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“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?
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
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.
Mathias 2 years ago
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.
Nikki Sevven 2 years ago
This doesn't apply to New England, in my experience. Here, the towns that have "quirky coffee shops" are nearly always college towns. We have hundreds of colleges and universities in New England. (Fun fact: In the US, "college" means the school only offers a Bachelor's degree; "university" means that post-graduate degrees are also offered.)
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#2
once the Whole Foods comes up, it's already too late
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago (edited)
My goodness, you've completely missed the point. It's not because it's a grocery store, it's because of the company, Whole Foods.
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#3
They remove the homeless camps and check cashing stores leave
ConstantlyJon 2 years ago
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.
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
Yes, that's why this list is about something negative. Like gentrification.
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Ima Manimal 2 years ago
The poor are treated like trash. Human beings. Not cool.
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Kokomo Rose 2 years ago
I lived as homeless, working a full time job. It can happen to good people. Just because i had a job, doeant mean i could afford move in costs. So detroying their camps wont help anything.
Load More Replies...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.
#4
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.
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
Isn't the point of the list to point to those things that you see in the very beginning?
#5
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.
David Paterson 2 years ago
"an economically depressed area in commuter distance to major employers". Yep. That's the number one sign.
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
I think we are not all clear on the definition of "gentrification".
Tinykame 2 years ago
I too live in Charleston, SC. The entire city has been gentrified and and families have lost the houses that have belonged to them for generations. It's extremely sad. We don't have reliable public transportation and we flood constantly. Large homeless population, low wages, expensive housing. Something needs to change. Btw industry isn't moving to Charleston, it's moving two the two counties next to us but people want to live in Charleston for clout and commute an hour or more in each direction. We aren't getting more jobs, just more wetlands paved to build more apartments and million dollar houses. Our roads can't handle the traffic as it is.
#6
People running or jogging, especially during the weekday mornings.
Invisigoth (xe/xem) 2 years ago
this is normal in my neighborhood, it's the middle of suburbia and there are two pretty nice parks
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.”
#7
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.
digitalin 2 years ago
The subtext here isn't "white is better; let's move here." It's more because a lot of lower-income, predominantly minority communities are assumed to have higher crime rates. Many white women are taught from a young age to be scared of those areas, especially at night, alone, in expensive clothes, with headphones on so they can't hear. We are taught that this paints a target on our backs for mugging, rape, or murder. It isn't necessarily true, but its a common cultural assumption ingrained from an early age. The presence of this woman doesn't mean "white people are moving in, it's worth it now", it's that the perception of the neighborhood, from a demographic that is new to the neighborhood and concerned about safety, is that it's much safer than it used to be. It doesn't mean that white people are safer, but that the assumptions about the neighborhood are.
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#8
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.
Anon822209 2 years ago
It is, but then again, gentrification has quite a bit to do with socioeconomics, and historically, white people have had most of the socioeconomic power. That's slooooooowly starting to change, and I hope it continues, but for now it's still a thing.
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Captain McSmoot 2 years ago
You're right. White people don't deserve to live anywhere they want. SMH.
#9
Check cashing stores get replaced by dispensaries
A Very Bored Panda 2 years ago
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.
Scott J 2 years ago (edited)
Yep. I live in North Carolina where it is "illegal", but you can go to a store and get some decent legal stuff.
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#10
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.
RedCorvette 2 years ago
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.
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
They did this in the little city I was living in at the time. These were developers from California. I live in Washington state. They built new apartment buildings and charged way over the going rates for rent. They also bought apartment building that were already there, kicked everyone out to renovate, then raised the rates way over the previous amounts. Then they opened Section 8 and held a lottery as to who would get the vouchers. Only 300 people would be selected - by basically pulling applications out of a hat. If you got a voucher, you had 6 months to find a landlord to accept it. If you couldn't find a landlord to accept it in 6 months, you had to give your voucher up. Yeah, a lot of people had to give up their vouchers. Then the city wonders why it's dealing with such a terrible homeless population.
digitalin 2 years ago
This is tough, because I'm some cases, those "expensive" renovations are necessary. I had a friend who had very cheap rent because her landlord didn't spend money on anything. She had a huge hole in her ceiling, half the apartment had no electricity, and the toilet had regular issues flushing properly. Keeping rent low by maintaining substandard living environment isn't the answer, either.
#11
Rent going up 300% over the course of a decade.
