What are ways to bring about community revitalization in urban areas without gentrification?

Question

I am a resident in Baltimore and I am in interested in ways to spur community development that will not displace or further disenfranchise low income communities. I would like to know what mechanisms have been used to make sure that the benefits of community development are received and preserved among people who have had a long term stake in the community, particularly those of underserved communities. What comunity development techniques or strategies have worked best? what other resources should I look into?

Answer 1

Whatever you do, do it WITH not FOR the low-income people. Facilitate them to discover and then act on their priorities, not your priorities. Use your money and knowledge to help them overcome the obstacles that bureaucracy puts in their way.

Read some of the later chapters of Carl Rogers "On Personal Power" to get a sense of what empowerment and self-empowerment are.

Look into the origins of the Grameen Bank in Bamgladesh and of the "credit unions" in the UK.

Answer 2

The propblem with gentrification is that the overinflated prices of renovated homes in Canton, Federal Hill, Fells Pt and Locust Pt do nothing for the community when they're sitting vacant because some yuppie is trying to make $150k on the back end of the deal. The redevelopment of the waterfront has definitely helped the city but much of the redevelopment ends there.

Johns Hopkins seems to have the right idea by building a huge biotechnology park in the middle of one of the roughest neighborhoods in east Baltimore (Middle East.) Hopefully the park will not only bring professionals into the area but create jobs for the people left in the community. Smart investors already seem to be buying up homes around the area where the park will be, taking $30,000 rowhomes and hopefully converting them into affordable rental homes for employees, as well as homes for sale. Much of this is still in the early stages so its success remains to be determined, its very easy to go over that slippery slope and overinflate prices if the demand is there. First its they're selling for $100k, then $150k, then the sky is the limit. Its going to take a lot of private money as well as some help from the city to redevelopment the worst areas, but I think it can be done while retaining many of the houses in the area maintaining the identity of Baltimore.

The truth is that private money is what really spurs change, because businesses can be remarkably organized and swift moving, alot swifter than the juggernaut that is the City govt. If like-minded community concerned investors get into these areas with economic support (like a biotech park, hospital, etc) and they can resist the urge to become whores and squeeze every last penny out of the deal they can maintain reasonable prices and really fix up areas, block by block. This is already happening in Middle East (though I still fear price gouging.)

I don't think building up is the answer. We tried this in the '60s with New Deal politics. Lexington Terrace was one of the worst projects in Baltimore and it and most other high-rises fell in the 1990's and were replaced by rowhomes. I think redevelopment of rowhomes is the trick, and the pride of home ownership will hopefully maintain the status quo once the areas are revitalized. This may be idealistic, but a strong community makes it alot easier to keep the block nice, rather than just 1 or 2 residents in a block of shells.

Individual speculators and builders built Baltimore up block by block and I think small scale investors can rebuild it block by block. The only question is, how do we responsibly keep these homes within the reach of the residents? Legislation? That is a questions I can't answer. As I said a few times above, its really easy to turn Middle East into Fells Point North.

Answer 3

Efficiency apartments. You can build up...an apartment building that looks really nice, everything works, etc. And rent them at prices people working for minimum wage could afford. But only rent to people with good background checks and who have incomes, so you don't end up with a bunch of criminals that would ruin the community. This is rarely done even though it works very well.