Effects and Factors influencing Gentrification

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Effects and Factors influencing Gentrification
The practice of denying African American as well as other minority group`s access to better housing either by refusing them the appropriate financial services, through misinformation, racial steering and denial or reality is referred to as Housing Segregation. This practice is not new as Chan puts it in his book "People of Color in the American West" the American government through the financial institution have made it very difficult for the minority groups to gain proper access to houses. This has been the trend since the 1960`s and have had the effect of not allowing the minority groups to choose where they live. The only alternative has been is to live in few neighborhoods that have been built for the minority groups. This has led to a culture of abandonment and redlining which consequently leads to gentrification. This [gentrification] is when a neighborhood has been characterized with a high degree of abandonment that it eventually attracts a flood of investment. The end result is renovation of the neighborhood and a subsequent raise in the property value in the estate. This according to Chan leads to another downward trend whereby the people who lived in these estates before their renovation are forced to move to alternative lower or cheaper housing because they cannot afford the price pegged on the new housing units. Gentrification however, is very categorical. It is not carried out on random basis; in fact it only targets the minority groups in the USA i.e. in neighborhoods that are racially mixed or exclusively in African American societies. Chan posits that gentrification process has been enhanced by the emergence of different social status of the society (Chan, 438). This class change has been the catalyst for the emergence of a lower middle class and a working class. The American work places infused Mexican culture and this ended up having a profound effect on the lives of the Mexicans as it changed their family culture. Additionally, there was a rise in the upper middle class which comprised of Mexican entrepreneurs as well as professionals who had provided drug stores, barber shops, grocery stores as well as furniture stores to the Mexican community. Chan says that these different social classes had their very different views (Chan, 438). The upper middle class for instance were business oriented and therefore focused on ways to help them boost their businesses. The professionals were mainly concerned with better job alternatives and favorable working environment. However, all the different social classes were still under the same umbrella of "el espiritu de le raza" where they still experienced the same problems ranging from deportation, education, health, politics, housing as well as other issues (Chan, 438). The problems affecting the minority did not spare the different classes within the minorities. In fact the upper middle class all the way to the lower class suffered the same problem of racial discrimination. The birth of LULAC was a big step to ensuring that the living standards of the Mexican population was unified under one philosophical goal; to transform Mexicans into Mexican Americans with better education and living standards (Chan, 442). The main aim was to ensure that the future Mexican generation would lead better lives. This change in lifestyle makes the minority groups move to better housing. Unfortunately due to rampant racism, the minorities [however wealthy they might be] are always stereotyped by Whites who associate them to violence. Consequently, the Whites relocate from the neighborhoods citing "comfort" as the underlying factor for their relocation. This leaves the area dominated by minorities, and as expected neglect from the authorities through disinvestment. Eventually dilapidated housing, rising gang and crime activities become the order of the day in these areas. Disinvestment is facilitated by lack of better schools, transportation, garbage collection, poor maintenance of streets and inadequate buildings. From an economic perspective the insights provided by Chan in his book, housing segregation leads to ab...