the role of gentrification in central city revitalization

TALES OF TURNAROUND

THE ROLE OF GENTRIFICATION IN

CENTRAL CITY REVITALIZATION

Is it mainly race or mainly class that has hastened the ight of central cities' more pvopsevous residents to the out r ying

harmoniously, side-by-si c f e in central city neighborhoods, or is suburbs? Can a ran e of socio-economic classes live

one of the objectives of gentrification merely to re-homogenize the urban mix?

DAVID L A M P E

0 bservers of urban affairs agree that the success of central cities in metropolitan America depends on their

ability to attract and retain middle class residents. But federal housing and highway policies - in concert with the de-industri- alization of the U.S. economy - have con- spired against cities, rendering them rela- tively inhospitable to a mix of socio-economic classes. A cultural bias in favor of rural open space has contributed to the suburbanization urge since the late 1940s, extending the boundaries of metro areas and contributing to many of the transportation, air quality and water pollution problems that now preoccupy policy makers at the federal and state levels.

Middle class flight from cities is a rational response to the effects of irrational policies: the intensification of urban crime, deterioration of inner-city schools, and neglect of urban infrastructure. As former Albuquerque Mayor David Rusk has said, "to be elected mayor of a major central city today is to be invited to preside over di- saster."' In his recent book, Cities Without Suburbs,2 Rusk argues that the successful centralcitiesofthe21stcenturywillbe those with the legal and physical capacity to an- nex large areas of undeveloped or sparsely developed territory, thus permitting them to accommodate "suburban-style" growth.

Of course, despite population loss, central cities remain the economic engines

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GENTRIFICATION AND REVITALIZATION

of their metropolitanregions, and the places with which many suburban residents most strongly identify. Even as they have lost residents to surrounding suburbs, major American cities have erected proud office towers, invested in downtown pedestrian malls, and sought to renovate or redevelop former industrial districts into mixed-use commercial-retail-residential clusters. Nonetheless, in too many central-city downtowns, the patina of prosperity that prevails during business

est values concentrated in the central business district and at the periphery. In-between these areas of high valuation, many U.S. cities host a region of older housing, much of it sub-standard and occupied by the poorest members of American society. Though neglected, insensitively sub-di- vided or abandoned, this stock is often among the most spacious, historical and conveniently located in the metro area. Curiously - and in spite of the manifold

benefits for cities - the pub- hours is replacedifter 6:OO FM with a marginal and desper- ate street life. Dependent al- most entirely on office work- ers who commute from suburban communities, downtown restaurateurs and shopkeepers typically also depart for the suburbs at the close of office hours, surren- dering thecity to thedenizens

r J to invest in and rehabilitate these properties. The mas- ze@on' but . -

Syl"lptO~tZC Of a sivesubsidiesare reserved for fundamental trend: the large, multi-state devel-

opers willing to demolish vi- czass and able, low-density housing

professional people and replaceit withretailspace # , , I

and high-rise housing. -Too often, such "investment" is

choose not to reside in the urban core. uneconomical, further glut-

of alleys and homeless shel- ters.

The problems cities face are legion, but they are symptomatic of a fundamental trend: Middle class and professional people -particularly married couples with young children-choose not to reside in the urban core. Discouraged by dangerous streets, dangerous schools and the slim likelihood of accumulating equity through homeownership in the central city, the prosperous and prosperity's aspirants choose not to live in or near downtown.

When mapped geographically, the property values resulting from this disinvestment trend assume the all-too-fa- miliar "doughnut" pattern, with the high-

ting the commercial-industrial inventory, while creating up-market housing for which there is little demand.

REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF CITIES PREMATURE

Howevergloomytheprospectsmayat times appear, noted urbanologist William H. Whyte maintains that "the core of the city has held. It has not gone to hell."3 Ac- knowledging that cities have lost sigruficant economic ground to suburbs, Whyte insists that "the city remains a magnificent place to do business, and . . . we [i.e., cities] are intenslfylng the most important function of all-a place for coming t~gether."~ Slowly, beginning in the early 1980s, many middle

