Gentrification

[R_P_A_S]

a co-worker and I were headed to downtown L.A. to meet up for dinner with some other buddies. on our way there we took a couple of roads approaching downtown L.A. from the east side. Those streets are filled with homeless people, and their cardboard tents in which they live in. It's UNREAL!

I noticed that they were redoing a shopping center and fixing up the road. and right across the street they were building a brand new pharmacy, and a huge "luxury apartments" building. It just look too fancy and up scale for the neighborhood... My co-worker noticed to and he said "Oh wow, look at those apartments, they're gonna be really nice, this side of town is coming up!" I took like 5 seconds to reply.. and then i told him. "whatever, it's gentrification at it's finest. they are going to pour all this money into this neighborhood, make it look all nice and cool. more cops are going to be assigned to patrol the new residences and business, it will raise the rent of the near by houses. which will drive out the current residents, drive out the homeless people and bring in rich people and eventually you got your self an other "up-scale neighborhood"

and then he tells me "what are you talking about? you sound like is bad. Is good man, at least they are trying to clean up L.A. and get rid of all the drug addicts and and the beggars. thats a good thing. Would you want a homeless guy harassing you as soon as you step out of your house?"

After I heard that.. I was like "gee, yeah bro! fight poverty and drug addiction by getting rid of people, and replacing them with nicer apartments, shops, and better looking people" right! that money can go towards improving the community and helping them. not drive them out."

and he said something like.. I see what you are saying. but is not gonna end. helping out a few homeless people is not gonna stop it either..

<_<

[rouchambeau]

I&#39;m glad you brought this up. Gentrification is something that doesn&#39;t get the attention that it should.

[R_P_A_S]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21, 2007 10:16 pm
I&#39;m glad you brought this up. Gentrification is something that doesn&#39;t get the attention that it should.
so what can people do to stop this? this so call "improvements in the community"

[lithium]

That&#39;s ridiculous and disgusting...

You need to get people around the area aware of what&#39;s going on. Take the conversation with your co-worker as an example: most people will probably think the same way, so you need to let them know that developing the site to suit rich people will NOT get rid of the problem. Maybe gather a few Comrades and hand out leaflets and chat to local residents (including the homeless of course) face to face about this. After a while you should have support of at least some of the people you talked to - then they might be able to pass on the word to others too.

Next step is contacting the media: newspapers, local radio, even TV if possible. Hold a demonstration and invite reporters from as many media outlets you can think of. That media may be mainstream and as we all know they tend to ignore left-wing actions.. But if you can stir up a bit of controversy and debate they&#39;ll get interested: anything for a story and all.

This can apply to any area that is in a similar situation. I hope this helps and I hope that the development can be stopped.

[which doctor]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21, 2007 06:20 pm
so what can people do to stop this? this so call "improvements in the community"
It&#39;s not improvements in the community, it&#39;s displacing a community&#33; It&#39;s a benefit to the bourgeoisie, not the proletariat and the lumpen who (used to) live in these neighborhoods.

For a semi-relevant article on a working-class neighborhood and gentrification click here: http://www.notbored.org/williamsburg.html

[rouchambeau]

Building community solidarity would be a great first step to preventing displacement. If people give a damn about their neighborhood and neighbors they have a foundation on which to fight back.

I&#39;ll keep an eye out for any literature that might answer your questions.

[BreadBros]

Heres something intersting I found on the subject online, in regards to the insane gentrification that turned Williamsburg, Brooklyn from a working-class Latino and Black community into a faux-ghetto hipster gentrified hell-hole.

http://www.notbored.org/yuppie.html

YUPPIES CAN&#39;T GO HOME

http://www.notbored.org/yuppie.gif


"At home he feels like a tourist." -- Gang of Four (the band), 1979.


Graffiti has appeared around Bedford Avenue that proclaims YUPPIE GO HOME. While we sympathize with what we assume to be the author&#39;s (or authors&#39;) motivations for spray-painting this phrase in several locations in our rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, we must say that we don&#39;t believe that yuppies can be told to "go home" -- not because it is rude to do so, nor because they are already at home in Williamsburg -- but because Young, Upwardly-mobile Professionals have no home to go back to, no matter where they sleep and store their stuff. To be a yuppie is to be at home nowhere and to be a tourist everywhere.

Yuppies aspire to be members of the elite, to be among those super-privileged few who have real wealth and who hold real power, to rise to the top, to make it their home. But the top has become just as uninhabitable as the bottom. Everyone knows that it is impossible to continue to pretend that capitalist industrialization -- or digitization, its contemporary equivalent -- will slowly elevate everyone to the level of the elite. Industrialization has so thoroughly ravaged and poisoned the entire planet that everyone -- even the elite -- has been lowered to the level of common women and men. But this is not to say that common women and men have it pretty good these days, though most everyone seems to think so. We are all in the shit, and really fucking deep.

Everything that a real elite would love -- well-educated and stimulating conversation; good wine and food; beautiful, well-preserved old buildings, extensive libraries, and great works of art and literature -- all this is in fact fast disappearing everywhere and being replaced by inferior copies. Having &#036;40 to spend on a single Cuban cigar is just not the same thing as having the power to prevent acid rain from irreparably damaging the soil in Cuba&#39;s tobacco fields. No one is immune to the effects of toxic pollutants in the air, water and soil. Though the members of the elite will have the money to treat their cancers, while everyone else will not, we will all die of cancer -- unless global capitalism is overthrown and replaced with a superior form of social organization.

No one denies that the once-remote suburbs now closely resemble the gritty cities more and more, or that the countryside is deteriorating everywhere. The wilderness? Where is that, exactly? Montana?&#33; There is nowhere on Earth the members of the elite can go and enjoy their privileges in peace, quiet and good health. The entire planet is a becoming nightmare, not only for poor shits and sinners like you and me, but also for "saints" such as Lady Di, the Dead Princess of Wales.

Wherever you go, there is either incredible poverty, famine, and disease, or cell phones that irradiate the brain with deadly microwaves, "second homes" shabbily constructed by corrupt builders, automobiles stuck in traffic and spewing poisonous gases, and supermarkets well-stocked with frozen meats that need to be recalled and burned.

No one denies there is something ridiculous about all politicians, but especially those at the top. What child grows up wanting to be President some day? Though everyone wants to be as rich and powerful as Bill Gates, no one denies that the man is a social idiot, bereft of any culture whatsoever, not to mention a culture that a member of the real ruling class would deserve to have and enjoy.

And so -- YUPPIE GO HOME? No, impossible. YUPPIE OUT OF WILLIAMSBURG, maybe. REVOLUTION OR DEATH, even better -- that is, of course, if you really have to spraypaint a slogan about gentrification on buildings in the neighborhood.

The New York Psychogeographical Association

2 September 1998

http://www.notbored.org/go-to-hell.jpg

[rebelworker]

Here is an article about gentrification and the battle againt it, in my hood, and montreal in general. Theres lots of other stuff but it mostly in french.

Fake bombs, gentrification and housing in Montreal (http://nefac.net/node/938)