What does “gentrification” mean and what are “gentrified” neighboorhoods in modern day united states?
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It is a certain type of urban redevelopment which includes an increase in property values, typically in rundown neighborhoods. There are lots of reasons why this happens – new businesses move in, a new kind of marketing or attractiveness to the area, it becomes more desirable to many people than it was previously. Often property developers will start by building some shops and apartments attractive to professionals to live close to the city center.
People who own property in a neighborhood see an increase in their asset value. Some people sell and take the money and leave. People who live there but rent rather than own see an increase in their rent as a result and move out. The end result is that the area and neighborhood which was often partially neglected with rundown buildings and the like is transformed into a neighborhood with more business, newer buildings and infrastructure, and a higher standard of living and quality of life for those who live there.
When people use the word gentrification they are often referring to this phenomenon from the point of view of those who wish to remain in the same neighborhood but find it more difficult to do so and face little alternative besides moving away. People will talk about this in terms of class and racial division and the desire and some will say right for people to remain in a neighborhood they have known much of their lives.
There are ideas which are a bit ethereal which some people take more seriously than others – the culture of a neighborhood, the value of a continuous community, the stake and say that non-property owners have or should have over the nature of where they choose to live.
Listening to either side for too long can give someone a headache as one side sounds like they are eager for all the previous residents to move out and the other side sounds eager to keep their neighborhood a ghetto.
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