Urban Politics and Problems

What is Gentrification?

Gentrification or gentrification (English, gentrification) is a process of urban transformation in which the original population of an area or neighborhood deteriorated, and pauperism is progressively displaced by another of greater purchasing power at a time to be renewed. Gentrification begins when a group of people of a certain economic level they discover a neighborhood that, despite being degraded and undercapitalized, provides a good balance between quality and price and choose to live in it (Zukin, 62). These neighborhoods are usually located near the center of the city or have certain advantages, such as being located near employment centers, etc. It is a purely urban phenomenon and located in the historical period of post-Fordism, although there may be similar processes in other areas and temporal scales. In this way, the process has similarities with the new trends in certain rural areas of the western world where as farming disappears are becoming the seat of tourism and second homes. Nor should one confuse the term with the processes of urban renewal that took place in the centers of modern cities with the goal of cleaning up the city or even create enlargements for the bourgeoisie urban, as it occurs in a different economic and historical context, greater role in public administration, with a private real estate sector is less developed, and, above all, being processes that contribute to shaping the modern industrial capitalist city, while the dismantling process of gentrification (Zukin, 60).

Communities That Have Been Gentrified

Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York

The most notable effect of gentrification is the displacement of the lower classes. This shift can occur in various forms but is mainly based on the housing situation. The classes can reduce their number in the area by the aging population, based on ruinous conditions eviction of a building or expiration of a lease and the absence of an offer for rentals in the area for this social group. In cases in which the movements occur voluntarily, these are usually due to an effect of rejection on the situation of degradation of the village, for incentive payments in exchange for his surrender to tenants with golden parachutes, or sale of the property. Once this shift is revalued the precious land, residential communities, through the rehabilitation of the building, usually reclassified as high-level residences, or residential construction from scratch (Lees, 91).

Columbia Heights

Data suggests that the proposed assessed values of all types of residences will increase between 2003 and 2004, and the number of low-income units will decrease. Of the available data on 194 housing units that sold over the last four year, the proposed property values for 2004 have increased in 134 of them. The £26,430 average difference between the 2003 median land value (£58,850) and the proposed 2004 land value (£85,280) is significant at the .05 level. Thus, when these buildings are rented, landlords are able to raise the rent and drive out the lower income people. Also, the median selling prices of all types of housing units except ...