Housing Segregation by Gentrification in the US - Research Paper Example

Gentrification and Segregation Introduction The following discussion will focus on segregation and urban structure over the last fifty years with theemphasis on the last ten years and the impact of gentrification on segregation. Initially, the process of white-flight from the cities to the suburbs and the development of segregated and hyper-segregated neighborhoods in urban core areas will be examined. Then the process of gentrification will be examined. Finally, the impact of gentrification on segregation will be examined. The latter subject is of particular importance. Initially, it was argued the gentrification displaced low-income residents and forced them into even worse housing thus, reversing white-flight while having no impact at all, or an even further negative impact on segregated neighborhoods. However, recent research has indicated that this simple explanation of the impacts of gentrification on segregation is inadequate and the impacts of gentrification on segregation are actually more varied. Segregation and Hyper-segregation The term segregation, in terms of housing, refers to residential enclaves that are defined by ethnicity and possibly some other socio-economic indicators. Hyper-segregated neighborhoods are residential areas that are defined by multiple indicators of segregation. Massey asserts that five key dimensions indicate residential segregation. The degree to which the percentage of minority members within a residential area diverges from the metropolitan average indicates segregation on the evenness scale. Lack of opportunities for potential contact with non-minority individuals indicates segregation on the exposure scale. The degree to which minority neighbourhoods are adjacent indicates clustering. The degree to which these areas are focused in the urban core indicates centralization while increasing population density indicates concentration. (Massey and Denton, 1993, p 373) Massey and Denton employ these five indicators--evenness, exposure, clustering, centralization and concentration--to measure segregation. They describe high scores in at least four of these categories as hyper-segregation or extreme, multidimensional segregation. They conclude that multidimensional hyper-segregation is evident in at least ten metropolitan areas and affects at least 30% of all urban blacks. Denton and Massey focus on residential segregation alone, they do not directly investigate its inks to economic factors. However, in conclusion, they state that "our results suggest that the extremity of black residential segregation and its unique multidimensional character may help explain the growing social and economic gap between the black underclass and the rest of American society."(Massey and Denton, 1994, p 389) In 1994 Massey et al. explored the links between hyper-segregation and economic status. They examined "the movement of whites and African-Americans, poor and non-poor, into and out of census tracts (neighborhoods) classified by poverty status and racial composition."(Massey et al., 1994, p 428) There conclusions are unequivocal: "The most important finding of this research is that geographically concentrated poverty ultimately stems from racially segregated U.S. housing markets."(Murray et al., 1994, p 442) Their research indicates that white movers strictly avoid black neighbourhoods while black movers are excluded from white neighbourhoods. Consequent to this residential segregation they argue that when the rate of poverty and downward social mobility among blacks increases,as it did during the 1970s and 1980s, "the geographic concentration of black poverty follows axiomatically."(Massey et al., 1994, p 443) They conclude that residential segregation will undermine any attempts to improve the socio-economic conditions of African-Americans: "Unless racial discrimination in housing is eliminated, therefore, whatever improvements in black welfare are achieved through class-based interventions will tend to be overwhelmed by the disastrous neighborhood conditions that follow directly from residential segregation."(Massey et al, 1994, p 443) Thus, Murray et al. identify residential segregation as a key causal factor in the high rates of poverty amongst urban blacks. Massey et al. argue that residential segregation increased when the socio-economic status of blacks declined during the last two decades. Overall, a vast body of literature establishes that residential segregation is a key element of urban America. Measures of residential segregation indicate that African-Americans are highly segregated: Specifically, into densely populated urban ghettos clustered in the central districts of metropolitan areas where employment opportunities are strictly limited. Gentrification The term gentrification was first used in 1964 by Ruth Glass, with reference to an historic neighborhood in London that was being redeveloped, displacing poor residents, by in-migration of a predominantly