Urban GentrificationPhoto by Sam Krueger
Before we continue our analysis it will be important to define exactly what gentrification is referring to when considering the urbanized landscape. Gentrification as defined by Merriam-Webster is “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” Sharon Zukin further outlines gentrification as,
"The conversion of socially marginal and working-class areas of the central city to middle-class residential use, reflects a movement, that began in the 1960’s, of private-market investment capital into downtown districts of major urban centers. Related to a shift in corporate investment and a corresponding expansion of the urban service economy, gentrification was seen more immediately in architectural restoration of deteriorating housing and the clustering of new cultural amenities in the urban core (1987)." One of the greatest issues yet to be fully understood is the degree in which gentrification will foster displacement in Prospect Heights. Zukin notes that, “…studies of gentrification confirm that a fairly homogenous group of in-movers reduces residential density and replaces an existing population. The out-movers, however, are a relatively heterogeneous group” (1987). It seems both race and class will be huge gauges of gentrification in downtown Brooklyn. Zukin explains a basic rule of thumb, “When community organizations impose social and cultural homogeneity on a gentrifying neighborhood, they act as a ‘vanguard of the bourgeoisie’.” Urban development organizations commonly facilitate patterns of uneven development in urban renewal projects such as the Atlantic Yards. |
The two sided debate over the effects of gentrification in the urban core is laid out by geographers Richard Schaffer and Neil Smith. They ask the question, “is gentrification a small-scale, geographically restricted process that has little or no effect on the city as a whole, or is it the harbinger of a major restructuring of urban space?” (Schaffer and Smith, 1986). Urban gentrification can reverse downward effects of economic and social decline within city centers such as downtown Brooklyn. Individuals who generally support urban renewal projects find that “The benefits, in terms of rehabilitated housing units, higher tax revenues, and a generally greater ‘economic vigor’ are held to exceed the costs, especially displacement” (1986). Supporters see that higher tax revenues and the influx of middle to high class commercial and residential buildings are facilitating the revitalization of decaying urban cores.
In turn, Schaffer and Smith point out how opponents of gentrification argue that the costs of revitalization are unevenly felt. “The city is not an undifferentiated pool of abstractly equal individuals but rather comprises a stratified population whose experience of gentrification is highly differentiated” (1986). To explain this in the crudest statement, some win while some lose. Demographic shifts are readily apparent in the streets and commercial buildings surrounding Atlantic Yards and the Barclays Center. Mom and pop stores are closing while stylish new realties move in all anticipating the large crowds and foot traffic the Barclays Center will bring to neighborhoods of Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Fort Greene, Figure 1. Four controversial areas of analysis exist in studies of gentrifications and uneven development within the urban core. Zukin outlines these as “the use of historic preservation in constituting a new urban elite, gentrification’s contribution to homelessness and displacement, the economic rationality of the gentrifier’s role, and the relation between gentrification and economic transformation” (1987). The Atlantic Yards development project has already impacted the pre-gentrified populations by removing low-price rental housing and commercial real estate. The reinvestment and rehabilitation by gentrifiers and real estate developers in Atlantic Yards has facilitated unprecedented economic restructuring in Brooklyn. |
Sources
Zukin, Sharon. "Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the Urban Core." Annual Review of Sociology (1987): 129-147. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
Schaffer, Richard, and Neil Smith. "The Gentrification of Harlem." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 76.3 (1986): 347-365. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
Cover Photo by Sam Krueger
Schaffer, Richard, and Neil Smith. "The Gentrification of Harlem." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 76.3 (1986): 347-365. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
Cover Photo by Sam Krueger