What does “gentrification” mean and what are “gentrified” neighboorhoods in modern day united states?
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New buildings are expensive. Old, decrepit buildings are cheap. Replacing old decrepit buildings with new ones makes the neighborhood more expensive to live in. Rents and property values increase, new, more affluent people move in, and poorer, less affluent people are obliged to move somewhere else. In many cases, there’s no equally or less expensive place to move to, which results in a huge drop in disposable income for the poor people being displaced.
The trouble is, you can’t just leave neighborhoods to rot, on the undertaking that slums are cheap. Because they’re *not*. Those same cheap neighborhoods with decaying buildings are rife with crime and violence, and erode the tax base of the community that they’re situated in, which will ensure that, in the long run, the community continues to be worse and worse off. Look no further than Flint, Michigan or Gary, Indiana for an example of this vicious cycle in action. There’s no longer any affluent taxpayers from which to fund programs which support less affluent residents, and eventually even basic public services like police, fire safety, sewage and water stop being within the means of the public purse.
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