Current Events > What is wrong with gentrification?

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benjjjamin posted...

As values rise, property taxes on homeowners rises.

Except, no, not really. Nearly every state has restrictions on the allowable increase in both the increase in assessed value that is allowed AND at the maximum tax rate on property. So you're right, but the upside is that they're taxed at a much, much lower rate than the value of their investment (i.e., their house).

benjjjamin posted...

Meanwhile, real estate lobby has gotten the city to change their rental laws, so that homeowners can't rent their homes to hipsters, or have to jump through undue hoops to do so, giving them two choices for most people: stay or leave.
The lower economic homeowners leave.

also not really

Residents themselves are typically the ones who want to reduce the incidence of rental housing and fight things like ADUs and multifamily developments. You've seen here in this topic, with people saying a problem with gentrification is that it changes the "character" of the neighborhood by putting in apartments. These are usually very old laws, too.

http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/09/the-complicated-link-between-gentrification-and-displacement/404161/
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/11/the-closest-look-yet-at-gentrification-and-displacement/413356/
http://cityobservatory.org/truthiness-in-gentrification-reporting/

Like I said, it is not a perfectly rosey picture for sure. But the general finding would be that gentrification is good for property owners, and that it doesn't do much to displace current residents -- there is a marginal increase in outmigration, but some of this is because homeowners can sell their now valuable property and move some where else they would prefer. The main way it changes demographics is by changing who is moving in.

It IS harder for renters, and therefore extremely low income people are marginalized by it, but the question really is what's the alternative. Most neighborhoods that aren't gentrifying in cities are no better for the ELI than gentrifying ones, because housing costs are unreasonably high for a lot of reasons even without gentrification occurring
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booboy posted...

Also, in Tulsa, the only job growth is in retail or medical sectors.

If you aren't passionate about one of those two, Tulsa, and more broadly speaking Oklahoma, is a job desert.

You don't need to be passionate about those two. The only thing you need is to not want to die. Remember, no one is too good to work a job they don't like.
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