Urban Gentrification

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Urban Redevelopment and Gentrification in Tucson, Arizona Gentrification is defined by Webster as “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents” (“Gentrification”). Generally, gentrification is seen as a negative term, a process that pushes out low income residents and local businesses for higher end housing and popular national brands such as Starbucks and Walgreens. Communities describe gentrification as the loss of the city’s soul…”it begins with little changes you notice, the local hardware store or shoe repair shop closed down overnight, Laundromats disappear. The people change” (Brown-Saracino, 2017, p. 518). Developers …show more content…
Downtown Tucson was once known as the “center of civic, business, and cultural activity” (“Downtown Rebound”) but in recent decades, has seen serious deterioration of buildings due to vacant buildings and lots. Despite this, there were a few restaurants, bars, and shops that were able to remain open and maintain business during the down years and the area became known for its counter culture and diverse clientele. With the redevelopment of Congress, many of those old haunts beloved by the diverse community were shut down in favor of trendier businesses. While the redevelopment increased the nightlife has increased revenue for the area the new clientele of young professionals and students are pushing out and replacing the previous counter culture community, leaving them feeling …show more content…
During the meeting it was revealed that the redevelopment plan was sprung on residents and merchants, with little to no input or communication with those it would affect. The only meeting developers had in the beginning was to introduce themselves and the plans they already drew up. According to those in the meeting, had this been approached differently and the residents and merchants been included in the conversations and planning stages, they would have been less resistant. While developers may be resistant to this and see it has a roadblock or delay to their plans, including the neighborhoods and merchants that development would affect seems to be a positive compromise, to mitigate hurt feelings and encourage neighborhoods and merchants to feel included and invested in the process. Many of the merchants and residents reluctantly agreed that change is the only constant and they fully expect other areas of the downtown area to go through redevelopment as well. The overall message in the meeting was one of “don’t exclude us from this process” rather than a “don’t
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