Roman Spruce 2 years ago
And then it's going to be rinse, repeat, start over. Once the working class and even lower side of the middle class can't keep up a comfortable life anymore then most of the shops are going to be hurting for business. Rich people don't shop at targets, or whole foods, or the little sporting goods shops and small businesses. Average Americans do, which means if those average citizens can no longer afford to live there those shops that close down too.
#12
Mass buying of local properties by real estate investors, while pricing out local buyers.
Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies 2 years ago
I get a postcard about every two weeks that some company wants to buy my house.
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
I get letters wanting to buy my property. After buying it and putting in a septic system, a driveway, water, and electric, I was offered $10,000. I practically hurt myself laughing.
Load More Replies... #13
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.
Abner_Mality 2 years ago
Remember kids, Aioli is just a fancy pants way to spell "mayonnaise" and charge more...
#14
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
walkabout 2 years ago
Nothing wrong with cyclists using the entire travel lane either.
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René Sauer 2 years ago
I definitively prefer thought out murals over some random sprayed on junk.
Sherri Harvey 2 years ago
I think this person is thinking of Austin Texas. We literally have a building we call the Lego building.
Jojo_hobkin 2 years ago
Bike lane that take up a whole lane is good planning, since it allow for two or more bike side by side.
Captain McSmoot 2 years ago
This all sounds clean, useful, and great. In a different list article, you would have just described why people love Europe.
#15
micro breweries and communal marketplaces, martinez just got one downtown, gonna be unaffordable soon
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
"Crafted" suggests more care is taken.
Load More Replies... Cammy Mack 2 years ago
High quality micros over the disgusting, worthless macros is ALWAYS a win, whatever the assumed reason.
#16
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
Sue From Michigan 2 years ago
Gay people moving in is the biggest sign your house value is about to go up, this is just a fact.
wowbagger 2 years ago
They aren't bad. They're just a sign of gentrification. Most joggers are people with desk jobs who have enough leisure time to jog; they also have to feel like the streets are safe and pleasant enough to jog on or they'll go to the gym instead. You're not going to see a lot of joggers in high crime areas, or in places where everyone's working physically demanding jobs.
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#17
I saw a dude out walking his cat. I know that was the beginning of the end.
#18
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.
DREW JONES 2 years ago
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?
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
Not by itself, but it suggests, unfortunately, that lower-income people do not co-mingle with the new people.
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#19
vegan restaurants and places that sell scotch and grilled cheese with over priced coffee Brewery and crossfit gym
Nichole Harris 2 years ago
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
#20
An influx of Mercedes and Teslas.
#21
A lot of this is spearheaded by property developers/home flippers looking at analytics to find the next neighborhood to invest in.
#22
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.
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
It promotes community and creativity. The coffee house has been a haven for artists and philosophers in many countries for a very long time.
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Casey Payne 2 years ago
Dive bars flourish? You obviously don't know what a dive bar is. It's not trending. It has never trended. Dive bars spring up from the mouldy remnants of yesteryear. It was never born a dive bar. It used to be something... else, but then it became something else, changing again and again until it finally becomes a bar. It then devolved into whatever you are standing in when you find out you are in the wrong place. You don't seek it out, you end up there. There are no signs. No windows. It's never closed. People can still smoke in there because everyone stopped giving a s**t a long, long time ago. That's why it's called a Dive Bar.
Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
I agree with you about dive bars but Where does it say anything about that?
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#23
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.
Lady Miss Pie 2 years ago
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.
OWEN CASH 2 years ago
Exactly. Artists and musicians are one of the first groups displaced by gentrification.
Load More Replies... #24
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.
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago
“Good. Transport bones,” said the hearse salesperson who was still learning English.
#25
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.
Nano Iders 2 years ago
Didn't get that impression.I read that "right" as "as soon as".
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#26
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.
#27
Franchises start replacing local businesses.
DBear 2 years ago
Actually that's a sign the opposite is happening. That means mom and pop businesses are leaving because the once nice neighborhood has deteriorated around them and it is no longer safe to stay there.
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
No, it's the opposite in gentrifying areas--the franchises have bought out all of the mom-and-pops.
Load More Replies... #28
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
#29
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.
The Chronic Insomniac 2 years ago
This is why reading your comment thoroughly, several times minimum before posting, is so important.
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
SODO = South Downtown. He's talking about developers that show up and start naming, well, their developments.
