Writings on gentrification
October 23, 2012 7:33 AM   Subscribe

What are the best articles and books on the complications of urban gentrification? What about the relationship of artists and bohemians to this process?

I am gathering nuanced texts on urban gentrification. Right now, I'm digging through academic sources from anthropology, cultural geography, urban studies, sociology, and the like.

High-protein journalism and popular press would be definitely welcome as well. I'm interested in both gentrification as a phenomenon in general, and more specifically the role of artists in this process.
posted by umbĂș to Society & Culture (12 answers total) 28 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade In The Lives of Three American Families by J. Anthony Lukas is a classic. Not too much in there about artists though.
posted by shushufindi at 7:40 AM on October 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


Here's a blog on that very topic including a documentary.

I should add, the initial project was just about the artists, but took on a new life as the peak tagging area began to rapidly develop.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:42 AM on October 23, 2012


Seconding the Lukas book. Fabulous.
posted by jgirl at 7:44 AM on October 23, 2012


Best answer: I feel like I recommend this a lot, but here's an ethnography of the gentrification of Wicker Park, which is now ground zero for hipster culture in Chicago: Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City.
posted by artemisia at 8:03 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City. Awful title, great book.
posted by enn at 8:03 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I've heard good things about Sarah Schulman's The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination.
posted by reren at 8:17 AM on October 23, 2012


Best answer: You should check out There Goes the 'Hood.
posted by occidental at 8:58 AM on October 23, 2012


Sarah Schulman's The Gentrification of the Mind is good. It's more of a memoir than a sociology text, and it really details the experience of artists and queers in relation to gentrification. A lot of it is about how AIDS tore through 'bohemia' in NYC and created an opportunity for gentrification (because the tenants of rent-controlled units were dying).
posted by sevenyearlurk at 10:24 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Neil Smith's The New Urban Frontier.
posted by avocet at 12:15 PM on October 23, 2012


Came in here to recommend the Schulman book...
posted by hydatius at 3:53 PM on October 23, 2012


this piece just ran in the NYT about the founder of zappos trying to revitalize (and as a result probably gentrify in the future) downtown vegas.
posted by nanhey at 6:02 PM on October 23, 2012


Response by poster: Thanks, all!
posted by umbĂș at 9:25 AM on October 24, 2012


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