What happens is that people who are forced
to live in a neighborhood because it's cheap are packed in like
sardines get forced out by the rising rents, and the people moving in
aren't so packed in.
Isabel,
I've seen this packing too. It's one of the realities for the poor.
Sometimes in family situations its fine, other times it creates very
unhealthy environments.
In the Brook book, The Trap..., he discusses the phenomena of college grads
living at home to save.. For some lower paying but important jobs like
teaching or social work this strategy may be the only strategy that allows
the young middle class college grad to do this important work.
Here is an example of a trap or the real choices people face. I experienced
this first hand.
I was doing a research project at a university based drug treatment program
in the mid 1990's.. The clinic had a good director and staff although the
salaries were painfully low. They did good work together.
At the time, a revolution in health care was occurring as a large percentage
of the pie was allocated to the insurance industry. First one counselor
then almost the entire clinic resigned. They had taken jobs with the
insurance industry at nearly twice their previous salaries. These fine
people with whom I worked had to make that choice. A year at a local
college was much higher than their salaries doing good work in the
community.
The clinic suffered tremendous problems as a consequence of this loss of
good people. Ironically, those counselors probably got jobs at a cubicle
denying people the care they knew they needed. But the salary difference is
important when it's 20,000 or 40,000. This isn't CEO millions.
These aspects of gentrification and the shrinking middle class are too often
shrugged off. Well, you asked what I thought so you got it.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Isabel Lugo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Glenn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2007 2:16 PM
Subject: Re: [UC] Melani's quote of the day
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that it depends on how you define
"University City" and "population". For example, a very small
definition of UC that's bounded by, say, 30th, 40th, Market, and
Spruce would certainly see population rising because of all the new
construction taking place in that area.
Also, gentrification actually *lowers* the population in some cases.
Jane Jacobs wrote about this -- I think it was in _The Life and Death
of Great American Cities_. What happens is that people who are forced
to live in a neighborhood because it's cheap are packed in like
sardines get forced out by the rising rents, and the people moving in
aren't so packed in. For example, I live alone, in a one-bedroom
apartment that's maybe 350 square feet; when I was looking for this
place, at one point I came across an apartment that's very similar to
the one I live in now that was housing a family of four -- mother,
father, and two small children. And I suspect that counting the
number of "households", instead of the number of people, is fraught
with problems in this neighborhood because so many people live in
non-family arrangements that are prone to breaking up and recombining
much more often than traditional families do.
And $50 million to build 150 apartments? That's a third of a million
each, which as the article states is what a house costs.
Finally, you keep hearing things about how Philadelphia is "coming
back" in the national media -- but Philadelphia's population is only
70% of its historic peak (2,071,605 in the 1950 census; 1,448,394 in
last year's census bureau estimates) and declining (by about 10,000 a
year, according to those same estimates). What does one make of this?
Isabel
Isabel
On 7/28/07, Glenn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On today's front page of the Inq., there is one of thos stories of a Penn
real estate love in. You've read this crap many times, so I won't bore
you
with details. It was a newsmercial about Penn and campus apartment with
50
million dollar kisses, etc, etc.
But then I spotted the news quote of the day from my good friend and UCD
spokeswoman, Melani. About the love in, Melani says:
""The population of University City has never been nearly as high as it
is
now," said Melani Lamond, an associate broker..."
Well, "never been nearly as high as it is now." Man, I heard it was a
drug
infested wasteland around here, but what all is going on at these Penn
real
estate love-ins?
Mel, if I start behaving myself can I get into one of these parties and
check that stuff out???? I used to do research about this stuff.
Thanks and say hi to the gang at UCD for me,
Glenn
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