Gentrification Flashcards
What are the origins of the term gentrification?
First used by Ruth Glass as a critique of unequal urban processes in North London
She suggested that gentrification was occuring in London involving the refurbishment of properties in an area an chnages in its class composition
What is gentrification?
The process by which working-class areas are transformed into middle-class residential and or commercial areas, where existing residents are displaced
How has gentrification emerged over the years?
This process has been a feature of industrialized cities since the 1960s
Over the last decades of the 20th century, gentrification spread into smaller cities in industrialized nations and larger cities in parts of the Global South
What is a Montreal example of gentrification?
Mile end used to be a working-class, garment district in the 19th and 20th centuries
Eastern Europeans, Jewish, Greek, Portuguese, Romanian, German, and Italian people all settled in Mile end to work. Free trade regulations caused the garment industry to collapse leading to large scale disinvestment in Mile-end/Plateau
In 1980s/90s former renters became owners since everything was so cheap and so many artists moved there (the art years)
In the mid-90s, the government created a tax credit so tech companies would come to Mile End, which attracted Ubisoft and many other tech companies
What is renoviction?
The retaking of units by landlords to renovate and make more money. This was a big problem in 2020
85% of the lease refusals were fraudulent
Who is Loretta Lees?
Professor and activist, emerged as the most powerful anti-gentrification voice
What are the racialized dimensions of gentrification as discussed by Alisha Morenike Fisher?
The idea that gentrification destroys neighbourhood support networks, spefically ethno-cultural infrastructures.
We must consider displacement in relation to histories of racial discrimination and longstanding racialized inequalities. She argues that communities should be the priority and part of redevelopment plans. New mixed-income neighbourhoods often result in intensification of inequality, school segregation, tensions, and weakening of support networks.
Gentrification as a false choice in urbanism, no alternatives
What is super-gentrification? Examples?
“the billionaires pushing out the millionaires”
The conversion of already gentrified and solid upper-middle0class neighbourhoods into much more expensive and exclusive enclaves
Known as ‘Aspenization’
ex) iceberg homes
What are some strategies to combat gentrification?
-Renovate urban places without displacing longstanding lower-income groups
-foster economic growth oppurtunities in low-income communities
-Change existing zoning regulations (from single-family homes to mixed use)
-increase community ownership (community assets, businesses, and homes should be kept at affordable prices)
-tax vacant properties to free up housing stock
regulate or ban short-term rentals to free up housing stock
What is R1 zoning? What issues does it cause?
R1 zoning creates a shortage of affordable housing because these are single-unit residential
Many families displaced from multi-unit homes cannot afford single unit homes
What are some anti-gentrification laws?
- new law requiring Oregon cities with more than 1000 residents to allow duplexes in areas previously zoned for single-family homes
- Minneapolis has followed suit; laws allow duplexes and triplexes to be built anywhere in the city
What is an example of gentrification in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
Commercial gentrification were Kopitiam (pre-mall food courts’ are being closed due to new, ‘hip’ coffee shops
How is gentrification different in East Asian cities, according to Hyun Bang Shin?
Shin believes gentrification has had a significant impact on the urban popualtion of east Asia but it is varied based on different social, economic, and political contexts
Gentrification in East Asia is usually ‘new-build’ gentrification and commercial gentrification
What is new-build gentrification?
the clearance and redevelopment of entire neighbourhoods including displacement of poor residents by wealthier people
How is Seoul, Korea an example of state-led gentrification?
The state plays a special role in clearing the sites and transferring private land or public assets into the hands of private developers
What are some challenges of contesting gentrification in Asian cities?
-heavy presence of the state (authoritarian tendencies)
-protestors met with violence
-persistent culture of individual property owners not working collectively
-poor tenants’ rights
What does Seon Young Lee argue gentrification is in South Korea?
Gentrification in Korea is different from the West, it refers to the socio-spatial change that takes place as the unique culture and distinctiveness of an area become commercialized, tenants who played an important role in this transformation have become displaced due to increase in rent
A crucial social problem
How are Koreans resisitng gentrification?
-tenant movements have made progress in improving tenants’ rights and in opposing the strong property rights of landlords
-a representative body of commercial tenants was created to resolve problems resulting from unequal tenancy agreements and to organize the struggle of commercial tenants
What is Takeout drawing (TOD)?
A cafe and gallery in Hannam, Seoul, which represents a symbolic resistance against commercial gentrification, it acts as an important community space for anti-gentrification organizations to gather , strategize, and exchange information
Describe Yongsan, Seoul
A gentrifying neighbourhood close to Seoul which has been ran down due rail yards and a US army district, the relocation of these things led to massive urban redevelopment projects where many residents were evicted .
Protests were held against evictions and 7 people died.
Yongsan became a key symbol of Korean urban development
Describe Hangangro, Seoul
Older, centrally located neighbourhood with buildings in bad condition, The buildings are neglected by owners who assumed the state would just redevelop the area
-Formation of pro-gentrification coalitions between state and absentee landlords
-Korea has a weak wlefare system so housing is often a substitute for a pension.
What are unique aspects of Korea gentrification?
Combinations of state policies and private capital is unqiue from West
- not an easy winners vs. losers
-Gentrification in Korea is often pushed by owner-occupiers or absentee landlords rather than people outside the neighbourhoods like in teh West
What does the paper about Gentrification and spatial inequality in Tokoyo discuss?
Examines large scale urban regeneration projects that have been promoted through the relaxation of urban planning regulations under neoliberal policies
What did the researchers (Tetsuo Kidokoro, Kojiro Sho, Ryo Fukuda) find in paper on Tokyo gentrification?
Researchers conducted a detailed case study of the gentrification process in a workers’ community where a large scale urban redevelopment project was implemented.
They found spatial inequality widened in Tokyo because of state-led gentrification in 2000s: caused loss of urban industries and creation of ‘urban suburbia’
