is gentrification the new urban blight?

Thanks to Archinect for this Psychology Today article on the importance of diversity in cities. Today, the conventional wisdom points to the unpredictability and creativity that one finds in cities as essential for network culture. Outsourcing may work, but not for work demanding innovation.

Alas, as I’ve been suggesting for quite some time now, we have a new kind of urban blight emerging in places like New York, San Francisco and Boston. In “The Embers of Gentrification” at New York Magazine  Adam Sternberg suggests that the fires of gentrification may be self-perpetuating, but they may also be self-extinguishing.

image of red hook

Blogged with Flock


Thanks to Archinect for this Psychology Today article on the importance of diversity in cities. Today, the conventional wisdom points to the unpredictability and creativity that one finds in cities as essential for network culture. Outsourcing may work, but not for work demanding innovation.

Alas, as I’ve been suggesting for quite some time now, we have a new kind of urban blight emerging in places like New York, San Francisco and Boston. In “The Embers of Gentrification” at New York Magazine  Adam Sternberg suggests that the fires of gentrification may be self-perpetuating, but they may also be self-extinguishing.

image of red hook

Blogged with Flock

1 thought on “is gentrification the new urban blight?”

  1. Monotone cities
    There is a monotonous, minimalist, managed attitude towards our changing cities.

    It reveals itself in overwhelming stretches of open parkland; the commission of inoffensive, modern, slight landscape design; and a simple emphasis on decluttering the public realm, as though liberating the built environment of noise and accident allows for peace, quiet and a form of invigorating calm.

    This needs to change. Accident, diversity, complexity is what makes cities fun and productive places to be.

    Hopefully with people arguing for diversity we’re entering a moment when planners and designers will be liberated from the burden of the errors of 60s intervention and begin to take a more positive, expressive attitude towards the city.

    One way is to review and promote multilateral approaches to and experiences of the public realm – for instance supporting the creation of new productive landscapes like urban agriculture (see https://tinyurl.com/2x7sww).

    Can the minimalists now please be shown the exit?

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