Inequity In The Bay Area Essay

The documentary San Francisco 2.0 examines how San Francisco city officials have given tax breaks to the Silicon Valley tech industry to move to San Francisco. These new techs companies have brought in a lot of wealth to the city, but at a cost. The majority of the low-income natives are being evicted or having their rents raised so high that they can't afford them. The gentrification of the city has impacted low-income districts (for example, the mission district known for its Latin immigrants) that the residents and the culture are being displaced. I believe the documentary is important for the study of the issue of gentrification because San Fransisco was known for being-counter culture, caring for the arts and for civil progress. The housing

For example, many cities that are rich in culture, diversity, and vitality are beacons for white people interested in the “upcoming scene.” This brings more and more whites who displace and marginalize the original residents through increasing prices. Cities such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco all have neighborhoods that originally had mostly poor, uneducated African Americans, and now are swelling with young, educated whites that have greatly increased the price of living. In Boston, Charlestown, Jamaica Plains, and Beacon Hill have all experienced intense characteristics of gentrification from the 1970s up until the present, showcasing an increase in the population with at least a bachelor’s degree, as well as a large increase in new and renovated buildings. In New York, the most famous example of gentrification is in Harlem, has undergone a process of gentrification after becoming known as the national, and even international symbol for black culture with a vibrancy that is not seen in the suburbs. Finally, in San Francisco, in the bay area, there has been a massive influx of affluent companies that have completely devastated the middle class due to a high rise in wealthy, educated, employees. These employees have taken residence up in the bay area, causing the entirety of the already previously gentrified neighborhood to skyrocket to unobtainable prices, even for the

Gentrification has greatly changed the face of Oakland so far in the 21st century. New shops and people are moving in at record numbers, greatly increasing the median income of the city; however, many long-term residents are being evicted due to increasing property values and rent prices. Many are also outraged at the loss of Oakland’s strong cultural roots, but at the same time, in low income areas, crime rates have greatly reduced and academic performance has increased. This begs the question: In what ways has gentrification positively and negatively affected Oakland so far in the 21st century?

In San Francisco, around 48% of the Latino communities are involuntarily moving out of the city because they can no longer afford living in their neighborhood. This is due to the increase of something called gentrification. Gentrification is when buildings renovated to create more urban looking neighborhoods by wealthy people, which lead to a mass influx of a more affluent society. The purpose of this research paper is to explain the reasons why gentrification occurs and answer the question: How is the gentrification of San Francisco diminishing the culture of other races and how is it affecting the minorities of the city?

Through analysing the documentary “Boom: The Sound of Eviction” demonstrating the gentrification that has occurred in San Francisco we can examine a trend that has been occurring in the socio-spatial dialect. At the beginning of the film families were interviewed who were living in the community of Mission, typically inhabited by the working class but also artists who were not white. With the increase of technology (“dot.comers”), there was an increase of job opportunities and income for the select few that were able to take advantage of a fast growing industry increasing the gap between them and the working class. However at the end of the film we see that the “dot-comers” economy failed, 80% of the businesses shutting down rapidly increasing unemployment rates. However before it failed the individuals prospering took full advantage, “cleaning up” neighborhoods as white people move in, evicting others who had resided there their entire lives simply because they could pay a

In “New Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice,” Don Mitchell incorporates old ideas from Peirce F. Lewis’s original “Axioms for Reading the Landscape.” At the same time, Mitchell includes new ideas into his axioms. In Axiom 1, he explains that “the landscape is not produced through ‘our unwitting autobiography’ (as Lewis describes it), but as an act of (social, not individual) will” (2007, 34). He also stresses the idea that landscape should be produced as a commodity. In contrast, Neil Smith explains the main causes behind gentrification. Smith explains how gentrification happens through a process which he calls “rent gap” (1979, 545). In gentrification, the landscape is a commodity because it loses and gains monetary value through disinvestment and investment.

Introduction- The East Bay area is an economically diverse community with many satisfactory and unsatisfactory aspects. Each city had its differences and distinctions in people, settings, and cleanliness. As the bus left the station and went around the corner I could tell that we were in a low poverty city. With loose trash and debris in front of houses and apartment buildings, the area looked torn down and not very visual pleasing. Already familiar with the city of Emeryville I knew to expect a more upscale location. With plenty of name brand stores, and new apartment complexes, it was obvious this city was clean and very different from the previous location. As the bus

