Bernie Sanders offers 3 ideas to help battle gentrification while in Greenville

[mopinko]

12. this debate has been raging here in chicago for decades. my thoughts-

gentrification is good, imho.
i live in a hood that was regularly described in the local news as "gang infested".
beautiful old buildings were crumbling into disrepair. local icons were the same.
that was 30+ years ago.
now it is the hot hood for flippers lucky enough to get their hands on a building. tons of condos.
high property taxes, and good schools.

now, i live in a hood whose geography, next to lake michigan, a public transport hub, there is only so low it is ever going to go.
housing stock is also such that it tends toward a high percentage of owner v renters.
we are also anchored by a large catholic university.

still, it was pretty sad in many spots when i moved in.


but one bad building by one bad building, in my time here, there has been a ton, and i mean a ton, of money dumped into the housing stock here.
lakefront apartment properties that had been chopped up during the baby boom, then crumbled into crappy "affordable" apts were returned to their former glory and then some.
a small but steady stream of beautiful but rundown big homes w big yards kept local trades people busy, and made a few people rich.

the real estate arm of the pritzker family invested millions. and millions. they did the most amazing rehabs and restructuring of neighborhood gems.
they took an old 6+1 commercial building, kept the outside, but spent $20m turning it into a concert venue and restaurant.
they turned a lot of stately old homes into successful b&b's, including a meticulous restoration and addition on flw's bach house.

i could go on. and on.

and how do the folks in the hood feel?
they just dumped the 6 term alderman, most saying he was "too close to developers."
now, he deserved to be dumped for many, many reasons.
but really, every damn development that needs a zoning change, which requires a public meeting, bring the howling trolls out of the woodwork to scream about gentrification and rent control.
they hate any change. they picket and dig in over the most mundane, decrepit building that comes down.
they are still fuming about a building that came down 20 years ago.
they also despise the university, which stabilized property values about the time i landed here, and helped turn around an historic corridor from flop houses to showpieces.
hard core eat the rich.

a connected fight goes on about tiff districts.
i grant they are widely abused, but they have also wrought a real renaissance.
they turned post industrial wastelands into hoods where you almost have to wait in line for them to take alllllll your money to live there.
they turned a downtown where you scurried to get out before dark to a 24/7 playground.
they built a world class park in the air above train tracks.


all i usually find to say to these people is-
if you dont change, you die.
if we dont share, we starve.
unless you plan to, in fact, eat the rich.