Gentrification

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I ran into an article that talks about gentrification, not in Somerville, but in D.C. But her analysis seems to be particularly unvarnished and lays out a bunch of the issues and dynamics in gentrification that people don't usually talk clearly about: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/09/gray-defeats-fenty-what-does-it-mean-for-the-city/63042/

Comments

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Aaagh, I read a McArdle article without noticing. Seemed okay but now I'm suspicious of what might have been left out.

As for DC gentrifying, one thing that was definitely left out was DC's ludicrously short building height limits. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/04/d_c_s_height_restrictions_on_buildings_are_hurting_america_.html

But apparently residents favor those limits. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/poll-changes-in-dc-building-height-limits-opposed-by-wide-margin/2014/01/15/fc00e40e-7dcb-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html

It's the modern version of "I want good services and low taxes." "I want a nice city with low density and low rents."

[ron_newman]

In DC you've got more than just NIMBYism in play; you've also got a general sentiment that nothing on the skyline should compete with the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Philadelphia had a similar "gentlemen's agreement" among builders that no building should be higher than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall. Finally in 1987 someone said "gentlemen's agreement be damned" and built One Liberty Place, 397 feet taller than the statue. Seems to have done the city a world of good economically.

The downside was the Curse of Billy Penn: since 1987, no sports team from Philly won a championship until 2008. In 2007, workers building the Comcast Center, now the tallest building in Philadelphia, put a small statute of William Penn atop the building. The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series the following year.

[siderea]

AHAHAHA! That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Right, but still doesn't change the trilemma: an attractive city, a low skyline and visible Monument, affordable housing: pick two.

Man, imagine how much worse it'd be if DC schools weren't the poster child for school vouchers.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

if DC schools weren't the poster child for school vouchers

And the DC government seems to be working to eliminate vouchers.

But McArdle's column pointed out a particularly depressing possibility: The way the job market works these days, your income doesn't vary a great deal with education if you're in the lower half of the income distribution, but if you're in the upper half, getting a good education makes you a lot better off. So poor people are much less concerned with school quality. But conversely, the school system in a big city is one of the biggest stable employers of moderate-income people. So the poorer you get, the more concerned you are about the schools as an employer and the less as an educator. And the richer you get, the opposite happens. So it's quite possible that poor people really won't gain from having the schools improve, they might lose their jobs and they'll probably be displaced by richer people.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Aaagh, I read a McArdle article without noticing. Seemed okay but now I'm suspicious of what might have been left out.

Generally, you've got to read quite a bit of one commentator before you get a good map of their blind spots. But one thing I do like about McArdle is that she's willing to say, "This is good for the public overall, but it's really gonna shaft some people." and then going ahead and listing who those victims are. Most commentators avoid talking about the people who come out on the short end of whatever they're advocating.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, the most pleasant city neighborhoods max out at 5 to 6 stories, maybe 10 on the busiest streets.

Think Harvard Square and Back Bay, versus downtown Miami.

The real killer of affordable housing is off-street parking minimums for new construction.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Agreed on the evils of parking minimums. (I'm reading Shoup.)

Stories... quite possibly. That still allows lots of density: Paris is mostly that and Manhattan-level in density. (Though both still don't have enough housing for the people who'd like to live there.) Jane Jacobs' Greenwich village is about 8 stories and one of the denser parts of Manhattan, I think?

While DC is 1/6th the density of Paris, and 60% as dense as Somerville.