Battle Over Gentrification Rages In Los Angeles
A recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times outlines the issues around "gentrification" using the city's recent wave of downtown redevelopment as a case study.
"The trend toward gentrification has created similar moments in cities all around the world for many years, pitting the poor and the homeless against real estate developers, the police and upscale residents returning to "reclaim" the inner city. As long as there have been low-income neighborhoods, there have been those who want to remove them — and those who have, as a result, been left with no place to go."
"On the surface, gentrification can be appealing. But alfresco dining, funky clothing outlets and "historic preservation" can be deceptive. Gentrification is a serious issue when housing laws fail to protect tenants, when affordable housing is nonexistent and when no new public housing is being built because of widespread fears of re-creating the unacceptable conditions of L.A.'s existing housing projects, like Imperial Courts in Watts."
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My Opinion
I have always been an advocate for city development, and I personally think that gentrification is a step backwards, its bringing class wars to our downtown, like it is in the burbs; middle and upper income residents making subdivisions, and leaving lower income residents to standard rate apartments and projects. I think LA should take a New Urbanism approach to this, provide a place where all income classes can mix and live together as has been shown and demonstrated so many time, like in DC, Chicago, and New York.
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