What is gentrification?

[Admiral Beez]

But it is a good point though that "gentrification" does have a strongly stereotypical image of white, hipster transplant in some peoples' minds.

Aren't hipsters a top loser in gentrification? Along with the artists and musicians, they're one of the first to be priced out of the market as their rental units are converted into condos or SFHs, in contrast to the rooming houses, which in my experience hold on the longest due to their significant revenue stream for their distant owners.

 

[prosperegal]

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.

Not sure about that. Many newer (East) Asian immigrants somehow believe that mental illness - especially depression - is a "middle class invention." I have (boomer-aged) relatives who've said that they were "never depressed" growing up because there was "nothing to be depressed about." Everyone was poor. They are now living suburban, middle class - and in many cases, upper middle class - lives.

 

[ksun]

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.

That could be part of the reason.
I don't know about black culture, but in Asian culture it is utterly humiliating to be seen begging on the streets (or even on the welfare). The poor people would rather scrap someone's toilet for $5 an hour for 12 hours a day to avoid that. On the other hand, plenty of able-bodied white guys and girls in the 20s or 30s seem completely comfortable asking for changes on Yonge st with a cardboard in front of them, sometimes in groups of 2, 3 or 4. In Asia and Europe, street beggars are usually the old and disabled. In Canada, at least from what I see, most are white people of working age with no physical disabilities.

 

[ksun]

Aren't hipsters a top loser in gentrification? Along with the artists and musicians, they're one of the first to be priced out of the market as their rental units are converted into condos or SFHs, in contrast to the rooming houses, which in my experience hold on the longest due to their significant revenue stream for their distant owners.

Agree.
Gentrification usually means hipsters are forced out and the more boring well behaved middle class with stable jobs move in.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Not sure about that. Many newer (East) Asian immigrants somehow believe that mental illness..is a "middle class invention."

Until they decapitate someone on the bus http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/greyhound-apart-from-that-how-was-your-experience-today.7244/

 

[Jonny5]

Agree.
Gentrification usually means hipsters are forced out and the more boring well behaved middle class with stable jobs move in.

The existence of "hipsters" is an odd self-invention of the middle class who displace those who leave. That they are moving somewhere where there is a secret population living wild, mysterious, and decadent lives is a marketing invention for ignorant suckers.

The reality is 99% of those displaced are just plain old low-income people who live what the newcomers would consider a very dull and bland existence.

This amusingly continues in a cycle of upwards income until the same people who displaced the poor are angry that they can no longer afford they neighbourhood and say "it was so great until everyone else after me arrived and ruined it."

 

[Admiral Beez]

This amusingly continues in a cycle of upwards income until the same people who displaced the poor are angry that they can no longer afford they neighbourhood and say "it was so great until everyone else after me arrived and ruined it."

True. When I moved to Cabbagetown in 1998 our house cost well under $300K. Now I could never afford my neighbourhood.

 

[King of Kensington]

The neighborhoods with a lot of "hipsters" like Little Portugal, the Junction and South Riverdale I'd say are partially gentrified. The Annex and North Riverdale are examples of fully gentrified neighborhoods.

 

[King of Kensington]

This "hipster" map seems pretty accurate:

http://www.urbaneer.com/blog/hipsters_or_not_real_estate_values_rise

Though it's fair to say I think that while virtually all hipster zones are hot real estate areas, not all hot real estate areas are on the "hipster map."

Maybe there's some north of Dupont though now?

 

[ksun]

I don't believe this map. According to it, even Chinatown is hip. Horribly boring areas such as Dundas/Bathurst too.

 

[King of Kensington]

The Bathurst-Dundas intersection itself isn't covered on the map.

 

[King of Kensington]

What about neighborhoods that were built for the well-to-do, went into decline and became wealthy again? The closest example we have to that is the Annex, which went into decline in the Depression and became desirable again in the 1960s. But I don't think it was ever a working class area, more of a bourgeois neighborhood down on its luck.

 

[Admiral Beez]

What about neighborhoods that were built for the well-to-do, went into decline and became wealthy again? The closest example we have to that is the Annex, which went into decline in the Depression and became desirable again in the 1960s. But I don't think it was ever a working class area, more of a bourgeois neighborhood down on its luck.

That's Jarvis and Sherbourne from Gerrard to Front St. These areas were built by and for the city's wealthier folks. And now they're coming back and we somehow resent them.

 

[King of Kensington]

I'm not sure if Jarvis/Sherbourne, or South Parkdale for that matter, really fit the bill, even if they were initially built for the wealthy. The Annex's "fall from grace" was minor compared to those areas and really only lasted about 30 years.