Gentrification

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Hey All,

Posting this as it came up for me in a previous post that was sort of an amalgam of "eccentric and annoying Davis Square traits."

I realize this is a hot-button issue but I trust that people can express themselves civilly. Ok, I *hope* we can.

Gentrification. It's a big deal. People in this community talk an awful lot about how we don't want Davis to "turn into another Harvard" but in some sense the people living there now and who have populated the square over the past decade *have* turned Davis into something different from what it was.

How does one say, "I don't want Davis Square to get too gentrified" without taking responsibility for being part of the gentrification that has happened thus far? Who decides how much gentrification is too much, not enough, just right?

Maybe Davis is better, maybe it's not -- it probably depends on who you ask and what they were looking for in a neighborhood when they picked Davis.

Comments

[spatch]

What's the threshold of gentrification going too far?

Valet parking on Highland for Sauce. That's my yardstick. Real Davis motorists don't need valet parking, they just need parking, period.

I realize this will be an unpopular viewpoint, so consider this a "nyer" in advance.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

What about the fact that Redbones has bicycle valet parking?

[spatch]

That's with tongue firmly in cheek, of course.

[obra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I've actually found it damn useful more than once.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

And the fact that said valet parking takes away one or two spaces from the rest of us peons. Actually, I wonder where they put the cars? It's not like there are any large non-municipal lots in the immediate area that they could have a contract with, or something.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

I think valet parking takes LESS space than non-valet, because not all the cars have to be directly accessible. It's pretty amazing to watch the valets moving the cars around to get access to one parked in a back corner - kind of like those puzzles where you have to put all the numbered squares in order in a limited frame.

Course, as a non-car-owner, I do get a certain schadenfreude watching traffic and reading Snow Emergency updates.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

"Are you crazy? It was dented when you brought it in!"

...and this would be why I live where I have off-street parking.

[lidiya6.livejournal.com]

does sauce have valet or are you saying that is when it will have gone too far?

[spatch]

It did over the summer. I had one of those "Well, there goes the neighborhood" moments the first time I saw the sign outside.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I had such a moment the first time I saw Sauce.

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

I agree with the reason for valet parking for sauce. Because I don't want those people driving around and around the neighborhood looking for parking either.

[xjustquietx.livejournal.com]

I think gentrification is pretty much inevitable. There seems to be a cycle: A bunch of poor artists move into a neighborhood that may not be the very definition of desirable, to be able to make rent and make a living doing what they like. Then the artists revitalize the community/fix-up the crummy apartments/et cetera. Then come the cafes and boho shops. Now that the neighborhood is a a little nicer (nice is a relative term, I know) and still cheap, in come the huge development companies. Building owners start raising rent. The quirky little shops and departments of transitional assistance get pushed out.

It happens everywhere. It's happening in Providence, it's happening in Fort Point - name any neighborhood, practically.

I guess the most we can do to combat it is to get more involved politically. I am sure Mr. Ron Newman will be happy to weigh in on how we can help. ;) We can look at the legislature of cities/neighborhoods which still have the quirky shops and the strong sense of community, but not the chain stores (I am thinking Martha's Vineyard, even though I hate it there).

That being said (boy am I ranty today) I really really abhor the way some of the longtime residents regard us "transients." I've seen on the Somerville News website (just don't go there, it is all trolls) things written such as, "It used to be that everyone had an Irish or Italian last name and their family had been here since..." something that reminds me of WWII Germany. Some people can be so small-minded.

But I try to sympathize, I think it's important to look at both sides of a situation... I can see how someone would want to keep their neighborhood the same. But what it comes down to is, change is inevitable, and fearing the unfamiliar is ridiculous.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Actually another trend is that the children of those who engaged in White Flight from the 1950s through the 1970s are recolonizing cities, now that dropping crime rates in the 1990s made cities safer places to live. They're tired of the boring sterility of suburbia and having to drive everywhere. Ditto a lot of older people in the 'burbs, who are looking to a day when they can no longer drive and become reliant on a public transportation network. That's driving gentrification as well.

That being said (boy am I ranty today) I really really abhor the way some of the longtime residents regard us "transients." I've seen on the Somerville News website (just don't go there, it is all trolls) things written such as, "It used to be that everyone had an Irish or Italian last name and their family had been here since..." something that reminds me of WWII Germany. Some people can be so small-minded.

That kind of provincialism is peculiar to Boston, and comes from the fact that except for international immigration, virtually nobody moved here for about 40 years starting in the mid-50s. Massachusetts experienced a huge population loss during that time. There were a number of reasons for this that would take a while to go into, but when that happens, neighborhoods and towns become very insular, because new ideas and new people aren't coming in.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I'd actually be interested in hearing those reasons or places to read about them!

