Houses in the Old Fourth Ward, one of Atlanta’s most gentrified areas
Gentrification Pressure Zones of Atlanta
Ponce City Market in the Old Fourth Ward
The hard truth about gentrification
Houses in the Old Fourth Ward, one of Atlanta’s most gentrified areas
Gentrification Pressure Zones of Atlanta
Ponce City Market in the Old Fourth Ward
The hard truth about gentrification
Welcome back everyone! I hope you all have enjoyed hearing what I had to say about gentrification in Atlanta and in general. I would also like to note that this will be my last post on this blog. I have enjoyed writing this blog and speaking on an issue that is important to me. Thank you all so much for tuning in.
In my previous post, I talked about the impact gentrification has on communities of color and how it affects Black residents of gentrified/gentrifying neighborhoods. In summary, when Black residents are made to move due to gentrification, they oftentimes won’t be able to find adequate housing, and if they do, the neighborhood will be worse for wear compared to their previous one.
Now, I want my final post to be a hopeful one. I am not one for doom and gloom in my personal life, and even when I have my moments, I always try to think positively about things, look for the silver lining and all that. While this is a pressing issue that I have strong feelings about, I wish to leave you all informed and maybe optimistic about the future regarding neighborhoods, which brings me to this question: how can you fight or resist gentrification?
Firstly, it isn’t something that one person can accomplish by themselves. This is something that involves people with hefty salaries and the means to accomplish their goals and see their plans brought to fruition, corporations looking to capitalize on luxury housing, and completely transform communities to make profit.
Wow. When I put it like that, it sounds like something you would expect to see in a Saturday morning superhero cartoon.
Though this is a complex issue, all hope is not lost.
The greatest threat to gentrification is the very thing it aims to destroy, community. That song “The People in Your Neighborhood” from Sesame Street comes to mind. The people who comprise these communities can take a stand against gentrification. Voicing opposition to it is the first step. According to an annotated bibliography detailing how to fight gentrification in Rainier Beach, one of the themes of the research they compiled was the community unifying in opposition to gentrification. They are the ones it will affect; them coming together to voice their resistance to this.
The fight is being fought right here in Atlanta!
Members of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, Georgia, an organization that fights gentrification. Courtesy Kamau Frankin
An article by Mariette Williams from Business Insider talks about efforts to combat gentrification in Atlanta and how residents can band together to stop it. The article brings up Atlanta’s past of getting rid of public housing which opens the door for areas in Atlanta to be developed. “Most of the people who were able to get a Section 8 voucher moved to other, lower-economic pockets of the city, and the majority of people did not get these vouchers and no data has emerged as to where they went,” says King Williams, director of the 2015 documentary “The Atlanta Way” which tells the story of this phenomenon. He is also
there was one point from this article that stood out to me, and I definitely think it could be implemented as a means of fighting gentrification. it comes from Shirah Dedman whose 2018 documentary “You a Nomad” looks at gentrification in Oakland, California. She proposes that there be a tax on vacant properties. A vacancy tax went into effect in 2019 with vacant properties being taxed $3000-$6000. But I thought about how here in Atlanta I have seen so many apartment complexes and buildings like old warehouses that stand unoccupied. I wonder what if they could be converted into houses. Imagine how that would benefit the unhoused in the city. Studies show that it’s a lot cheaper to give the unhoused homes as opposed to services that provide a temporary fix to their lack of a home.
As far as other ways to fight, I would say simply amplify your voice. Educate those around you about what is going on and how it will affect them. Let them know that there are ways to fight this, ways to stop Black residents from being pushed out of their homes. Banding together to change hearts and minds is how change is made. Tell your local leaders, city councils, etc. Use your voice. Speak up! We should ensure fair, affordable housing for all. In my opinion, that is the key to making a community thrive, not solely artisanal coffee shops, upscale restaurants, and yoga studios.
I do not know how future Atlanta will look. I must admit that the areas which are and already gentrified add beauty and color and vibrancy to the people. Yet I cannot help but wonder at what cost did these new apartment complexes come? There must be a way to increase property value without destroying an already established community. Time will tell if Atlanta can maintain a balance between what is and what is to come.
