Gentrification Synopsis
1st Wave: Sporadic gentrification, usually concentrated in small neighborhoods in NE USA.
2nd Wave: Gentrification is anchored. Central city neighborhoods are the usual target. Gentrification becomes more common in smaller, non-global cities.
Ex.: NYC - art communities often gentrified, such as SoHo, Tribeca, Lower East Side.
1st~2nd transition: Downturn in property values, developers and investors buy large amounts of devalorized property. Sets stage for 1980s gentrification (2nd wave).
2nd~3rd transition: Gentrification slows as private market of gentrification exhausts itself.
Gov't (state) encouraged gentrification and had a direct role in organizing gentrification.
State handled land assembly, tax incentives, and property condemnation, convinced politicians and patrician families to move into such neighborhoods.
3rd Wave: Areas further away from city center begin to experience gentrification. Large developers rework entire neighborhoods (as opposed to sections of a neighborhood) with state support.
Revival of support for gentrification occurred around the time when there was a reduction in federal redistribution to localities. With federal funds becoming scarce, communities had greater urgency to generate tax dollars.
Appearing business-friendly was important to maintain credit rating, and thus the attraction and retention of the middle-class was important, as they generate tax revenue.
3rd Wave: High degree of public-sector investment that
has driven neighborhood transformations.
Prominent state intervention includes demolition of public housing, displacing thousands of low-income families, most of them African American.
Most of the neighborhoods affected by this are more remote from business centers and thus considered too risky for private investment.
These neighborhoods are usually dominated by super-blocks that typify public housing estates and thus lack the type of housing typically exploited by gentrifiers. The scale of deprivation and the accompanying problems of crime and disinvestment also discourage private investors.
HOPE VI program: "Used in dozens of cities to demolish public housing developments and to create new mixed-income communities in their place. The program thus redefines public housing policy and serves as the main vehicle through which the state has triggered innercity revitalization."
Race and Gentrification
Gentrification has a race aspect to it as well.
White gentrifiers displacing black incumbents.
Dynamics of black gentrification are distinctive. The phenomenon is "conditioned by larger patterns of racial segregation and exclusion, and the constrained mobility of the Black middle class."
Black gentrifiers typically invest in communities with high concentrations of public housing and poverty.
Potential of wealth generation is limited by public policy decisions that concentrate subsidized housing in minority neighborhoods.
Members of black middle class argue for "fair share" approach to public housing, and thus support the demolition of public housing
as a necessary step in creating livable communities.
Displacees see themselves as same members of the same community that the Black middle class is trying to invest in, and so Black gentrification is seen no better than White gentrification.
Current campaign to demolish public housing mostly affects low-income Black families, as public housing is disproportionately occupied by AA and is disproportionately located in minority communities.
(LOOK AT CHART IN ARTICLE PG. 4)
Some cities have experienced growth while others have declined or stagnated, resulting in hierarchical changes in the US urban system
Decline in manufacturing employment, also known as deindustrialization, is affected by multiple factors.
Such factors include: economic globalization, the growing challenge to American global economic dominance, the ability of large corporations to shift capital from one area to another with growing ease, declining corporate profits, antiunion management, the avoidance of taxation and welfare responsibilities, shifting power relations between capital and labor, and policies of the federal government.
Effects of deindustrialization: factory closure, urban fiscal crisis, unemployment, poverty, economic despair, and social decay.
See Table 1 for types and characteristics of US metropolises.
Historical Overview of Paterson
1st planned industrial city in USA.
Ideal location: water power, near major cities, proximity to raw materials & far enough from major cities to avoid high taxes.
1st half of 19th century: Growth & prosperity, Paterson dominated Silk industry.
2nd half of 19th century: Decline & depression. Development of artificial silk (rayon) & failure to keep up with textile development led to decline in Paterson.
"The 1929 depression marked the final demise of the silk and locomotive industries and led to a high rate of unemployment."
Shift of industry out of the Northeast and to the South greatly affected Paterson.
Decentralization of economic activities.
Transition from manufacturing jobs to service jobs.
Resulted in a high rate of unemployment, poverty, and urban decay.
Despite economic depression, population remained relatively stable.
Reasons for population stability: Preferable location for immigrants, proximity to NYC offers accessibility and relatively easy commute for residents, more affordable housing than what NYC may offer.
Racial composition of Paterson changed; Paterson went from largely white to largely non-White.
Addressing Urban Economic Decline
"The city government has implemented various policies and programs to reverse urban decline in Paterson and promote economic growth."
"The Paterson Restoration Corporation (PRC), a not for-profit corporation, was established to foster business growth and job formation in the city."
Designation of Paterson as an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ); the idea is to encourage private capital investment in such areas.
"All businesses that qualify for UEZ program participation are eligible to receive incentives that reduce costs of operating in the zones. "
Greening the Ghetto
Black people are twice as likely as a white person to live in an area where air pollution poses the greatest risk to their health, and are 5 times more likely to live within walking distance of a power plant or chemical facility.
These land-use decisions created the hostile conditions that lead to problems like obesity, diabetes and asthma.
1 in every 4 South Bronx children has asthma, and South Bronx asthma hospitalization rate is 7 times higher than the national average.
From a planning perspective, economic degradation begets environmental degradation, which begets social degradation.
Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training
Provides job training in the fields of ecological restoration, so that folks from our community have the skills to compete for these well-paying jobs, these green-collar jobs.
Cool roofs are highly-reflective surfaces that don't absorb solar heat, and pass it on to the building or atmosphere. Green roofs are soil and living plants. Both can be used instead of petroleum-based roofing materials that absorb heat, contribute to urban "heat island" effect and degrade under the sun, which we in turn breathe. Green roofs also retain up to 75 percent of rainfall, so they reduce a city's need to fund costly end-of-pipe solutions
Motivation for black residents to live in poorer minority neighborhoods differs from motivation of their white counterparts.
Feelings of "racial exclusion" and desire for "racial solidarity" push African-Americans to flock to certain areas with a history of black culture.
As such, these residents are willing to invest in their communities with the intent of creating a “economically and politically powerful black neighborhood.”
"Communities fight for basic upgrades in quality of life, and when they’re successful, their food options and well-kept streets attract neighbors (and developers)."
"Richer, more entitled parents can lift up weak schools, says Biberman. “They’re more aggressive, and they empower other parents.”"
Smaller businesses can stay in business if they just listen to what consumers want, old and new.
"Can you create models of gentrification in which the benefits are spread out through the community?"
"The key, he says, is to make sure that residents and shopkeepers in low-income neighborhoods have equity and a political voice—before a real-estate surge."
There is talk about attracting artists to poorer neighborhoods.
“Artists are good for communities. The arts create jobs and draw tourists and visitors. Arts activities make neighborhoods livelier, safer, and more attractive.”
Displacement considered an inevitable consequence to capitalism.