Media Experiment: Gentrification & Displacement
Can we gentrify a neighborhood without displacement?
Gentrification. A term I became familiar with when I moved to Baltimore, Maryland three years ago. British Sociologist, Ruth Glass coined the term in 1964 when interpreting her observations upon housing in North Kensington, London. In her analysis she states,
“… shabby, modest mews and cottages — two rooms up and two down — have been taken over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive residences. Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working class occupiers are displaced and social character of the district is changed.” (cited in Ferrara, 2010)
This description implies a negative perspective upon the term that is often expressed by residents and local community activist who are native Baltimoreans or have lived in the area for a long time. The perspective that the dominant middle class is displacing those of the working class from their homes.
Here in Baltimore City, as I witness the demolition of boarded-up and vacant properties in Black American neighborhoods, I have come to agree with this outlook of the term. The more I work and spend time in these neighborhoods, the more I hear painful narratives from individuals of being forgotten and unappreciated by those of the dominant class. To illustrate this feeling, take for instance the expansion of John Hopkins University in East Baltimore. According to the City Paper, “in 2002 the city council approved the city’s use of eminent domain to acquire about 3,000 properties in the area just north of Johns Hopkins’ East Baltimore campus for a revitalization project, displacing roughly 750 mostly African-American households” (2015). This action has caused mistrust and hostile feeling between John Hopkin University and local community members. As one East Baltimore native watched the demolition of a row house they told The Washington Post in an article that, “they just do to African Americans in East Baltimore whatever they want to, always have” (2017).
I acknowledge this situation as a form of symbolic violence. In consonances with French sociologist Perri Bourdieu, symbolic violence is when “the most intolerable conditions of existence can be perceived as acceptable and even natural” (cited in Smith, 2007). Indicating that those social groups that benefit from the capitalism framework of society have more of a say so than those disadvantage by the system. In comparison, to those who are profiting from the demolition and renewal of low-income neighborhoods having more control over who lives where and what will be built than the native who once and/or are living in that neighborhood.
This form of displacement is not only happening in Baltimore but also in other cities around the United States, such as, Brooklyn, New York. The following is a media experiment displaying this form of gentrification in action around the United States:
