Negative Effects Of Gentrification

In the United States, there is a high value on the topic of advancement. Gentrification is a sign of economic growth within a society. As the economy of a community rises, many of the aspects of everyday life are altered. However, are we actually concerned with who is negatively impacted by the effects gentrification? As existing infrastructure is renovated who is benefited and who is negatively impacted. In the West Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, the High Line park’s revitalization of this formerly industrial area, as well as by wealthy real estate investors seeking new Manhattan addresses has resulted an increase of new construction for office space, museums and luxury apartments. The cityscape is being remade not in decades but years,
It is common to see the landlords of buildings in “up-and-coming areas” force low-income tenants to move out in order to make way for high-income tenants. Thus, displacing original residents. As wealthier residents move in to low-income neighborhoods, it would make sense if they spent more on local business to generate profit for them and the economy of their neighborhood. Unfortunately, that is a rare occurrence as businesses have a hard time catering to the needs of two different types of clientele, though they often try to do so. Likewise, new businesses that open up specifically to cater to the new residents bring new competition to the old ones, putting further strain on the local community. New businesses open to cater to the wealthier residents of the neighborhood and existing shops are forced to either change their practices to appeal to new residents and survive or stick with their old clientele and likely lose their business. An example such as this can be when communities are chosen to be locations for Whole Food stores. With such high prices, low-income individuals often suffer as their usual local grocery stores cannot compete and go out of business. In the film, it can be shown while one of the mothers was describing the area that many of the businesses in the area seem to cater to families that can afford to send their children to the expensive private school that neighbors the projects. Methods of education are changed. For example, the Avenue School which fosters readiness for international life. The accessibility to this school is extremely limited. The Avenue School “The World School” is located right across the street from the projects. Tuition for this institution costs over forty thousand dollars. In a neighborhood like the projects that type of money is unheard of, especially to spend that kind of money on the