Gentrification? - Reclamation?

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I was looked through the visuallingual blog and found this
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/21/130921/highest-income-inequality-tract.html

Same thing happened in Lafayette Square and Soulard in the late 60s and early 70s.  It is happening now in near north county.  Housing stock gets to the most pitiful level possible without being razed and crime only slackens because even the rats are fleeing.  The artists and sweat equity people move in first and glamorize the area with cafe's and galleries.  Then come those who can afford to have the renovation to fantastic done by hired help.  Soon the residents are creating neighborhood associations and making life for the poorer residents miserable.  When the price is right the slumlords will sell out to the yuppies and the poor will be completely swept away.

I have this image of Europe which might be completely fantastical; particularly France, where I have never lived; or Queens, NY which I visited in the early 70s.  There are big apartment buildings and the half-below ground floors contain tiny apartments, affordable and snug for grandma or grandpa.  The first couple of main floors contain giant suite-like apartments as big as many suburban homes some with rooms for servants.  The upper most floors become more densely populated.  On the uppermost floor, probably without elevator service are 'garrets'.  Small studio spaces for single people and starving artists.  The whole building is maintained and to-code but it is designed to hold people of all ages and incomes in dignity. 

All real estate developments I have ever seen in this country are aimed at one income.  We are told people prefer it that way.  I remember however when some of the west county snotties at 'Big 100 Corporation' were appalled that their darling children were priced out of the neighborhoods in which they grew up and might have to find their starter housing in the scary derelict city! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  If the developments had been built with all ages in mind, the young people could get their start there.  The older people could trade down to something more manageable in size and cost and not have to move away from what they know. 

The only thing that comes close now is section 8 housing which in theory, would be scattered inconspicuously in the midst of market rate housing.  I don't know how successful that has been.  When we lived in the city there was great fear as one after another big swaths of Maplewood apartments were being converted to section 8.  When everything is section 8, the housing values around it decline and the heterogeneous nature of the neighborhood is lost.  Thank goodness Maplewood managed to hold on to its diversity.   Clayton and the parts of U-City closest to Washington University used to have affordable apartments, I know as I lived in many of them.  Not sure when it happened but they slowly converted to condos with big price tags.  4 or 5 students could rent one of the big 3 bedroom apartments on Southwood or Northwood and live close to school.  Now they are all million dollar condos.

There is a real flophouse hotel right across from where I work.  You can often see into some of the rooms and the residents tend to hang out on the sidewalk in front in good weather.  I hope they don't tear it down or turn it into loft apartments.  These people are one step above homeless now and I and my coworkers should be able to share the neighborhood.

End soapbox

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Comments

[Serviced Offices Derby]

Wow! That is a really big leap for a neighborhood. It must be awesome to be a property owner in a neighborhood that is just starting to progress. Surely the place's progress will rub off on your business as well.