Many inner cities within the United States are comprised of people living in poverty and many of these people are people of color. One of the largest and poorest neighborhoods in the United States is the South Bronx. The South Bronx is extensively racially segregated and the plights that the residents face are horrendous (Kozol, 1995, p. 3). It is conservative belief that the people of color that inhabit the deteriorating inner cities of the US remain in such dire conditions is attributable to their own individual choices, lifestyle, and culture. This belief that the persistence of racial inequalities is attributable to individual lifestyle cannot explain the continuance of inequality once these individuals acquire the education and skills

Change is inevitable under any circumstance, and San Francisco County (SFC), which consists of only the city itself, has seen some major changes in the area of income. Over the past four decades, the Bay Area censuses have calculated the per capita income and median family income which have both only increased in San Francisco (SF). This rise in income is usually a positive sign of a growing middle class, but in SFC, it is a sign of growing income inequality. While the entire Bay Area economy booms, the wealth being generated in SFC is landing in the hands of a select group of elites, widening the gap between the rich and the poor and making the middle class smaller. The SF government has even tried to appease this by raising the minimum wage to create a more liveable income for those residing at the bottom. But even with a raise in the minimum wage in SFC, income inequality continues to grow between the rich and poor as the rich continue to experience exponential economic gain, and the middle class continues to decrease in size.

According to Juliana Lee , since 1998 the prices of bay area homes have been increasing at a tremendous rate. In the 94022 zip code, up until the economic breakdowns of 2001 and 2008, prices had steadily grown from median-average prices of around $800,000 to over $2,000,000, then the recession happened and the market experienced a negative plummet in the prices to about $1,500,000 per home. (Lee) This left an opportunity open for investors who had survived through the recession as prices were then very deflated. The statistics show that people had realized this, and took full advantage of the situation, for during the years from 2008 to 2012, the average house was sold for 4% below the asking price. And from 2012 on, the average house was sold for 7%-11% over the asking price. What this simple fact demonstrates is that the suffering people go through during national economic downfalls is a prime opportunity for people who money and confidence to invest in housing and turn over a massive profit. This is the reason as to why people believe the saturated housing market in the bay area is actually beneficial. The second piece of evidence, which connects with the idea of density from a different perspective, comes from Gabriel Metcalf who speaks to the point of having an easier commute and access to housing in the urban areas, “Cities need to change their zoning and their planning processes to make it really easy

Adding to the inequalities and misfortunes within communities of color, gentrification has taken the Bay Area by a storm. Gentrification is the purchasing of deteriorated urban homes and areas, then the renovation by higher-end and middle class communities. An abundance of high-end people rush into the Bay Area and purchase up the real estate. Incoming middle and higher class take the Bay Area real estate and revitalise it into up-and-coming neighborhoods, then increase rent prices. Therefore, reducing affordable housing for communities of color. Therefore, this revitalization is changing the character of communities because the Bay Area may appear nicer, the communities of color are unable to afford the standard of living. Communities of

“I took a trip to Oakland, California and fell in love with the area. We stayed at an Air B&B for the three days of our stay and the house was absolutely beautiful, it looked like my dream home. Despite all the glitz and glamour around us we noticed a large amount of homelessness compared to Columbus. We found out that this property is not someone’s home but a house used strictly as an Air B&B. When you hear something like that and see the amount of homelessness it makes you wonder how many of these homes are strictly for show? So after researching I found out, the reason for the rampant homelessness can be attributed to large increases in rent. Even worse, the cause for the increase is due to Silicon Valley” (Kasongo, 2017). Unfortunately, rent increasing virtually overnight is the reality of many low-income families. This situation is called gentrification and is felt throughout the world, from the Midwest, East coast or even Western Europe, no region is immune to this process. Gentrification in the Midwest is extensive and wide causing the displacement of many low-income minority residents which can lead to even bigger issues.

Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.

Utopia. The idea of a society that has a perfect social, political, economic, and legal system is a popular one. Fiction writers love to explore the possibility of Utopian worlds and have been doing so for a long time. Some famous literary works exploring Utopian worlds are 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Hunger Games series of books by Suzanne Collins, and Island and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. These books usually feature a story where the hero uncovers an ugly truth or reality about the society. They then set about to expose the truth and generate change. This usually results in the partial or total destruction of the society.

In the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard there are many different themes that can be gleaned from the playoff of Hamlet. One of the main themes is the concept of fate. Fate, as defined by Random House Dictionary, is: something that unavoidably befalls a person (Fate). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern constantly deal with fate. It seems that they do not quite understand what this is. When discussing who dies with the Players Guildenstern asks, “Who decides?” to which the Player replies promptly, “Decides? It is written” (80). The player appears surprised that Guildenstern does not already comprehend that death, and the life before it is not something that is decided by