“By The Time You Start Seeing It, It’s Already Happened”: 31 People Reveal The First Signs Of Gentrification
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and one man’s progress can be another man’s downfall. Gentrification can benefit some people, but for others, it can be a life-changing calamity that forces them to uproot from neighborhoods they may have lived in for generations. Some people on Reddit have shared signs of what to look for when neighborhoods start gentrifying, and some of them have even highlighted why some of these changes can be so problematic.
Have you seen any of these signs in your neighborhood? Also – perhaps more importantly – would you consider yourself a beneficiary or a victim of these changes?
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The FIRST sign is the first quirky coffee shop that isn't a Starbucks. See one of those, and grab you some real estate, because the bougies are coming, and they're bringing stupid housing prices with them.
Uhm that very much depends on the part of the world you life in, here a Starbucks would be the sign that it's getting gentrified because no sane people would buy coffee there, they prefer their local places of crazy artistic people with all that fancy ideas that don't get them rich but make it a great place to be in. And support them not wanting evil foreign corporations to take over their part of the city. Big Brands coming in is the beginning of the end.
once the Whole Foods comes up, it's already too late
They remove the homeless camps and check cashing stores leave
Alright, well, we're just gonna cover up these ridiculous takes then. FYI: removing homeless camps often means relocating them to a different place, not actually helping the homeless get homes. Gentrification doesn't actually help the poor, it helps people not see the poor by pushing them away.
As rent and housing prices rise in the US, gentrification can move hand-in-hand to make many places more unaffordable for large groups of Americans. As neighborhoods gentrify, rents, taxes and cost of living increase, forcing out lower-income residents.
I think by the time you start seeing it, it's already happened. Displacement and rent increases are mostly invisible (comparatively). By the time the new condos and bougie shops sprout up, it's because it's already past the tipping point.
Gentrification isn't random. It's an ongoing process. I live in Charleston, South Carolina. We've experienced significant growth in my lifetime. We've gotten to the point where building new neighborhoods further out is an increasingly less viable option. Add to this, large employers moving into North Charleston, and you have a recipe for gentrification. This isn't because someone bought an old gas station and turned it into an art gallery. It's because people need a place to live, and industry is growing in our city. Those art galleries and taco shops are responding to the same economic conditions that the developers are. They see an economically depressed area in commuter distance to major employers.
"an economically depressed area in commuter distance to major employers". Yep. That's the number one sign.
People running or jogging, especially during the weekday mornings.
According to governing.com, gentrification is increasing in the US. “Nearly 20 percent of neighborhoods with lower incomes and home values have experienced gentrification since 2000, compared to only 9 percent during the 1990s.”
I tell this story all the time. years ago, I was driving down Telegraph near the Fox Theater with my wife at about 2am. While at a stoplight, we saw a white woman jog out of one of the very dark streets onto Telegraph with headphones on, workout gear, etc. We looked at each other and without a word realized what the other was thinking. We bought a house the next month.
White people. I have Pacific Islander friend he was jumping for joy the other day because he saw white people jogging in his neighborhood. His house is about to double in value.
Check cashing stores get replaced by dispensaries
OMG. There are so many dispensaries and liquor stores where I live. It's getting insane. There's also a lot of car washes for some reason.
If you follow your local newspapers and you start reading about apartments being sold and the new owners wanting to renovate is a sign. This type of action by the new owner will usually come with mass eviction notices. Especially, if they are rent controlled and support certain demographics like senior citizens or those who are lower income. Then when the reno is complete, new owner jacks the rent up ensuring old tenants can't ever come back. Sending displaced tenant away like a ripple effect to the next cheapest block or city. Then the neighboring apartment buildings say, well the apartments next door are charging the new amount, so should I, then the next wave starts, w/out the renovations. The cycle continues. Demand in the new area for newly displaced or gentrified population will then be focused on by the last corporate apartments buyers to do it all again, until we all live in a van down by the river.
That’s what happened nearby in our area. The developers displaced huge swaths of low income families and built condos and townhouses. I still think about those families whenever I drive by to the area.
