Gentrification is a Win-Win

[Chase Lalouette]

            Gentrification is simply the renovation of an area or part of a city. McKnight-Chavers, author of “Gentrification Rolls on in Dallas,” seems torn between supporting and opposing gentrification, especially in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. She describes residents of areas under gentrification as hard working, well-educated, professional and good citizens. Yet, she identifies decades of neglect to that area of the city since the JFK assassination. She admits that gentrification has expanded public transportation, recreational parks, and city services, but insists that it has been at the expense of diversity and respect.

            McKnight is skeptical that gentrification can benefit both “old and new elements of society” because of “cultural and economic clashes” between established and incoming residents. She insists that Oak Cliff, prior to gentrification efforts, was too diverse for “gated communities” types who became part of the “burbs back to cities” movement.  McKnight concedes that so far, gentrification has “enhanced rather than consumed the neighborhood.” Because she reluctantly accepts that gentrification does actually benefit the target area, she cannot advocate the complete cessation of gentrification. Instead she promotes “ethical gentrification” with respect to the “history, character and people of the neighborhood being transformed.” However, gentrification is clearly advantageous to the target area and therefore is inherently respectful to the people of that area.

            McKnight contends that “pilgrims,” or the new comers to an area during gentrification bring jobs, but it is at a steep price, a loss of community and identity. She also draws a comparison between gentrified Oak Cliff and Austin, boutique shops and niche businesses. It is precisely these kinds of businesses that create community, perhaps a more outwardly social community than existed prior to gentrification, but McKnight’s claim categorizes anything that is not the original style of community as anti-community. She points out that gentrification raises property costs, which forces out residents who lived there before gentrification with a lower cost of living. She sites “white flight” as an original cause for “black and brown professionals” encountering a “tattered racial history” and economic hardship. Therefore, she asserts that gentrification is racist as it forces out the African Americans that cannot afford the higher cost of living.

            Overall, McKnight fears that the “pilgrims” moving into recently gentrified areas have “textbook knowledge and good taste, but no home training” which will lead them to “replicate the exclusionary practices” of socio-economic segregation. However, McKnight has no proposal on a method that allows indigent residents to remain in an area after gentrification.

           Cities need revenue to support the indigent population. If there is no growing source of revenue to support the growing indigent population, then the city must invest in a revenue source. That revenue source may be gentrifying an old area of town, which would (even according to McKnight) provide better public services for the entire residential population of that area giving the city a new revenue source and the indigent population more support. The problem arises when a population seeks better benefits, but condemns the way in which their community provides that assistance. Conceptually, gentrification provides a win-win situation, more revenue for the city with which to support public services and better public services for the residents of the more lacking areas of town.

 

Source

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ginger-mcknightchavers/gentrification...