educate me about gentrification please

Gentrification is not a white privilege thing, or a privilege, period.

It’s when higher income people, start buying homes in lower income neighborhoods. Fixing them up, making it unaffordable for the lower income people to remain in neighborhoods they grew up in.

This is not about the houses only. It’s about the fancy grocery stores, and Starbucks that move in as well.

Think about why is a neighbourhood/area ugly, badly kept and dangerous in the first place? While in the same city and often just a few kilometres away you feel like you stepped into a different world? It's because of inequalities. Poor people don't have the means to take better care of their space. Plus poverty begets other social issues, like crime. And this took whole centuries and years for people of the same status to live in the same areas, so if I'm poor chances are all my neighbours also are.
Now of course another factor comes in, which is the state/local government/municipality. Aren't both rich and poor areas under their responsibility? If they fix sidewalks and parks and transportation in the rich area, shouldn't they be doing the same in the poor areas too? That's a huge discussion to have but the reality is they don't. For them, lower income areas do not deserve such investment.
And now we have private investors and tourists. So tourists have discovered that it's cheaper to stay in poor areas when they travel and with the rise of airbnb this became very easy. Because pretty much any apartment was able to host tourists and hotels and such were not their only options. So now a smart person thinks that since this one area attracts tourists, I might as well make a nice shop/cafe there.
And since much of the space has been taken over by tourists and investors, what's there for the locals? If I'm someone who's looking for a place to rent within my budget and all I can find is airbnbs and renovated ones that cost double of what they did last year, where am I going to stay? I'm sure I'd prefer a dirty neighbourhood than having to zero out my bank account in order to live somewhere with a nicer kitchen.
So essentially if you're poor they're telling you that you can't have nice things. You accept that as your reality and try to live your life, but then they tell you that they're also going to kick out of your place cause you don't fit their new aesthetics.

You're probably better off doing a few google searches. There are very educated people who are better at explaining these things better than most users here🤷🏾

When gentrification happens the property values increase, rent prices increase, upmarket places open, prices increase. Those who would enjoy said beautification can no longer afford to do so and are economically pushed into another area like it was before gentrification occured.

Honestly it's the greed of housing markets that drive it the most. It displaces and replaces the original residents. That's the problem.

As I understand it as the properties are purchased the occupants - often renters are told to move when the lease is up and they may or may not be able to find a similar place to live.

communities are displaced and the property values increase - driving up rent for other people in the neighborhood.

but on the plus side the government collects higher property taxes.

I think neighborhoods fall to slums quicker than places get gentrified.


Thing is if the riff raff is displaced then they are more likely to end up in nicer neighborhoods somehow or at least more spread out. If they are contained to their own neighborhoods undisturbed, it localizes the undesirables.

People who can't afford to live in the neighbourhood anymore will not benefit from any beautification. They will not have first dibs on any higher-paying jobs. They will indeed be displaced. This is a high social cost to pay for, basically, the convenience of better-off people.

What about when the opposite happens where nice neighborhoods turn to slums?

Because gentrification pushes out Minority families going back generations, turning neighborhoods into stuffy over priced limosine liberal enclaves.