History of Gentrification
History of Gentrification
Embedded Files
Ruth Glass, founder of the term, Gentrification.
A brief history
A brief history
Ruth Glass, a British sociologist, was the founder of the term gentrification and coined it in 1964.
1978, Congress passed a law allowing developers to apply for a tax credit equal to 10% of the buildings rehab; Congress later increased it to 25% and then in 2000 proceeded to create a new tax credit that incentivizes development in distressed neighborhoods, making billions of dollars in profit on the backs of homes that were forcefully abandoned due to displacement
1985, California passed a law that gave landlords the power to usurp rent controlled tenants, effectively forcing them out when the rent became too high to afford. Mass evictions were seen in San Francisco
In 1993, New York did the same thing as California which resulted in more than 152,000 rent stabilized apartments being abandoned due to high cost
Social "Claims"
Social "Claims"
Claims were made that gentrification saw a radical improvement in violent crime rates in neighborhoods and thus was seen as a crime prevention strategy for the police
Claims were made that long time residents would benefit from the better schools, better funding, low crime rates, and increased infrastructure, but unless you are a homeowner, the new prices will eventually kick you out and force you to start over from scratch in a new neighborhood. It will eventually continue to marginalize the poorer residents.
Impact of Gentrification
Impact of Gentrification
This short videos delves in the impacts and affects that gentrification has on a variety of people. Impacts include: loss of culture, loss of support systems and networking opportunities, loss of ethnic diversity, stress of figuring out how to commute to work, stress of being in a new neighborhood, and that stress can often lead to low test scores in children, depression, lower earnings for the parents, and a decreased life expectancy.
What I learned
What I learned
I was very shocked to learn that the person who "coined" the term gentrification was a white woman. It shocked me because it felt like white people were the ones who were primarily coming in and taking over these neighborhoods with no space for minorities anymore, but it does feel nice to know and reflect on the fact that not everyone is against us and there are often times more people working with us.
It also continues to boggle my mind how greed is something that is across the board from coast to coast in this country and the possibility of making more money outweighs any form of human decency and empathy. The fact that this also comes from this in "charge" of this country is even more maddening.
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