4 Responses to “gentrification is a form of cultural subversion”

1. posted by Chris at March 12, 2008 12:29 pm :
   

   Some people will see a bit of algae floating on the surface of a pond that’s teeming with life… and pour bleach in it.

2. posted by Andy_A at March 24, 2008 2:12 pm :
   

   http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.15591/article_detail.asp

   The above web address is to an article written by Andres Duany on the topic of gentrification. If you have time to read it I am curious of your thoughts.

   One of his main points is that gentrification is often a neighborhood actually returning to its original socio-economic state. My understanding of Jackson Ward’s history is that is was (in its “hay day”) an upper/middle class community of successful business people, bankers, lawyers and craftsmen. If you remember that fact, then seeing an increase of financial wealth in the area is really returning Jackson Ward to the state when it was at its best.

   If your concern of cultural subversion means that an influx of white people into a historically black neighborhood is undesirable than maybe the more pointed question to be asking is this: “If the upper/middle class business folks of Jackson Ward were African American in the past…why aren’t they today?” What has changed?Just something to think about.

3. posted by flaca at March 26, 2008 7:49 pm :
   

   The biggest problem with gentrification is not that people renovate, it is that the lower income people cannot survive. They are always little by little forced out. I have lived in many cities and this is the way it goes. Richmond being one of the worst cities by far for community support and activism, has few opportunities for low income people and out right segregation. I work in the public schools here as well as in adult education. My school is 100% low income African American, the white kids in our district with system savvy parents are bussed to Fox school in the Fan.–for example
   Richmond adult ed ???? huh???Reynolds for 300 bucks a class???

   What happens to people who can’t afford to live in rising property values and rents? What happens to people when counties and cities pass legislation to gentrify an area? What if you live in Church Hill and you can’t restore your house appropriately?Historic districting /zoning is a great way to get rid of low income people. Laws passed regarding how many people can sleep in one bedroom such as was recently passed in Chesterfield to gentrify an area - many of my students live with single moms with several children who rent 1 bedrooms, where will they live? I guess they will just go away…….

   The ideal form of gentrification would be to support the existing residents, protest the high city taxation and the tax breaks for the wealthy. Why would you get tax break at all above a certain income level for renovation and not if you are less affluent and unable to renovate? Establish community programs with decent adult education, parent groups for the schools that are economically and racially diverse, above all organize to keep watch on our crazy city government! And school board!

4. posted by geebs! at March 29, 2008 11:17 pm :
   

   funny someone reposted this, i had to get up in a building by accident when i was drunk to write it. when i say ‘gentrification’ i mean assholes in ‘luxury condominiums’ fucking up a neighborhood without regard to what’s actually there. when i say ‘gentrification,’ i mean the piece of shit opportunist developers who want to populate streets with yuppie incubators instead of rehabilitating a neighborhood.

   when i say ‘gentrification is a form of cultural subversion,’ i mean exactly that: cocksuckers stepping on a beautiful thing to make it into nothing, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops, german cars and “hybrid vehicles,” bank accounts that never come close to closing and people who have never known Real Hunger, artistic, loving or otherwise.

   thank you guys for giving a shit, this means a lot to me.

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