What is gentrification?

[King of Kensington]

Gentrification is a real thing but the term is bandied about very loosely.

What is gentrification and what neighborhoods have undergone, are undergoing or are likely to see it in the near future?

And to what extent is it actually driven by "hipsters", "yuppies" and the like? One thing I noticed in the latest issue of Toronto Life is that the areas seeing the fastest increase in real estate values are not what we think of as "hip", "trendy" and the like.

 

[King of Kensington]

Here's a report - albeit a bit dated - on gentrification in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. I like their definitions.

It describes those CTs that have gone from below the CMA average income to above average as gentrified, those that have seen some aspects (in terms of education, occupations, rents) but still remain below average as "incomplete gentrification.

Neighborhoods that were already affluent and got wealthier is called "elite consolidation." I agree that really is something else - it's ridiculous when people say York Mills has been "gentrified."

http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/pdfs/researchbulletins/CUCS_RB_43-Walks-Gentrification2008.pdf

 

[prosperegal]

What often bugs me about the definition of "gentrification" by some of the (super) left is they believe it drives minorities out and that gentrification is exclusively a "white" thing. I don't believe it's always the case. I mean, wouldn't it still be gentrification if, say, an urban-sized T&T opens in Chinatown? What about some sort of chain based out of Hong Kong or Taiwan, expanding this side of the Pacific? It targets the local community, ethnically speaking, but it's still a "major" chain. Yes, it could be a class/socio-economic issue, but race/ethnicity? Not that much. And the (super) left usually chooses to ignore this.

 

[Jonny5]

A very succinct definition is that gentrification is the sudden correction of the use of land to match its intrinsic value when hurdles established by government policies, or limitations of economic and social mobility are breached.

If government policy it to promote cheap housing in distant greenfield developments while highly subsidizing commuter access to central job markets from them, there's no incentive for most to relocate to somewhere like Queen West. Investment in neighbourhoods like Queen West plunged and housing stock became crap. It was only when the greenfield developments became so distant, and so much more expensive, while Queen West market values were so depressed, that things finally flipped, and flipped nearly instantly.

 

[ksun]

What often bugs me about the definition of "gentrification" by some of the (super) left is they believe it drives minorities out and that gentrification is exclusively a "white" thing. I don't believe it's always the case. I mean, wouldn't it still be gentrification if, say, an urban-sized T&T opens in Chinatown? What about some sort of chain based out of Hong Kong or Taiwan, expanding this side of the Pacific? It targets the local community, ethnically speaking, but it's still a "major" chain. Yes, it could be a class/socio-economic issue, but race/ethnicity? Not that much. And the (super) left usually chooses to ignore this.

I agree. that definition is based on the racist assumption that all non-white population are poorer when it is not the case. For example, in the US, Asians already have higher average income and better education than the white population. Not sure if it is the same in Canada. Plus, "white" things are different too. A French pastry is far more better than a generic Tim Hortons or Starbucks.

I think gentrification is essentially beautification of an area and driving out the riff raffs (many of whom are white) who don't have a stable source of income (that's the key here). I am not white, but prefer gentrified neighbourhood than a up-and-coming one any day - that doesn't mean I prefer completely white neighbourhood. Many white neighbourhoods are downright boring. "Nice" and "white" are not the same thing.

 

[King of Kensington]

There are few poor white "nonethnic" Canadians left in the 416 at this point. They've moved to places like Barrie and Oshawa.

But I agree with the basic premise that not all "gentrifiers" are white and that the "hipster" element in driving gentrification is exaggerated.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I have no complaints about gentrification. I embrace it. When I moved to Cabbagetown in 1998 it was still quite rough, a far cry from how nice it is today. Now we're seeing Parliament St. shops improving, and I can only imagine it will continue to improve all the way down to past Shuter St. once Regent Park is complete.

What we often forget is that a lot of place that are so called gentrifying today are instead returning to their origins. Sherbourne and Jarvis Sts. south of Bloor to Queen were once neighbourhoods of the well off, and only in the last 50 years or so were abandoned to the poverty support complex.

When I moved to Canada in 1976, everyone wanted to live in the 'burbs. We lived in Mississauga in your typical wide and deep lot house. Nowadays none of my friends and colleagues want to live in Peel or thereabouts. They want the city life, and have the coin to push out those that don't. That's gentrification.

 

[wild goose chase]

What often bugs me about the definition of "gentrification" by some of the (super) left is they believe it drives minorities out and that gentrification is exclusively a "white" thing. I don't believe it's always the case. I mean, wouldn't it still be gentrification if, say, an urban-sized T&T opens in Chinatown? What about some sort of chain based out of Hong Kong or Taiwan, expanding this side of the Pacific? It targets the local community, ethnically speaking, but it's still a "major" chain. Yes, it could be a class/socio-economic issue, but race/ethnicity? Not that much. And the (super) left usually chooses to ignore this.

There are few poor white "nonethnic" Canadians left in the 416 at this point. They've moved to places like Barrie and Oshawa.

