Uhh they get to park their car, probably closer to where they need to be, instead of driving around for an hour looking for a parking space, or having to walk a few minutes to where they need to go.

In terms of gentrification issues, its usually the rich that benefit of the displacement of the poor or working class. And to suggest the poor and working class are “less than” because they don’t want to leave their homes or suggest uprooting one’s life is a simple thing when they aren’t prepared or don’t WANT or don’t have the means to and the “thats life , too bad”attitude seems uppity and means spirited to me.

I understand this attitude but I can’t take such a hardline on the issue because I feel there are more aspects to it then just telling too bad, sell your house, and go somewhere else and make due.

And the suggestion that people who work for others are less than by the simple fact they work for someone else seems illogical.

You’re both right some of the time, and both completely wrong at others.

The error lies in making flat universal statements based upon gut feelings or a couple of observations.

Amongst millions of people who earn less than get-rich-quick property developers, there are surely many who are eventually priced out of the market.

To suggest this is wrong is probably dishonest. To suggest it is right is probably dishonest. To suggest that it doesn’t ever happen, is demonstrably dishonest.

Finally, to suggest that people just having a job and living their lives is a sign of weakness (for not being greedy/ambitious delete as applicable) is, I feel, wholly wrong.

Not everyone is jealous of rich people. I know rich property developers, and have worked with them. Many of them are enormously jealous and guard their wealth/frinds/status with the narrowed eyes of a dog over a piece of meat.

The thief is always afraid of being robbed.

One of these men has actual hatred of people who ‘just have jobs’ and look after their family working a 45 hr week, content to either buy or rent a modest abode.

He sneers at them for their lack of ambition/ruthlessness. Sees himspef as their superior in every way because he made a lot of money in the finance world.

Now his latest project fell through, he’s turned to hustling two gullible women and a few insurance companies to keep his ego/cashflow afloat. Not once have I known his poorer neighbours (including myself) to be jealous of his considerable wealth.

Angry at his self-focused (im?)moral compass, yes, but jealous? No. He’d sell his own grandmother to be seen in the ‘right’ car.

Yes rich people can very often be huge sh*ts, it often goes with the territory. And yes, very often, poor people can be just as sh*tty.

But there is an enormous spectrum inbetween. You know, people? To politicize and polarize over such a wide-ranging issue just makes no sense at all.

It’s arguably the spaces in between the stereotypes where the great majority live.

I guess judging ‘them’ all to be (insert lazy or dumb) or (insert greedy or aggressive) makes us feel so much better about ourselves? So while it is said above that ‘it is always in season to hate rich people’. Let us not forget that it is laways in season to hate poor people. Or gay people. Or black people. or white people.

The victim game is played so often that those who are really getting shafted are often ignored amid the din.

Regards,

John

Eminent domain and gentrification are not “basically” the same idea. They are polar opposites. Gentrification is the movement of people through market forces while eminent domain is when your property is forcefully taken by a government entity.

John D has it right, mowing over the poor, elderly , and people just trying to live life, has been the halmark of those whom are wealthy or are trying to seek wealth.

What a crock. Rich people are paying most of the taxes in the country to fund all those nice government services for poor people, the elderly, and folks “just trying to live life” in additioni to the fact that they create jobs. It’s not that rich people actually hurt other people, it’s that other people are jealous of the rich.

It’s always in season to hate rich people.

Like I said before you have this very black/white view of this and I’m more in the gray area because i’m looking at the entire scope of the picture as a person amongst many whom already have been pushed out of one area we could live in by gentrification.

You’re not in the gray area. You just said that you were disgruntled about being forced to move because of gentrification and that you are looking at the situation from the exclusively human aspect instead of the economic aspect. You sound like you have staked out your position pretty clearly if you ask me. We just see things differently and thats ok.

The government kicking people out of their homes is not the same thing as gentrification, and I know that you know that. So why conflate the two other than to be dishonest and cloud the issue?

Basically because its the same idea. Money. The government taking over someones home to be mowed over by a strip mall in a deal with a developer because it will generate money for the developer and for the government is the same as a developer and the city officials supporting that developer in raising property taxes, the cost of living in the area, and ultimately driving out those that can no longer live there, to attract people with money, to build more expensive properties and put in place more expensive businesses to make money.
The human aspect is missing.

John D has it right, mowing over the poor, elderly , and people just trying to live life, has been the halmark of those whom are wealthy or are trying to seek wealth.

Like I said before you have this very black/white view of this and I’m more in the gray area because i’m looking at the entire scope of the picture as a person amongst many whom already have been pushed out of one area we could live in by gentrification.

haha, you got that right.

Zakia, better get used to that dollar sign, because there’s nothing more energising for the Market than kicking the poor to the floor. It might not stop them whining, but it sure as hell makes a profit.

