I would think that saying “people will be priced out of their apartments” would be a more descriptive sentence, but whatever.
So, in order to keep property values down, so that rents don’t increase to the point where people that live in the apartments can no longer afford to rent them, we should do X. Any idea what “X” is?
One possibility is to limit rent increases from year to year for CURRENT residents. This protects lower income households who lived there because it was cheap back in the day, and don’t want to move out, but allows property owners to charge market rates to newcomers, who can afford it.
The main disadvantage to this is that people cheat: renters will sublet their below market apts to newcomers, and landlords will skimp on maintainence to force lower rent residents out.
Another disadvantage is that it discourages home developers from taking a chance on marginal neighborhoods, since their potential gains are limited.
But maybe it’s better than doing nothing.
X = Make it easier to build more housing. That might include quicker permitting, looser zoning, etc.
Is is hard now, due to onerous permitting processes or zoning regulations, to build more housing in areas that are targets for gentrification?
If you think gentrification gives us a vibrant social fabric, then you are sorely mistaken. Just take a look at any gentrified neighborhood. The dominant residents are part of an elitist professional class, that’s almost exclusively white. Only a very small percentage of non-whites, if any at all, would be part of that cohort. If want a more vibrant social fabric, then go move to a less costly suburb.
The point you are failing to realize is that, a lot of the working class folks who lived in Brooklyn, actually lived in stable neighborhoods, that were also affordable. But when the gentrifiers took over they became super expensive neighborhoods dominated by elitist hipsters, and in order to live in those neighborhoods you have to have a super high income in order to break even there. A lot of former Brooklynites could be living in rural Pennsylvania or Connecticut by now because their native Brooklyn is no longer affordable.
Can you point out a specific example of a gentrified neighborhood that is now almost exclusively white?
I’ll ask my Hispanic, Black, Indian, and White neighbors what they think about your ideas. Many may ask to subscribe to your newsletter.
Just take a look at what happened with some Philadelphia neighborhoods with this reference:
And here’s what happened to a Washington, DC neighborhood:
The article in the Washington Post is a good one. The comments are good as well. A lot of them sum up to “If I’m a young, white person who wants to live in DC, and can only afford to move to a traditionally black neighborhood, are you telling me I’m not allowed?”
I would like the OP to answer this question - along with many other questions in this thread - with more than a link or a reference to previous links.
Well look at it like this. The white person would be allowed initially, but once it’s allowed, it just might be ready to gentrify the neighborhood, and that person could care less if any blacks get priced out. When a neighborhood is gentrified, it is practically colonized.
Who is deciding whether the white person is “allowed” or not “allowed” to move into a given area? Who decides which specific areas fall under the “no white people allowed” policy? And who, exactly, is enforcing the “allowed” bit? The city? The state? The federal government?
And how do you suggest we address this issue? Perhaps deed restrictions requiring the owners not to sell to anyone of the White race?
Read the article from the Washington Post.
The only suggestion in the article is about fostering communication and mingling between the two populations. It says nothing about preventing Whites from moving in.
I’m asking specifically about that - what do you propose to allow traditionally Black (or Latino or Asian) neighborhoods to exclude outsiders from buying housing? Or if you don’t support any programs like that, what do you propose?
The Shaw neighborhood is now “30 percent black”. It doesn’t say, but it seems reasonable to think that there are some Latinos and Asians there, so it is hardly “predominantly white”.
This article says that in Philadelphia, what you are describing basically does not happen. High income whites tend to move in to low-income white neighborhoods, not black neighborhoods.
The article from the Washington Post has the ideas from **Nadnerb **on how to prevent gentrification or what to tell young, white people when they want to move into neighborhoods that they can afford?
Finally, a real argument on this thread. It’s a fact, that gentrification has negative consequences. And if you own a home in a gentrified neighborhood, you could get screwed as well. The property taxes could get jacked up, and it will reach the point where it’s no longer affordable for the old timers of the neighborhood.