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    Hoyo AfrikaMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:15pm

    When I took urban planning in college (in Canada they say university), my profs were all happy with gentrification. They used to encourage us to push government-owned projects and land into spatiality conducive to the needs of a regenerating urban core. Today that has resulted in the total expulsion of poor families from neighbourhoods like Regent Park, Alexandra Park and Moss Park. Of course, such rhetoric wasn’t used when it came to historically upper- and middle-class neighbourhoods in the city. It’s social warfare, in essence.

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      BitterSweetHoyo Afrika
      3/30/17 2:23pm

      My uban planning ed did the same here in the US. I think some of it was ... acceptance of the adage that making neighborhoods richer was always a good thing - there was an assumption that somehow, magically, the poor people living there would also become richer and stay. At least the good ones. I pointed out in a example of basically a gentrification campaign that while there was racial diversity; everyone was heterosexual, non-disabled, western dressed/acculturated, complete families (ie;no single parents), non-multi-generational families (ie; no old folks), etc. Everyone wondered why that was a problem, because those were healthy, ‘normal’ folks we wanted to encorage to come back to the city centers.

      Plus the usual squeaky wheel method of governing; white, rich, English-speaking, western accultrated folks are more able to negotiate bureacracy created by white, rich western acculturated folks and often have the time and technology to pester low-level commissioners/planners etc.

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      Hoyo AfrikaBitterSweet
      3/30/17 2:29pm

      The gag for me was that the majority of these profs who insisted on “regeneration”, which sounds very Hitlerite to me, lived in tony, white suburbs that ring the entirety of the Six. White/European people’s relationship, as mentioned in the article, is one of conquest. I’ve actually had to explain to people that slumming it is neither fashionable or moral. But what if I just want an “urban” experience? Go watch The Wire, Connor.

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    Ugh.Michael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:29pm

    Also, a particular “fuck you” goes out to all the young, fresh-faced honkies swarming into these neighborhoods in search of a bohemian-esque dream that died 40 fucking years ago. And, lest we forget, paying top dollar for the privilege of living on top of each other like fucking hamsters. Your landlord masters thank you.

    /rant

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      EvenBaggierTrousers5Ugh.
      3/30/17 2:54pm

      Rant away, my friend. I got your back. And you nailed it on the “bohemian” think. Ugh. Go form your own culture and memories to look back on. Why would you want to look back see someone else’s history?

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      Ara_RichardsEvenBaggierTrousers5
      3/30/17 6:34pm

      Exactly, you want history, take a walking tour or go to a museum.

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    Ugh.Michael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:19pm

    Love this article. Mattapan, MA, is and has been fighting gentrification for awhile now, with the basic ideology of “Nah, this is our neighborhood, thanks.”

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      Nunna Yorz (Greys get dismissed with prejudice)Ugh.
      3/30/17 3:05pm

      Boston shoutout!

      For those who don’t know, Mattapan is kind of a burrough of Boston like how NYC has Brooklyn, Queens, etc. Mattapan is the nerdy little brother that Dorchester gives swirlies to, but we still love ‘em.

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      Ugh.Nunna Yorz (Greys get dismissed with prejudice)
      3/30/17 3:08pm

      YAHDOOD! Fackin’ SAWX! 😂

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    Hello, America: Find Your SoulMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 6:21pm

    Y’all, being a grumpy neighbor at a zoning meeting in a city yields HUGE power. I am in the construction field, and any time we seek a zoning variance, we are in opposition to like one grouchy grandma and she gets her way. (Trust me if I were king I would not be attending zoning meetings to fight grandmas for my boss)

    Laws are different everywhere but the reason zoning laws exist is to keep the fabric of the neighborhoods in tact - noise levels under control, crime under control, traffic/parking under control - and the local zoning boards are residents and are sensitive to this in their own situations. They are similarly sick of their neighbors Airbnb-ing the house and the bar down the block meaning drunk college kids litter in their yard at 2am. Unless it’s a huge business yielding great power and wealth, attending these meetings and speaking out will place the odds in your favor.

