bun-u

Gentrifyers against Gentrification

As reported in the Guardian last week this little episode in taking shape near my gaff in Hackney. Keep abreast of developments here. As someone tainted by working somewhere within the “regeneration industry” (and what an expanding self-serving industry its becoming – more on that another time) I am perhaps appreciative of some of the wider pressures faced by the likes of Hackney Council (from the Government definitely but also their council tax payers) to balance their books. But that’s no excuse to purposefully destroy community-valued businesses. Even if you were that way inclined, favouring unscrupulous property developers with no connection to the area is bad for the market (if every sense).

The other thing about this affair is that it is fairly multi-faceted – organisers have kept the protest 'issue-based' and have steered clear of macro-politics as seems de rigueur these days. This has allowed the organisers to draw on a broad church of support ranging from seasoned activists to occasional lifestyle choosers. I’ve been down to the squat a few times in the past week to lend my support….as have plenty of other professionals, new media types, artists…and thought to myself, ‘wait a minute this is - gentrifyers against gentrification’!

A bit like tourists who don’t want to go anywhere touristy and yet propagate the whole process, there are gentrifyers who like to infiltrate an area where they can be an exclusive voyeur to a quirky community setting. As more of this ilk arrives so the exclusivity goes and the thing that makes it originally attractive is disturbed. Like tourists, the hipsters can dip in and out of areas as their stock rises and falls…while the long-standing community watches from the sidelines. A theme park to some a community to others.

I remember some right-wing American economist (Michael Porter I think?) talking about regenerating your downtowns by first attracting the ‘gays, artists and quirkys’ to create a bit of a local fizz….after this, the investment would follow. It’s no coincidence that most speculative property investors who can buy swathes of property and sit on them for 10-20 yrs, often turn them into cheap artist studios to help boost their return.

I guess in reality there is some kind of tipping point. Middle classes coming into an area can to a point bring some advantages to the long-standing communities living there. Like it or not, the schools tend to get better teachers, Council services suddenly get done, better stores come in and existing people can benefit from all of this. But the negative side sees rents increase, expensive organic/farmers markets taking over inexpensive ones, valued community businesses being priced out by footloose investment. Someone should do an interesting London-based study on all of this - the gentrification continuum (if you will). Begin somewhere like Stratford and go through about several other areas at different points of the gentrification process, and perhaps end in Notting Hill.

posted by David M @ 4:03 pm