The Problem with Gentrification and Redevelopment

An interesting article in the Virginia Pilot talks about how the housing authority in Norfolk is condemning properties to make way for an expansion of Old Dominion University. This is nothing new, and why I am against gentrification and redevelopment in the first place. First off the good that is supposed to come about when gentrification is the order of the day is only good for that particular neighborhood, it is never good for the people that are already there. In this case a private business is fighting against the use of eminent domain by the city for the good of another private business.

However, it was not that long ago that some of the housing projects were cleared in Norfolk and Portsmouth which ultimately led to the development of new housing for the same group of individuals that lived there to begin with. Nice housing for poor people who do not have any rights to anything does nothing for the community. You can take people out of ugly housing projects, or parks, as they are called in Hampton Roads, and put them in single family housing but at the end of the day you took one set of people out of government housing and put them back into government housing at the expense of everyone else who pays their taxes. That is not right at all. The conditions that the people live in do not change, the crime is often the same, and the situation remains the same for the inhabitants of the new neighborhood.

People drive by and say that these are nice areas, not realizing that in order to get into the area they need to be on Section 8 or some other government program. They then realize that at the end of the day they really do not want to be in those areas to begin with not because of the real estate there but the element that resides there. Too often a city just wants to increase tax revenue but may rarely look at the true cost of doing so through acquiring a property, destroying what was on that property, and building something else on the same land. Too many times we find out that just because something looks nice and costs a lot of money, it often is not worth the asking price because of everything that goes along with location and the reality of what the neighborhood was like before the initial structures were torn down.

The poor have to live somewhere in the city, particularly in a region like Hampton Roads where suburbia means being out close to North Carolina somewhere or over on the Peninsula because you cannot even truly get out to suburbia through traditional means. All of the highways around here run through other cities, so you have to get off of the beaten path and take State Routes, whatever to get to suburbia. So the cities have to house the poor in undesirable neighborhoods within the limits either in areas of their own creation or areas that have historically housed the poor and working class people. This is one of the problems that coastal cities have. In cities that are further into the mainland, the city redevelops and reinvents itself and the poor just move out to suburbia and have easy access back into the city. With a coastal city, development of one city pushes outwards towards the limits of another city, whose development pushes outward as well and the poor end up in fringe areas along the border of both towns.

None of the cities want the poor as residents to begin with, but some of the cities are not going to have any choice in the manner. The city that develops the least, because they do not have the capital or tax base from which to choose to do so, is the one that will end up with the poor because their housing will be the only affordable housing within the region. It is a matter of time before cities like Norfolk, once all of the problems are truly addressed, have successfully brought in the middle class and rich they seek to inhabit, and pushed out the poor and working class to other areas. Real estate is already high in Chesapeake and Suffolk does not show any signs of wanting to change, so guess where everyone will end up at. It would take billions of dollars to come into the Southside and the capital to do what needs to be done but I think it is just a matter of time before the rest of us find ourselves out on the Peninsula somewhere.

That isn't a good thing at all. For one the fabric of the Southside would be destroyed, you would not recognize the place, and perhaps I do not want to be priced out and forced back out to the Peninsula. But the reality is that the more desirable areas of the Southside are out of reach. This has not happened yet because the area does not have the jobs to bring in the individuals that it wants. A lot of the working class still work in call centers and the medical sector is continuing to expand in the area. But if that were to change and you could make twice or three times the amount of money you are making now as easily as you could work in that call center what do you think would happen. If you were content with working in that sector you may find that you cannot afford housing off of what they pay you.

But enough of Hampton Roads; at least around here you one can still afford to live in the city. In other areas people are getting priced out of the inner city entirely. In order for the city to move forward tax revenue needs to increase and that means getting tenants into the city that are willing to pay more money than those that already exist. What you can do is to educate yourself and make yourself a better tenant. You do not want to be a victim of the cities redevelopment plans but someone that can take advantage of them. You may want to get into the real estate game or open up your own businesses. We already know how this is going to go by looking at what is happening in Washington DC; you do not need to look at cities like New York and Chicago but those that are just a few hours from here.

There was a point and time when people did not want to live in the city and everyone wanted to live in Northern Virginia. Baltimore is a working class city and even cheaper than both areas. But now the District is changing and redeveloping itself so the people living in nearby cities like Alexandria may include some of those that city did not want back in the seventies. This is because a city like Alexandria that was once part of the District, and then a suburb of the city is now its own city with its own suburbs and in a place to absorb those that cannot afford to live in the city that is in the center of the action. It is still cheaper to live there than it is in Washington, so if you have a decent job you may just choose to live there instead because it would be better with respect to crime, have better schools, etc. That may not be the reality, but you may be willing to take that chance.

Instead of paying $1,700 a month you can pay $1,200 a month out there, so it looks good. Of course that is the low end for both cities, but I am trying to illustrate a point. Actually both cities have apartments for $700, but I would bet that a $700 apartment in Alexandria may be a better bet than a $700 apartment in the District. The "city" seems to have a bigger disparity in rents than a "suburb" like Alexandria does. It may also have bigger disparities in wealth. It would look better to someone struggling to make it in the "city" to move out to Alexandria. Eventually real estate in the entire area will be a lot more expensive in that region than it is now. When that time comes about, rents here may read like they do up there now. What you pay $600 for now may cost $900, if your job does not keep up with those cost of living increases you will be left behind.

I don't know about you but I do not like having extra roommates around that may or may not be able to pay the rent or are willing to do so. So I would be on my grind and find a way to bring in more money. There are already places that go for $1,800 around here in the newer, redeveloped parts of town. You aren't going to make that money with a good job, a good job is fine, but you would only be investing into the property you are paying the mortgage on that you already live in, not really developing any personal wealth of your own.

Gentrification and redevelopment puts people in a position where they have to decide which side of the fence they are on. It illuminates the differences between the haves and have nots. People that were used to one lifestyle are told that they need to move further away from the center of the action in order to live the same lifestyle. Some people may never return to the center, which is the point of the redevelopment to begin with. Typically the "action" is not anything that the people who were priced out of the area are interested in to begin with. The only good that can come out of it is that the action is dispersed and the culture changes throughout the city, but that is not necessarily a good thing either.