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TALES OF TURNAROUND

class and professional work- ers - often raised in suburbs -began to re-populatecities. The trend first became ap- parent in New York City, where the debt-driven national prosperity of the 1980s generated thousands of new jobs in the financial services and related industries. Well educated and health conscious, the inflw of these new urbanites - with their expensive tastes in food, hous-

there is abundant evidence suggesting that the city is in- creasingly attractive to a burgeoning population of suburban ”empty nesters” and others who rely on the city for their employment? Requiring less living space, weary of commuting, but still

has soured a feW forme?‘ in their prime earning years, moving to the city means proximity to the work place (less time wasted in transit), Occupancy of more appro-

the aging of tke first wave of “baby boomers and their recent, delayed, tmdmcy to

start families

yupies on the urban milieu. . .

ing, clothing and entertainment - inspired a host of new acronyms, including “yuppie” and ”dink.” Before long, the young urban gentry acquired a plethora of detractors, their resentment fueled by their own class consciousness as well as rising costs for housing and services. Urbanologist Whyte is quick to defend yuppies, suggesting that “gentrification gets a bum rap.. . [that it is] one of the symbols of renewed urban vital- ity, . . . not the social evil for displaced people it has been made out to be. The real culprit, he contends, is the government decision not to build more ho~sing.”~

Corporate downsizing, the aging of the first wave of ’%baby boomers’’ and their recent, albeit delayed, tendency to start families has soured a few former yuppies on the urban milieu, in some cases to the delight of their critics. More optimistic observers interpret this abandonment of unrestrained materialism as a signal of the end of the ”me generation” in favor of a more community- and family-oriented ”we generation.’’ If the fast life and social ills of cities are chasing out a few young families,

priately sized housing, access to the arts, culture and entertainment of the city, and - despite the image of the city - more leisure and less stress. Moreover, many environmentalists point out that urban living, which encourages walking and use of public transportation over automobiles, is more ecologically sound. Meanwhile, the use and reuse of existing housing means less new land need be developed. Such cities as New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco for many years have offered satisfymg lifestyles for those desiring an alternative to commuting; more recently, cities less noted for their cosmopolitan at- mospheres have joined the list, including Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Mem- phis, and Cle~eland.~

SHORTAGES AT BOTH E m OF THE MARKET FORCE HOUSING REHABILITATION

As implied above, a major source of antago- nism leveled at yuppies has been socio- economic in nature. The fact that a class of people is capable of ”invading” a neighborhood and bidding up the rents on what

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TALES OF TURNAROUND

maybe the only high-quality housing in the area can do little but intenslfy the effects of income disparity. Where the “gentry” are predominantly of a different race or ethnicity, tensions maybegreater. Under such circumstances, victims of property crimes (Le., robbery, burglary) can be easily tar- geted, thus introducing an element of mu- tuality to theantagonism. But for thecauses of these tensions - for they are rooted fundamentally in the shortage of adequate housing in the inner city - we must look beyondthe”urbanrenaissance”of the198os.

Slum clearance has been a strategy for the transformation of the urban land-


densely populated urban areas in the United States. Today it is largely vacant, criss- crossed by subway lines and dotted occa- sionally by small groupings of high-rise public housing projects? Lost here, as in many other cities, were thousands of units of human-scale, low- and moderate-income housing and single-resident occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms, not to mention viable urban communities with thriving civic and economic life. As theseunits were removed from the urban housing inventory, those who chose to remain in cities (i.e., those with fewer options) crowded into the available remaining housing, much of it

policies that routed majorbranchesof Inter- state Highways through urban residential neighborhoods, served to obliterate stable inner-city communities. Of course, neighborhoods that took decades to evolve into functional communities withappropriately located amenities could not be replaced, and the newly cleared land has had few takers, except where subsidies and guaran- tees were offered. For example, the 12- block-wide tract in the South Bronx of New York City that stretches from 152nd Street to the Cross-Bronx Expressway -roughly 1,000 acres - was formerly one of the most


urban depopulation was underway, and continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s until the unique advantages of cities were rediscovered in the 1980s. Any market is shaped by those with ability to pay. In the case of housing, the most socially regres- sive effects of the renewed appeal of urban living were summed-up in one word: homelessness. This ghastly expression of social inequity has become a permanent fixture of the American lexicon and will likely remain there for some years to come, notwithstanding the good intentions (albeit meager interventions) of the Stewart B.

