My Opinion on Gentrification using Dallas as an Example

[Michaela Kirkland]

Article:Gentrification in Dallas,TX- Opinion, Michaela Kirkland

[Joshua Robert Powers]

I love that you wrote your own article! this is a great view of the issue and show the way revitalized gets throw around. It reminds me of the allegory of the rebuilt ship. Eventually every piece is replaced and is it the same ship? Gentrification aims to just burn the ship and build a yacht. 

[Jordan Laurence]

I have worked in Oak Cliff for the past 3 years (a very long drive from Denton) and I can imagine three reasons for this slow-going process I have noticed during my time here: trying to push out an unwanted lower class stigma in a historically impoverished location, general updating/visually enhancing the area and, in combination with the first two, increase the business traffic. The last of these three will occur if safety, desirability in the market and increase in patronage occur (obviously), but it is still a gamble. Even common people can easily discover that Oak Cliff can be an unsafe area to live or work in, a simple Google search of "unsafe locations in Dallas" will reveal the city's dark history, plagued with murder and the like. Wonderful article, but I have come to expect nothing less.

[Asher Paul Ang]

Firstly, I think you wrote a good article, and I appreciate your viewpoint, although I fundamentally disagree with it. I view gentrification from a free market perspective. I think, if developers want to buy up property and reconstruct them into luxury condominiums, then they have every right to do so. I think in a free market, individuals and corporations should have the ability to buy and sell freely, and this includes the revitalization of neighborhoods. In fact, I actually agree with the gentrification approach in redeveloping cities. Land is scarce, and prime land must be developed in order for it to reach its maximum potential. However, I can understand your concern for inequality on how gentrification does in some sense force certain people out of their neighborhoods.