white population of a higher socio-economic class. In "Gentrification, Abandonment, and Displacement: Connections, Causes, and Policy Responses in New York City," Peter Marcuse argues that both gentrification and abandonment are ongoing, often in the same block, even side by side. Moreover, he argues that abandonment and gentrification are intimately linked because "both are reflections of a single long-term process resulting from the changing economy of the central city. (Marcuse, 1985, p 200) By way of introduction Marcuse provides an excellent definition of gentrification, one that will be quoted at length because it will serve as a working definition during this discussion: Gentrification occurs when new residents--who disproportionately are young, white, professional, technical, and managerial workers with higher education and income levels--replace older residents--who disproportionately are low-income, working-class and poor, minority and ethnic group members, and elderly--from older and previously deteriorated inner-city housing in a spatially concentrated manner. (Marcuse, 1985, pp 198-99) Abandonment occurs when all economic interests in a unit or structure become "willing to surrender title to it without compensation, because of the absence of effective demand for its continued use or reuse."(Marcuse, 1985, pp 199-200) According to Marcuse an area of housing stock in decline faces two fates. Its deterioration can continue until it is abandoned or, it can be gentrified: In either case, Marcuse, concludes the present residents are displaced--physically displaced in the former instance and economically displaced in the latter. Moreover, Marcuse notes that governments facilitate this process by reinforcing private investment with public funds and accepting abandonment as a fait accompli. (Marcuse, 1985, p 228) Needless to add, Marcuse concludes that gentrification is preferable to abandonment. Consequently, Marcuse concludes that gentrification and abandonment, both consequences of macro-economic changes in the citys organization and role, are both displacing lower-income residents of the urban core. (Marcuse, 1985, pp 230-231) Moreover, these developments are increasing the polarization in the inner city as the residents of gentrifying neighbourhoods improve their environment and the housing stock available to displaced lower-income people declines in quality and quantity. Marcuse concludes that current urban processes (in the 1980s) are increasing the quality and quantity of housing stock in the inner city available to the middle class while limiting the housing stock available to low-income residents. Robinson argues that "neighbourhood-responsive progressive forces that characterize San Francisco" have protected many areas, particularly the Tenderloin, from gentrification. He argues that these opponents have grown in sophistication over time and now maintain a "social protection capacity." (Robinson, 1995, 507) In the contemporary era this is typified by a New York-based collective known as the Fed Up Honeys. (Cahill, 2006, passim.) They regard gentrification as a white, male, upper-class phenomenon that has universally negative implications for the socio-economically disadvantaged, ethnic minority former residents of the areas that are gentrified. Gentrification and Segregation Between 1960 and 2000 a classical model of gentrification developed that united a series of urban processes in a comprehensive model. The model commenced with white flight to the suburbs and the development of segregated, even hyper-segregated, neighborhoods in the inner core. This increasing division between white, affluent suburbs and inner city, urban enclaves of poor ethnic minorities increased throughout the period from 1960 to 1985. Starting in approximately 1985 this demographic shift was reversed in the last fifteen years of the last century with the development of the process of gentrification. This saw white-flight reversed with affluent suburbanites returning to the cities. Attracted by historic structures and extremely depressed real estate prices they began moving into urban neighborhoods, renovating buildings and living there attracted by the changing demographics of the employment market. This forced the former poor, ethnic residents into even worse housing and further increased segregation and hyper-segregation However, since 2000 an emerging body of literature has cast doubt on this classical model of gentrification. Specifically, questions have been asked about the consequences and implications of gentrification that challenge the classical model. In 2008 McKinnish et al. published research that took “advantage of confidential Census data, specifically the 1990 and 2000 Census Long Form Data, to provide the richest study of gentrification to date.” They concluded that gentrification did not simply and universally result in ethnic displacement: “Overall, we find that rather than dislocating non-white households, gentrification creates neighborhoods that are