Essay
Author
Institution
Essay
Gentrification involves the renovation and improvisation of a houses or district in order to make it suitable for the middle class. However, according to the scholars of urban management, gentrification is much more than just aesthetic changes to the district. This essay will discuss the causes of gentrification and urban displacement in San Francisco Bay Area coupled with its impacts. In addition, this essay will discuss the solutions to some of the worst aspects of gentrification and urban displacement.
Discussion
Causes
Albeit, Bay Area of San Francisco has witnessed gentrification lately, however, the roots of gentrification go back much further. One of the main causes of gentrification is institutionalized racism that paved the way for redlining. Redlining marks its inception back in the 1930s and it's a system of real estate investment. This system denied access to the people in color to home loans. Federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation once declared more than 80% of the area presently being gentrified as “hazardous” or “definitely declining” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"57n9QGBM","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Heller & Post, 2019)","plainCitation":"(Heller & Post, 2019)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":692,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/CN7ZMTAQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/CN7ZMTAQ"],"itemData":{"id":692,"type":"webpage","title":"How San Francisco broke America's heart","container-title":"SFGate","abstract":"SAN FRANCISCO - A Tuesday afternoon in the Mission District of America's tech wonderland. \n Michael Feno stands outside Lucca Ravioli, his beloved pasta emporium on Valencia, a vestige of old San Francisco, puffing on a cigar while posing for pictures, his customers in tears. \n Living in this city's radically shifting landscape, veterinarian Gina Henriksen found comfort by telling herself, \"Thank God, Lucca is still here. If Lucca goes, I'm going to have to leave San Francisco. What do we have left?\" \n Lucca is no longer here. \n After 94 years, doors shuttered on the last day of April. The parking lot sold for $3.5 million. A three-building parcel, including the store, listed for $8.3 million and was purchased by - need you inquire? - a developer. \n A few blocks away, in this neighborhood of shops hawking $2,600 electric bikes and $8 lemonade, Borderlands Cafe - a throwback with plants cascading from the ceiling - closed the same day after a decade in business. \n Owner Alan Beatts couldn't retain staff, even with a $15 minimum hourly wage. Who can live on $15 an hour in this city transformed by innovation? \n How can Alba Guerra, co-owner of nearby Sun Rise restaurant, continue to charge $10.95 for the housemade vegan chorizo platter after her rent spiked 62 percent last year to $7,800 a month? \n For decades, this coruscating city of hills, bordered by water on three sides, was a beloved haven for reinvention, a refuge for immigrants, bohemians, artists and outcasts. It was the great American romantic city, the Paris of the West. \n No longer. In a time of scarce consensus, everyone agrees that something has rotted in San Francisco. \n Conservatives have long loathed it as the axis of liberal politics and political correctness, but now progressives are carping, too. They mourn it for what...","URL":"https://www.sfgate.com/lifestyle/article/How-San-Francisco-broke-America-s-heart-13866685.php","author":[{"family":"Heller","given":"Karen"},{"family":"Post","given":"The Washington"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019",5,21]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Heller & Post, 2019). These formerly redlined areas were sometimes given new names in order to attract new residents. A report by Azucena Rasilla and Bond Graham reveals that sometimes realtors bring the historic name back. Public and private disinvestment was also witnessed owing to highway expansion that cut through the neighborhood ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"5lBQxcho","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Rasilla, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Rasilla, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":699,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/YKR4D564"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/YKR4D564"],"itemData":{"id":699,"type":"webpage","title":"Gentrification Changed the Names of Oakland Neighborhoods","container-title":"East Bay Express","abstract":"\"NOBE,\" \"Reservoir Hills,\" and \"Baja Dimond\" are efforts to put a genteel stamp on Oakland.","URL":"https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/gentrification-changed-the-names-of-oakland-neighborhoods/Content?oid=20313470","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Rasilla","given":"Darwin BondGraham","suffix":"Azucena"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Rasilla, n.d.).
