It’s hard not to be seduced by “pretty things.” The specialty coffees that pop up on every corner, the boutique bookstores, the designer clothing stores. However, each neighborhood that sees its blocks populated by these premises suffers the loss of its sense of identity. His features begin to fade, the details that made him special, his own businesses that gave him personality. And also their neighbours of all life, those who were part of his spirit and essence, who enjoyed and walked his blocks when it was not fashionable to do so. Because as these new proposals for consumption are opening and redesigning the style of the neighborhood, they are also increasing rents and cost of living of the area, such as the space occupied by new real estate developments.
That is, neither more nor less, the “gentrification”, the fashionable word that reflects a phenomenon that is registered in all parts of the globe, but in which Buenos Aires and its construction boom can be seen especially represented. Visiting the Editors’ Fair, the doctor in philosophy, specialist in social and feminist urban geography, Leslie Kerncame to Argentina to present his latest book, “Gentrification is inevitable and other lies” (Godot Editions). With her, NOTICIAS discussed the new way of living in cities.
how it affects us
“I researched gentrification for 20 years, I saw it happen in my own city of Toronto and in many others around the world,” details the author. For this reason, he thought that it could be a good time to make a book that would be accessible to large audiences and not only to other researchers and academics, because his idea is that people can talk about what is happening in their community, identifying it by name. and last name. Also, that she can find connection and inspiration in other experiences, so that she knows that she is not alone and that this type of “evolution” is not the only one possible.
However, How does gentrification affect people? When an area begins to be renovated, at first, it is difficult to feel that there is something wrong. In fact, Kern mentions in his book that describing the neighborhood as a place in need of saving made gentrification heroic. However, this development has all kinds of consequences, some more subtle and others more obvious. “There is a wide range of ways in which the lives of neighbors are modified. In some cases, people are pushed out of their homes and neighborhoods, can no longer pay rent and are evicted, or their homes or buildings are demolished to make way for something new. That is a very direct and destabilizing effect on people’s lives”, illustrates Kern. And it is a huge factor in increasing inequality.
In other cases, you no longer have the same neighbors, your children cannot continue going to the same school because the cost has increased, the usual places begin to close and prices begin to rise. “There is a feeling of not being at home anymore, of not belonging to a place where you may have lived for decades,” the author describes. Depersonalization and a kind of homogenization of trends are invading the entire space, blurring the most particular features of each place.
And what forces are behind these changes? What at first may seem like a cultural transformation ends up being a signal to investors that this neighborhood may be promising and they should buy properties in it. “The problem is not the specialty coffee or the bookstore, but the way in which these improvements can be considered,” says the specialist.
healthy growth
It seems natural that cities evolve. That as the generations change, different tastes and aesthetic trends are imposed. But asked if gentrification can ever be seen as a good thing, Kern argues that while certain people benefit from it, it is always people who already had privilege and power in the city and society. “Gentrification is a way for them to continue creating wealth and expressing their ideas and ways of life in the city. The consequences for people who are marginalized are never beneficial,” she says. In the book she even mentions the Bilbao effect, in which the development of the Guggenheim Museum put this city on the international map as a cultural destination. “That’s how it looked from the outside, but inside the city it was more controversial: not all residents benefited. We have the idea that it is a cascading effect in which everyone wins, but very rarely has this been the case, ”she details.
So how should cities grow? According to Kern, the only priority cannot be economic growth. The environmental, educational and social should also be on the table. And if she had to advise governments on how to accompany this evolution, the author would tell them to use the regulatory tools at their disposal, those that many cities used in the pandemic, when they had to protect citizens who could not work. “Governments have always preferred to ‘let the market decide what happens’, without seeing housing as a human right, but they have rules and regulations within their reach, as they demonstrated in the pandemic,” says the expert. In general, she notes that governments only respond after it is the people who initiate movements to defend their spaces.
And in this sense, a note of color for Latin America: while in the United States and Europe these movements are more isolated, outside the first world there is a long history of struggle and mobilization on topics such as independence, colonization, student or feminist struggles.
According to Kern, this long history of changes from people’s revolutions works in our favour. “If people can connect with that community spirit, they can be empowered to fight this breakthrough,” he encourages her. Communication, support between neighbors and the construction of knowledge on the subject can be the difference between living in a space with identity and one that is increasingly unequal and grey.
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