gentrification

the development process made unexpected resources available to non-profits searching for space inadvance of pending displacement:Nonprofit agencies that dawdled in moving from an East Palo Alto neighborhood on the brinkof redevelopment have prompted the developer to come up with several hundred thousanddollars to keep the [$210 million] project on track. . . . In the push to relocate them, [thedeveloper] decided to pay for immediate renovations to a local warehouse and office spaceso that the 12 nonprofits can move in within two months. The extraordinary measure goeswell beyond the requirement by state law to give displaced tenants financial assistance for42 months. [The managing partner said that] it was necessary to keep the project onschedule . . . . 45Likewise, job growth, whether in the city or in the region, can spark the gentrification process,while at the same time offering jobs to and raising incomes of neighborhood residents, if regional jobopportunities are linked appropriately to those who are unemployed or underemployed. As many inCleveland remarked, “it’s not that our housing is too expensive, it’s that our incomes are too low.”Labor shortages that often drive gentrification can lead to improvements in incomes. Similarly, newmarket demand generated by gentrification can, if linked effectively, resuscitate marginal localbusinesses. During the periods of robust economic growth and high profits that appear to spurgentrification, the political environment may convince developers to set aside affordable housingunits, contribute to housing trust funds, and hire and train local residents for construction jobs. Citiescan turn over effective control of city land to a neighborhood organization or other entity, or siteaffordable housing in a community rapidly losing its affordable stock. Legislation mandating thesepolicies can more easily pass in economically robust times as compared to periods of sluggisheconomic activity.The timing intrinsic to the gentrification process makes for additional complexity. As Berrynoted, when gentrification is just beginning, few original residents see cause for concern, eventhough steps taken early to limit adverse effects of the process seem to have greatest effect. Asgentrification proceeds and both positive and negative effects become clearer, residents andpolicymakers have fewer opportunities for intervention, less time to pass laws or secure approval forand build affordable housing, fewer degrees of freedom. In a hot economy, the window for affectingchange may be short, but many of the most effective tools take time to implement.Thus, gentrification is an issue that is frequently defined differently by various politicalstakeholders, that creates a political environment that is complex and unpredictable, and that has anintrinsic timing problem that fosters more missed opportunities than successful interventions. Fromthese characteristics, it is easy to understand how gentrification is susceptible to demagoguery.45 “Developer Pays to Move Businesses Out,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 2000, p. A16.27