TALES OF TURNAROUND

McKinney Act. In many cities, those who have escaped displacement may spend more than 50 percent of their incomes on housing. Any wonder - despite William Whyte’s observation that the blame falls squarely on the federal government for its failure to augment the subsidized housing stock - that yuppies are such a vilified class?

But agents of urban gentrification are not the strictly economic creatures they are thought to be. While most, perceiving themselves to be transient, may opt for cash-rent housing, many have a long-term commitment to city living. An abundance of large, older homes sited on small lots along wide residential streets characterizes the near-downtownneighborhoodsof most older U.S. cities. Possibly vacant but typically not abandoned, much of this housing is in serious disrepair, requiring the re- placement of major systems, including plumbing, wiring and heating. When properly renovated and rehabilitated, such homes offer a variety of advantages: abundant space at a low cost per square foot; elegant architectural appointments; proximity to downtown employment opportu- nities and arts and entertainment amenities; low rates of property taxation; the prom- ise of value/debt equity; and neighborhood cultural and ethnic diversity. The public sector, sadly, offers few in- centives for rehabilitation, particularly for those with low incomes. Among the poor, urban homesteading still constitutes a laudatory

oddity. Private financial institutions, ever cautious, refuse mortgage and building loans to moderate-income and minority applicants. Insurance companies are simi- larly reluctant to underwrite in the urban core.

These practices persist despite their well publicized illegality. The result: rehabilitation and renovation of urban residential housing remain the province of indi- viduals with the savings, income and in- clination to engage in the protracted and expensive exercise of retrieving older buildings from decay and neglect. Those willing to do it may also be in a position to ”wait out the market,” delaying purchase until a promising property becomes available after foreclosure. In these situations, the purchasers may be subject to the ani- mosity of neighbors who, having survived several cycles of land speculation, have retained their properties despite taxes and maintenance costs. Either elderly or low- income, such property owners may not have the resources to update or maintain their homes adequately. The gentnfylng owners, conscious of the impacts on prop erty values of poorly maintained homes in

An abundance of large, older homes sited on sml l lots

along wide residential streets characterizes tke near-downtown

neighborhoods of most older U.S. cities.

the vi&ty, may be inclined to harass neighbors into code compliance, thus aggravating animosities.

Ultimately, the clash between new-comers and old- timers in any transitional neighborhood will have far less to do with race, age or ethnicity than class. “The trouble with gentrification,” according to one New York


TALES OF TURNAROUND

GENTRIFICATION AND REMTALIZATION

Times book reviewer, "is that it precipitates the collision of two of Americans' all-time favorite myths: the myth of the melting pot and the myth of the pioneer."10 However cliche the images of the yuppies, gentrification and the "urban renaissance," the invasion-dominancesuccession cycle has defied the public sector's best efforts at income maintenance and housing, particularly after a long period of reduced federal activism on social issues:

The latest wave of pioneers, the so- called new gentry, will never melt in any pot that we know of, for the clash of sensibilities in this instance is not a question of ethnicity but of class. How do you reconcile the problems of a de- clining working-class community - living in an area so economically de- pressed that landlords go begging for tiny rents - with the needs of a large incoming group of young urban pro- fessionals caught in a massive housing squeeze? You don't reconcile anything at all. Let them fight it out among themselves."

The frontier being explored and tamed by presentday American "pioneers" is the inner city. The stakes are not burial and hunting grounds but housing. Ironically, the resource at issue continues to be land. When the task at hand was the establish- ment of bi-coastal hegemony, the federal government was a willing participant in the enterprise. In the late 20th century, the struggle between pioneers and natives has degraded to a turf battle over shelter, and who will occupy it. In a period of retrench-

ment the fray has become highly economic in nature, inviting a frightful series of hos- tile exchanges between classes and races.'* The casualties of the various skirmishes in this new war of frontier dominance are lifestyles, and the victors do not take pris- oners. Moreover, in a hands-off, laissez- faire climate, the welfare state is far less likely tointervene withboldnew programs. This means that the vanquished - when they are truly disadvantaged or low-income - must either trade down to lower-cost housing or opt out of the system entirely and become homeless.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Gentrification, whether expressed in the renovation of downtown lofts, the recapi- talization of rental markets or the rehabilitation of near-downtown, single-family detached houses, is an ostensibly positive chapter in the history of urban America. Lest revisionists construe gentrification as yet another aspect of theeconomicopression of low-income and minority Americans, however, new-comers and old-timers must learn to interact, not merely co-exist. En- gagement, dialogue and "neighborliness" are the basic democratic elements of civic life, and indispensible components of last- ing revitalization. This in an important point to recognize, since experience with social programs since the 1960s suggests that our national preoccupation withincome maintenance and housing has done little to transform people.