But I agree with the basic premise that not all "gentrifiers" are white and that the "hipster" element in driving gentrification is exaggerated.

Does gentrification really have such a strong racial/ethnic component to it, in Canada, anyways? I know it's definitely more racially charged in the US.
But it is a good point though that "gentrification" does have a strongly stereotypical image of white, hipster transplant in some peoples' minds. But what about situations like foreign buyers (eg. wealthy people from overseas, be they Chinese, Russians, Saudis, or from anywhere else) pricing out the locals (who again could be of any race) in world cities like Vancouver, London, Miami, LA, NYC-- you rarely hear "gentrification" used to describe those situations.

 

[prosperegal]

I have no complaints about gentrification. I embrace it. When I moved to Cabbagetown in 1998 it was still quite rough, a far cry from how nice it is today. Now we're seeing Parliament St. shops improving, and I can only imagine it will continue to improve all the way down to past Shuter St. once Regent Park is complete.

What we often forget is that a lot of place that are so called gentrifying today are instead returning to their origins. Sherbourne and Jarvis Sts. south of Bloor to Queen were once neighbourhoods of the well off, and only in the last 50 years or so were abandoned to the poverty support complex.

When I moved to Canada in 1976, everyone wanted to live in the 'burbs. We lived in Mississauga in your typical wide and deep lot house. Nowadays none of my friends and colleagues want to live in Peel or thereabouts. They want the city life, and have the coin to push out those that don't. That's gentrification.

My parents moved to Canada around the same time and also lived in the west end. They eventually settled in the Willowdale area around the time I was born and stayed there until I was in Grade 7 or so when we moved a bit further south to York Mills. Now they're downtowners like me. I don't think I'm going to go to back to the suburbs.

Does gentrification really have such a strong racial/ethnic component to it, in Canada, anyways? I know it's definitely more racially charged in the US.
But it is a good point though that "gentrification" does have a strongly stereotypical image of white, hipster transplant in some peoples' minds. But what about situations like foreign buyers (eg. wealthy people from overseas, be they Chinese, Russians, Saudis, or from anywhere else) pricing out the locals (who again could be of any race) in world cities like Vancouver, London, Miami, LA, NYC-- you rarely hear "gentrification" used to describe those situations.

Some (Canadians) who are in the social work industry really DO feel that gentrification and ethnicity are related. But does this mean non-whites can't be hipsters? I've seen Asian hipsters. Recently, I saw a barista at an indie who looked like he just walked off the set of a Chinese period movie with his man bun and all!

 

[Admiral Beez]

I think there is an ethnicity/tribal element to gentrification. I've got white friends raised in 1970s Markham who fled to downtown in the 1990s not because their neighbourhood was turning into a slum, on the contrary the wealth of the area was increasing, but because it was becoming universally Chinese. Other friends of Italian descent fled Brampton for Georgetown to escape what they concerned poor minorities (I remember laughingly reminding him that three generations ago he wouldn't have been considered white, WASP enough for most country clubs).

We see this in the concept of white-flight, where regardless of income of the newcomers, white folks flee.

Gentrification seems to have a similar racial element. For example, here in Cabbagetown, surrounded by multiculturalism, my area seems a bastion of white folks, with the walls being Parliament, Gerrard, the DVP and St. James cemetery. I imagine other ethnicities have the same, where a monolithic or uniform group with wealth buys out an area.

 

[Jonny5]

There are few poor white "nonethnic" Canadians left in the 416 at this point. They've moved to places like Barrie and Oshawa.

In the "416"? That's totally false. You have to work really hard and live a deliberately sheltered life to avoid knowing that.

 

[King of Kensington]

Places like the eastern Danforth or further back in time Cabbagetown used to be filled with low income white multigenerational Canadians. I don't know what concentrations exist today and those that do are greatly diminished. Maybe to some extent the Etobicoke lakeshore communities?

That doesn't mean they don't exist - as you seem to think I've said.

 

[ksun]

In the "416"? That's totally false. You have to work really hard and live a deliberately sheltered life to avoid knowing that.

About 95% of homeless/street beggars I see on a daily basis in downtown are white. A few blacks and I don't remember seeing a single Asian one.

 

[Admiral Beez]

About 95% of homeless/street beggars I see on a daily basis in downtown are white. A few blacks and I don't remember seeing a single Asian one.

I agree. I wonder if the cultural/family ties are stronger amongst non-whites so that people with addiction or mental illness issues are hidden and/or supported by family.

 

[Jonny5]

About 95% of homeless/street beggars I see on a daily basis in downtown are white. A few blacks and I don't remember seeing a single Asian one.

95% is a bit high. I suspect in downtown Toronto about 20% are aboriginals who have moved here because they are better off on the streets and with the support of the big city in the south vs. isolated norther towns with horrible problems like Attawapiskat.

There is an aboriginal woman camped out on York who sings the most wonderful song every morning at sunrise. She told me she learned it from her mother, who learned it from her mother, who learned it from her mother, etc... for an uncountable number of generations.