Lecture Notes on Gentrification PDF

Potential uses of condo facilities prospective are homeowners, speculators, tourists and also high income people from the upper class taking advantage of accommodation. Prior to 1970, the conventional model was laid on the foundation of the idea that in the early days there was a middle class in the...

Potential uses of condo facilities prospective are homeowners, speculators, tourists and also high income people from the upper class taking advantage of accommodation. Prior to 1970, the conventional model was laid on the foundation of the idea that in the early days there was a middle class in the suburban areas. Upper class and middle class enter the inner city now and they bring economic capital and investment. GENTRIFICATION Process by which poor working class neighborhoods in the inner city refurbished by an influx of capital and middle class home buyers and renters. (Neil Smith, 1996). Displacement, results of displacement of small business, people argue that the post WW2 era is characterized by class struggle which we find in the landscape, condoism result of this struggle, some people not able to continue to live in city. Design to boost growth and revitalize the city. Caulfield: gentrification is Critical social practice which is a response to the city’s post war era of modernist development planning and growth boosterism. -​ Canada is saving the city from decay. -​ Ruth Glass (1964) coined the term gentrification to link together a demographic process (the replacement of working class residents by middle and upper class residents) and spatial transformation (conversion of rental units and rooming houses into larger single homes). -​ One element, as rent gap: cycle of disinvestment (investors move investment to a new era that is going through economic boom) and reinvestment (rent goes low and that impulse the reinvestment) THREE STEP PROCESS OF GENTRIFICATION 1.​ Stage 1: disinvestment and even potential decay and abandonment. We have more people moving out, accommodation often by landlords who don’t live there so they are absent. Socially deviant behaviors like crime, urban decay, property value goes down. 2.​ Stage 2: New residents (pioneers) who are usually assumed to be artists or counter-culture people. Bohemians are individuals who are socially unconventional and tend to engage in music, acting, and artists, they don’t conform with the norms, normally without financial capital but do artistic capital (creative). Valorization of social competencies that makes location attractive (area that is going through decay nothing makes the place attractive, but artist come and it adds value). 3.​ Stage 3: In-migration of more risk-averse (careful into launching to new opportunities) groups students and professional class. Individuals who just graduated have degrees with great skills and are highly employable with high income, normally middle class, young professionals (yuppies) to describe them, and take advantage of the inner city. 4.​ Stage 4: More risk-averse developers, middle and upper class. PROCESS OF GENTRIFICATION 1.​ Rent increases are capped for the duration of the tenancy. If 8 months the resident is supposed to pay the same amount, the homeowner is not likely to increase the rent, if you live in an area  with businesses they are not affected by rent control so they are more vulnerable for increase prices. 2.​ Conversion of residential units into condos. 3.​ Commercial displacement happens in two different ways: a.​ Business closes. Rent increases and are not able to generate enough profit. b.​ Business loses traditional customers. They start to relocate an close customers so profit starts to go down forcing the to close down- 4.​ Residential displacement given that gentrification displaces low-income residents by high-income residents. Residential displacement families are affected because they cannot compete with the middle class. Bid rent theory: the one with the highest profit will win. GENTRIFIED NEIGHBORHOODS IN TORONTO A.​ LITTLE PORTUGAL: 1960s became vibrant with mass migration and it stopped. Compact use of land development, transportation and ethnic businesses. a.​ BIA: business improvement areas often run by a board of directors that are entrepreneurs, business owners or developers, make decisions in favor of their own programs of establishing businesses and amenities. Government impose taxes for the BIA but it is reinvested into the neighborhood b.​ Attractive because of compact land development: concentration of businesses with close proximity to transportation so people can use these systems. c.​ Characterized by neighborhoods in transition. d.​ Interviews with residents by Murdie and Teixeria show that there is an increase in housing demand, subsequently leading to price increases and loss of affordable housing. e.​ East of Little Portugal has eviction rates over three times higher than the city’s average. f.​ EMERGENCE OF NON-PORTUGUESE BUSINESSES i.