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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Quite a regular
 
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Ahhhh! We are not alone. Perhaps we should follow the suggestions listed in this letter to our "twin" city, Oakland, CA.
Read the whole post here. The comments at the bottom are fun to read, they sound so comfortably familiar. Oaklandlocal.com snip: ...So I?ve put together a few how-to?s for avoiding the gentrifier label in Oakland: 1. Smile and say hi to your neighbors every time you see them, even if they seem scary or don?t say hi back. Sometimes it takes time to build a rapport and gain the trust of the community. 2. Recognize all the people outside of your door as your neighbors, even if they look different from you and live under different circumstances. This includes the homeless who sleep on the street, the drug dealers who sell outside the liquor store, and the prostitutes walking your streets. Replace the words homeless, drug dealer, and prostitute with the word neighbor. Treating these folks with respect and dignity from the beginning will give you later leverage to talk to them about changing their behavior and getting out of the life. 4. Pay your taxes, parking tickets and fines with the pleasure of knowing you are financially helping a beautiful, but struggling city. Be grateful if you are able pay them without too much difficulty. 13. Recognize Oakland has a very unique and vibrant history and culture, and you were attracted to this city because of the energy that is already here. You should be here to add to that history and culture, not to erase it. We are not San Francisco. We don?t want to be San Francisco. So please don?t try to remake our city in San Francisco?s image. And remember, you don?t gain culture by eating a burrito. You gain culture by engaging in a real and meaningful manner with the person who makes the burrito.
Posted on: 2014/2/6 4:00
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Just can't stay away
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Quote:
Note that was just the title of the article, not my personal view.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 23:55
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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Wait, does it mean that the government license electrical work, plumbing, construction, teaching, and everything else that moves, - but it doesn't license procreation? That's an oversight!
Posted on: 2014/2/5 23:35
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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 That strip ran just before Reagan took office. Nothing new to see here, move along. A lot of historic houses in town, particularly out of Downtown, would have been condemned if gentrification hadn't made renovating them worthwhile.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 21:35
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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Of course gentrification isn?t all bad... but neither are hard drugs and firearms.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 21:21
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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No point to do so if you are a guy. If anything, current divorce laws make it more financially risky to get married than cohabitate. My wife and I had to tie the knot for immigration purposes and the fact that her parents (very conservative) wanted us legally married (as well in the eye's of Buddha).
Posted on: 2014/2/5 20:57
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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I can't say I'd ever be happy about my rent or property taxes going up, as what usually happens with gentrification, but these things are a normal part of life in our capitalist society.
Neighborhoods change sooner or later no matter what city you live in, some people living there will be better off from it, other people will be screwed by it and there is no way to please all the people all of the time. C'est la vie. I can stay in a gentrifying neighborhood if I like it and can afford it, I'll leave if I can't. It's not anyone else's problem and I don't expect any sympathy from anyone. I suppose rent control serves as a sort of hedge for people who live in gentrifying neighborhoods (in the rent controlled buildings), but I also think rent control is frequently abused and usually ends up hurting far more people than it helps. But that's an issue for another thread and a far bigger issue in NYC than it is in Jersey City.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 20:37
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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Seems so common nowadays - having kids without a marriage license...
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Posted on: 2014/2/5 20:30
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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I am having a bit of a baby boom with my (gentrified) tenants.
Only one couple is married though.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 20:15
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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2007/2/3 21:36 Last Login : 2020/4/18 19:17 From Way Downtown
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The only downside I see to gentrification is that the shift from poor to affluent often means a shift from families to young singles or couples.
This new demo often doesn't have a vested interest in the future of their neighborhood, as it's just a stop on the way to Maplewood. And, no matter what the economic breakdown, a block full of families is simply going to have a different vibe and energy than a block full of 20-somethings who work and shop in NYC, and just come here to sleep. Yes, I know plenty of newcomers with kids, who are hugely active in their community. I'd just love to see a comparison of the age breakdown of DTJC from ten or twenty years ago, compared to now. Full disclosure: I am a single renter who's only been here six years. And yes, I know it's hypocritical for me to want to be on a street with older, established families.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 20:11
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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+100 Spot on. The title is asinine. The only ones complaining about gentrification are the ones being displaced or can't afford to be a part of it. Sorry I'm not sorry.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 20:00
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
Joined:
2012/1/11 18:21 Last Login : 2019/12/26 15:30 From GV Bayside Park
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Quote:
HA!
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:48
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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I wish people would stop saying "I like the diversity" as those days are over. Those Mexican guys making your "authentic" food? They live in Newark.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:44
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Just can't stay away
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2011/5/25 20:27 Last Login : 2021/1/14 12:53 From Hamilton Park
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Capitalism works.
