Have you noticed a change in the appearance of urban communities? When was the last time you went to an urban community and looked at the buildings that were standing in front of you? If you have been there, what did you see? Well if you are in a city that has a population of over 200 hundred thousand most likely you see either two things. One would be old ran down buildings most of them empty, and the other thing would be construction that is rebuilding those old and ran down buildings. Now what do you think about those old buildings being rebuilt? This process is called gentrification; it is the rebuilding of urban or inner city communities.
Gentrification is taking place all over the United States and has a major affect on the entire economy system. For the owners of these communities that have the opportunity to rebuild the buildings they are making money and seeing a major increase on their invested money. On the other hand, the members of these communities are being pushed out of the communities for new community members to replace them in the new sky rise apartments and what ever else are replacing the old buildings. Another term used to describe this process is white flight, which is when blacks have replaced a community that was before all white and now the blacks are being replaced by whites that are moving back into their old neighborhoods.
There are a number of things that need to be noticed by both parties involved with this process called gentrification, for the property owners, developers, and banks this is just business and is never personal. Therefore, they want to make it seem as if they care, but their sole goal is to make money like any other business. With that said, they tend to over look the affects of placing an expensive apartment building in the place where an old affordable apartment complex once stood. That is one of the major downfalls for the old community members. It is good to see the urban communities have a new look but with that new look comes costs, and one of the major costs is who can afford to live in these new apartment complex’s or pay rent on a new building that cost the landlord hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild. Most urban community members and business owners cannot afford to pay more money to live and operate their business in a complex that has high costs to operate. So it is pushing them out.
For the economy as a whole, it is putting more money in more hands, but the question is what hands are holding that new money. New jobs are being created by the construction, but families are losing their homes and businesses. So now, what do you think, what can be done to make this process easier for both parties? Do you think it can be easier? Those questions will soon be answered. For more information on gentrification contact your local business development departments, your city councils, and other members of the community that have a hand in what will happen to the urban community.
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