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The topic of this post is gentrification. A reader had sent an email to the TNC (The New Colonist) Pittsburgh email group asserting that I was a proponent of gentrification. That's been a hot button topic in urban situations for some time. It's also a hard one to get a handle on.

First, you can't stop a neighborhood from changing. It either gets better or falls apart.

We'd all like neighborhoods to be cheap and cool forever, but that's not reality anywhere. (Name one that has been cheap and cool for more than a decade or so!) Urban neighborhoods stay cheap and cool for a while until the houses start falling down or the crime rises beyond the tolerable level for most people. Or in the other direction, it becomes unaffordable, or at least living in a big space becomes unaffordable so we'd have to change our lifestyle to live there. Sometimes people move into an urban area in the second half of a "gentrification" process and then scream that they don't want gentrification, which really means "more gentrification," ie "post me" gentrification.

Originally the focus of preservation, the Mexican War Streets neighborhood for instance has been in a slow general upswing since the 1970s. Like other North City neighborhoods it would seem now (and now is not the first time) the neighborhood could become really popular really fast.

This is not only the result of people coming in and gentrifying the place. It's a result of changing demographics, high gas prices, longer working hours and other factors that are making urban neighborhoods more attractive. Since the movement started with preservation, preservation is also to "blame" for gentrification. Preservation costs money and so naturally, barring subsidies, leads to some degree of gentrification. If that process had not begun in the 1970s, it's likely much of the War Streets would have been demolished as the buildings would have deteriorated to a point of being unsafe.

This process is not exclusive to urban neighborhoods either. Many suburbs today are faced with "monster houses" being built where small post-war homes used to stand.

Urban areas are unique in their potential to preserve diversity and bring together people from a variety of backgrounds, economic levels and interests. In fact, many urban neighborhoods consist of primarily wealthy minorities and working class whites. Even if an area reaches the highest level of "gentrification" (think Shadyside), there are still a mix of races and incomes because there are apartments of all sizes, condos and small houses (sometimes alley houses) mixed in with the larger townhomes. (so if you've recently moved into an urban area and want gentrification to stop, make sure you work to save the small alley houses rather than make parking places. Developing apartments and condos in addition to single-family homes can also help.

This issue came up back in the late '90s when I started "the New Colonist" with Rick Risemberg. "New Colonist" represents a return to urbanism from suburban-style
living. City living is good because:

1. It's healthier (walking)
2. Economic integration is good
3. It's easier on the planet
4. It has a unique ability to foster diverse, virbrant neighborhoods.