Venture capital and technology firms also rendered the process of urban displacement in the Bay Area of San Francisco. The exponential growth of technology companies in San Francisco owes the influx of venture capital from tech giants around the world ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"hU6PHkIO","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Richards, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Richards, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":697,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/KK65VP7C"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/KK65VP7C"],"itemData":{"id":697,"type":"webpage","title":"The Forces Driving Gentrification in Oakland","container-title":"East Bay Express","abstract":"The East Bay has seen a widening gap between rich and poor and the displacement of people who are low-income and of color. But it doesn't have to be this way.","URL":"https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-forces-driving-gentrification-in-oakland/Content?oid=20312733","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Richards","given":"Kathleen"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Richards, n.d.). In addition, gentrification in San Francisco also owes the new construction of rental housing, for these types of constructions are more suitable for individuals with higher income. Moreover, the benefit provided to the tenants, which convinced landlords to remove 30% of the units from the rental market also fueled gentrification ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"HVGTKfAX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}\\uc0\\u8216{}We\\uc0\\u8217{}re being pushed out\\uc0\\u8217{}: the displacement of black Oakland | US news | The Guardian,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“‘We’re being pushed out’: the displacement of black Oakland | US news | The Guardian,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":695,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/76H3W9ST"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/76H3W9ST"],"itemData":{"id":695,"type":"webpage","title":"'We're being pushed out': the displacement of black Oakland | US news | The Guardian","URL":"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/01/from-black-panthers-to-bbq-becky-the-displacement-of-black-oakland","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“‘We’re being pushed out’: the displacement of black Oakland | US news | The Guardian,” n.d.). Furthermore, subprime lending boom coupled with white flight and foreclosure crisis also set the stage for gentrification.
Implications
Gentrification in San Francisco paved the way for tech boom that changed the city map altogether. Some people are of the view that the tech boom in San Francisco attracted more technical person to the city. The influx of people with technical skills definitely spawned new ideas in San Francisco. Notwithstanding the fact that gentrification raised the cost of living, however, gentrification provided the neighborhood with a chance to consider new ideas in businesses and create more job opportunities. The socio-economic condition of San-Francisco got better as unemployment in San Francisco is just 4.8%.
As far as the negative impacts of gentrification are concerned, it promoted income inequality in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Albeit, gentrification did not render income inequality directly, however, demographic shifts are responsible for this income inequality. Demographic shifts are one of the direct negative implications of gentrification. Gentrification has ripple effects that always continue forward. In addition, a rising number of eviction notices is also a problem that owes gentrification ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"0yhZkBlX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Solnit, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Solnit, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":691,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/MKSHEGMF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/MKSHEGMF"],"itemData":{"id":691,"type":"article-newspaper","title":"Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco | Rebecca Solnit","container-title":"The Guardian","section":"US news","source":"www.theguardian.com","abstract":"The long read: Alejandro Nieto was killed by police in the neighbourhood where he spent his whole life. Did he die because a few white newcomers saw him as a menacing outsider?","URL":"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/21/death-by-gentrification-the-killing-that-shamed-san-francisco","ISSN":"0261-3077","title-short":"Death by gentrification","language":"en-GB","author":[{"family":"Solnit","given":"Rebecca"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016",3,21]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Solnit, 2016).
Solutions
The strategies to counter displacement and to combat gentrification include the production of more houses, preservation of existing affordable housing and increasing tenant protections. In order to ensure tenant protection specific rent control law must be reviewed again. This law actually affected the total rental stock and rental prices in the city so, it is important to build houses for people who have low income. Fees should be introduced for the new housing development in order to generate more revenue, bond issuance could also be pivotal for generating more revenues ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"AIfAJHKO","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Richards, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Richards, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":697,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/KK65VP7C"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/KK65VP7C"],"itemData":{"id":697,"type":"webpage","title":"The Forces Driving Gentrification in Oakland","container-title":"East Bay Express","abstract":"The East Bay has seen a widening gap between rich and poor and the displacement of people who are low-income and of color. But it doesn't have to be this way.","URL":"https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-forces-driving-gentrification-in-oakland/Content?oid=20312733","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Richards","given":"Kathleen"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,9]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Richards, n.d.). Developers must be compelled to be transparent and honest about the profit they earn from the housing. In the end, development is not the problem in San Francisco but the paradigm of development.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Heller, K., & Post, T. W. (2019, May 21). How San Francisco broke America’s heart. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from SFGate website: https://www.sfgate.com/lifestyle/article/How-San-Francisco-broke-America-s-heart-13866685.php
Rasilla, D. B., Azucena. (n.d.). Gentrification Changed the Names of Oakland Neighborhoods. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from East Bay Express website: https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/gentrification-changed-the-names-of-oakland-neighborhoods/Content?oid=20313470
Richards, K. (n.d.). The Forces Driving Gentrification in Oakland. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from East Bay Express website: https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-forces-driving-gentrification-in-oakland/Content?oid=20312733
Solnit, R. (2016, March 21). Death by gentrification: The killing that shamed San Francisco | Rebecca Solnit. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/21/death-by-gentrification-the-killing-that-shamed-san-francisco
“We’re being pushed out”: the displacement of black Oakland | US news | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved July 9, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/01/from-black-panthers-to-bbq-becky-the-displacement-of-black-oakland
