“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?
“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.