Gentrification has been an outgrowth of housing crisis since the onset of the Great Recession. We previously highlighted the gradual process for gentrification in this post HERE. Employment scarcity has pushed a lot of people out of the suburbs who bought homes on cheap credit and then lost them. This has made rental inventory scarce and pushed younger people to cheaper apartments in low-income, mostly minority neighborhoods, further gentrifying them.
Society has pointed to gentrification as a source for housing inequalities for decades: snobby yuppies moving in and ruining authentic traditional cultures and ethnic communities (Who can forget the line in Do the Right Thing— “Mother&%$# Gentrification!”):
But wait a minute……an article on NPR online helps us to rethink the logic of gentrification.
According to the article, a once-crack-plagued neighborhood in Washington, D.C. has been a shining example of how the original residents of an urban neighborhood have benefitted from the arrival of outsiders. Today, we don’t blink an eye when we call them “hipsters,” but back in the eighties they were called “gentrifiers.” The point is debatable, but some are reporting that the original poor/working class residents of bad neighborhoods have just as much to gain from having gentrifying (often white) educated people moving into their areas. Honestly, this piece seems to have been written with some kind of pro-big development agenda because the positive outcomes it cites are kind of fuzzy to begin with: migrants taking care of their private spaces and their facades, and that, in turn breeding construction of health food superstores down the street. Huh? So, the original residents didn’t clean up their stoops? What’s undoubtable is that the subletters keep migrating and the new apartment complexes seem to follow promptly, forcing a new wave of alternative renters to find other neighborhoods to gentrify.
For those old-time renters in urban centers like Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles, the a great advantage from gentrification over the years has been rent-control. Rent control limits the amount a landlord can increase the rent, and if you are renting an apartment that is rent controlled and you have been living there for many years, you just might be paying much lower than market rent.
Renting an apartment in Echo Park, for example, in 2014 at 1989 prices doesn’t sound too bad. Not only do you have a discounted apartment you’re living in, but you’re enjoying all the benefits of gentrification: a safer environment, more convenient stores, an active neighborhood. But you also watch as your once culturally vibrant neighborhood becomes diluted in a way.
It’s true that generally those footing the bill for the differences in quality of life are the new residents who take up an apartment at market rent, which can be as much as 50% of the average income in a city. Their decision, of course. That is why many of them resort to co-op and subleasing together, either with friends or through online communities like subleasehub.com.
To these people, the hipsters and newcomers, gentrification is obviously a good thing. The old-time residents, of course lose out on the feel of their once vibrant communities that are now sort of kitchy shells of their former selves.
–Nir Dayan
subleasehub 