Gentrification​

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Modern Library, 2011. Print.

 

This work served as the first proper introduction to how we should think about cities in regards to gentrification, and helped me to better understand the stakeholders in cities and how they may have conflicting interests.  Further, it told me about how urban planning works, and how it is intertwined with politicians, and it described how there is conflict amongst urban planners about what is best for cities.  This didn’t talk very much explicitly about the modern processes of gentrification, but it did shed light on how vulnerable city populations are at risk and how their interests aren’t well represented.  This also helped me to get an understanding on how organizations within city districts rally together for their cause, and showed me how some efforts can be successful while others are not. 

 

Lees, Loretta, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly. Gentrification. Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2013. Print.

 

This work was extremely helpful for informing my understanding of gentrification.  During the beginning phases of my project, I took on the task of finding all of the best sources and most cited thinkers on the topic of gentrification.  The three authors who wrote this work were always at the top, and have published many works. This work in particular was structured like a textbook on gentrification, and focused on all of the different aspects involved.  I used the first three quarters of the whole textbook heavily, as they didn’t make many value judgments – just explained the dynamics of gentrification and the different theories behind them.  I used all of these to organize my thoughts, which in turn helped me divide the capstone project into sections.  I used a combination of the theories I learned in this book paired with what I already understood about gentrification to put the skin on the skeletons of the sections.

 

Focus on Gentrification. Rep. New York: NYU Furman Center, 2015. NYU Furman Center. Web

 

The NYU Furman Center’s State of New York City Neighborhoods report is a yearly report documenting statistics and issues pertaining to all of New York neighborhoods.  Each year, they start with a pressing and policy-relevant issue, and in the most recent, it was gentrification.  This was valuable to me as it gave me a good idea of where gentrification was occurring, and what gentrification really meant from a quantitative perspective.  It gave me statistics on how much rent has increased, and on the types of demographic changes that occur in gentrified neighborhoods.  This research helped to put the theory of urban planning and gentrification studies into context, and I used this database numerous times throughout this project.

 

Atkinson, Rowland. Gentrification in a Global Context: The New Urban Colonialism. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.

 

I used this work specifically to get a better understanding of how city planners play up urban renewal as a tool, and focused specifically on some of its criticisms, one of which I quoted on the very top of one of my sections: “Investors and Politicians.”  I didn’t lean very heavily on this work, simply because it provided similar criticisms of the process, and took a more global perspective.  While this perspective was unique and interesting, the scope of my project was on New York City.  Still, it was helpful to hear from other thinkers, particularly in their criticisms of planning efforts. 

 

"Bring on the Hipsters." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

 

This is one perspective in support of gentrification and urban renewal that I cite in my work, and represents succinctly a more opinionated and easy-to-digest perspective than Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly.  Still, I include this because it is a compelling, partially right perspective, but one that is too simple – particularly for New York.  Before I studied this topic in depth, this type of thinking made up a part of my opinion – the part that respects and appreciates urban renewal.

 

Adler, Paul. "Razing Williamsburg – Cuepoint – Medium." Medium. Cuepoint, 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

  

In this article, the author, who is a connoisseur of underground music and Brooklyn warehouse parties, expresses his frustration with the changing neighborhood and how it feels more commercialized.  I used this to supplement an emotional part of the project, and to talk about how changing neighborhoods makes people frustrated because it changes what they love and recognize about them, and in the case of Williamsburg, makes them commercialized.  I also drew some pictures from here, because they are quite good.  Still, I criticized the perspective in this article, because it is narrow and aggressive, and doesn’t offer any real solutions.  In addition, the author isn’t a native resident; he’s a first-wave gentrifier who fails to recognize he isn’t an ingenious resident himself.  It helped me to better understand the distinction between different types of residents and how they feel.

 

These are the formal sources I used for the project, but drew an enormous amount from personal experiences, conversations I have had with different people, Facebook posts, and reading I have done prior to starting the project.  There are so many different ways I have built my contextual understanding on the subject of gentrification, but these are the sources that directed that contextual understanding into a wholly understood, academic understanding.