#30
Big demographic shifts. Not just the people of the neighborhood, but the local businesses as well.
What do you think ?
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
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
DBear 2 years ago
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.
Mathias 2 years ago
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... David Paterson 2 years ago
I don't get this whole "gentrified" thing. What is it? Does it equate with low crime rate? My whole country is low crime rate.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
it's when well-off white-collar workers take over a blue-collar or impoverished neighborhood, and make it look pretty, seed it with expensive spas and chain stores, drive up housing costs, and leave it uninhabitable for 98% of the people in the region. It's not improvement. it's profiteering. They drive tons of small loca businesses out, so they can have the same c**p they say they wanted to leave behind in wherever they were before They complain if they can[t get a latte on every corner, and pitch fits if they see anyone less well-off, other than housekeepers. Not that I'm cynical, except that I am. :-)
Load More Replies... Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
I see the renovation of houses before the schmancy stores and restaurants. We've got it here. Million dollar renovation across the street. Little triplex next door. Every few houses one will be beautifully restored. One will be in tatters. We're starting to get gentrified.
Susan De Nimes 2 years ago
Offbeat did a whole song about this. Very funny. https://youtu.be/aDbNkxD738Y
sofacushionfort 2 years ago
I wish, instead of “The American Plan,” we had an American Plan. We went into post-industrialization woth the same yearly crop of high school kids as if there were still factory jobs waiting for them, instead of ever-more limited higher education for them. We kept an underclass on hand so that a supply of cheap labor would be available, when it was long obsolete. It’s happened before: when the Roman Latifundia drove farmers off the land into the city as a dangerous mob, or in 1789 when France was top-heavy with do-nothing elites, or 1989 when the USSR was run by self-serving bureaucrats. John Tuld was right: “we just can’t help ourselves.” We’ll pump nitrogen into the greenhouse to make the flowers swell, but starve the soil of fertilizer.
DBear 2 years ago (edited)
We actually expanded higher education and allowed anyone who could sign a loan application entry into college despite that being their only qualifications. In doing so we diminished the value of a college degree to the point where it is now the equivalent of what a high school diploma was 50 years ago. We've also saddled people with crippling debt they will never be able to repay who will also never get a job within the field the went to school for.
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
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
DBear 2 years ago
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.
Mathias 2 years ago
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... David Paterson 2 years ago
I don't get this whole "gentrified" thing. What is it? Does it equate with low crime rate? My whole country is low crime rate.
Leo Domitrix 2 years ago
it's when well-off white-collar workers take over a blue-collar or impoverished neighborhood, and make it look pretty, seed it with expensive spas and chain stores, drive up housing costs, and leave it uninhabitable for 98% of the people in the region. It's not improvement. it's profiteering. They drive tons of small loca businesses out, so they can have the same c**p they say they wanted to leave behind in wherever they were before They complain if they can[t get a latte on every corner, and pitch fits if they see anyone less well-off, other than housekeepers. Not that I'm cynical, except that I am. :-)
Load More Replies... Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
I see the renovation of houses before the schmancy stores and restaurants. We've got it here. Million dollar renovation across the street. Little triplex next door. Every few houses one will be beautifully restored. One will be in tatters. We're starting to get gentrified.
Susan De Nimes 2 years ago
Offbeat did a whole song about this. Very funny. https://youtu.be/aDbNkxD738Y
sofacushionfort 2 years ago
I wish, instead of “The American Plan,” we had an American Plan. We went into post-industrialization woth the same yearly crop of high school kids as if there were still factory jobs waiting for them, instead of ever-more limited higher education for them. We kept an underclass on hand so that a supply of cheap labor would be available, when it was long obsolete. It’s happened before: when the Roman Latifundia drove farmers off the land into the city as a dangerous mob, or in 1789 when France was top-heavy with do-nothing elites, or 1989 when the USSR was run by self-serving bureaucrats. John Tuld was right: “we just can’t help ourselves.” We’ll pump nitrogen into the greenhouse to make the flowers swell, but starve the soil of fertilizer.
DBear 2 years ago (edited)
We actually expanded higher education and allowed anyone who could sign a loan application entry into college despite that being their only qualifications. In doing so we diminished the value of a college degree to the point where it is now the equivalent of what a high school diploma was 50 years ago. We've also saddled people with crippling debt they will never be able to repay who will also never get a job within the field the went to school for.
Load More Replies...
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