Am I a gentrifier? Gentrification, explained

Trying to avoid an identity crisis, here. Let's dig in.

As a recent homebuyer in Nashville, I've been thinking a lot about the impact that my presence in this historically lower-income neighborhood might have on the community. I've seen the changes happening around me - trendy coffee shops, artisanal boutiques, and upscale restaurants popping up where there used to be only local businesses and family-owned shops. And while I'm excited to be a part of a revitalizing neighborhood, I'm also concerned about the potential negative effects of gentrification.

That's why I decided to reach out to Dr. Nishani Frazier, a scholar who has extensively researched gentrification and its impact on marginalized communities. In our conversation, Dr. Frazier helped me better understand the complexities of economic change in urban communities and challenged some of my preconceived notions about gentrification.

One of the things that Dr. Frazier emphasized was the fact that gentrification is not a monolithic phenomenon - there are many different forms of gentrification, and they can have vastly different impacts on communities.

Let me know what you think!
#gentrification #housing #urbanplanning

[SNeaker]

"How do you revitalize without displacing?" THANK you for asking this question, this is the part I find so important but also so hard to figure out regarding gentrification. Low-income and underserved communities deserve nice things like sidewalks and trees and coffee shops and other amenities, in fact the lack of these things leads to issues like worse health outcomes and higher rates of pedestrian deaths, etc. This is the question everyone should be asking themselves and working to solve when it comes to urban planning.

[FAMUCHOLLY]

Why did it take the algorithm so long to put this guy in my suggested videos?!?! Now I have to BINGE WATCH everything he has done!

[SquirrelHill]

I like trees. People of all income levels in all neighborhoods deserve to have lots and lots of trees.

[Nopenopenonono-uq]

My neighbour's theory of gentrification is that it happens whenever someone younger than her moves in somewhere. She's 94.

[karolina]

How does this video only have 98 views? This a great video and I feel this must reach more people. Great job dude 👏

[pdxtom]

There was a large, deteriorated area in my city where half the buildings were boarded up.
It was rife with crime and a scene of despair. The occupied homes all had bars over the windows and the residents...mostly black...were afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods.
When people and companies started to see the potential for development the residents who were offered a chance to sell their homes and move to a better community were happy to get out of the hell hole they'd felt stuck in for years.

Now, several years later, we routinely hear people talk about how terrible it is that the area has gone through "gentrification".
Well, I happen to know POC who have much better lives now thanks to the supposed horrors of "gentrification"...none of them talk about how much they miss hearing gunshots at night or stepping over syringes when they took their kids to the park.

[cryptofactsu]

I'm always skeptical when someone says that there is tons of solutions for a problem, then spends more time talking about why it's not happening rather than explaining what those many ways we can stop it ARE

[thamarpericles]

I definitely felt when Dr. Frazier mentioned the phenomenon of people shaping who belongs and who doesn’t. It’s one thing to take advantage of a great housing purchase, it’s another thing to move in and feel it’s your place to shape the neighborhood in a way that YOU prefer without considering the long term residents. Thought provoking video 👌🏾

[snoopyloopy]

While it's true that investments will probably always lead to some increase in desirability, it seems a bit lazy to say that whenever a public agency starts to fix up somewhere, it's because they're deciding to gentrify it. There are many instances where instead, they are finally meeting the needs of the residents as expressed by those very residents which hardly seems like a bad thing.

[guncoservicesllc]

Gentrification is complicated but in general gentrification is synonymous with outside investment in an area.

In an area that has declined it has typically declined because the local homeowner population is economically struggling. They can’t afford to keep up the property’s maintenance. A couple of decades of general differed maintenance is rough on an area’s appearance and desirability.

Government makes changes to help make the area more attractive to investment from outside sources as the local residents are tapped out. This part is not always done well.

Government doesn’t have the funds to fix everyone’s houses, so they want to bring in outside money to do the heavy lifting.

Many of these places will decline to the point of being a “blighted” area. That’s not good for anyone.

[mariusfacktor]

Gentrification DOES NOT necessarily cause displacement IF they build lots of new housing to accommodate the higher-income newcomers. Displacement happens when rents go up and rents go up due to competition. Many studies have showed that building lots of new housing keeps rents low and prevents displacement.

Also said revitalization causes gentrification and gentrification causes displacement, but then later in the video she said revitalization doesn't necessarily cause gentrification.

