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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Happily Gentrifying Since 2014': Denver Coffee Shop Sign Sparks Outrage
An American coffee shop chain apologized Wednesday for a sidewalk sign, which displayed a message that appeared to celebrate the gentrification of a historically black neighborhood.
The sandwich board read: Happily Gentrifying The Neighborhood Since 2014. On the other side it stated: Nothing Says Gentrification Like Being Able To Order A Cortado.
Social media users were quick to react with outrage to the board advertising ink! Coffee situated in Denver, Colorado. The store in question is located in the Five Points neighborhood, which was once known as the "Harlem of the West" and has been traditionally home to artists and people of color. The neighborhod has been evolving steadily and becoming white and middle-to-upper-class, due to gentrification.
There have been numerous calls for customers to boycott the store and the company, which has 16 shops across the capital city and Aspen.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/happily-gentrifying-since-2014-denver-coffee-shop-sign-sparks-outrage/ar-BBFzgjh?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=edgsp
Beakybird
(3,334 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,502 posts)denbot
(9,901 posts)Beartracks
(12,841 posts)... Dudes: Bad call.
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Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)So its not that their customers care if they are causing gentrification, its just that they dont want to speak of it or be reminded of it.
AlexSFCA
(6,139 posts)I unequivocally support gentrification and improvement of neighborhoods without any reservations. This isnt some left or right issue. I love seeing how neighborhoods improve, crime reduces, lives saved. As a victim of crime occurred in a high crime neighborhood, I am so releived to be witnessing how much it has improved over the years. Young peple are willing to move to cities like Detroit reshaping its future. Those small businesses that further gentrification are heroes of our times.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)People come in who can live across historical racial boundaries. Never a bad thing.
melman
(7,681 posts)And when exactly does that happen?
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)But in most cases it is haphazard.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Who can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood once the rents go up.
TheBlackAdder
(28,262 posts).
As the populations in a town matures, there is a push to keep taxes low, that causes many of the schools to stop being leading edge because schools eat up so much of the local tax dollar. While they are still in the Top 15-20%, many wealthier families move to posher towns with "the best" in education.
These towns have a reputation of being unaffordable, but when one looks closely at the real estate listings, these former top notch towns are just resting on their laurels. The property values decline or fall flat, poorer people don't think they can buy into those towns, but in reality, the home listings are just 10% above listings in poor communities. The older town residents push for cheaper taxes, after they've enjoyed pushing their kids through the school system, then they are met with a double-edged sword. Cheaper taxes, most often leads to devalued home values, as the township infrastructure slowly tarnishes, and that leads to an influx of lower-income people and slowly changing neighborhoods. Those same older white people are now complaining how the towns have changed demographically. You can't have it both ways.
Years back, I advertised this to residents of Camden, NJ, for a while, in a bid to diversify some of the white enclave towns in Southern NJ--including my own.
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kcr
(15,329 posts)The term doesn't mean improving crime rates. It's a term for the rising markets caused by white affluent people moving in and displacing poor people who can no longer afford to live in their neighborhood due to the rising rents.
Judi Lynn
(160,684 posts)'Happily gentrifying since 2014': Denver coffee shop sign sparks fury
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/23/denver-coffee-shop-sign-gentrification-ink-five-points
oberliner
(58,724 posts)2. Local businesses suffer as large competitors start opening shops in what were previously undesired locales.
3. People of color are criminalized because new people feel in danger.
4. New developments are profit-driven and not community-driven.
5. Childrens education suffers.
6. Culture shifts, and communities lose their safety net.
7. Public health of residents suffers.
https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/gentrification-communities-of-color/
1. Wealthier is by no means wealthy. For many young people, buying property in ungentrified neighborhood is the only affordable option.
2. Quality groceries are finally available in previously underserved neighborhoods. Competition is good. Stagnation is bad.
3. Unless they commit crime, they are not criminalized. It is insane to assume that people of color = criminals. Oakland is increibly diverse community with lots of affleunt and middle class black people. Same goes for Atlanta. Its not just white people who are moving in, also asians, blacks, hispanics, etc. Folks who themselves are being priced out from more expensive areas like SF. This is a healthy economic developemnt that allows economic mobility vs. stagnation (always bad). And for the record, white folks who choose to move in to historically black neighborhoods are the opposite of racist.
4. Last time I checked, we live in capitalist system so majority of developments are, of course, for profit. But number of units are also often allocated to below market prices, community centers and library branches and non-profit orga open up.
5. Schools improve not suffer, higher ecutated people move in, property taxes are up also
6. Culture diversifies, yes it changes and thanks God it des. Change IS good!
7. if anything public health should be improving with gentrification.
Lastly, you are ignoring long term home owners in those areas. They are suddenly seeing their property values increase dramatically which opens up so many opportunities for them, including a healthy retirement.
Nothing is black and white, always good or always bad but gentrification is one of the ways of human development in a capitalist society like ours.
kcr
(15,329 posts)Nothing matters as long as profits are made, right?
Skittles
(153,317 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)But most often, I don't hear proposed solutions. Surely we don't want formalized ghettos. And we DO want economic development, right? Surely there is way to build mixed-income communities.