Is
Gentrification a Dirty Word?
By
Sherre Lieder
Arizona
State University West
When I think of gentrification, I get an image
of poor people being evicted by greedy landlords. Others have images of reclaiming their city from degradation and
making it a place that is free of drugs and crime again. I have a strong inclination to agree that
all neighborhoods should be free of crime and drugs, but I totally disagree
with the idea that the poor are to blame for crime and drugs. The poor are victims more often than the
middle class. The middle class lives in
fear; the poor usually live in immediate peril.
This is not a new subject. For years, Neil Smith has been writing about
Gentrification. Roman Cybriwsky, Temple University, refers to Neil Smith as the
father of gentrification research when he reviews Neil’s book called The New
Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City.
Something deep inside of me understands the
fight to climb out of poverty and to feel, once that climb is complete, that it
is not a right but a privilege that must be earned. Something else inside me listens to the verse in the bible that
indicates that each man is worthy of his hire.
Every man should be able to earn enough in a day to feed his family and
put a roof over his head.
Gentrification gets all tied up in my mind with minimum wage, welfare
driving males away and making them superfluous and condemning families to be
one parent and live in poverty.
At the turn of the last century, protestant
preachers were telling all who would listen that being rich was a part of God’s
plan and if you were poor, it was also God’s pan. What a way to justify the rape of the common man. More and more corporations treat workers as
raw material.
I am guilty of fuzzy thinking. I admit it.
That is where I am right in the middle of fuzzy thinking. So many points of view and so little time to
investigate the merits of the claims.
Is Gentrification a dirty word? Usually, because it is accomplished at the expense of those who have very little safety net, those living on the edge. What courage it takes to go on fighting day after day with nothing to look forward to but more of the same. If you have insurance and retirement and savings, your worries are a joke compared to the man who has what he earned today and little else. He has real courage to bear children and fight for a roof and food every day.
I know that every person has a God given right
to self-respect. No person should be
paid less than the amount that it takes to feed and house him. When a society allows this to happen on a
regular basis, that society is uncivilized.
So the world is uncivilized.
What am I going to do about it?
The only answer I have is – show me to the candles – “Better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”