May 3, 2015
A phrase from the first meeting that's resonated with me the whole process has been 'Gentrification is a lonely thing.'
Ashley Rang
www.yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com
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A phrase from the first meeting that's resonated with me the whole process has been 'Gentrification is a lonely thing.'
Ashley Rang
www.yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com
For yesterday's challenge, I had interviewed a developer last weekend and was surprised by his point of view so I had wanted to share it. We tend to look at the developers coming in as money-hungry, greedy people who don't care about the communities they are displacing, but Eric (my interviewee) was actually very nice and has lived in the community for a long time so he really wanted to make as many improvements while causing as little pain as possible. He was upset that gentrification is being vilified so much, to the extent that nobody in the community wanted to make suggestions for positive changes that could be brought. The piece of land he is working with is already vacant and it's big enough to include a small park, some high-density residences, and a community gathering place, but he's only gotten negative feedback towards putting anything in at all. It made me think about whether we are fighting too hard against gentrification, and that maybe both sides need to get a little better at talking to each other.
Ashley Rangwww.yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com
To me, the opposite of gentrification would be staying stagnant. This can work for communities that are invested in staying long term and have the proper infrastructure - but I don't feel like total stagnation would ever really work in a big city.
Ashley Rang
www.yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com
Central District and Affordable Housing
I thought this article taking a look at this cafe's experience with gentrification in the Central District was very interesting.
http://seattleglobalist.com/2015/04/08/cortona-cafe-central-district-seattle-gentrification-coffee-shop-airbnb/34742
After I had read that, I found another article that looks into affordable housing in Seattle that was very informative.
http://crosscut.com/2014/12/affordable-housing-explained/
www.yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com
I love my noisy weird block.
Yesterday I checked out northeast Capitol Hill around Montlake/Madison Park, which I feel like is completely opposite from my neighborhood. The silence that permeated this area of mostly single family homes made it feel so far apart from downtown and the constant sirens in First Hill, even though it was only a 45 min. walk from my apartment. It was fairly clear to me were that everyone that lived there was fairly well off - every house had at least one decent looking vehicle and there were plenty of wide lawns and children playing outside. I definitely did not feel welcomed because people were staring at me even though I was just walking through. It was weird to walk through for 10 minutes and see no businesses or construction in a city that is so full of life and growth.
Later, I was sitting on my couch thinking about what made my neighborhood so different when a homeless woman began screaming and taking off her clothes in the courtyard of my building, throwing rocks at anyone that approached her and I realized that I wasn't phased by that at all. I looked out at the church, thrift store, food bank, and the rehabilitation home for sex offenders that all occupy the block across the street and decided that even if I ever made enough to live around the fancier NE Capitol Hill, I wouldn't want to. I love my noisy weird block.
www.yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com
“sterilized version of its past self”
Anyways, the personal meaning of gentrification to me is the homogenization of (mostly) inner-city neighborhoods that are considered to be 'lower class'. Oftentimes these neighborhoods become trendy to live in, causing a huge influx of wealthier people to move in and out-price the original residents. This causes long time residents and businesses to be pushed out of the neighborhood, while replacing many of the 'mom and pop' business with chain stores, and replacing the previous population that lived there with a wealthier group of people. Over time the area loses its flavor and can end up seeming like a sterilized version of its past self.
yourneighborhood.brownpapertickets.com