MetaFilter posts tagged with gentrification

Sociology in My Neighborhood

spamandkimchi — Tue, 14 May 2013 01:14:30 -0800

JR pledged to “use art to turn the world inside out” but does this mural strip away historical meaning and leave only the commodification of authenticity? "In contrast to Dr. King's and the sanitation workers' demands for significant economic change, JR's demands are for vague existence."

Enough With The Hipster Stuff, Alright?!?

artof.mulata — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:48:29 -0800

On topics ranging from the capitalist dynamics of gentrification to the casualization of employment among ostensibly middle class Millennials, the “fucking hipster” show beats structural analysis The confluence of heavy-handed tactics and the seeming collaboration between landlords, city agencies, and a violent Hell’s Angel-like gang is telling and in many ways typical. A year before their biker piece, the New York Post ran an article entitled “W’burg has art attack: Hipsters facing boot” which covered the final stage in the long battle between long-time residents of the 338 Berry Street Lofts — artists who had moved into and transformed both building and neighborhood during the mid-1990s — and their landlord. This is the now familiar story of gentrification in New York City. From the ever hilarious New Yahk Post: "Landlord 'paid' biker gang to drive B'klyn tenants out, residents say"

The Bacon-Wrapped Economy

acb — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:03:40 -0800

The Bacon-Wrapped Economy , or how the rise of a new elite of wealthy, predominantly twentysomething, software engineers and startup founders is changing the San Francisco Bay Area's economy and culture. The economic effects of gentrification, of soaring costs of living and previous generations of residents being priced out are predictable enough, and similar things have been happening since the .com boom of the 1990s. The cultural effects of the rise of an elite who are in their 20s, oriented towards the internet, the counterculture and Ayn Rand-influenced market-essentialist values, and not encultured in the value system of the old money they are displacing, have been more interesting, from falling support for traditional art museums and orchestras in favour of hip street art, indie rock and the pursuit of “lulz”, and the decline of traditional philanthropy in favour of Kickstarter-style crowdsourcing, with its market-oriented values and continuous feedback, through to the attire by which the elite signal their status to those in the know, things like $100-plus “dress pants sweatpants”, which are at once superficially casual-seeming and yet expensive and discernable indicators of wealth and being in the know, through to an entire economy of disruptive service industries.

Keep Your Fancy Food Out of Our Neighbourhood!

helmutdog — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:10:20 -0800

PiDGiN Restaurant is a lovely new restaurant in Vancouver. Located across the street one of the most challenged parks (Pigeon Park) in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. For some, it's a welcome addtion to the local dining scene. To others, it's a poke in the eye of the poor and disadvantaged living in possibly the worst neighbourhood in Canada and they want to put a stop to it. . Nightly protests now accompany your meal. Local media weighs in and the restaurant pushes back against charges of gentrification and displacing the poor

The cool people are everywhere; somehow, they've even made the weather rainier

Wordshore — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:10:35 -0800

Simpsons series 24 episode 7 (The Day The Earth Stood Cool) aired last night, being the hipsterification of Springfield, complete with urban nomads, artisanal donuts, Homer's new attire, the Decemberists, Marge being confused by The Onion, and gentrification. The Eater PDX pontificated on the expansion of Portland restaurants. TV Fanatic liked it, Gothamist noted the New York Times elements, while Flavorwire decided it was possibly the worst episode ever.

in Oakland, the revolutionary pilot light is always on

gerryblog — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:19:05 -0800

Requiem for an Occupation: The New York Times visits Oakland, California, "the last refuge of radical America." Previously and previouslier. In this context, May Day — and Occupy Oakland, more broadly — looks less like an expression of the city’s indomitable radical spirit than the last gasp of a protest movement overmatched by the encroaching forces of capitalism. Oakland is simply too geographically well positioned and financially underexploited not to absorb the creative, professional and entrepreneurial overflow from more expensive places like San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Berkeley. And as it continues to develop its own gritty-chic cachet, there’s a good chance Oakland might become more than just a default option for some of the Bay Area’s nouveau riche. ... The utopian vision for a post-capitalist Oakland clung to by Boots Riley and the rest of the city’s revolutionaries will soon be dead. But radical Oakland will live on, awaiting its next opportunity to rise up, even as the city itself evolves. For every young tech worker moving into a downtown condominium tower or entrepreneur gobbling up cheap, deserted retail space, there’s sure to be a militant graduate student drawn to a city that has just added another chapter to its long radical history.