attractive to middle-class minority households, particularly those with children or with elderly householders. Furthermore, there is evidence that gentrification may even increase incomes for these same households.” (McKinnish et al., 2008, 3, 17) The key findings of their research, do not support the classical model of gentrification. Their conclusion that “in-migration of college graduates, particularly white college graduates under 40 without children, is a key characteristic of a gentrifying neighborhood,” supports the classical model.” (McKinnish et al., 2008, p. 19) However, their remaining conclusions directly contradict the gentrification-displacement dichotomy. Specifically, they assert that “we find no evidence of disproportionate exit of low-education or minority householders, but do find evidence that gentrifying neighborhoods disproportionately retain black householders with a high school degree.” They also cite economic and demographic evidence that augments this assertion. “The composition of the total income gains in gentrifying neighborhoods attributes the bulk of the gains to two key groups: black high school graduates (due to disproportionate retention and income gains) and white college graduates (due to disproportionate in-migration and high incomes)." (McKinnish et al., 2008, 19) Also in 2008, writing in The Western Journal of Black Studies, Elizabeth Kirkland challenged the classical model of gentrification as lacking academic rigor and little more than an urban myth. “In lay conceptualization, popular experience, and urban lore, gentrification is a racial phenomenon, but this understanding is largely unexplored in the literature on gentrification.” Specifically, she criticizes the displacement element of the model as unproven and “contradictory findings centered on displacement which reveal on the one hand a greater displacement rate for whites than for people of color and on the other hand that being African American is negatively associated with moving into gentrifying areas.” (Kirkland, 2008, 19) She then examines endemic racism and why the investigation, explicitly, of ethnicity and gentrification is based on qualitative research rather than quantitative research. “As for the absence of race as a variable in gentrification analyses, this is consistent with the general tendency for the avoidance of racial discourse, the denial of the magnitude of racism, and the evasion of the topic of racial impacts, disparities, and divisions.” She argues that displacement may or may not occur in conjunction with gentrification, but that an unequivocal answer is impossible as the research necessary has not been conducted. (Kirkland, 2008, 19) Moreover, increasingly, qualitative research is raising questions about the direct link between gentrification, displacement and segregation. June Dwyer analyzes a novel, Changos Fire for insights into gentrification and concludes that while it is a novel about gentrification in Spanish Harlem it is not a novel about displacement of the Puerto Rican residents of Spanish Harlem but rather, a story of their adapting to change. The change is gentrification and the adaptations are not universally negative. According to Dwyer, Julio the protagonist of Changos Fire, “comes to the conclusion that instead of becoming pawns of the white world or falling into ethnic insularity, the denizens of Spanish Harlem should adopt an attitude of rooted cosmopolitanism.” Although Julio does not use such an academic term he becomes convinced of “the importance of ones local environment and the ability of a viable community to absorb change” according to Dwyer. Displacement is simply not present in this novel of gentrification. Interestingly, the author, Ernesto Quinonez, was born and raised in Spanish Harlem and the novel is undeniably autobiographical. This novel hints at some of the endemic racism that Kirkland identifies. In the classical model of gentrification the displaced ethnic minorities are not actors in their lives. Rather, they are pawns that are moved about the board by the forces of the dominant culture: When gentrifiers arrive they push out the previous residents: The previous residents of gentrified neighborhoods are simply objects moved by greater forces, a theoretical perspective that denies to them motivation, interests or the capability for action. In other words, the classical model of gentrification is, in and of itself, racist. Ryan Howell, a self-admitted gentrifier also questions the simple, equation of gentrification with displacement and the conclusion that, therefore, gentrification has a universally negative impact on the former residents. Howell argues that the classical model of gentrification has portrayed it as “politically correct racism” that “assumes negative externalities [displacement] are present”: Jim Crow based on economics rather than segregation statutes. (Howell, 2008, 558) However, he questions the validity of this research: “Studies that claim to measure displacement have no control to