Wednesday, December 11, 2013

New York City's Perpetual Gentrification

Gentrification is forever at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Demographic churn and gentrification.

Subject Article: "A Pilgrimage to the Vanishing Streets of My Grandmother’s Lower East Side."

Other Links: 1. "About Arrival City."
2. "Bronx Gentrification."
3. "NY Times Explores The 'Gentefication' Of Boyle Heights By 'Chipsters.'"
4. "Halloween in Detroit: Theatre Bizarre."
5. "America’s rental crisis."

Postscript: Aspirational migration doesn't seem to be a problem until the aspirants pine for a neighborhood where most residents are stuck. Thinking of Pittsburgh, and other legacy cities, gentrification will pit return migrants against elderly, fixed-income residents. The abandoned city made dirt cheap living possible. But those out-sized pensions demand high property taxes. The influx of city-slickers will jack up real estate values, challenging renters and home owners alike. Then there are the non-profits (e.g. hospitals and universities) buying up huge tracts of land, making residential more dear and more important for municipal revenue. Furthermore, anchor eds and meds gentrify residential neighborhoods. Meanwhile academics and activists act like something insidious is going on. Everything is gentrification and it is all bad. Left unsaid is that only Marxist revolution will fix the "problem".

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