forcing out the low-rent tenants or owners as they can’t keep up with the skyrocketing prices of their infrastructure around them, i.e. they would normally go get a $1 coffee down the street, but a new hipster coffee place open up and charges $5 a cup. The local family restaurant or consignment shop is replaced with an expensive chain and vintage clothing boutique. The standard of living in an area might increase making it harder for one of lower income to stay. However there are many benefits to keeping your house and staying in a gentrified area. New job opportunities emerge as more stores open and construction picks up. Longtime homeowners benefit from rising property values. There's often a decline in crime. On average, credit scores of the poor residents improve in gentrifying neighborhoods (Gillepse). Who really owns the land anyway? Does the government ultimately own it through eminent domain? As they clearly had no regard for the residents in Brooklyn when they built the Nets stadium, whether it was a public entity or for a private investor (the law states that eminent domain is only applicable in a public works project that betters the public, i.e. wider roads for safety, public parks, public facilities, irrigation and waterways, and entities). They took it over anyway. People that had worked really hard for that piece of property to create the neighborhood originally, was getting reclaimed into the cycle of gentrification. But really the ultimate owner is nature. Nature reclaims the richest of societies, Machu Picchu, and other great cities of old all ruins and subservient to nature. The natives originally watched over the land, remaining impermanent to it with temporary structures that returned to nature very quickly. Who is to say that we even “own” the land now? Just because a set of rules in a societal order we made up says so, I think not. Darling, Eliza. "The City in the Country: Wilderness Gentrification and the Rent Gap." Environ. Plann. A Environment and Planning A 37.6 (2005): 1015-032. Web. Gillepse, Patrick. "How Gentrification May Benefit the Poor." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 12 Nov. 2015. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. Grant, Benjamin. "Flag Wars." PBS. PBS, June-July 2003. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. Price, T. Douglas, and James Allison Brown. Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers: The Emergence of Cultural Complexity. Orlando: Academic, 1985. Print.
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Research TopicsThese are articles or items that I have read and invested time researching to further develop my knowledge in the field of architecture and the built environment Archives
December 2016
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