The Return of the "A"

ob1quixote — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:18:36 -0800

"Atlanta went from a town to a city." — Rico Wade Creative Loafing writer Rodney Carmichael engages in some nostalgia for the "Real Atlanta" after watching the new documentary and music video for The Return from Tre Luce's debut album The Return of the "A". By way of rebuttal, Carmichael also points out a video filmed for Fink magazine by Maurice Garland in which Garland and controversial Atlanta rapper Killer Mike discuss, among other things, the danger of nostalgically presenting Atlanta's popular culture as Atlanta's historic culture. [Sound improves after 2:40] Caution: Links NSFW

Post-Industrial Brooklyn

Sticherbeast — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:26:20 -0800

How Brooklyn Got Its Groove Back: New York’s biggest borough has reinvented itself as a postindustrial hot spot. In City Journal, Kay S. Hymowitz walks us through a story of entrepreneurial "creative class gentrification" in NYC's most populous borough. In addition to the usual concerns about gentrification in general, Hymowitz also asks us to consider the "limited economic impact" of these gentrifiers' boutique businesses on the borough, as contrasted with the greater impact that larger companies had had on Brooklyn during more industrial times, as well as the impact of these larger companies' absence during darker times.

By no means just another struggling Michigan town.

xowie — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:41:49 -0800

Now that the factories are closed, it’s tee time in Benton Harbor (SLNYT, previously).

The Chelsea Hotel of NYC, surviving The Great Depression, fires, deaths, but maybe not a change of ownership

filthy light thief — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:49:20 -0800

Late July 2011, would-be guests of the historic and storied Chelsea Hotel (also known as Hotel Chelsea or simply The Chelsea) were informed on their reservations were suddenly canceled, in preparation for a year-long renovation project, which some people speculate is a union-busting strategy. Given the concerns for the future of The Chelsea, some came to throw last-minute parties, while long-term tenants held more somber gatherings. On August 1st, current guests were abruptly escorted out, increasing anxieties about the plans of the new owner, elusive real estate investor Joseph Chetrit. Even if this is the end of the era, the hotel's long and varied legacy lives on ... Built in 1883-1885, The Chelsea was one of the first co-op apartments (Google books preview) in New York City, possibly designed to be a creative community from the original design, as architect Philip Gengembre Hubert, "inventer of the co-op," had direct and familial ties to French philosopher Charles Fourier. The Chelsea was the tallest building in New York until 1902, when the Fuller Building (later known as the Flatiron Building) claimed that title. In 1903, the co-op went bankrupt, and in 1905 or 1906, the building became a hotel. The hotel was not spared in the Great Depression, and in 1939, the Chelsea Hotel was bought by Joseph Gross, David Bard, and Julius Krauss. In 1957, David passed the management to his son, Stanley Bard, who is remembered fondly for being supportive of the numerous artists and visionaries. Stanley remained as manager until 2007, when the Bard family was ousted by Chelsea Board of Directors. The subsequent management mis-steps are numerous and varied, as accounted in the Chelsea Hotel Blog, titled Living with Legends. At least the donuts are delicious. But what of the occupants of note? In the early 1900s, French stage and early screen actress Sarah Bernhardt supposedly slept in a coffin during her stay at the Chelsea Hotel, and O. Henry counted the hotel amongst his New York homes, where he registered under a different name on each visit, to hide from law enforcement, if you believe the stories. Other early notables include Mark Twain, American actress and singer Lillian Russell, and a few decades later, Thomas Wolfe called Room 829 home (and you can stay there -- well, you could have a few weeks ago). After the depression, the Chelsea Hotel went from catering to the elite of New York’s literary and theatre communities, down to a long slow descent into flophouse, and the once grand suites turned into smaller rooms. American author, critic and political activist Mary McCarthy stayed the Chelsea Hotel a number of times, and Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was a noted resident in the early 1950s. While some stories say that he drank himself to death in the Chelsea Hotel, Thomas died of pneumonia, while in a coma, in a near-by hospital. He was 39 years old. In 1961, around a year before he died at age 34, Yves Klein wrote what came to be known as The Chelsea Hotel Manifesto. Klein might have bumped into Arthur Miller, who moved that same year when Miller divorced Marilyn Monroe. Miller called the hotel "the high spot of the surreal." By 1964, the "madcap" Chelsea Hotel was "New York's most illustrious third-rate hotel," as described in the Life Magazine article A Room with Ghost, $4 and Up (Google books). But this dive was what Arthur C. Clarke called his "spiritual home" for some while. Stanley Kubrick sought out Clarke for a movie about extra-terrestrial life, and the two wrote the script for 2001: A Space Odyssey in The Chelsea, around the same time that Andy Warhol filmed Chelsea Girls. The film included specific play-back instructions for playing two reels side-by-side (YT, 10:00). The film featured a cast of notable names, including Nico (YT, 7:26), who would go on to record an album entitled Chelsea Girl, including a track about some of the inhabitants of the hotel. Edie Sedgwick (YT, 7:59) set fire to her room, 105. Her room was just above the lobby so staff could keep close watch on her. Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell also stayed at the hotel, and were brief lovers in 1967; Mitchell wrote and recorded Chelsea Morning (TV appearance, on YouTube, 2:54), and Cohen wrote Chelsea Hotel #2 (live in 1988, YT, 4:14), but about Janis Joplin and not Mitchell. Robert Mapplethorpe was a resident of Room 1017 in 1969, with Patti Smith. It was there that Mapplethorpe was filmed having his nipple pierced, with Smith providing an improvised monologue (description, not video). The seventies were a time for punk-rockers. Iggy Smith is often mentioned, but overshadowed by Sid and Nancy's trouble in Room 100, in which Nancy Spungen was found dead (but don't worry, the Daily Mail has cleared up the case). Madonna came through in the 1980s (and again in 1992 for a photo shoot). Then the Bard family legacy ended, taking with it the support of the arts and artists of all stripes. While it's true that art has been traded for rent, the story of a Canadian artist trading two pieces for a month's rent was probably done for positive PR, to cover the ailing image of the hotel as bohemian-friendly. The mystique and history hasn't completely faded -- the hotel was used in a May 2011 Vogue Italia editorial shoot. Now, the hotel is more notable for it's past than it's present. It's a key location to visit for the death of famous people, complete with ghost stories and hauntings. It's not clear if the tours of the hotel are still available, but you can find video tours of rooms and video re-creations of The Chelsea's history. Bonus: 1981 BBC Arena documentary on the Chelsea Hotel, in 6 parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6.

