Gentrification Synthesis Essay

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Gentrification is one of the many factors that can have a great impact on small urban areas. In the 21st century we can now see the drastic change a community has gone through. It may be seen as a positive change for those who benefit from it, but for other it may deeply affect them. Since the last century, areas like Long Beach and Hawthorne have gone through cultural changes. Making those who have been the majority have been “kicked” out from where they have lived for years. In the coming years, rent may increase along with the mortgages, cultural rates. New shops, or other buildings may appear “washing” the community that was once unknown and untouched by outsiders. By seeing the change in communities as such, there should be a solution …show more content…

Homelessness has increased due to the fact that rent/mortgage has sparked. “It forces them out of affordable housing. Gentrification is great, until it becomes such a force that it raises rents and forces the homeless out of areas where they're able to survive. They're forced to find other places to stay, leading to overcrowding and more visible areas of homelessness in other areas of the city, which leads to neighborhood and business complaints, which leads to arrests and tactics to remove or harass the homeless who are just trying to stay alive.” (Source 4) Gentrification has been seen as social problem in smaller neighborhoods, small community activist have been thrashing the new places that have been introduced, hoping it will stop gentrification. “In Boyle Heights, many activists have been trashing the art galleries that have been opening in their neighborhood” (Chang 1). Other may argue that gentrification isn’t a bad thing at all, that it is actually helping the community. Without gentrification, people wouldn’t receive public help, of anything that might help/support them. If you want to see what happens without gentrification, look at cities like Flint and Detroit, where the flight of the middle class deprives cities of tax revenue, makes them into hellholes with minimal public services, thus encouraging suburbs to wall off the cities in as many ways as possibles.” (Source 5). Retaliation is also another problem that is resulting from gentrification. “People are protective of both the locations and the ways that they live. So when a wave of gentrification appears, many existing residents will become upset when presented with changes to either aspect. If say, the area has been declared a historical neighborhood after some rehabilitation, that means new rules and laws exist to keep a certain aesthetic throughout the area, which means residents who perhaps can’t afford

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