Gentrification consists of a process in which the character of poor urban areas is replaced by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses; commonly dislodging the current inhabitants. And it's on our block.
Should you be concerned? Gentrification prominently strikes poverty-stricken areas like South Central Los Angeles; which may succumb to Gentrification. For instance, right outside of our school Alliance Patti and Peter Neuwirth Leadership Academy, a handful of homes that possessed a fair share of land were demolished and later replaced with an apartment complex at 4515 Main Street. Gentrification also impacts the businesses that exist in poverty-stricken environments like retail stores that typically support financially struggling families are beginning a process in which they plan to cease operations permanently due to insufficient funds.
Gentrification is not a new problem. It has been affecting communities all over Los Angeles for centuries. A recent, well-documented example is related to everybody’s favorite World Series Champion, the Dodgers. If you’ve ever gone to a game, you know what a pain it is to get in and out of the stadium due to traffic. Developers looking to “solve” this problem have been working on a transit system to move people in and out efficiently. While this might seem like a win-win, there is a cost to these types of developments.
From the point of view of Rachel Uranga from the LA Times, projects imposed by big corporations like the Dodgers Stadium are also displacing individuals, whether through evictions or the burden of the many individuals who disrupt the community. The Gondola Project for one, in which Metro plans to make individuals' traveling experience to the Dodger’s Stadium more convenient by adding an ariel tramway can be an example of this, “Metro is helping to plan an aerial gondola system to whisk baseball fans and concertgoers from Union Station to Dodger Stadium in what it says would be a mere seven-minute trip. Funded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, the project would run about 40 feet above the Lings’ century-old Victorian cottage — meaning that every 30 seconds on game days, some 40 people packed in a tram would pass outside their living room window…the system could ferry 5,000 people an hour, alleviating the need for them to drive to the stadium. A free shuttle also runs to the 56,000-seat stadium, which gondola opponents say is a better option. But Metro hopes the connection to Union Station — where several rail and bus lines converge — and a stop near the Chinatown station would encourage more commuters to take public transit…” (Uranga, via LA Times) On the surface, for fans attending the games, this is all positive. There is no doubt that the gondola would improve the experience for fans going to games, but the proposal, “first floated in 2018, has spurred anxieties in Chinatown, where the median income is $36,000 and some fear it will accelerate the gentrification that is causing the slow exodus of Asian residents, many of whom have lived there for generations” (Uranga, via LA Times). As a consequence of the Gondola Project, residents are concerned with their future living conditions because it is apparent that the project can disrupt their comfort within the bounds of their own homes, or worse, potentially displace them.
To understand the complex issue of gentrification more, I reached out to the teacher who first introduced me to the concept, our very own, AP World History and World History teacher, Ms. Martinez.
Are you for or against gentrification?
I am against it.
Have you ever been affected by gentrification?
No, I don’t think it’s affected me personally. I grew up in a white neighborhood, I live in a very white neighborhood, so it’s never affected me personally but I have seen the effects that it’s had on the communities that I work in. In the last high school I worked at - especially since it’s a lot closer to USC- you can really tell that that neighborhood specifically changed a lot and it affected a lot of the families that went to the school where I worked because they were getting pushed out of their homes into worse neighborhoods.
What would you say are the positives and negatives of gentrification?
I know that the argument for gentrification is that “people should be grateful because it means that the neighborhood is improving.” But at the same time, the new people have very little regard for the people who have built communities like that and who have lived there for a really long time. I don’t think they realize that like, Yes, you might be getting some amenities… Like you may be getting little coffee shops or thrift stores or whatever. But, at the same time… the impact that it has on the families…I don’t think it’s necessarily worth it because people can’t afford to live in the neighborhood that they grew up in and lived in their entire lives, and those are people who have really strong roots in the community who, all of a sudden, are left homeless because they don’t have the financial means to continue to live there.
It sucks because the price or the value of your neighborhood is now dependent on the people who live there and it just so happens that if the people who live there are white, then your neighborhood is valued more, so it’s such a detriment to the people who are living in these neighborhoods that are getting gentrified.
Does gentrification make living conditions better or worse?
OK, so I think gentrification tends to improve the conditions of the neighborhood but it’s not improving the living conditions for the people who were there because once people get thrown out of their neighborhoods, now they’re stuck going somewhere worse - usually more overcrowded places, schools that are overenrolled, that don’t have space and have high teacher-turnout…like the consequences of it are so detrimental to the people who are suffering the consequences and I think that just because you believe you are making a place better, it doesn’t mean you have a right to basically colonize an entire community.
It feels like this shouldn’t even be a problem in the first place because if we gave poor neighborhoods and people of color the resources that they needed - so they could also have their own self-determination - to improve their neighborhoods on their own through access to things like small business loans, better access to homes and housing for the homeless… all of that would be a solution to the gentrification and people wouldn’t be at the mercy of white people to try and fix the problem for us…we could just fix it ourselves but—racism.
So what does this mean for Neuwirth? Look up and down Main Street from our building and you can’t help but notice the construction of big buildings going up around us. It’s exciting, but it’s also concerning. Maybe the new development will bring more restaurants, better grocery stores, and more shopping options for things like clothes and entertainment. Maybe not.
Ultimately, gentrification can improve the character of an area but is dangerous for the current inhabitants because it puts them in a position where they potentially risk losing their homes due to insufficient funds; commonly displacing them into areas with poorer character.
Gentrification usually benefits corporations or wealthy individuals rather than the citizens themselves who make up the communities. Progress and development should be positive for underfunded areas, but the reality is that the only positives experienced are by the wealthy, at the expense of the poor, working-class people who need and deserve the investment in their communities the most.