Mass buying of local properties by real estate investors, while pricing out local buyers.
I get a postcard about every two weeks that some company wants to buy my house.
The 'artisan' restaurants that make a classic food (burger, taco, etc.) and make them 25 dollars because of their premium 'aiolis' or other fancy ingredients. They're usually decorated with a graphic of the parts of a cow or pig.
Dispensaries, graffiti replaced with murals, coffee shops and breweries, bike lanes that take up a whole lane as well as other questionable planning, and tons of condos that look like legos
micro breweries and communal marketplaces, martinez just got one downtown, gonna be unaffordable soon
Old buildings/apt complexes start randomly 'catching on fire'
More joggers in the area
Gay couples moving in
More houses getting renovated
City projects to 'improve' the streets or public transportation
Gay people moving in is the biggest sign your house value is about to go up, this is just a fact.
At some point, an organic grocery store opens up. The crime rate goes down over time. Home prices/rents go up quickly. More coffee shops and breweries.
And the gentry gets what it pays for. And the non-gentry home owners pay more in property taxes, which incites them to move, but where the hell are they gonna move to?
vegan restaurants and places that sell scotch and grilled cheese with over priced coffee Brewery and crossfit gym
The scotch ain't a give away..... My cheap liquor store in a shady neighborhood has REALLY good Scotch.... Locked up obvs but it's there
An influx of Mercedes and Teslas.
A lot of this is spearheaded by property developers/home flippers looking at analytics to find the next neighborhood to invest in.
You know a place is being gentrified when a lot more artists move in. Artists first go somewhere for cheap prices and then make it 'interesting' to richer people. We then — usually accidentally — attract monied people who want to either be associated with us or exploit us, and then, the dive bars flourish. Then, you start seeing artisanal coffee spots. From there, you give it five years.
If an area is headed for gentrification, people who don’t have children start moving in. Artists, musicians, writers. College students. Restaurants, especially trendy restaurants. Galleries and music venues. Bookstores. Coffee houses. All the kinds of places young hipsters like. Housing stock that is neglected but can be restored. Young people living in a cooperative.
No that’s not true—in my experience gentrification caused the area to be so expensive artists & musicians couldn’t afford to live there (Brooklyn, The Village, parts of DC, etc,)….it’s wealthy people with families moving in that was our big clue.
Recovering planner here.
In the background, people look for parcels that are worth more than the improvements. If there are a lot of them in an area - especially an area with amenities and good transport bones, it is a good candidate.
“Good. Transport bones,” said the hearse salesperson who was still learning English.
I've worked in Civic Center SF since 2003, so I've seen its evolution for the past 19 years. This place went from a total wasteland to one of the most busiest locations in the City. The first thing they did right when Twitter moved in? They started razing all the cheap hole in the wall restaurants and parking lots for shiny new apartment buildings.
Basically expect any old ma and pa businesses and parking lots to be the first to go.
I experienced this in Atlanta through the full process. I moved into a neighborhood that was mostly elderly residents who have probably lived there 20+ years. The house I bought needed repair, but this was in 2011, so the price was manageable. The first sign of things changing was an increase in racist judgemental posts on Nextdoor that were like, 'Sketchy AA male acting weird and walking in the street.' When I moved in, my neighbors were extremely friendly and let us know some of the characters in the area, like 'Watch out for the guy who tries to get you to drive him to Auto Zone then try to scam you for cash-type stuff. Then a new development went up down the street (my street was half in a nice city zone and half in the incorporated county). This is what really started the process. Another development went up a year or so later.
Look at transit changes - road changes, public transit changes, etc.
Look at plans for new parks that didn’t exist prior.
Look at permits for major developments - house redevelopments, new condos, etc.
San Francisco has a map of permits, both at application level and approved level
One thing that has stood out is a new trendy name that has come out of nowhere. We live in 'insert name,' and it’s been called that forever. Uhhh, no it hasn’t!. Exactly! We actually have a new area deemed SODO. I asked someone once about all of the names, and I almost lost it and laughed in their face. They asked how would you know where to go if you had to meet someone somewhere or go to their house. I held it together, but I’m sure my face gave it away. I don’t even think I responded to that.
