Gentrification

[LakeCharles]

OK, basically finished it. There's actually a molecule of interesting thought hiding at the bottom. Basically the idea that a city changes or dies. But it didn't really engage with the idea in any way that would be suggested by a title like "Why Gentrification is Good," which is probably why that's already been removed. It's much better as a rambling navel gazey thinkpiece than it is as a critical review of Gentrification.

I wonder why that title was ever put there. It has the title "Naked Cities" in the print magazine.

[FISHMANPET]

Yeah, it was a very click-baity title.

[FISHMANPET]

So I'll be going to this tonight:
https://www.facebook.com/events/7650273 ... 132745547/

I'm not hopeful about what ideas will come out of it, because 2 of the 3 panelists are artists and the articles Cano is posting seem to be of the "keep places crappy and pretend Capitalism doesn't exist" variety, but I'm trying my best to keep an open mind.

[mattaudio]

I was thinking about it. But it's sort of ridiculous that there's not actually a developer on the panel.

[FISHMANPET]

Well you see developers are the problem, sooooooo

[Silophant]

What are the qualifications to be a community expert?

[FISHMANPET]

I'm not really expecting good solutions to come out of it, but at the least I'll get a good feel for where the community is on this to get an idea how they can be pushed in a better direction in the future.

Or I'll just use it to convince myself that someone needs to run against Cano in 2017, but I'm not ready to start tossing those kinds of bombs quite yet.

[mattaudio]

Someone like Ty Moore.

[FISHMANPET]

To be honest I'm not a huge fan of the idea of a white dude replacing a woman minority on the council, but man I don't know.

Also, if you wanna get your jimmies rustled, check out this thread, and jump in if you'd like:
https://www.facebook.com/events/7650273 ... story=null

[Silophant]

Man, which of UrbanMSP's "Here in America, the local government doesn't and shouldn't have the power to unilaterally block private real estate transactions" posts should I copy and paste?

[FISHMANPET]

Yeah I think they're pretty down on capitalism so that probably won't work too well.

[VAStationDude]

https://twitter.com/People4Alondra/stat ... 77537?s=09

Heh.

[WHS]

https://twitter.com/People4Alondra/stat ... 77537?s=09

Heh.

Ha, I was coming here to post this pretty ridiculous line from the forum.

The whole thing seemed like a covert attempt to rally the community against the ongoing HUD fair housing complaint against the Met Council and the cities. All the materials they were giving out were about the complaint (and, notably, sponsored by the central city community developers who stand to lose the most if the complaint is at all successful). Community developers are also the primary members of the Equity in Place coalition, which appears to have basically encouraged Cano to hold this forum and also contributed two of the four major speakers. Astonishing you could talk for two hours about affordable housing and community development but never once mention schools or segregation. You don't need to be relentlessly pro-development to sense something was off about this.

[FISHMANPET]

There was some specific talk about communities of color not wanting to be integrated by one of the panelists.

The question posed by the event title was "Who gets to live in Minneapolis" and to be honest, the answer I got from the event was "not white people (unless you're an artist, but you're still on thin ice)."

[WHS]

I'd love to know how the panelists think communities of color got to be so disadvantaged, if not discrimination incident to segregation. Sigh.

[grant1simons2]

E-d-u-c-a-t-i-o-n

It is honestly one of the biggest key factors of disparities and inequalities. Along with a broken law and judicial system that works against the poor. And a mental health and healthcare system that is still very broken. Healthcare works against the poor as well, and those areas of low-income are high in lack of mental health help.

[WHS]

Except access to education is so closely tied to geography and neighborhood demographics as to be virtually the same issue. The greatest impacts of housing segregation are probably felt through the schools, and the greatest costs are probably borne by schoolchildren, for whom isolation results in permanently lowered expected future income, probability of attending college, etc.

[mattaudio]

To some people, the G word means rising property values and an improved neighborhood. This isn't bad. Heck when I see hot new restaurants moving into my neighborhood and four dumpsters on my block at a time for major renovations, I'm thrilled that so many people are investing in my neighborhood.

To others, it means displacement and everything else discussed last night.

We need to not have this idea that developers are bad and investment in neighborhoods is counterproductive. The other logical extreme is that a place needs disinvestment to make it affordable. But that's awfully elitist in a backwards way, since it means only wealthier people are deserving of quality places. I think all humans deserve a quality place to live, and we can't use disinvestment as a tool for affordability. And of course people with more means and less ties to a heavily disinvested place are going to move to a place where they can invest more and get more in return. We all do this when we choose places to live and buy real estate.

The discussion has to be broader. We can't afford framing this as a false choice between disinvestment for affordability and investment for gentrification.

[grant1simons2]

Except access to education is so closely tied to geography and neighborhood demographics as to be virtually the same issue. The greatest impacts of housing segregation are probably felt through the schools, and the greatest costs are probably borne by schoolchildren, for whom isolation results in permanently lowered expected future income, probability of attending college, etc.

Yes that was my point. Thanks for furthering it.

[kirby96]

There was some specific talk about communities of color not wanting to be integrated by one of the panelists.

The question posed by the event title was "Who gets to live in Minneapolis" and to be honest, the answer I got from the event was "not white people (unless you're an artist, but you're still on thin ice)."

Out of curiosity, what was the demographic make-up of the crowd?