PP&D 4 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Urban Renewal
27 Apr 2018
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Department
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Week 3 reading response
Is Gentrification a Dirty Word?
●”gentrification is the upgrading of housing and retail businesses in a neighborhood with
an influx generally of private investment”
○Working class and lower class areas being remade into higher income areas,
increasing housing prices and driving out the lower class residents.
○Term created in 1964 but has been applied to civilizations up to 9,000 years
○Hunter gathers gentrified by advanced societies
●Several examples of gentrification in history on page 32-35.
-Boston-Paris-New York-Chicago-London-Washington DC
●Theories of gentrification
○”Rent-gap” : “uneven development” created higher rent in the areas that used to
be much lower cost.
○Consumption side voices: said that higher rent prices aid the economy by having
more money in circulation and more in land-owners pockets. \
○Conservative side voices: dismissed it as a momentary process that would not
bring much success. They wanted to make a new middle class.
●The Revanchist City
○the results of the gentrification boom and the cuts on welfare made “gloom, not
boom”
○revance=revenge in french
○Revanchists wanted to take back the urban parts of the city, beginning in Paris.
○Set a precedent for future resistances in both political and economic senses.
Gentrification and Urban Development
●Discusses the creation of ghettos for people displaced by gentrification.
○London did not see ghettoization as much as other cities due to the cultural and
social diversity
○The reluctance to gentrify in London did lead to lower and lower property values
and qualities.
●Gentrification and urban redevelopment are not the same.
○gentrification is improvement of the existing structures and infrastructures.
○Urban Redevelopment is the building of new structures in order to make property
prices increase.
○the improvement of existing structures creates less tension and does not create
more rent gap.
Document Summary
Gentrification is the upgrading of housing and retail businesses in a neighborhood with an influx generally of private investment . Working class and lower class areas being remade into higher income areas, increasing housing prices and driving out the lower class residents. Term created in 1964 but has been applied to civilizations up to 9,000 years. Several examples of gentrification in history on page 32-35. Rent-gap : uneven development created higher rent in the areas that used to be much lower cost. Consumption side voices: said that higher rent prices aid the economy by having more money in circulation and more in land-owners pockets. Conservative side voices: dismissed it as a momentary process that would not bring much success. They wanted to make a new middle class. The results of the gentrification boom and the cuts on welfare made gloom, not boom . Revanchists wanted to take back the urban parts of the city, beginning in paris.
