Week 12

The way Zukin and Jacobs describe their ideals of anti-gentrification reminds me of Old Bethpage Village Restoration. Old Bethpage Village is a historical preservation located in Old Bethpage, a town on Long Island. Kids and adults can wander around and see houses, stores, farms and schools from the late 1700 and early 1800’s.  People researched the lives of the people who lived in these houses or owned the shops, and give guided tours of the area in period costumes. If you want, you can even attend a mock class in the schoolhouse, lead by a nasty and strict schoolmarm.  It’s quite the experience for a child – you walk away feeling enlightened and educated, believing you really know what life was like for some girl in 1827. But in reality, it’s a farce. That is the issue of Zukin’s idealized city – its’ not going to be the organic, spontaneous, working-class-with-a-little-artsy-fartsy-for-fun neighborhood she wants. It’s going to be a cold, preserved, stagnated version. In another Peopling class, my friends are discussing the idea of “People versus Places”.  When you have people within a place, one is going to define another. You can either have a group defined by a place, or a culture that defines the area. Jacobs and Zukin work on the assumption that its people defines the place – but that the people are not necessary once a place’s definition has been set. As the article points out, they are always sure to make clear that a few sophisticated intellectuals are permitted in the area – which sounds suspiciously like the pioneers of gentrification to me. IF you really wanted to preserve the intent of a neighborhood, you would have to maintain the kind of people who can afford to live there.  So, if you want a lower-middle class neighborhood with artsy people, you need to keep the cost of living there low. Even if that means losing the cute, architecturally interesting, historic buildings.