[chadapol]

Great video - Really informative! Could have let the interview run a bit longer unedited too, would have liked to know the myriad of ways the professor had to revitalize communities

[pguth]

Hey Garrison, just stumbled across this in my recommended section. First off, great video, production quality matches or exceeds much bigger channels, and it's great you were able to get an expert on the subject. Also, looks like we probably live not too far from each other, and although I don't think I'll be able to afford to buy a home for quite a while, I get how you feel conflicted about buying in a "gentrified" area. That being said, I think Dr. Frazier missed a few important points about gentrification:

1. The city is usually a reacting, not driving force when it comes to gentrification. It's uncommon for new signs, sidewalks, and roads to be put up without an increase in requests for them. In East Nashville it is especially apparent that public works have lagged behind development. Market forces and private equity are what causes land to become "more valuable, " it's hard to imagine that the city that can't even figure out how to run consistent bus schedules has some grand scheme to price poor minorities out of their neighborhoods. Yeah, they like the increase in tax revenue, but (in my opinion) they're nowhere near competent enough to orchestrate something so grand, and most of that money just goes to putting off deferred work that they couldn't afford before gentrification. This leads into my next point:


2. Much of the "gentrification buildings" are, in the long-term, fixes to very poor urban planning. The truth of the matter is that single-family development is really unsustainable for most communities, and when growth stops, even maintaining basic utilities becomes financially untenable. The two houses on a subdivided lot (0:12) is a doubling of that land's tax potential, and a reduction in the amount of water, sewer, and gas lines needed per person, not to mention the miles of roads that the equivalent number of single-family lots would need that they would have to repave every few years. Although they might be more expensive than what they're replacing, houses and apartment buildings built on less land is a long-term improvement for a community. I think most people would rather have electricity that stays on, water that doesn't need to be boiled, and roads that don't destroy their vehicles when they drive to work than a bigger yard. You can't have both unless your taxes are WAY higher.

3. This is probably one that is probably more of an opinion than anything else, but I don't think someone should feel bad for calling the cops about crime, even if they "chose to move here." Open air drug markets, shootings, and human trafficking aren't a neighborhood's "culture." They're a symptom of a problem. The reason why people are moving into "gentrified" neighborhoods isn't because they're some rich assholes who hate poor people. It's because they themselves have been priced out of their neighborhoods, and they're going to where the job opportunities and relatively affordable housing are. Gentrification is a top-down issue, and it can only really be addressed by major policy changes to urban planning and economic policy.

[xaviermaldonadodegomendirr]

"I don't like the idea that I'm part of the problem" - I know the video goes in another way but that phrase is really telling and gives light to many of the excuses people use to justify their behavior.

[tacrewgirl]

How do you improve the area for the current residents without pushing gentrification? That's the big question. Working class people deserve nice things too.

I don't know this concept is hard to understand.

Great interview with Dr. Frazier. It would be great to see a part two or more in-depth interview about gentrification.

Thanks!

[TheHomeman]

The problem with areas most black Americans can afford to is the houses are old and need a total remodel or a demolition and replace

[Lissentewmi]

Thank you for bringing an expert onto your channel. I think there is a true liberatory/radical power in bringing concepts and ideas and thinkers who are tied up in academia to "laypeople" thru YouTube and other free platforms. Thank you for being brave and unafraid of this conversation. You having technically gentrified in your home purchase does not make you a bad person or evil or beyond making your community better. I am so glad Dr. Frazier focused on the institutional exigence of this issue, both in how institutions create gentrification and in how "pitchfork gentrifiers" reinvolve institutions in that process of rebuilding a new belonging in the target community. Revitalizing our neighborhoods is such an imperative in the US

[TheHomeman]

One of the things I hate are the tax abatements for those new residents

[girlfromthatplaceya]

Great video! I think a big issue as well is the private equity firms that buy up real estate to build “luxury” apartments that people from the community can’t afford as well as the individuals that buy property for the sole purpose of making them air bnbs and other short term rentals. I feel like when it’s an individual just buying a house for their family, it could be gentrifying behavior, but not as harmful as my previous examples.

[FocalPointElisa]

That indirect vs. pitchfork gentrifier analogy is EVERYTHING!
People ask what they can do...Start by understanding the nuances of poverty and houselessness. Know the history of the place you call "home".