Gentrification: How to Make the Poor Poorer

As our time in Moxie and New York is sadly coming to an end, I’ve realized that I needed to cross many things off my “to do” list.  Surprisingly, even though we have been here for nearly 8 weeks, I realized that I had yet to go uptown to the museum area and walk around.  So, on Sunday I decided to make it my Metropolitan day.  After about a fifteen minute ride, I, now drenched in sweat and practically make-up less, thank-you New York 95 degree weather, get off the train at 111 Street and proceed to walk down to 86 Street to cross the Met off my list.  As I am walking, however, I realize that I am conveniently right next to Central Park and according to Google maps, I even need to walk through it in order to get to my destination.   While walking down the blocks, I also notice the apparent shift in scenery from more decrepit buildings to newer, nicer apartment buildings and museums. The dilapidated convenience store with the broken, flickering “Open” sign is only three blocks behind the brand new, glistening Starbucks.  I also noticed the change in demographic, from a majority of black pedestrians, to a whiter populace.  In fact, just walking about twenty blocks, about five songs on my iPhone later, I find myself in an entirely new neighborhood than the one I arrived at after emerging from the dark abyss of the subway tunnel.  Although I had planned to go to the Met, I realize that, typical me, only had about two hours until reflection dinner and I did not want to be late, so I decided to keep walking down the Park and several blocks later it is not long until I find myself on Madison Avenue.

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Now, about five more songs later, I’m strolling down the Upper East Side, along with moms pushing their baby strollers all while walking in four digit priced shoes and where a sales lady, handing out samples of 24 karat gold – infused hand cream, is posed outside a luxury cosmetics store.

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Yes, New York and Moxie program, you never fail to amaze me as I realized that I had just witnessed and physically walked through gentrification. The socioeconomic 360 is so stark and abrupt that I am still shocked as to how in a twenty minute walk I can travel through almost destitute poverty to overwhelming exorbitance.   I just walked through an area with a median income of $30,000 to one of $200,000. One with a .8% white population to one with a 98% white population.

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So what is gentrification? It is a term that we certainly hear and throw around a lot.  According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of gentrification is:  the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.  While gentrification certainly brings a lot of wealth, jobs, and opportunity into a previously poor region, the resources that follow the arrival of a wealthy populace do not benefit those in need.  Of course, some job creation for previous residents, such as cashiers or sales associates, may accompany gentrification, but more often than not, previous residents of an underprivileged area will not be able to afford the now sky-rocketed rents that accompany a gentrified area.  In fact, changing rent is one of the most indicative factors that an area is undergoing gentrification. In 2014, Harlem rents were up by 90%. Bed-Stuy rents rose by 63%.  Only three areas in New York have not experienced rent increases.  In some areas of the Upper East Side, rent can be $7,000 to $8,000 per EACH square foot of space a month.  Also, many shops and businesses that are owned and operated by local residents are driven out by the outrageous rents as well and are replaced by chain stores and high end restaurants.  If underprivileged residents can not even afford to live in areas that are experiencing a wave of wealth and resources, then how are they expected to reap any benefits? As a result of gentrification, families are forced to move to more distant and often poorer areas.  Parents need to commute long distances to get to work each day and children end up switching schools.  Rather than improving the lives of low-income residents, gentrification makes them even worse off than before.   New York is not an isolated example – many major cities, Boston, New Orleans, and even Durham, to name a few, that experience an influx of wealthier and typically white residents will undergo some level of gentrification.

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While our society sets expectations for people to be self-supporting, we continuously create obstacles that prevent low-income citizens and people of color from growing out of poverty and becoming successful.  How can these citizens possibly achieve the American Dream if they are forced to move from their homes, find new jobs, and place their children in a different school?  Gentrification may be unavoidable as businesses and developers continue to look for new places to grow and expand.  The question is: how can we turn gentrification into a positive prospect for a marginalized community?

 

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