I hate communists. God gave you a brain and hands to work, put them to use. There is no right to live where you want unless you can afford it. Sure I wish I had a Range Rover but you know what I can't afford it. Gentrification is great and it's great for Jersey City.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:42
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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Phrasing the question as "Is Gentrification All Bad?" implies that the presumption is that it is, at best, mostly bad.
In reality it is mostly good, if not entirely good. You question might as well be rephrased as "Is Improvement All Bad?". It's kind of an idiotic question.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:23
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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I fail to see anything "bad" in that article. Why is it my responsibility or the city's to keep Mansilla here? if he really wants to live here, Mansilla needs to have a talk with his employer if he thinks he should earn more. If his employer refuses, he should find another job or update his resume by either shadowing or getting a graduate degree if he does not have a bachelor's degree. Analogy: I want to live in hawaii but I can't afford it. It is not hawaii's fault is it?
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:23
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
Joined:
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I think what follows gentrification is bad, like shitty chain stores and ethnic cleansing... check out the article below.
Many immigrant families are moving away from downtown Jersey City. The rents are becoming unbearable for them. As more and more of them leave, more and more young and single professionals are moving in. Downtown Jersey City is changing from a relatively poor neighborhood into a trendy upper-middle-class one. In the past three years the area has been undergoing some dramatic changes, especially since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Many financial corporations, including Chase Manhattan Bank, Merrill Lynch and the investment firm Charles Schwab, have relocated to Jersey City or expanded their offices in Jersey City after the attacks. Many high-rise buildings are popping up near the waterfront, and new restaurants and hotels are opening to accommodate the growing population. ?Three years ago there was nothing here,? says John Mansilla, an office administrator who has been living in the neighborhood for the past seven years. Mansilla is moving away. ?After many years of renting,? he says, ?I decided to purchase a property. But the prices around here are out of control so I had to look elsewhere.? According to Mansilla, rents and property values are skyrocketing. ?A studio that went for $700 is now $1,200 and a house that went for $200K is now $400K,? he says. Standing on his balcony on the 20th floor of an apartment building, Mansilla pointed out a huge sign hanging at the front of a building offering ?luxury rentals.? He says, ?There was nothing luxurious about this town when I moved here.? Abandoned buildings and rail tracks can still be spotted in certain areas as reminders of the way things used to look. ?When things started getting luxurious, most immigrants simply couldn?t afford to live in this building,? Mansilla explained. ?So now instead of six or seven family members living in a one-bedroom apartment, you have a single woman lawyer or something.? In many ways, the story of the building is the story of the city. What used to be poor, dirty and cheap is now luxurious, clean and expensive. In addition to the waterfront development, the city is promoting the restoration of the historic district in downtown Jersey City. The looks of buildings and storefronts is designed to give the district an ?old town? feel while maintaining modern shops and restaurants. The downtown area also enjoys a newly renovated museum and public library. Mansilla?s apartment is full of packed boxes in preparation for his move. ?I wouldn?t leave if I could afford to buy property here,? he says, ?I like this neighborhood.? As we turned back from the balcony into his living room, Mansilla said, ?I practically lost my view.? Pointing his finger at buildings all around us he says, ?I used to see the entire lower Manhattan skyline, but now all I see is the tip of the Empire State Building. Still, to the south one can view the Liberty State Park marina, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. ?At least they can?t build on the water,? Mansilla laughs, closing the balcony door behind him.
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:17
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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The answer: there is no bad gentrification. Definition via meriam
the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:08
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Re: Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Home away from home
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For a home owner, I don't think gentrification is bad.
As a parent with kids, I also don't think gentrification is bad (assuming this will eventually lead to better schools and a better living environment).
Posted on: 2014/2/5 19:08
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Is Gentrification All Bad?
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Interesting article regarding one of the most popular topics here:
http://nymag.com/news/features/gentrification-2014-2/ Focuses primarily on Upper Manhattan and Bed-Stuy, but includes this note that is so often brought up when discussing Newark Ave.: Quote: ?I see our job as trying to create a healthy commercial corridor and capture as many retail dollars as we can,? he says. It?s not as if he?s got his eye on Tiffany and Per Se, but he would like the dollar stores and pawnbrokers to be joined by some slightly more genteel options. He mentions Island Salad, a Caribbean-themed place...It?s the sort of place a couple of young Park Slopers in search of an extra bedroom might wander into and think: Yes! I could live here. Quote: Grannum is unapologetic about trying to bring a better life to Bed-Stuy?s poor by attracting the very outsiders who are supposedly making things worse. ?We need affluent and middle-income people,? he insists. ?We need a healthy community, and we need services that are first-rate. I just came from a meeting, and someone said, ?Go to Seventh Avenue in Park Slope and recruit some of those stores!? And I tell them: Businesses don?t bring affluence; they follow affluence.?
Posted on: 2014/2/5 18:54
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