Gentrification: Atlanta’s Displacement Game – Atlanta Tribune
Welcome back everyone! I hope you all have been keeping busy while I’ve been away. I apologize for my absence. I have been pretty busy as of late. But nonetheless, welcome back to my blog!
In my last entry I talked about the areas in Atlanta that are the most gentrified like Kirkwood, Edgewood, Old Fourth Ward, and East Atlanta. I also discussed some of the terminology of gentrification such as “late stage”, “dynamic stage”, and “susceptible stage”. In today’s post, I want to talk about an issue that is the most pressing regarding gentrification.
When a neighborhood starts gentrifying and the prices of property increase, residents currently living in that are often faced with a choice. Either stay and try to make more money to meet the demands of the changing neighborhood or be pushed out and move somewhere else. A lot of the time the residents facing these choices are people of color.
In a study conducted by Standford University in 2020, assistant professor of sociology Jackelyn Hwang was quoted as saying, “poor residents moving from historically Black gentrifying neighborhoods tend to move to poorer non-gentrifying neighborhoods within the city, while residents moving from other gentrifying neighborhoods tend to move to wealthier neighborhoods in the city and in the suburbs”. As more and more neighborhoods get gentrified, poor people have limited options when it comes to finding new places to live. Hwang also stated that white people still have a better chance of finding alternative places to live after relocating even if they willingly chose to move.
An article by Jacquelynn Kerubo of The New York Times talks about some of the pressures and stresses that come with being a Black homeowner trying to sell your home in a neighborhood that is gentrifying around you. The focus of the story is one Mr. Thomas Holley, a retired bus operator who has lived in Crown Heights for more than 5 decades. The introductory paragraph notes how he wishes to sell his brownstone — hopefully to a Black owner — and live out the rest of his days in a condo in Florida but that because gentrification raises property value, that dream may not come to fruition.
Thomas Holley has lived in his home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn for 58 years. He would ideally like to sell it to another Black homeowner, but knows that when he puts it on the market, that may not be possible. Credit…Douglas Segars for The New York Times
An excerpt from the article states, “Mr. Holley has made peace with the fact that his home likely won’t sell to a Black person, but he feels sad and a little guilty. ‘Once Black people move out, it’s hard for them to get back into the neighborhood because the gentrification completely prices them out’.”
So not only does gentrification force Black people to potentially sell their homes, but it also makes it to where if they decide to come back, they likely won’t be able to because the cost has become astronomically high. This will then force them to move to other poorer areas.
The end of that article ends on a bit of a hopeful note, as Mr. Holley that ultimately, “All I can do is make sure that there’s a place for Black people, for my family, and it’s a healthy and thriving neighborhood.”
I’d say that’s all anyone wants for themselves, their family, and their communities.
Welcome back readers! I hope you all have been well since we last spoke. Make sure you’re taking care of yourselves.
In my last post I gave a rundown of what gentrification is and when it began here in Atlanta with the inclusion of the beginning sites of it in the city: Virginia Highland and Inman Park. In this post I will go more in depth into the areas of Atlanta that are the most gentrified.
I would like to point out first that in this 11Alive article from 2019, Atlanta is considered the “fourth-fastest gentrifying city in the country”. It highlights Old Fourth Ward and the West End as having changed dramatically due to gentrification, though the article later goes on to describe the West End as “late stage”. That means that an area is not fully gentrified but is well on its way and could be considered fully gentrified soon. It’s also worth noting here some of the terms used to mark the stages of gentrification. There is late stage which I just covered. The “dynamic stage” describes areas that are highly likely to become gentrified, then there’s “susceptible stage” which, as the name suggests, means the area is under medium to low pressure of becoming gentrified.