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Well, the catalyzing factor for it all was the decline of American manufacturing starting in the 1950s due to cheap competition from Asia. Housing costs were expensive here and so, therefore, was labor. So manufacturing in the state went in the tank. The mills in Lowell and Lawrence, the shoe factories in Brockton, all closed down. Ditto the mill towns out west: Springfield, Pittsfield, even Worcester. Heck, they used to make cars in Somerville; Assembly Square used to be a Ford plant.

Then there were the taxes. You've probably heard this place termed "Taxachusetts." That's no longer true, despite the extent to which conservatives still call it that. But the name persists and for a good many years it was quite accurate.

When the tax base started to erode you started to have what's been termed the "death spiral". High taxes cause productive residents and businesses to leave, so there's no choice but to raise taxes on those who are left, until the higher taxes induce *them* to leave, and so on.

There was a popular t-shirt in the 80s that said "Will the last person to leave Massachusetts please turn out the lights?"

That all changed with the Mass Miracle of the early 90s. Broad-based tax cuts along with the ascendancy of the tech economy really did bring this state back from the grave.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the exact same thing :) (about being interested in reading further)

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

They're tired of the boring sterility of suburbia and having to drive everywhere.

I was born in and grew up in a suburban college town: Davis (ironic, eh?), Calif. I basically refused to learn to drive, and as soon as I could moved to Sacramento, the closest "city." Which it really wasn't; it was an older suburban sprawl. Finally, I escaped to places like Montreal and San Francisco, and finally (after a brief detour into Atlanta, aka "Bad LA") on the cusp of Davis and Porter.

I love it here and have been in the same apartment for over 5 years. Why? Because everything I need is within 10 or fewer blocks of my home. Grocery, live music, books, hardware, all sorts of ethnic food, two T stations, dry cleaners, veterinarian, Goodwill (for when I clean out my closets), pet store, pharmacy...without a car or even without requiring public transportation, I can get everything I need to survive. Add to the fact that I consider Harvard and Union Squares "walking distance" and I'm living my lifelong dream.

There's not a lot of places left in the world where you can do everything you need to without leaving your feet. I appreciate living here every day.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I don't know that a town often referred to as the best biking city in America is a great example of have-to-drive-everywhere suburbia ;).

But I'm with you on not learning to drive. Didn't do that until this year, and that only because biking six miles to work (outside of public transit range) gets a bit annoying when it is 15 degrees out.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I lived in Davis for years before moving to NM. The town I live in NM is very anti-chain. The chamber of commerce and the city council run out the chains. They just let a starbucks in about two years ago, which was a pretty big deal. I think they caved, since there are few places open past 7 pm in the non-summer months and it seems like no one else wanted to start a coffee shop.

All of this is a double-edged sword, though. It's nice to support local businesses, but it sucks to constantly pay more. The nearest Target is a 45-60 minute drive away, so sometimes there doesn't feel like the only choice is to suck it up and pay.

[jadelennox]

Though that increases the standard of living for the town as a whole, since local businesses in general will mean more money staying in the community. It hurts in the small, but helps in the big.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

There's actually a Target near Union Square, just off McGrath-O'Brien.
180 Somerville Ave. Just head down Highland Av and veer right.

[jadelennox]

In some ways, Davis does pretty well. It supports Someday and Deisel *and* Dunkin; random snooty gift shops *and* two dollar stores; Gargoyles *and* McD's. We're certainly not Harvard Square yet.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Some of the snootier-than-thou crowd have been complaining that DD and McD's and Goodwill don't fit in with the "character" of Davis Sq. Fooey on them.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I love the "character" of Goodwill.

Their library section rivals some of the used book stores in terms of great scores I've gotten there. And for $0.79 a piece rather than half-price.

Book "trash" in a college/intellectual/geeky neighborhood = big bargains for yours truly :)

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

What does it say that I consider McDonald's to be part of the "new" Davis Square?

Diesel, MacIntyre & Moore, the new, improved Somerville Theater, Diva--to me these are the newcomers that breathed a bit of new life into the square. They changed things, not always for the good, but on balance made positive contributions. I can't remember what the McDonald's replaced, but even that is okay by me.

But my god, if the trend is toward things like Pluto, Gargoyle's, and Sauce, then it's all over and we may as well be living in Harvard Square. I'll take a Subway and a Quiznos both IN THE SAME BUILDING over that crap.