http://www.wvik.org/post/group-fights-gentrification-chicago-s-northwest-side#stream/0
This week in class we learned about gentrification and how that affects lower-class individuals living in the inner-city. Gentrification is the transformation of poor inner-city neighborhoods into more affluent, middle-class communities. This initially sounds like a good thing but after learning about it I realized how it is really detrimental to the poor communities who are living in those communities. Low-income families are forced out of their communities and have nowhere to go, there are so many displaced families who can’t afford any homes in their cities and are forced to move far away. High-income families move-in and increase the property value. This then increases the price of living and the types of stores that are in that neighborhood. Wealthy people love this because it gives them more places to shop, and makes their neighborhoods “better” but they are ignoring the families that lived there before they did. I read an article (linked above) about the gentrification in Chicago and learned some sad facts about the communities and families there. One quote stated “I had a neighbor living there seven years with her kids. And her landlord decided he was going to rent to someone else, and he made the rent unreasonable for her and she had to move out”. This seems like it should be against some sort of law, that you can’t just force people to move because you want to, but its not. This is completely legal and actually encouraged. How are we as a society still letting the lower-income classes be treated this poorly? It’s completely overlooked and people are on the streets begging for help, and we are pushing them out of the city so we don’t have to face the realities of our decisions.
Reading the article about Chicago was very eye-opening, not because it was new information but because I realized its one story out of thousands of similar stories. Gentrification of communities is a sociological issue because its very much based on racism and class inequalities. Many minority groups are being displaced and white families are coming in and kicking them out. This problem is being masked as renovations, fixer-uppers, urbanization, and healthy growth of communities, but I have now realized the underlying problem is racism and wealth inequality ruling the housing market, and discriminating against people who can’t fight back. We have to speak up for the minority groups being discriminated against.
Maggie Kathryn Fredricks
Word count: 406
sociology 107 