distinguish between low-income people being forced to move because of gentrification and the normal migration of low-income people that is completely unrelated to gentrification.” In a note he adds, “most of the studies relied upon by critics do not take into account the normal transience of low-income households and therefore the statistical causal relationship between gentrification and displacement is weak.” (Howell, 2008, 560) Simply put, the argument that gentrification displaces ethnic minorities is actually an assumption with inadequate statistical confirmation. Howell also points to the broad positive impacts that gentrification has on inner-cities as a whole. He asserts that gentrification in any part of a city increases tax revenues allowing for an improvement in urban services across the city. He also argues that it reduces suburbanization and the costs of physical expansion of services that accompany sprawl. Overall, therefore, he asserts that it is revenue positive for municipal governments. He also views it as a positive development relative to the previous era of massive public housing projects that have proven ineffective in terms of housing and been accompanied by ghettoization and a host of other urban social problems. “Privately spurred gentrification has accomplished in many cities what massive urban renewal programs, designed to help the poor since the 1960s, have failed to accomplish.” (Howell, 2008, 562) Conclusions Returning to consideration of the classical model of gentrification consider a brief remark by Massey et al. About gentrification, "the geographic concentration of black poverty follows axiomatically." (Massey et al., 1994, p 443) They do not claim that their research demonstrates this; rather, they assert that their research proves the premises from which they infer gentrification is accompanied by displacement and poverty. This is precisely the criticism that Kirkland levels against past research into gentrification. Displacement and impoverishment were rarely proven in the research, they were inferred from other research. The newest generation of gentrification research has substantively challenged these inferences. Most importantly, Kirkland demonstrates that the gentrification equals displacement argument is simply not justified by detailed empirical analysis. Further, Dwyers novel Changos Fire demonstrates that the only alternative available to residents in gentrifying neighborhoods is not displacement: Rather, they are sentient beings and actors in the gentrification process who can adapt to gentrification and also alter gentrification to include them. Clearly, the classical model linking gentrification directly to displacement and continuing, even enhanced, segregation is academically elegant it lacks rigor and may, in fact, not be an accurate portrayal of the process of gentrification. References Cahill, Caitlin. 2006. ""At Risk"? the Fed Up Honeys Re-present the Gentrification of the Lower East Side." Womens Studies Quarterly 34:334+ Dwyer, June. "Reimagining the ethnic enclave: gentrification, rooted cosmopolitanism, and Ernesto Quinonezs Changos Fire." MELUS 34.2 (2009): 125-139. Essoka, Jonathan D. "The gentrifying effects of brownfields redevelopment." The Western Journal of Black Studies 34.3 (2010): 299-316. Glass, Ruth "Introduction: Aspects of Change," in London: Aspects of Change, ed. Centre for Urban Studies, Centre for Urban Studies Report no. 3, University College London (London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964). Holzer, Harry J "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: What has the Evidence Shown?" Urban Studies 28:(1), 1991, pp 105-122. Howell, Ryan. "Throw the bums out? A discussion of the effects of historic preservation statutes on low-income households through the process of urban gentrification in old neighborhoods." Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 11.3 (2008): 541-571. Katz, Alyssa. "Gentrification hangover: can a new era of affordable housing be created from the wreckage of failed luxury real estate?" The American Prospect 21.1 (2010): 17 Kirkland, Elizabeth. "Whats race got to do with it? Looking for the racial dimensions of gentrification." The Western Journal of Black Studies 32.2 (2008): 18-30. Massey, Donald S "Hypersegregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Black and Hispanic Segregation Along Five Dimensions" Demography 26:(3), Aug 1989, pp 373-391. Massey, Douglas S., and Denton, Nancy A. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. Massey, Donald S and Andrew B Gross and Kumiko Shibuya "Migration, Segregation, and the Geographic Concentration of Poverty" American Sociological Review 59:, Jun 1994, pp 425-445. McKinnish, Randall Walsh, and Kirk White, "Who Gentrifies Low-Income Neighborhoods?" National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper, May 2008. Robinson, Tony "Gentrification and Social Resistance in San Franciscos Tenderloin" Urban Affairs Review 30:4, March, 1995, pp 483-513. Read More