Urban Expressions
Gentrification is definitely a buzz word for urban millennials. While there are many that are fawning over the conveniently placed juice bars, yoga studios, Culturally approporated thai restaurants and taco trucks, and reconstructed homes, there are others of us that raise eyebrows to the whole process. For those of you that don’t know, gentrification is the buying of property in disadvantaged urban areas by wealthy individuals and developers to increase property values and to revitalize communities for their own benefit. While you may say that this sounds ideal, it puts many at a disadvantage. Maybe if low-income, working class families would be able to enjoy the new amenities gentrification wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe if it didn’t raise already rising rent and housing expenses, that these families would benefit from gentrification, maybe then it wouldn’t be gentrification-it would be community development.
I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. A city that is very much being gentrified. Once the victim of media abuse, corrupt politicians, scandal and crime, Detroit is now one of the most sought after places to live for milliners and the creative class. There is a vivid difference between the city that I grew up in and the city that I live in today. Bars, hotels, restaurants, retail stores and the construction of a light-rail mass transit system all occupy once empty corners, deteriorated streets, and abandoned buildings. I enjoy exploring the new city and embrace the new changes. However there is still some research to be done on how it has affected and will affect the citizens of the city. Once a well-known, “Chocolate City,” Detroit’s ethnic demographics are changing rapidly, as whites, asians and middle-eastern people are beginning to move into the city.
I could ramble on and on about the happenings going on in Detroit, however I do currently reside and study at Dillard University in New Orleans, LA, and have become accustomed to its culture and have become familiar with some of the problems that affect the residents. Most correlate New Orleans with a good time-alcohol (home of the best Daiquiris), Bourbon Street, Live Music, food and of course MARDI GRAS; these are very important to the identity of the city but there are actual residents that do live outside of the travelers paradise. Gentrification is very much a part of New Orleans’ redevelopment. It is a problem that is well disgusted as many see these changes as result of reconstruction of the city after the devastating-Hurricane Katrina.
This blog will divulge more into and analysis of the urban culture and gentrification as it occurs in Detroit and New Orleans simultaneously.
The next posts will be devoted to the gentrification of New Orleans specifically.
Feel free to give me feedback! This was an especially long post lol. This is a Tumblr not a class-the posts will get more interesting I PROMISE!
With Love,
Lo Uddy
