Reading Response 10/17

It was refreshing to take a look at international examples of gentrification from Tokyo and Paris to Mexico City and Johannesburg. It makes sense that gentrification occurs everywhere, but the ways in which it effects other cities around the world is not something I regularly think about. Especially with the different types of government around the world, each scenario is slightly different. However, what remains constant from city to city is the type of lifestyle that gentrifiers intend to carry with them.

In Gentrification in Johannesburg Isn’t Good News For Everyone, Kenichi Serino paints a picture of two drastically different ways of life in Maboneng. Lavish, hip, new restaurants are contrasted against the shack for a family of three who use recycled items to patch up their home and hold up their single mattress. The authors word choice of “inner city” was a unsettling. This word is extremely loaded. Its usage connotes a series of stereotypes and places a stigma on so called “inner cities.” For instance Serino says, “The inner city dramatically degraded, with neglected buildings, fewer services and rampant crime.” Rather than continuing to spruce of the rest of the city, the question is where is the aid to upkeep the inner cities, and how is the city making them a safer space?

Masami Ito’s article, Heart of darkness: Nostalgic Tokyo disappearing amid construction boom, sadly depicts how government intervention is tearing apart an area of the city with a thriving sense of community. This is a key problem in the surge of gentrification within major cities. One idea that struck a cord with me is how neighborhoods with character are being turned into anonymous skyscrapers. How can we as humans who are so in touch with our emotions, loose our sense of character and community? It’s quite baffling to say the least.