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Gentrified Seattle Essay

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Gentrified Seattle: Social and Economic Implications
The American urban centers are rapidly shifting. A reversed trend of suburbanization has taken roots over the past decades where middle class white professionals are moving into inner cities. In many large cities, such as Seattle, this process of gentrification (renewal of inner cities by) drove up the property value of many predominantly low income and black neighborhoods, and many original tenants are forced out due to the skyrocketing rents. One prominent example is the Central District, which is [Seattle’s traditionally African American community. However, by 2000, the number of white residents surpassed the number of blacks for the first time in 30 years(cite). Unsurprisingly the intersection between race and poverty …show more content…

[This process] clearly isn’t racist, it’s economic. The real question you have to ask yourself is: Is this good or bad?” said the former Seattle mayor Norm Rice, the city’s only African American to hold that position. Unlike the redlining and white flight of the previous generation, gentrification is fueled not by racism but the market force of supply and demand with consumer preference shifts. One of the prevailing economic theory advocates for changing the zoning low in favor of the construction of new housing development. Because constraining supply of housing would only rise the price of property in the face of the massive demand under the fast-growing economy. Therefore, increasing the supply of housing units would allow to price to readjust and alleviate the housing shortages. Urbanists advocating for high density city living also agrees with this proposal. They believe that density is crucial for both environmental sustainability and social justice of city development. When people live closer together, it drastically cuts down the greenhouse gas(GHS) emissions generated by the

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