Planning and the Just City
In Susan. S. Fainstein's essay, Planning and the Just City she focuses on justice and its relationship to democracy and diversity specifically in the context of gentrification. The example that that she brings to the table is the Bronx terminal market. The case was made that the property was turned over to a development firm in order to improve the economic pull of the area. As wholesalers were evicted, they were replaced with more low paying jobs which ultimately did not improve the situation of the population. However, even as the number of wholesalers dwindled down to as low as 25, they were still bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales ( at their peak there was nearly 100). The solution provided more low paid employees that were dissatisfied with their compensation, patronizing big business rather ultimately improving the area. I believe this an example of how societal problems need to be solved within their context rather bringing in big box stores to try and bring in more money.
I agree. I feel like gentrification is unfortunate but ultimately unaviodable. I feel like areas tend to be on a turn clock. One area is new and built while others get run down and then the run down areas either get torn down and rebuilt or renovated and gentrification occurs and then repeat. So, with the mindset of gentrification being necessary, how do we find better ways to do it? How do we design such that when lower income individuals are displaces, they have somewhere to go? How do we make sure that when we displace them, we create a way for them to come back and find something affordable? How do we phase it so that the disruptions are as minimal as possible? Is there a way to do it so that no one gets displaced?
ReplyDelete