71–80 of 502 posts
What's the issue with gentrification? We are living in a fast paced world so one needs to adapt to the changes. It could be my neighbor, skill sets, policies, etc.
I'd imagine one's views on gentrification are largely shaped by which side of the gentrification they're on.
Since TX doesn’t have Prop 13, they are going to be annoyed with the tents cluttering their views.
Real estate law has this concept of “Coming to the nuisance” where if you know that there is some kind of “nuisance” nearby and you move next to it anyway, you can’t complain about it later. I’m not a lawyer so I’m probably pedantically wrong about it in some way but that’s my understanding of it. People do this with small local airports all the time. They move in, knowing full well (or should know full well) that th…
There is an asphalt factory 10 miles from where I live, on the access road to a major highway, and in the middle of lots of urban development. The factory has been around since the mid 80s. There is a nearby new housing development with residents complaining about the air pollution (apparently it is really smelly) - and their response is "yeah, we've been here since before you were born, so whatev". It cracked me up.…
At the general level, I doubt anyone is surprised to see this story, and there will likely be more to come as tech flocks to Austin (though it was already a notable tech hub with some of these pressures already before the billionaires decided to give it the seal of approval). To me, the more interesting question here is how does Austin avoid what happened to SF, where tech hollowed out nearly all of its existing cult…
Those traditional black neighborhoods were bought up, demolished and turned into luxury apartments at insane prices. At one point I was on the east side and saw an old black woman rocking on her front porch in front of a 70's shotgun shack, next to an ugly post-modern 2 story house with a lambo and a tesla sitting outside of it. I don't think increasing housing density is the answer. We really don't need more luxury…
This was my first natural instinct maybe 5 years ago, but seeing the differences in gentrification stories has made it clear it's far worse to keep density the same. If nothing in the city changes and rich people decide they want to flock to your city (in this case, tech workers), it's a given that the existing poorer people will be forced out and prices will increase. Measures like rent control only slow the process, holding back a rising tide.
I've seen this personally in my backyard in Brooklyn. What has happened there is that massive luxury towers have been built along a busy street (central to transit but still not "neighborhoody"). While rents have still gone up, it seems this real estate and luxury market has helped stave off the insane hikes SF has seen, for example. Million dollar condos, probably not a good idea. But luxury buildings with high density turn into normal real estate in 20 years, and that top of the market ease keeps a lot of that tech money out of existing minority and poor neighborhoods.
The question for Austin if they accept that is where to put them. Finding a balanced place would be key here IMO.
"Another Weaver resident voiced more generalized criticism, calling the event a 'display of toxic masculinity.'"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good callout, but it's important not to fudge the numbers here. Using this source[0], it seems like the population doubled, not tripled, from 911K to 1.84M. If we use that 10% to 7.5% drop, the city's black residents went from 91K to 138k. Hardly tripled, in fact only a 50% increase compared to over 100% population size increase. So the comparative growth was half as fast. I'd still say thats notable to the article's…
Difficult thing is sometimes you look up a source for a city's population and they will show you the exact population of the city limits and sometimes they will show you the population of the metropolitan area. The article rounded up the actual census data from 9.5% to 10% for the 2000 numbers, but left the 2017 number at 7.5% (fudging with precision). At any rate, if someone moves from East Austin to Del Valle or Ma…
When places are full of white people, minorities are brought in in the name of diversity and it's to be celebrated. When places are full of minorities and whites move in, it's gentrification and we need to write articles lamenting it. Cultural mixing happens both ways. Sometimes inclusion means changing long standing traditions.
Have there been any natural experiments where less-wealthy white folk were priced out by more-wealthy non-white? I think the driver of gentrification is economic class not race/ethnicity. Wealthier and whiter show up together but may not be the same thing.
At the general level, I doubt anyone is surprised to see this story, and there will likely be more to come as tech flocks to Austin (though it was already a notable tech hub with some of these pressures already before the billionaires decided to give it the seal of approval). To me, the more interesting question here is how does Austin avoid what happened to SF, where tech hollowed out nearly all of its existing cult…
Those traditional black neighborhoods were bought up, demolished and turned into luxury apartments at insane prices. At one point I was on the east side and saw an old black woman rocking on her front porch in front of a 70's shotgun shack, next to an ugly post-modern 2 story house with a lambo and a tesla sitting outside of it. I don't think increasing housing density is the answer. We really don't need more luxury…