reading response 10/05

I spent a semester in high school learning about War in the 20th Century, and had an entire unit focused on contemporary extraordinary rendition and human rights violations in the Vietnam war. After reading Saki Knafo’s The Atlantic article on gentrification as a human rights issue, I found the juxtaposition of government sponsored torture with rising rents to be a peculiar one.

However, that isn’t to say the concerns and motivations of Right to The City are illegitimate. The displacement of individuals from their homes due to rising rents is a massive issue that cannot be left ignored. I strongly agree with the organization’s core argument that all people, including the disenfranchised, have the right to remain in their homes and shape the political and cultural landscapes of their communities. In the status quo, gentrification is a complicated concept, with both impressive benefits and socioeconomically detrimental costs. If it takes the classification of gentrification as a human rights issue to enact any form of effective change to address the costs, them I can find validity in the messages of Right to The City. Knafo draws parallels to discourse about gentrification from the Occupy movement and BLM. Unfortunately, the trend seems to be that we often have to make things drastic and turn them into life or death scenarios to capture the attention of the greater public due to the constant dismissal of marginalized voices. Until an issue becomes impossible to ignore, then the privileged will continue to ignore it, and if it requires the villainization of those reaping the benefits of gentrification, then so be it.

Even with the potential alternative of a Co-Living community like the ones discussed in Lizzie Widdicombe’s New Yorker article, this lifestyle is still most likely unattainable, and impractical, for those displaced by gentrification. If anything, it seems like something that would benefit those on the cusps of proliferating it’s effects. This program is targeted towards millennial, when what we need are programs that target low income residents, but unfortunately, the need for immediate capital has vastly outweighed any potential for addressing those unable to keep up with this “creative class” of the younger generation who can still afford comfortable living in the city.