today i happened to be driving over on alberta street, you know, the new Alberta Arts district? i get thrown for a loop everytime i go over there now. it used to be (not that many years ago, pre-gentrification) that all you'd see was black faces.
so it's kinda weird to see so many white faces at the bus stops, walking, and sitting out at the restaurants without a scared look on their face. but then, why should they be scared anymore-most of the so-called scary black people are gone.
10 years ago you probably couldn't pay a white person to hang out over there, let alone live in that neighborhood. now they claim it like it's gold. but, what's new when it comes to people with money (thus power). when they find something they like, they take it over, to hell with anyone else.
11 comments:
I like in the one area of Chicago that is actually diverse. I don't mind a reasonable priced condo popping up here and there but I am afraid that severe gentrification will take over. I like seeing faces of all different colors and cars of all different economic statuses. I hope it lasts. I hate when people just decide to take over neighborhoods because they can. Remember in the 80s and 90s when whites fled cities. That time is over, they want them back.
I enjoy your blogs a lot, but why does race have to be brought into this one? Just because white people have begun to hang out in a certain place doesn't mean that they're trying to take it over. Not all white people have money. They're just going where they want to, regardless of what skin color dominates that area.
A friend of mine bought a house near Alberta about 10 years ago. He did not have much money at the time and had to work at patching up the bullet holes, sanding and painting, and cleaning up the yard. He sold it last year and made a ton. He used to say his house made more money than he did. Meaning property values were going up faster than he could earn wages. I guess it takes money to make money.
White people got tired of driving to Gresham and Hillsboro to live, so they took back neighobrhoods that were long ago all white. Consequently, housing values have skyrocketed in the Alberta neighborhood, so much so that many Blacks who were renting houses found themselves having to move out. A house that sold for $27,000 in 1988 and then $80,000 in 1994 recently sold for $280,000 in 2007. Blacks will find they are being moved into the tiny box apartments on MLK to stay in the area.
White flight is a continous process. Every 10-15 years white people will move into the city and take over or move out in a mass group when "others" began to move in. I see this in Atlanta and I just SMH because I see alot of young blacks with money moving into the city as well. Soon the whites will be selling their condos and houses and headed back to the burbs.
As my granny use to say, they are going to fall off the earth running from black people.
"They are going to fall of the earth running from black people' is the funniest thing I have heard in a long time. I really like it.
i came across this blog entry as i was searching some info on alberta...but back to the topic at hand, I started working as an intern at the black united fund on alberta & it still throws me off a little to see people who look like they were cut and pasted there from NW 23rd or something. and though i was born and raised in north portland, i pretty much missed how alberta all of a sudden started to boom with white hippie-like people. I'm not saying that it's a completely bad thing altogether, i'm sure there's a plus side to it all, but what you said about Alberta 10 years ago and Alberta now struck a chord with me. it seems strange because in my mind it all happened overnight...I can't quite remember how Alberta underwent this "extreme makeover."
^
and i just realized that my link was wrong in that previous comment...
I like Alberta a lot more now than ever before. Many people feel this way but don't vocalize it for fear of being labeled as a gentrifier. I don't care what color your skin is, as long as you are a peaceful, contributing member of the community working to make it a better place. In my opinion Alberta lost a majority of its bad element, replaced by people who are drawn to the funky, ethinically mixed feel of the area and providing positive input. Whether it be in schools and parent involvement (Sabin "most improved school") or planting trees and getting involved in the CNA. And yes people who have money are attracted here and are the main reason we have nice restaurants and stores instead of boarded up buildings with spray paint on them and places for gang activity to flourish.
i dont like the alberta street gentrification,i dont think its right that when the neighborhood is a dominately black neighborhood its scary,its a bad place but to some people its home,its a way of life whether its right or wrong its just the way it is,and its not right for developers and all these little rich weird hippies to move in and fix everything cause its "dangerous,a bad neighborhood," who cares what those people think they dont live her its not theyrs to change but now that its changed its theyr "alberta arts district" but no in all reality alberta's the strip and its always gonna be the strip no matter how many of you weird bastards move in
i was born in portland. moving back to portland in 1990 i could not believe how north east portland had become a place of boarded up, abandoned buildings with no or little pedistrain traffic on the street. people i talked with, black and white would not think of walking down the streets of killingsworth, alberta, or mlk. after dark the streets would be empty, left to illegal trades and happenings. the police ignored the area unless called. if a landlord wanted help with any drug problem they were told that some one was working on it and to wait. i know people who waited for years. as long as the crime was contained within the area it was over looked. ask many of the residents that lived in the area from the 1970's on. ask them if they would think gentrifcation is a bad thing. ask them if now that they can sell there house and be able to buy in another area, ask them if going to the bank to get a home equity loan to fix, repair, improve their house is a welcome thing. i feel that people who are always talking about gentrification have never lived in a nieghborhood where they could not leave their house after dark and would have to have burglary bars installed as a matter of fact. if people think that whites have taken over the north east then work to get other than white to move in. work to maintain your house so that your family would not sell it because they do not want to live in a house like that but want a new house in the burbs. work to buy a house in stead of a car or clothes or big screen tvs or any thing else that does not get you a house. work on keeping the family house in the family. these are just some thoughts. chair
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