Are Your Yelp Reviews Causing Gentrification?

In today’s urban culture, “ethnic” food is having a moment. Pupusas, banh mi, phó, arepas, dosas, tamales, manakeesh, tacos, kebabs, empanadas, and other “exotic” dishes have become popular among affluent and white consumers keen to explore new flavors and establish their cultural capital and multicultural values. Foodies are skipping acclaimed restaurants in upscale districts for “holes in the wall” in immigrant and low-income neighborhoods to discover “authentic” culinary treasures.

However, as they venture into new territory in search of exciting food experiences, they contribute to the transformation of urban foodscapes — the physical, symbolic, cultural, lived, and imagined food environments — that have been built by people of color, often immigrants, to confront decades of neglect, segregation, and systemic racism by food retailers, investors, and policy makers.

What used to be foodscapes for residents are becoming increasingly cosmopolitan, privileging the tastes of outsiders who will presumably bring revenue, income, and status. The carefully curated foodscapes that emerge to meet new consumer demands erase the history of places, the struggles of residents, and the labor of food workers and ethnic entrepreneurs. Such erasure occurs in the way food and place are described and represented, as well as in the changing rhythm of everyday life and use of space for food production and consumption. Together, these processes create a new sense of place in which long-term residents and businesses no longer belong, pointing at the powerful role of food in contributing to gentrification.