There Goes the 'Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up
Lance Freeman
Language: English
Pages: 248
ISBN: 1592134378
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
There Goes the 'Hood analyzes the experience of gentrification for residents of two predominantly black New York City neighbourhoods. It thereby adds an important yet often overlooked perspective to debates on gentrification - the residents of formerly disinvested neighbourhoods themselves. Their perspectives suggest that neither gentrification is neither entirely threatening or redemptive for urban neighbourhoods. Rather, it can both offer a better life and threaten long-established communities. While residents appreciate the opportunities, they resent that it often takes full-scale gentrification to make their neighbourhoods nice. The concluding chapters of the book suggest ways for limiting the negative aspects of gentrification and new ways of thinking about gentrification and the inner city.
Craft of Political Research, The (7th Edition)
American Journal of Political Science, Volume 54, Issue 4 (October 2010)
Political Competition: Theory and Applications
Political Competition: Theory and Applications
know? And these stores whenever we had a party or an event they would pitch in, soft drinks, a little money whatever. But now you're seeing all these little boutiques and chains open, but they don't give anything to the community. You know? If you go in there and ask them to contribute, it's a problem. And the other thing is, we don't see these new stores opening up hiring anyone from the community. Either they hire college students or someone from outside the community. You know? This type of
mixing incomes, it seemed plausible that this approach might shed light on the wisdom of the poverty deconcentration thesis. This volume grew out of my efforts to better understand gentrification from the viewpoint of poor persons indigenous to these neighborhoods. To really get a sense of what was happening in the neighborhoods, I began talking with residents. Who would better know their motivations for staying or the struggles they went through to be able to stay? I chose Harlem as a case
were actively engaged in community-based organizations attributed at least some of the local improvements to the actions of indigenous residents themselves. The common theme here is that this view sees the actions of residents themselves, whether the gentry or indigenous residents like themselves who are active in the community, as integral to the neighborhood improvements that are under way. A second way some people described the improvements occurring was almost as a side effect of an increase
was that someone or the white people made complaints and they want it to look like say west 70th Street looks like. You are out of place if you are standing on the corner. I don't care if it's your right to stand on the corner. We don't owe you an explanation. So you just have to move unless you would like to be arrested. The remarks of the respondents suggest one of the great ironies of gentrification and point to a perhaps overlooked source of antagonism. Certainly increased police protection
response to gentrification is motivated by concerns for social justice. It would be a supreme irony (and patently unfair) if those who were once confined to neighborhoods like Harlem could no longer afford to live there. For much of the twentieth century, racial minorities were confined to ghetto neighborhoods that were treated with systematic disdain. The actions of policy makers, private actors, and private individuals through red lining, disinvestment, and housing discrimination (to name a few