Gentrification - Jose Morando

What Is Gentrification?

The process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.

Gentrification In My Community

My community of Watts is going through a gentrification movement, and this change has its pros and cons. 

Some Of The Pros

It improves property value - people who live in gentrifying neighborhoods and own property will see their property value increase. this will increase their equity and wealth and later it will make it easy to sell their home fast.  

 It draws in new businesses - gentrifying neighborhoods bring in new businesses like restaurants, shops, and service providers. Having new businesses coming into these neighborhoods also brings in jobs which are needed to have a thriving community.

It increases local tax revenue - municipalities get much of their annual budget through property taxes, which are determined by the property value. As property values like homes increase, more revenue becomes available for local officials to spend money on better services that help the community. Those services can be better schools, law enforcement resources, and city improvements. 

Some Of The Cons

It often disproportionately affects marginalized communities - poor neighborhoods are the main target communities and gentrification can make it no longer afford to live in these neighborhoods. This can also result in a loss of social diversity and displacement into nearby poorer neighborhoods and a rise in homelessness.  

It brings an increase in community conflict - the changes that these communities face can cause conflict because the people are going to be divided by the change. Some will be welcoming to the changes, while others may see it as a potential harm. 

The cost of living rises - this is the major problem when it comes to gentrification. Many will find it hard to make ends meet and it will make more financial burdens. 

These pros and cons resemble what my community is going through. I live in Watts in South Central Los Angeles. Watts is known to have a bad reputation due to the background history of the watts riots and LA riots. Therefore, gentrification happens in low-income communities and my community has been targeted. For the past few years, there has been a new project that has caused a major change in my community of watts. 

The Project

Watts is known for the projects or "pj's" which are affordable housing apartments. These apartments have been high in crime for years and Los Angeles county has developed a project to redevelop the community of watts by destroying these apartment communities and replacing them with better housing. Not only housing but also building new shopping centers, restaurants, and public services.  

 

This is a concept art of the future plans of this redevelopment project. As you can see the plans look like a luxury style of living and the surrounding homes and businesses look run down. This project is either going to help the whole community or hurt it. 

The orange apartments are the new redeveloped projects and the apartments on the right-hand side are the old projects. 

 How is my community affected? 
In many ways, this will help the community of Watts, because the whole reason for this project is to reduce crime and make a low-income community that has been ignored for years from Los Angeles county look better.

This project is going to have more affordable housing units than before, which makes more room for people who need the help finically. But people can argue that it will lead to overcrowding. 

Overcrowding is a common thing in gentrification communities because things start to get expensive. So residents start to convert sections in their homes so they can rent out a room or their converted garages.   

How could we help as a community?

The community of Watts is tired of not having good resources and help financially. Having their city go through gentrification is being seen as a good thing. The Jordan Down project has been causing so much chaos that the surrounding residents are tired of it and also some residents that live in these housing apartments are tired of it too and they want to change.

The new shopping center has been the central hub for The Think Watts Foundation which is helping low-income residents to produce economic development and help with food insecurities and education.  

What Does My Community Think?

Gentrification means different things to different people, here are some interviews about this topic.

Miguel Angel Favela, 24

What gentrification means to me? 

"Gentrification to me means modifying an area to fit our new times. Gentrifying an area to modernize the living standards often happens in lower-income areas."

Is gentrification good or bad?

"Gentrification to me can be bad. Usually gentrifying an area often happens in a lower-income area in attempts to clean up the city. Many are negatively affected by this as far as the cost of living rises." 

Sources  

Grace Watkins, Ashley Fulton. “Gentrification in Los Angeles.” ArcGIS StoryMaps, Esri, 30 Apr. 2021, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c62eefccdc424603ba4603deff2119d7.

Lustig, Jimmy. “The Pros and Cons of Gentrification among Communities.” Thrive, 22 Sept. 2021, https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-pros-and-cons-of-gentrification-among-communities/.

“Jordan Downs Redevelopment.” HACLA, https://www.hacla.org/en/development-services/development/jordan-downs-redevelopment.