Posted on 02/16/2015 1:54:51 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
---SNIP--- On a nitty-gritty level, I would be interested if Dave Zirin can think of a single example on the South Side of Chicago of a) Boys and Girls Clubs that are now bistros, or b) public baseball diamonds that are now condos. Actually, I'm not that interested, because I know the answer, which is "No," because a) those things did not happen and b) Dave Zirin made them up.
One reason I know that Dave Zirin made them up is that black neighborhoods in Chicago, particularly on the South Side, almost never gentrify. --SNIP-- Which means that Dave Zirin didn't just make up some fictional events to more effectively illustrate a real phenomenon. He made up the entire phenomenon.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadspin.com ...
“It’s wrong because black neighborhoods in Chicago don’t gentrify. Because white people refuse to move there. Because racism.”
Well, if you define racism as “not wanting to get killed”, okay.
I’ve never understood the problem with gentrification. People would rather an area remain impoverished and crime riddled?
it does seem like it, doesn’t it?
Big cities love it too. Gets rid of the riff raff to the suburbs. See SF ——> Oakland, Richmond.
Well, if you define racism as “not wanting to get killed”, okay.
They’ll define racism however they want to, cracker!
The problem is that the area may not be impoverished anymore, but the impoverished people still need to live somewhere. They can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood they lived in for years, because the rents and taxes go up. So, they all get pushed out, often to an even worse neighborhood.
Yes, they would.
Gentrification is the normal and desirable re-birthing of a community; it forces people to act, either for monetary or personal profit. Or, if they can't participate, it forces them to relocate.
The alternative is decay and death spiral: see Detroit.
You can see why poverty pimps and anti-capitalists have a problem with it.
It’s like what Rush said at one time. People want to be around with their own kind. Been that way since time immortal.
In the deranged mind of Zirin evil, white, capitalist ogres are always conspiring to do nasty things to innocent minorities. Like most leftist scribblers, Zirin just cannot admit that many time minorities screw up and fail on their own efforts.
It is a reason for leftists to call white people racists. If wealthy black people move into depressed white areas, that's wonderful. When the reverse happens, rich white people move into black ghettoes, it's just another horrible offense against black people by racist whites.
White people moving out of black areas was racist. White people moving into black areas is also racist. You figure it out.
St. Louis to Ferguson.
Here’s the thing - I’ve come to learn that there will always be a segment of our society that absolutely refuses to fend for itself. Why cater to that segment?
I work in land development, and one day I was at a planning commission meeting to pitch a new development. A developer had bought up abandoned industrial property near the RR tracks, and was proposing a gated, maintenance free community. The common theme of the protesting neighbors: “Our taxes will go up”. It was unbelievable - they would rather live in crime and decay, than stay and pay more taxes...or pick door #3 and sell out for a profit, if they couldn’t afford the taxes.
And, they had an expectation that the abandoned property near them be permanently vacant, producing practically zero tax revenue, and serving essentially as a playground for crime and underground activity. IOW, their personal desire to wallow in squalor trumped the needs of the community.
I think its an absurd attitude.
Yes, I know the rents go up. But as the area gets ‘trendy’, aren’t there new restaurants opening up with job potential? And, they don’t just double the rent on a crappy apartment without improving it, do they? There may be some painting, carpet laying, sheet rock hanging, etc. type jobs to be had. IOW, as the rents go up, the local job outlook also changes...for the willing. Sure the unwilling will have to move, but in aggregate, the gentrified neighborhood will have increased the net opportunities in the area, and should by some small percentage reduce the total poverty in the area.
“If wealthy black people move into depressed white areas, that’s wonderful.”
That’s extremely rare. Wealthy black people tend to move into wealthy areas - a Deeee-lux Apartment in the Skyyyy.
They don’t had hipster white guilt nagging at their heart strings. If anything, they may choose to be ‘down with the struggle’ and stay in a poor black area. Honestly, though, I can’t think of an example in my experience, where wealthy blacks started moving into a poor white neighborhood.
“Why cater to that segment?”
Well, you don’t have to cater to them, but you shouldn’t be surprised if they want to preserve their way of life and resist someone coming in and imposing that change on them.
“Yes, I know the rents go up. But as the area gets ‘trendy’, aren’t there new restaurants opening up with job potential?”
Restaurants, and even retail stores offer only a few jobs, with little earning potential, while gentrification raises the expenses for everyone in the neighborhood. So, it’s not exactly an equal offset.
“And, they don’t just double the rent on a crappy apartment without improving it, do they?”
Not necessarily double, but yes, even an unimproved apartment will see a larger raise in rent than usual, because the prices are based on what the market will bear. Smart landlords will remodel as well, to maximize what they can squeeze out of the market, but even the ones that do no improvements will charge whatever they can, since they are going to have to pay the higher taxes as well.
“There may be some painting, carpet laying, sheet rock hanging, etc. type jobs to be had.”
Most landlords already have dedicated contractors to do that stuff, but they might have to hire a few more for big jobs. Still, the same applies to the idea about restaurants, there will be a few more jobs that will help a few people, while the entire neighborhood must bear a higher expense. These are residential neighborhoods, and the majority of people living in those neighborhoods will never work within the boundaries of the neighborhood. It’s just not where most of the jobs are located.
“you shouldn’t be surprised if they want to preserve their way of life”
Actually I am always quite surprised and perplexed when somebody wants to preserve an impoverished way of life.
How come gentrification only applies when whites move into a poor black neighborhood. What if I own a rental in an all white middle class neighborhood, and I decide to really spruce it up. Next thing you know, I’m charging more rent and I’ve self-gentrified my own property....forcing some renters to leave due to higher rents.
What is different about that? Am I harming my middle class white community by sprucing up my building? If the answer is yes, improving a property is somehow ‘bad’, we should let real estate rot, right?
If the answer is no...then gentrification complaints are really just a disguise for black on white racism, aren’t they?
I realize that. I was just pointing out typical lib hypocrisy. It’s like that saying: it doesn’t matter what white people do, they’re still racists.
“Actually I am always quite surprised and perplexed when somebody wants to preserve an impoverished way of life.”
They’re impoverished one way or another. The only difference for them is that instead of being impoverished in the neighborhood they have probably lived in for years, they will have to be impoverished somewhere else, and also bear the expenses of relocating.
“How come gentrification only applies when whites move into a poor black neighborhood.”
It doesn’t. I live in a neighborhood that has gentrified. It was formerly ethnic European, mostly German immigrants. Now it’s dominated by yuppies and most of the Germans were forced out. The only reason I can still afford to live here is because I work for my landlord and get a good deal on the rent.
“What is different about that?”
The difference is that any impact a single property owner has in a situation like that is minimal. It’s when the big money developers come in, or a wave of “urban pioneers”, buying up properties in swathes, that the effect starts to be significant.
Yes, I have seen first hand when it happens to white neighborhoods, and the white residents can get just as upset at the situation. In my neighborhood, vandals were going around at night spray painting “DIE YUPPIE SCUM” on the front of new developments and even some long time residents who were just remodeling their properties. Nobody, black or white, likes it when circumstances outside their control start hitting them in the pocketbook.
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