In fact, it is as clear today as it was 25 years ago that the strongest contributor to urban riots is society's failure to satisfy basic human needs. "Virtually every con-

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TALES OF TURNAROUND

dition identified by national riot commissions as causes of the violence of the 196Os,” writes Richard Rubenstein of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, “was not only extant but worsening [in Los Angeles by the spring of 19921. Unem- ployment, poverty, shattered families, failure of the public schools, decaying housing and health systems, political powerlessness, abuse of

The urban gentry have influenced the

circumstances of the urban poor to a far

lesser extent than the federal governmen tS massive withdrawal

from the social seruices a r m .

power by the police, de fado racial segrega- tion: All statistical indicators show these conditionsbecomingmoreaggravated from the mid-1970s to the present.”13 This fact should hold sobering lessons for those co- ordinating “Rebuild L.A.” and similar efforts.

No discussion of the shortage of af- fordable housing in central cities can be detached from regionalism, the develop- ment of metropolitan areas over the past three decades, the economic dislocation of the working class, and the federal policies that haveeither ignored or aggravated these trends. “The weak partner in community revitalization in the last decade has been the federal government, which has retreated from participation,” says Franklin A. Tho-

NOTES

‘Interview with David Rusk, 6 February 1993, ’Weekend Morning Edition,” Na- tional Public Radio.

2David Rusk, Cities Without Suburbs (Balti- more: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993). I

mas, president of the Ford Foundation. ”The events in Los Angeles tell us we cannot continue to fail investing in our people. We are spending the capital we invested years ago, and that capital needs to be rene~ed.”’~

The urban gentry have in- fluencedthecircumstancesof the urban poor to a far lesser extent than the federal government‘s massive withdrawal from the social ser-

vices arena. The bidding-up of sales prices for housing, whether owner-occupied or rental, affects the truly poor only margin- ally, since they lack theresources to purchase their housing. Gentrifiers don’t buy abandoned buildings, and they don’t buy in neighborhoods with drive-by shootings. They buy in stable or transitional neighborhoods with strong positive trends. Yuppies and other agents of gentrification are no longer invaders, they are part of the urban mix. Who cares if - given their current trajectory - our great urban centers are turned into huge low-income housing projects, not to mention geographic con- centrations of social pathology? The urban gentry care. That’s their home.

c “ R

%am Allis, ”Contrary to Previous Reports, Cities Are Not Dead,” Time, 7 August 1989,

4Allis, p. 9.

p. 9.

’Allis, pp. 9-10.


TALES OF TURNAROUND


6EvanMcGlinn, "Urban Renewal," Forbes, 19 February 1990, pp. 168-169.

WcGlinn, p. 168.

6Daniel R. Mandelker and Roger Mont- gomery, Housing in America: Problems and Perspectives (New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1973), p. 393.

'Camilo Jose Vergara, "A South Bronx Landscape," The Nation, 6 March 1989, pp. 302-306.

'OMarcelle Clements, "People Are Getting Out of Hand," The N m York Times, 17 April 1988, p. 25.

"Clements, p. 38.

"For an entertaining dramatization of this phenomenon, consult Yuppies Invade My Houseat Dinnertime: A Taleof Brunch, Bombs and Gentrification in an American City, Jo- seph Barry and John Derevlany, eds. (Hoboken,N.J.: Big Riverl'ublishing, 1988).

'Xichard E. Rubenstein, "The Los Angeles Riots: Causes and Cures," NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW, 81:3, Summer-Fall 1992, pp. 319- 325.

I4Kathleen Teltsch, "Not Just to Repair Houses, But to Rebuild Community," The N m York Times, 7 June 1992, p. B2.

~~

David Lampe is editor of the NATIONAL Civic REVIEW and director of the National Civic League Press, Denver, Colorado.


the role of gentrification in central city revitalization

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