Mill Gentrification
It seems one of the new trends these days is to renovate and restore old, dilapidated mill buildings that have been sitting vacant for years. I think the notion to renovate an existing building is great. It's better than demolishing a building to just replace it with something brand new but there does seem to be a downside in this process. Most of the Mills, at least in Columbia, SC, are located in the poorer areas around downtown. There are a lot of lower class housing around the mills that are being and/or have been renovated and these renovations are high quality renovations to transform the mills into lofts for the upper middle class to take over. Now that more money is being brought into these areas, more businesses are moving in which is bringing up the property values and as a result its pushing the lower class communities out of these areas. It is sad that the process of improving an old building or area can have such a positive and a negative effect all at once and I wonder if one day a solution will arise that allows for this process to take place without displacing the surrounding communities.
This is also happening a lot in Michigan, specifically in Grand Rapids. I have quite a few friends that live in these apartments, and to be honest... they are beautiful. Keeping the old brick exposed and an industrial feel gives these apartments a unique atmosphere that you can't find other places. With that being said, I do understand some of the negative aspects of redeveloping these old buildings into apartments for higher rent. I wonder if there could be a way to redevelop them in a different way that would allow for them to be used as low income housing instead. Maybe the units could be smaller, not finished as nicely, or could allow for the individual tenants to "make the space their own" as we have seen in many other examples throughout the class. In Detroit, I've seen many industrial buildings that were taken over by artists who split the spaces into very small studio apartments and artist studio spaces for making and selling art. This was a unique idea because the spaces were small enough to be low rent but gave the artists places to live, produce art, and sell their work all with one rental price.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a lot of this going on back home where I am from as well. Not will old mills, but older more run down buildings that use to be an "eyesore" are now being renovated and bringing in more business. The gentrification issues are slightly different in my case though. This is being done in the middle of the downtown of a city where the buildings were abandoned and the surrounding living areas were already super expensive (I know because I looked into living there thinking that because it was a more run down area it would be cheaper... NOPE!). So them fixing these buildings rather than tearing them down and building new is actually a good thing! However. There were a lot of bad things that would happen in those abandoned buildings such as people squatting or selling drugs or other crimes. What has happened is a stereotype has been formed about who those types of people were and now that the buildings are renovated, the owners have been creating policies to try to keep those types of people out. This is making it so that the people who once inhabited those areas are now not allowed to enjoy them now that the are renovated. Yes, it keeps the criminals out, but the act of stereotyping is also keeping those out that have every right to benefit from those spaces too. It has started a large controversy and gentrification that is unique from other situations of gentrification.
ReplyDeleteJust like Linette and Rachel I can speak to the same thing happening in Cleveland where I'm from as well. I think it's really interesting to hear that the renovation of these old buildings has created this epidemic across the country! Overall I think it's a great effort and should be applauded. But it definitely is a really touchy topic with gentrification and the right that the current tenants and residents have to their city. I think one simple change that could have more of a positive response comes from the program that these newly renovated warehouse buildings take on. More often than not they become trendy art studio, breweries and other attractions for the middle class and up. I know there's a lot of hesitation with social housing here in the states but if we can implement at least some more social programs into these renovations maybe it could have a more positive effect on the lower class that feel like they're being forced out.
ReplyDeleteSo this is a pretty interesting trend. And it is happening even closer to Clemson than Columbia. If you have ever heard of the town Newry, SC I would be surprised because of how small it is, but it is only 10 minutes from Clemson and is facing the potential redevelopment of an abandoned textile mill. Is this a good thing or bad? It is a severely underpopulated area that has an large abandoned building of historical significance that is just crumbling away. Is it bad to move in and redevelop this? To be sure it would almost certainly have an impact of the residents, but what would the alternative look like?
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