October 10th Reading Response

In “A changing Mission- The Story” it gives a lot of factual evidence through graphs and figures to paint a clear picture of how nearly everything has changed in the San Francisco neighborhood. The pushing change brought with it a lot of drama and unhappy residents. What I thought was intriguing to think about was how people were happy to see new business selfdistruct until inevitable closure. That paints a pretty clear picture of the feelings and outlooks of new development was viewed by the existing residents of the neighborhood. I understand why they would be happy since there was controversy behind this specific establishment but it also adds to more tensions between the inevitable newcomers and existing neighbors. I liked that it brought up healthy growth of neighborhoods, especially when said “Keeping people out of your community doesn’t work; it doesn’t engender positive growth”. I highly agree with this quote because I don’t think neighborhoods should be specifically one way or another, they are best when all walks of life are living amongst each other. In the context of the Mission, there needs to be more push for subsidized housing and rent controlled buildings so existing residents can maintain a life in the neighborhood, while also bringing a mix of all other walks of life.

In “Is Gentrification Ruining Los Angeles or Saving It? Pick A Side”, it gives good insight to how gentrification can be easily thrown around to bring a face to the problem. In the beginning of the reading it says “The hipster-hating mob ignores evidence that gentrification helps eradicate gang violence,strengthens the local economy, and encourages diversity in neighborhoods separated by racial lines”. I agree with this to an extent. Gentrification does do a lot to improve a neighborhood but “encouraging diversity in neighborhoods seperated by racial lines” is not completely true. Yes, while a neighborhood is in the beginning phases of gentrification it becomes a more diverse place, but that time of diversity is limited. When the neighborhood is finally becoming a place for all walks of life, the gentrifying demographic slowly starts pushing into the majority of that once minority neighborhood and thats when I start to have a problem with gentrification. Neighborhoods shouldn’t have to be afraid of new development but they also shouldn’t be trying to avoid it either or else that might continue segregation between neighborhoods.