Historic preservation as gentrification and discrimination

desjardins — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 09:22:05 -0800

[Urban planning] allows discrimination but dresses it up as discriminating taste. So says an opinion piece in Reason magazine titled Urban Design Hipsters are Evil. The essay was written in response to a NYT op-ed suggesting that historic preservation boards be professionalized and made more powerful. And that piece was written in response to a Rem Koolhaas exhibit at the New Museum, which a review calls "[an examination of] the wrenching simultaneity of the growing “empire” of preservation and the ravages of destruction."

Bohemian Suburb Rhapsody

acb — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:21:39 -0800

Veteran Australian pop satirist New Waver, best known for covers of pop songs rewritten from a pessimistically neo-Darwinian point of view, has a new album out. Titled Bohemian Suburb Rhapsody, it looks at the subjects of gentrification, the explosion of revivalist styles in "hip" music, contemporary white-collar culture, the ideology of the "creative class" in the post-industrial age and the resulting oversupply of cultural products, through the medium of cover songs and musical montage. The album is free for dowloading from New Waver's web site; there is a more detailed explanation here, and a video for the song "Hey Dude" (which explains the dynamics of gentrification through the medium of a Beatles cover) here.

Kreuzberg can suck it.

quoquo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:25:25 -0800

Architect Jakob Tigges plans to erect a 1,000 meter tall artificial mountain in the middle of Berlin. Romantic revanchism or urban penis enlargement? Tiggens doesn't actually want to build it, he rather wants his idea to act as a placeholder in the minds of Berliners, to make sure that plans for new developments on the precious site of former Tempelhof Airport won't be made without active participation of the locals. While Berliners already know their gentrification very well, fresh ideas for the redevelopment are still rare.

San Francisco's Black Exodus

lunit — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:57:55 -0800

San Francisco's Black Exodus. Since the last report in 1990, San Francisco’s Black population has dropped by 40 percent, faster than any other major city in the country. In an effort to reverse the loss, Mayor Gavin Newsom started the African American Out-Migration Task force in 2007. Last year saw the passage of Proposition G, endorsing plans for a major housing development in Hunter's Point (a historically black neighborhood in San Francisco), which though endorsed by the Mayor, was highly controversial. Also that year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee passed "housing reparations to stem African-American displacement" in the form of legislation that gives descendants of people displaced during the redevelopment of San Francisco's Western Addition and Hunters Point first priority for the city's affordable housing. Here's an excellent three part history of Bayview/Hunter's Point.

Occupy, not gentrify

puckish — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:23:07 -0800

The National Coalition for the Homeless announces that anti-homeless attacks are up, while Maryland becomes the first state to expand hate crimes legislation to include attacks on the homeless. Meanwhile, new DHS restrictions in New York close drop-in shelters and up restrictions for faith-based homeless shelters, while New-York based advocacy group Picture the Homeless take over a vacant J.P. Morgan lot to protest rising vacancies in the face of the housing crisis

Always look on the bright side of blight

filthy light thief — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:45:36 -0800

"Ah, the mythical $100 home. We hear about these low-priced “opportunities” in down-on-their-luck cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland, but we never meet anyone who has taken the plunge. Understandable really, for if they were actually worth anything then they would cost real money, right? Who would do such a preposterous thing?" Amongst others, artists who have hope for the future and money to invest. A local couple, Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert, began this artistic trend. An artist and an architect, they recently became the proud owners of a one-bedroom house in East Detroit for just $1,900. The fact that it was stripped of appliances and wiring wasn't a deterrent, it was room for improvement, because they now had the opportunity to renovate it with solar heating, solar electricity and low-cost, high-efficiency appliances. They bought a few more houses for even less, and put in some work with friends and local youngsters to improve the properties and added a garden. Their efforts were noticed by people at a Dutch museum, who stated that the "collapse of house prices allows for a new way of shaping the urban environment with relatively modest resources." But it's not just about an influx of artist with big ideas. The Heidelberg Project was started in 1986 by area resident Tyree Guyton, who worked with his former wife, Karen Guyton, now-deceased Sam (Grandpa) Mackey, and neighborhood kids. They collected trash from empty lots and vacant homes, and made empty spaces into "lots of art." (wiki link) Some of these links were gleaned from Mark Maynard's blog.

"...a liberal who's been mugged..."

neroli — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:28:46 -0800

A discussion about "white fear" and "black crime" Late one night last summer, on 17th and Euclid in Washington, DC, white liberal blogger Brian Beutler was shot three times by a young black man who asked him to hand over his cell phone. (He's fine now, mostly, although he doesn't have a spleen anymore.) Subsequent discussions on various blogs focused on gun control, crime, and gentrification in DC. In a post shortly after the event, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote: For the first time in my life, I have some sense of what the white guy who is ignorant of all things about black people is thinking when he drives through certain parts of town and rolls up his window. Today, Coates and Beutler chatted on Bloggingheads.

Cue Mister Rogers - then follow steps 2, 3, 4, and 5...

puckish — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:09:38 -0800

Want to be a good neighbor but don't know how? Now there are checklists! (Chicago and SF focus) Favorite Links: 7 rules for talking about gentrification Bodega Party in a Box ($) How to Enroll Your Kid in Public School (via Instructables)

If not in your backyard, then whose?

desjardins — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:54:54 -0800

Newcomers, with the zeal of recent converts, are often the most vocal in resisting change to the neighborhood they have just discovered. An exploration of NIMBYism. If not in your backyard, then whose? Probably a low-income minority group. Opposition to affordable housing is often thinly-veiled racism. How NIMBYism affects a seven-year old boy on LA's skid row. African-Americans fight back against environmental injustice. A Latina activist blogs about gentrification. There's also YIMBYs (Yes In My Backyard).

"Loaded with soul...under control"

[NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:20:41 -0800

"No one told me there would be unremitting noise every Saturday for the rest of my life.” Historic Harlem drumming circle drives young white professionals drum crazy. Who will prevail?

U.S. Conference of Mayors

lunit — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:11:59 -0800

The United States Conference of Mayors will take place from June 20th-24th in Miami, FL. The agenda (pdf) includes rising energy costs, housing, water, transportation, street crime, public schools, gangs, health care quality and costs, secure airports and ports, illegal guns, drugs, and immigration with a special focus on climate protection initiatives. Not to mention speakers Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton. Not sufficiently addressed in the proposed resolutions (pdf)? Gentrification, according to some.

Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?

lunit — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:26:06 -0800

Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican? is a documentary produced by Claire Andrade-Watkins about the gentrification of Providence's once-thriving Cape Verdean community of Fox Point.

It's Down At The End of Lonely Street

fandango_matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:56:11 -0800

San Francisco's Hugo Hotel, the current home of Brian Goggin's Defenestration, has been seized by eminent domian and will probably be demolished. Fear not; San Francisco has many other ancient hotels.

Is Toronto being taken over by hucksters, fauxhemians, and the "knowledge economy"?

chunking express — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:27:57 -0800

Toronto: Justice Denied. Mark Kingwell writes about Toronto. The article is a great read even if you've never stepped foot in the city.

The end of the oldest Black-owned store on Harlem's 125th Street?

allterrainbrain — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:48:03 -0800

Harlem's commercial and cultural backbone, 125th Street, has been gentrifying fast; many of its Black-owned businesses have been forced out by high rents and replaced by branches of white-owned national chain stores. The street's best-known cultural centers remain (notably the Apollo Theater and the Studio Museum in Harlem), but now, its oldest surviving Black-owned store, The Record Shack, is facing eviction. Owner Shikulu Shange, along with other Harlem residents, will lead a town meeting next week to discuss strategies for keeping Black economic development alive in Harlem and in NYC (as of the 2000 U.S. Census, NYC's five boroughs were home to more than 98,000 of about 129,000 Black-owned businesses in all of New York State).