​ In 2003, two non-portugues entrepreneurs started businesses in this ethnic neighborhood. ii.​ Bar-based restaurantes, apparel stores and art galleries dominate among non-Portuguese businesses. g.​ RESIDENTIAL DISTRIBUTION OF LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS i.​ Portuguese entrepreneurs currently live in and commute from Toronto’s Western suburbs such as Mississauga ii.​ While Portuguese and non-Portuguese work next door to each other, they live in different residential areas. h.​ PROPERTY OWNERSHIP BY PORTUGUESE i.​ Physical development in the area has been extremely limited. ii.​ Some businesses have been affected by soaring rental prices. B.​ SOUTH PARKDALE: a.​ Neighborhood was faced with middle class flight and disinvestment as a result of: i.​ The construction of the Gardiner Express in the 1955-1964, demolished homes.  ii.​ Deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients from a nearby hospital in the 1970s. Centers of addiction and mental health on Queen Street and Lakeshore Provincial Psychiatrist closed. b.​ South Parkdale was an attractive place to invest for gentrification because of spacious houses and transportation. c.​ Highways, need to remove old structures in South Parkdale going into Lakeside, MODERN PLANNING. d.​ RESETTLEMENT OF THE MIDDLE CLASS IN SOUTH PARKDALE i.​ Resettlement of the middle class homeowners and tenants who have been following the artists has not been welcomed. ii.​ Tension is rife between low income tenant advocates and the South Parkdale Residents’ Association (SPRA). iii.​ Concentration of singles is viewed as unhealthy and a concentration of families is perceived as healthy. C.​ LIBERTY VILLAGE a.​ In the 1970s, small groups of artists moved into the area and took advantage of abandoned factories, and warehouses which offered large and inexpensive spaces for live/work studios. b.​ In the 1990s, it became the subject of real estate speculation as business owners bought up inexpensive properties. c.​ The city of Toronto implemented policies of deregulation of land use and rezoning from industrial to mixed commercial/residential uses. 1994 d.​ Eviction rate was 320% in Liberty Village like South Parkdale. Low incomes were impacted by the new development. HARM CAUSED BY GENTRIFICATION? -​ Do current residents who are affected by gentrification have any right to continue living in high-cost areas and must municipal governments subsidize their rents? -​ Friedrich Von Hayek argued that gentrification is not a problem but rather a consequence of market principles. -​ Hayek opposes public housing because the free market mode of allocation may be disadvantageous but it is hard to come up with alternatives. In the free market people decide whether living in the city outweighs living in a suburban area with lower rent and commuting. 1.​ FREEDOM OF CHOICE a.​ People sort themselves out into neighborhoods based on ability to pay. b.​ People of different socio-economic classes should learn to cut their coats according to their sizes. c.​ Hayek Provides rationale for his opposition to public housing. Subsiding houses in the city increases demand, 2.​ EGALITARIANISM a.​ Sufficientarian approach posits that there is a need to ensure a decent quality of life for everybody regardless of gender race, background or sexual orientation.  b.​ Luck egalitarian argues that inequality caused by bad luck is morally problematic in a way that inequality produced by choice is not. View of shared moral intuition we are responsible for the actions that we cause: our choices but not for outcomes beyond our control. c.​ Expensive taste is a way of describing the fact that an equal distribution of resources does not necessarily secure equal well-being. A person with expensive taste needs more income to achieve the same level of welfare as those with not expensive taste. d.​ THREE CONVERGE: propose to sell thousands of single family homes, properties identified for sale were located in gentrified neighborhoods and prices were going up because they were bought when they were cheaper. Should the city sell at high price and use money for affordable housing somewhere else? e.​ MERIT GOOD: 3.​ COMMUNITY VALUES a.​ Community and loyalty to place have been described as the preferences and needs of particular individuals. Sense of place b.​ Often what is lost through gentrification is not just individual residences or apartments but neighborhood character and identity. c.​ Trans-historical groups that transmit identity from one generation to another are lost. d.​ Long-term residents of the neighborhood feel like aliens in their own neighborhoods. 4.​ DIVISION AND UNIFORMITY a.​ The rise of shopping malls, automobiles and supermarkets render mom-and-pop stores obsolete and entire commercial streets are abandoned. b.​ Gentrified neighborhoods tend to have greater degree of income polarization and economic inequality. $38,000 c.​ It also results in declining levels of social mix, ethnic diversity and immigrant concentration within affected neighborhoods.