Gentrification in the Spotlight at City Affair
Gentrification: "the process by which central urban neighborhoods that have undergone disinvestment and economic decline experience a reversal, reinvestment, and the in-migration of a relatively well-off, middle- and upper middle-class population."
This month's City Affair discussion will focus on the issue of gentrification. From the City Affair website:
We will look to our panelists for discussion about the function of gentrification, the dynamics that they perceive as contributing to gentrification, and what can be done through policy to minimize negative effects of gentrification.
The panel consists of:
Steven Smith - Owner of the Royale and activist.
Minerva Lopez - Past President of the Cherokee Station Business Association
Alex Ihnen - Regional Director of Development at Washington University, blogger at St. Louis Urban Workshop
Alycia Green - Advocate at The People's Advocate St. Louis
Michael Allen will moderate the panel discussion.
Following forty five minutes of panel discussion we will open the floor to audience questions.
CITY AFFAIR XIV: GENTRIFICATION
MARCH 4, 2010
7:30-9:00 PM
STYLEhouse (STL-Style)
3155 Cherokee St.
Saint Louis, Mo. 63118
I hope that it will be wide-ranging discussion as I believe that there's much to be considered about the issue of gentrification as it pertains to St. Louis. I do need to offer a quick disclaimer: although I am employed by Washington University, I in no way whatsoever represent the school. I work at the university as a fundraiser and travel throughout New England, Ohio and parts of Florida. I can’t influence policy and I have no more information about anything outside of my Alumni and Development Office than anyone reading this.
My wife and I purchased a home in Forest Park Southeast in 2006 in the 4400 block of Gibson Avenue. The Grove, as it is increasingly becoming known, may be the St. Louis neighborhood witnessing the greatest degree of change. If you read this blog even sporadically you likely know that a new park is coming to the neighborhood, Manchester Avenue will receive a new streetscape in the coming year and a number of other big plans are in the works. These are positive developments.
By definition, The Grove is gentrifying. What issues arise in this process? What are the conflicts? Who is being affected and what can or should be done about it? Hopefully I can share my experience in The Grove and offer thoughts on what "gentrification" means in St. Louis.
Gentrification: "... welcome by some and feared and loathed by others, and even dreaded and welcomed at the same time by the same people." Lance Freeman's pursuit of this duality makes the book strong-he's willing to admit that gentrification is both a pleasure and a problem, rather than setting up camp on one side.
Just a thought, and not to be too negative, but my first thought is that I have to wonder how much true gentrification is going on in a city where exisiting housing is being rehabbed slower than it is declining. I don't see families being set out on the street because the flat they live in is being torn down for a luxury highrise.
I'd agree, but I imagine that there will be at least a few at City Affair who think that gentrification is already ruining St. Louis, especially places like The Grove.
Just wanted to note that I attended City Affair. The discussion didn't seem to be as much on "gentrification" as it was on grievances or "disinvestment", which some had a hard time understanding. So apparently the answer is that gentrification, at least as it is known throughout the rest of the world, isn't an issue in St. Louis. There was not a single utterance of someone having been forces out and their home being sold to a latte sipping, chihuahua owning yuppie. I really thought that gentrification might actually be an issue in parts of St. Louis.
The discussion topic was a bit more broad, and frankly, sensitive to very easily just stamp atop a night's event title and cover all points. The topic should have more effectively been narrowed to specific St. Louis neighborhoods where gentrification is arguably taking place (the Grove, and certainly Lafayette Square over so many years, for instance), so that there would have been a realistic expectation of a resolution to the night's discussion and that audience would have likely felt more informed by attending the discussion. Regrettably, neither was really achieved, and as a driving member of City Affair I and others will make the necessary adjustments and improvements so that such well-attended events don't leave the audience ultimately disappointed, as many likely were last Thursday. I commend the panelists for making their points strongly, and especially the author of this very blog who stood ground firmly and presented the most cogent commentary on his experience with gentrification in this city. City Affair will improve, but it will because of the early events like this one, that attempt to tackle big issues that will help us see our weaknesses and improve them.
I, too, agree that there is scarcely a gentrification PROBLEM in St. Louis however certain developments like Botanical Heights do occur, and of course the scattering of previous tenants of public housing projects as a result of either failure or Hope VI is not remotely gentrification. I'm not certain that some individuals at the meeting really understood that, despite the definitions given by the moderator at the outset of the discussion. City Affair will improve, and the feedback we received (comment cards, social exchange afterward, etc) will only help us make the necessary improvements. Thanks to Alex for appearing as a panelist last Thursday, and for maintaining one of the better St. Louis urbanism blogs.
Panalists sound more like members of the Politburo.
"Panalists sound more like members of the Politburo". This is, truly, an amusing statement.
So you're saying they sounded like Marxists?