Your right, we do live in a capitalistic society and I am a staunch supporter of capitalism.

The problem with your stance is that it’s irrational. Doing something solely because you have always done it is not a rational reason. Living somewhere because that is the only place you have always lived is not a rational reason to continue to live there.

Everyone is not a heart surgeon and cannot afford to live the lifestyle of a heart surgeon.

True. Somebody is gonna be a CEO and somebody is gonna be a janitor. Your solution is to lower the lifestyle standars of the CEO and artificially inflate the lifestyle stardards of the janitor, which is unfair to the CEO.

It is not “whining” when your being pushed out of your ‘home’ by people only concerned about dollar signs. Some of these people are human beings I would think.

I know that these people are human beings which is why I know that they are adaptive to change and can make new homes and new lives elsewhere when they can no longer stay in the family home due to economic reasons.

I guess your believe its alright for the government to kick people out of their houses, have their lives uprooted so someone can build a strip mall on their land?

I hate when people guess instead of just asking the question. Perhaps part of your problem is that you do too much guessing and using your emotions to look at an economic system instead of using logic.

The government kicking people out of their homes is not the same thing as gentrification, and I know that you know that. So why conflate the two other than to be dishonest and cloud the issue?

I guess your a product of this countries capitalist ideals. Its not the point of “whining” about expensive housing. Its about someone who has built their lives somewhere being told by people like you that all that doesn’t matter and the dollar bill does. Everyone is not a heart surgeon and cannot afford to live the lifestyle of a heart surgeon. It is not “whining” when your being pushed out of your ‘home’ by people only concerned about dollar signs. Some of these people are human beings I would think.

I guess your believe its alright for the government to kick people out of their houses, have their lives uprooted so someone can build a strip mall on their land?

I guess I just have a different more humane and more gray view of such things.

Jan – But I think the attitude displayed above like SmartBlackWoman’s is that of “Too Bad for you” And thats why people find themselves in these types of situations because the human aspect of the situation isn’t really cared about. I guess we live in a dog eat dog society.

Nobody said you or your family would be lazy or ignorant. But the bottom line is that don’t have a right to live in an area that you cannot afford to live in. The black people living in the area don’t have to sell if they don’t want to. If they have been living in a house for 30 years and they can afford to stay there then great! If they have been living in a house for 30 years and they can no longer afford the property taxes then they can either lose their homes or they can move. You don’t have a right to stay somewhere just because that’s where you have always stayed.

Where is this “somewhere else”the land of poor people pushed out of their homes?

The “somewhere else” is in a neighborhood that they can afford, namely a smaller neighborhood in the south suburbs or the south side of Chicago farther from the lakefront.

A house in the Bronx is valued about 300,000 average? and thats a decent house. Same decent house anywhere else in New York(Queens, Brooklyn, manhattan, New Jersey,Westchers, and lower connecticut is 500,000. Where is my HUGE profit?

In your rush to respond you didn’t even critically read my post. First of all the location I was referring to was in Chicago. Second of all, there are homes all over the country-nice homes in nice neighborhoods-that are priced in the $100,000-$200,000 range. My home is in that range and we live in nice neighborhood in a home that has a full-basement, two-stories, and I can walk to the public tranportation system.

Furthermore, if you can’t afford to live in those areas that you named then the solution is to move somewhere else. I know that idea that you can’t always have what you want when you want it is pretty novel, but it’s the way life goes. If you want to live in a $500,000 home then you need to be making the kind of money where you can afford one.

My job is in manhattan, so if I sold above house I’d probably only be able to get something comparable in Pennsylvania, 3-4 hour commute away. If I was elderly or on fixed income how would that even work with out me being pushed out my state and away from my family?

Who said life was full of easy decisions? You take all factors in consideration and solve your own problems, not whine about how expensive the houses are in area you can’t afford to live in.

People are flooding out of high tax states because they can no longer afford the tax burden. this problem is FAR larger than gentrification. Add to that the millions that have fled from their homes over concerns about crime and those who have had their homes taken through eminent domain, and it becomes obvious that the American Dream is on shaky ground.

1. Why should they HAVE to move if they don’t want to? My home has been in my family for 4 generations and I’d really be offended if someone implied that because rich people are moving in and we wouldn’t be brought out from a place we raised generations of family, that we were somehow lazy, ignorant, black people.

2. Where is this “somewhere else”the land of poor people pushed out of their homes?

3. A house in the Bronx is valued about 300,000 average? and thats a decent house. Same decent house anywhere else in New York(Queens, Brooklyn, manhattan, New Jersey,Westchers, and lower connecticut is 500,000. Where is my HUGE profit? My job is in manhattan, so if I sold above house I’d probably only be able to get something comparable in Pennsylvania, 3-4 hour commute away. If I was elderly or on fixed income how would that even work with out me being pushed out my state and away from my family?