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03-17-2006, 06:50 PM
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Is SP being "Gentrified" or are low wage earners moving out?
Are key zips in SP being gentrified, the loose term for all renovation, or are low wage earners simply moving out?
The newsletter from Rep. Harold James suggests the latter. Maryland, it states, became the 18th state to increase the minimum wage above the federal $5.15 an hour. It points out that PA is surrounded on three sides by states with higher minimum wages, one of two states in the entire NE corridor that still have the federal minimum. People just have to move one state over, find the same job they were doing, and enjoy a significant increase in wages. Why would anyone stay behind to earn $11K? So is SP "suffering" from "gentrification" or are low wage earners/entry level people voting with their feet? It suggests that the brouhaha to "prevent" sheriff sales of property that may even be simply abandoned does not take into account what is really happening in Philly and PA econonomically. 
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03-17-2006, 09:16 PM
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It's being gentrified. The areas we are all talking about suffered a serious downturn in the 80s and early 90s. Now contractors and land owners (read speculators) are turning every burned out shell and empty lot they can buy into 400K+ homes to sell to the middleclass. Some long time folks in the area (mostly lower middle class) are also deciding to call the realtors that constantly leave their business cards in doors to sell of their houses. The only people that can afford these new houses are either dual income couples or the upper middle class. That is almost the dictionary definition of gentrification.
I have noticed that many of the original residents are staying so I don't think gentrification is happening at an amazing rate, but it is happening.
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03-18-2006, 03:10 PM
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Gentrified
I say "gentrified." To use myself as an example, after 8 years of higher education, and I moved between Oregon and Snyder because the location is outstanding, close to culture in center city, with easy access to the interstate and airport and the sports complex... and also because the people are wonderful, regardless of social class. Especially the long-time residents who know what the 'hood is all about.
I'd not want to be any further than a block or two from Franco and Luigi's amazing spinach stromboli, too.
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03-18-2006, 03:19 PM
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SP is becoming gentrified which causes low income residents to be priced out.
Raising minimum wage is not the answer to this situation or to low income families in general. Some sort of mandatory medical benefits to full-time workers would do alot more to help low-income families. Though either way the only way to keep up with gentrifying areas is earn wages at the same rate as the increase in property values. -UC
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03-18-2006, 03:38 PM
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I actually like the concept that many of the areas that are labeled as "gentrified" are really just undergoing a recovery. Frankly, having a pocket of poverty, abandoned homes, poor schools, and drug dealing located so close the the cosmopolitan center of a Great City, is the sign of a problem...it is a state where something is out of balance...rather then call it "gentrification" i think it might be accurate to call it something else...something more akin to areas healing...
now before people jump down my throat...i don't mean to say that a whole bunch of wealthy, white people moving into a poor black area is a "cure." Rather, I mean taking a poor black area and shaking it up...bringing in wealthy white people, urban pioneers, gays and lesbians, and immigrants. Taking a poor black area and transforming it into a DIVERSE, safe neighborhood where all its residents are deeply invested in it...some may call it gentrification, but i think that is unfair...it is some kind of healing and growth...
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03-18-2006, 06:37 PM
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Quote:
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03-18-2006, 08:19 PM
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Why would it make anyone feel better??? better then what??? There is no guilt attached to ANYTHING concerned with moving into this neighborhood. Perhps I would feel guilty leaving, perhaps...but ethically, we are all primarly reponsible for ourselves and our faimly...if this is the best place for us to be, thats that. Understanding this, and failing to be here...that would make me feel bad...being here, that makes me feel good...
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03-18-2006, 08:42 PM
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Gentrified
Quote:
__________________
Now-a-days, men wear a fool's cap, and call it a liberty cap. Thoreau from Slavery in Massachusetts
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03-19-2006, 02:05 AM
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"Gentrification" is a loaded word. It's better not to use it.
I would say "revitalization" of a neighborhood. It's good to see people fixing up their homes and taking care of the neighborhood and keeping it clean and safe.
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