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    ktfright | Kinja Neighborhood Black GuyMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:59pm

    Very concise and well-written article, as usual. I’m starting to see gentrification in our area of Hawthorne, CA, due to the rise of “Silicon Beach” and the cost of living in LA getting ridiculous. Prices are getting crazier in Hollywood, Marina Del Rey, Santa Monica, West LA, so now places like Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, and a few others are more appealing.

    This video is unrelated but kinda funny:

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      c.wallace129ktfright | Kinja Neighborhood Black Guy
      3/30/17 8:21pm

      I remember when Ladera Heights and Lemert Park were black, now shiiiit.

      My biggest problem with gentrification is that, problems that should have and could have been addressed before, are now that white people want to move in.

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      AP Bearktfright | Kinja Neighborhood Black Guy
      3/30/17 10:54pm

      omg loved this!

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    TzaMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:34pm

    We were discussing this at my internship this week regarding the Bay Area and DC. We noted part of the problem is also local NIMBYs who resist cheaper housing going into their areas when the problem is not enough houses to go around so of course wealth wins.

    Like, my folks are in a DC suburb (sweet place really close to the Beltway and metro) and admitted part of what they like is a zoning law that prevents apartment buildings from being more than six floors. I noted that’s also probably why the rent is so high since it reduces how many apartments can be in that area. Right now the houses near them, even the small moderately cruddy ones, are worth over a million dollars. Their two bedroom place is around 2500-3000 a month.

    My internship supervisor said it’s also an issue in Palo Alto, where the majority of people who work there have to be bussed in because no one can afford to live there. And they can’t put in more cheap housing due to zoning laws, which of course residents are loathe to change, even ones who work at those same companies. Or as she put it “my parents don’t want their coworkers to live where they do” because everyone’s worried about property values over people getting housing.

    Hell, where I live, right near Concord, is outright referred to as a “bedroom community” aka “where people who work in the pricier parts of the Bay Area live because living near where they work is impossible”.

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      llaalleellTza
      3/30/17 8:50pm

      Alexandria is going through some growing pains now because they built quickly and gained density but don’t have the services to accommodate. And now the schools especially are a hotbed of crazy.

      And I’m floored by the stories I hear now about the Bay Area. Man, was I lucky to live there when I did and then get out. Not that I moved to cheaper places, but I do think that of SF, DC, and NYC, SF has the worst justification for how expensive it is. Incidentally, every neighborhood I’ve lived in in those cities has gotten gentrified in really unique ways.

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    Darth HappyMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:25pm

    You make great points, but No. 2 is the one that should have topped your list. Blacks destroy their own vote because they don’t vote. If they did, then Democrats would be drawing the lines and gerrymandering would be less of a problem.

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      MalcireDarth Happy
      3/30/17 5:30pm

      Well it would be less of a problem for Dems.

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      AP BearDarth Happy
      3/30/17 10:55pm

      Blacks dont vote? whaaaaaaaa

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    LoremIpsum010101Michael Harriot
    3/30/17 2:29pm

    As a wise African author (as well as a wise Irish poet) once wrote, “things fall apart.” Even Brooklyn. Nobody “owns” a neighborhood. At least, so long as they are renting. And if they own the buildings and have a preference for renting to people of a certain race, well, that’s illegal.

    Fighting gentrification in the long term is like trying to fight the tide. Its a force of nature. The best you can hope for is to help limit illegal evictions or under-handed deals to quickly get rid of long-term tenants.

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    SharonMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 7:59pm

    sometimes gentrification kills:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/28/san-francisco-100-year-old-eviction-iris-canada-dies

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    TrumpsTinyHandsMichael Harriot
    3/30/17 4:48pm

    Michael,

    Another excellent, thoughtful, well written article. I also see some tension between integration/segregation and gentrification. How do you integrate schools without integrating neighborhoods, and how do you integrate neighborhoods without gentrifying neighborhoods?

    Would love to hear your thoughts if you have the time.

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