Big demographic shifts. Not just the people of the neighborhood, but the local businesses as well.
I'd like to say that if you see most of these: The area is already gentrified. It's too late. You have to start protesting the moment developers buy crappy properties and start renovating them. B/c it's not for who already lives in that town/neighborhood. Where I live, we watch out for those m-fers. They've driven out a lot of people hoping to land retirees with fat accoutns who want a mountain view. Then the retirees want all their usual big box stores. There goes farmland. And soon the retirees or whoever gentrified your area hate it b/c it's *just like the one they left right down to the high housing costs*... So, like locusts, they move and start over. IMHO
Written by someone who obviously has never seen first-hand what happens when "affordable" housing is put into a middle-class neighborhood. It's especially devastating for people who worked hard to lift themselves out of poverty and move to better, safer surroundings to find themselves thrust right back into what they thought they had left behind. My parents struggled for years to be able to afford to move out of the projects only to have the city place one smack dab in the middle of their new neighborhood two years later. They toughed it out for 20 years, watching the streets, the school, parks and everything else deteriorate around them before they finally gave up and moved. That was the best decision they ever made.
Thanks for sharing. The point you make is 100% valid. Putting poor into middle class areas can't work. Never did never will. However if it's mixed by nature it does work very well. Problem is when then more and more wealthy people push in and that's the way I know it: middle class people moving into mixed areas because of the fancy nightlife and streetlife slowly displacing the people that life there. The existing middle class population takes part in that street life, but the newly coming don't, they just leech of it once in a while enjyoing it but are rather reserved observers of it. If too much of those come they displace the existing population and the whole district becomes boring and dull. With the poor people bing pushed to the city border and the participating middle class people staying it can't repeat itself and the city lost a lot of it's attraction. That's Berlin in a nutshell btw.
Load More Replies... Except for rent going up and local mom&pop going out of business, every single one of these examples is a good thing. Most importantly, the crime rate goes way down
And regular/poor people being priced out of their neighborhood is a good thing to you?
Load More Replies... I'd like to say that if you see most of these: The area is already gentrified. It's too late. You have to start protesting the moment developers buy crappy properties and start renovating them. B/c it's not for who already lives in that town/neighborhood. Where I live, we watch out for those m-fers. They've driven out a lot of people hoping to land retirees with fat accoutns who want a mountain view. Then the retirees want all their usual big box stores. There goes farmland. And soon the retirees or whoever gentrified your area hate it b/c it's *just like the one they left right down to the high housing costs*... So, like locusts, they move and start over. IMHO
Written by someone who obviously has never seen first-hand what happens when "affordable" housing is put into a middle-class neighborhood. It's especially devastating for people who worked hard to lift themselves out of poverty and move to better, safer surroundings to find themselves thrust right back into what they thought they had left behind. My parents struggled for years to be able to afford to move out of the projects only to have the city place one smack dab in the middle of their new neighborhood two years later. They toughed it out for 20 years, watching the streets, the school, parks and everything else deteriorate around them before they finally gave up and moved. That was the best decision they ever made.
Thanks for sharing. The point you make is 100% valid. Putting poor into middle class areas can't work. Never did never will. However if it's mixed by nature it does work very well. Problem is when then more and more wealthy people push in and that's the way I know it: middle class people moving into mixed areas because of the fancy nightlife and streetlife slowly displacing the people that life there. The existing middle class population takes part in that street life, but the newly coming don't, they just leech of it once in a while enjyoing it but are rather reserved observers of it. If too much of those come they displace the existing population and the whole district becomes boring and dull. With the poor people bing pushed to the city border and the participating middle class people staying it can't repeat itself and the city lost a lot of it's attraction. That's Berlin in a nutshell btw.
Load More Replies... Except for rent going up and local mom&pop going out of business, every single one of these examples is a good thing. Most importantly, the crime rate goes way down
And regular/poor people being priced out of their neighborhood is a good thing to you?
Load More Replies...