Gentrification Pros And Cons

Recently, gentrification has become an epidemic that’s sweeping across big cities in the United States, from New York, Los Angeles, all the way to Austin. Where there was once a bunch of shabby suburb of low income homes is now a neighborhood of town homes. Gentrification is, “The process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” locally, this epidemic is infecting Austin, more specifically, East Austin. East Austin is losing its culture and along with it, the people who created the East Austin culture. Gentrification in East Austin has detrimental effects on local artists, locals, and unfortunately, it has little solutions. Within

The minorities of East Austin are being displaced, just like the artists. The once cheap location, now has condos with a monthly rent as high $1,200-$2,000. This is again because of gentrification. I personally witnessed a small 2 bedroom home sell for nearly half a million. My front door neighbors decided to take advantage of the real estate boom and sold their home to some entrepreneur who completely remodeled the place. What was once an old small ranch style house, is now a two story modern home that is completely unrecognizable. This poses the question, where does gentrification come from? How does gentrification

Of course this brings lots of revenue into the city, and perhaps more safety to the once troubled neighborhood. CNN Money states that new job opportunities emerge with construction and new stores, homeowners benefit from rising property values, decline in crime, and even credit scores improve (Gillespie). According to a local on reddit, the East Austin area is a “shadow of what it used to be. It is gentrifying all to hell[...]”(Reddit user atreides78723). Perhaps this may keep locals there, according to Steve Conn in Boston and New York, the working residents prefer the cleaner, safer streets with more commercial retail opportunities and are willing to pay more to live in the gentrified