An article by Tee Johnson from AtlantaFi.com on offers a more detailed list of Atlanta neighborhoods that are currently gentrifying or are at great risk of becoming gentrified. Areas in the late stage include the previously mentioned Old Fourth Ward, along with Kirkwood, Edgewood, and East Atlanta. Some areas in the dynamic stage include Bankhead, Fort McPherson, the aforementioned West End, and West Lake. On a related tangent, I have family in the Kirkwood neighborhood and the house they live in is in stark contrast to most of the surrounding houses on their street. It is easy to tell that their house is a remnant of the time in which it was built while other houses are of a more modern architectural style. But I am comforted knowing that the owner of that house (it may have been my great-uncle, I must ask my grandmother again) made it so where he nor anyone who lives in his house would have to move. The neighborhood could be totally unrecognizable in the next 10-15 years, but that house might very well still be there.
In the next post I will be discussing how gentrification affects POC and low-income/working class communities and neighborhoods here in Atlanta.
Sites and Readings Referenced in This Post
Johnson, Tee. “Where Are Atlanta’s Most Gentrified Areas?” AtlantaFi.Com, 26 June 2023, atlantafi.com/atlanta-gentrified-neighborhoods/.
Where is Atlanta gentrifying? | 11alive.com
Upon first glance, the changing of Atlanta by way of gentrification seems like it’s new. With the amount of fancy apartments and retail stores constantly popping up in and around the city, one would think that this is a current phenomenon. However, Atlanta has been experiencing this for decades.
Now before I get into that, I’d like to explain what gentrification is. Yes, we all have more or less seen examples of it, but what exactly is gentrification? Merriam-Webster defines gentrification as “a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.” This revitalizes communities and typically increases economic activity in the area, but if you intend to continue living in an area that is being or already has been gentrified, it would be helpful if you had a hefty salary.
Recall how I said that gentrification in Atlanta isn’t as new as we might think? According to an article from Atlanta Civic Circle, the gentrification in Atlanta began back in the 70s with the creation of Midtown and the neighborhoods of Inman Park and Virginia Highland. Now if you have ever visited any of these areas, you are no doubt familiar with the upscale look and feel of all of them. Midtown is an arts and cultural hub with the Woodruff Arts Center being a popular destination for natives and out of towners alike. It is also home to Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community. Inman Park and Virginia Highland offers high end boutiques, local shops, and diverse eateries that add to Atlanta’s vibrant, eclectic character. (I highly recommend checking out all three if you can at some point.)
Another factor contributing to the city’s increase in gentrification is the decrease in public housing. This has been going on for 15 years.
On a side note (though I feel it may go hand in hand with what I’ll be talking about here), I was stunned when my mother informed me of this several years ago. Even before I was living in Downtown Atlanta while at school, my heart would ache whenever I saw people living on the street. I wonder if anyone was looking for them, if they had eaten that day. I’d take in the state of their clothes and just wonder why is it that we would allow something like this to happen? When my mom told me that the city of Atlanta had gotten rid of homeless shelters, I was shocked.
In my next post, I’ll look at the most gentrified areas of Atlanta and why the current era of gentrification (remember, this has been going on since the 70s) in Atlanta is so unique.
Articles Referenced in this Post
Lartey, Jamiles. “Nowhere for People to Go: Who Will Survive the Gentrification of Atlanta? .” The Guardian, 23 Oct. 2018.
Williams, King. “What Makes This Era of Atlanta’s Gentrification Different?” Atlanta Civic Circle, 3 Mar. 2022, atlantaciviccircle.org/2022/03/03/what-makes-this-era-of-atlantas-gentrification-different-%EF%BF%BC/.
Hello world! My name is Amaya Jones, and this is my blog. Aside from Tumblr, this is my first official blog. This is exciting, though I am a bit nervous, but I am ready to embark on this journey. Here’s a little about me. I am 23 years old and from Atlanta, Georgia. I am currently studying toward my Bachelor’s in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Georgia State University. I am a Taurus who enjoys reading, writing, listening to music, chilling at home, taking the occasional afternoon nap, and spending time with my friends, family, and my boyfriend.
With this blog, I will be talking about gentrification in and around the city of Atlanta and the social and economic effects of it. I hope to touch on how gentrification particularly affects communities of color, both positively and negatively. I am excited to start generating some posts for you all and I hope you’ll tune in.
Much love!
Sincerely,
Amaya Jones 🙂
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