I choose to read Naked City because I am captivated by cities’ authentic looks. Places that still have cobblestone roads and Victorian homes make the place feel historical. Sharon Zukin discusses how the growing desire to keep cities authentic has caused real estate values to go up, which results in the removal of people who cannot afford to live in that area anymore. Sharon Zukin is a professor of sociology who specializes in modern urban life. She teaches at Brooklyn College and at the CUNY graduate center. Sharon Zukin has a PhD from Columbia University in political science and a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College.
In Naked City Zukin examines how the preservation of cities’ authenticity and gentrification have lead to cities being more
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exclusive. In order to validate her opinion she examines six neighborhoods in New York. Williamsburg, Harlem, East Village, Union Square, Red Hook, and the community gardens are all areas with a growing population and a lot historical value. By examining these areas Zukin is able to show the affects gentrification and social evolution have on city. Naked City focuses on the power of authenticity as an urban ideal. Zukin argues against destroying the diversity of urban centers by gentrification, chain store invasion, and upscale redevelopment that makes all places look the same (Rorotoko, Zukin Interview). Gentrification is a trend in urban neighborhoods. It leads to the increase in property values and the displacement of low-income families. Williamsburg’s gritty authenticity and absence of investment by private sector developers or government created an opportunity for new cultures to thrive. The residence of Williamsburg marketed the area as a place for indie music, alternative art, and trendy restaurant cuisine (Zukin 38). Zukin accurately shows how social evolution in Williamsburg resulted in rising house prices and new luxury apartments. Just like Williamsburg, areas like Harlem, East Village, Union Square, Red Hook and the community gardens of New York neighborhoods are exposed to gentrification. Zukin concludes that the recent whitening of Brooklyn, though, has gentrification into working-class black neighborhoods while new immigrants as well as white gentrifiers have made other areas into an ethnic mosaic (61). To support her thesis, Zukin references a lot of movies, books and famous people. Mass media has a huge impact on social evolution. Zukin references the movie Do the Right Thing, which shows the authentic urban life in New York but also shows the tension between insiders and outsiders of a community (55). The authenticity of New York neighborhoods draws in the affluent men and women causing the neighborhoods to change their character.
Sikhulu Shange owned a shop called Record Shake but lost his lease in 2007 due to price increases in property in New York neighborhoods (69). Interviewing people who have been affected by the gentrification of neighborhoods in New York helps support Zukin’s thesis. I believe that by going into the city and talking to the locals and the people who use to live there, Zukin helps illustrate the affects of gentrification from two points of view. It is clear that she uses several primary sources such as blog posts, newspaper articles, city planning documents, and observations to help support her theories. At certain times I do feel like Zukin’s main point gets lost because she focusing too much to detail. She spends a good portion of the book critiquing Jane Jacobs book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Although I think it’s important that Zukin provided a different view on the crisis of authenticity, I felt she focused a little too much on trying to argue against Jane Jacobs. In her conclusion she critiques Jacobs work, saying that Jacobs views are bias (227). Zukin could have made her thesis sound by incorporating visuals to show the roles of changes in demography. Seeing statistics that show the cultural change in New York cities over the past couple of years would definitely make her arguments clearer. She is still able to expose the …show more content…
government’s planning policy as favoring developer interest in order to produce economic growth at the expense of displacing people from their homes. Zukin could have also gone more in depth on the pros and cons of gentrification. She discusses that crime in some areas have decreased and that people have been removed from their homes due to gentrification. Yet, at the end of the book I questioned if it is a bad thing that New York has become gentrified. Yes, I am aware that many people are forced out of their homes because they can’t afford the rising prices of property but does that out way the revenue the city makes with the growing population? Zukin believes that the state should make sure that all the men and women who use the streets have affordable rents so they can continue to live in their neighborhood, yet she doesn’t explain the affects these actions can have on the economy (246). Zukin definitely focuses more on the cons of gentrification and less on the pros, which makes her views slightly biased. Zukin’s case at the end of the book is somewhat proven to be true. It is true that today many cities are trying to modernize their neighborhoods but this development hasn’t really caused cities to lack uniqueness. In fact this development has made neighborhoods more diverse making them cultural unique. This diversity doesn’t make cities more exclusive. I compare my experience in Atlanta, Georgia. The diversity in my city has drawn many tourist and immigrants. Yes, gentrification makes it harder for lower-income people to live in the city but it opens the doors for more ethnicities and races to create areas that are culturally diverse. Today the East Village looks like a great place to live: its old buildings gentrified; its interesting little noodle bars, Japanese hair salons, and Moroccan, Afghan, and vegan restaurants cover the streets (101). Naked City does a good job of illustrating social diversity and the fluid exchange of ideas and culture within cities. Zukin informs us that the model New York cities are becoming the model for other cities in America. I would highly recommend this book to others.
Naked City adequately captures the change in cities due to gentrification. Zukin illustrates the cultural uniqueness of iconic New York neighborhoods. Her examination of these neighborhoods in the past and how they are today gives incite on how they might look in the future if society continues on the path that it is on. Neighborhoods have been renovated; several facades have been modernized, but the area still has an old-fashioned feel (106). Zukin proves that in society today we strive to modernize cities yet we still try to maintain the authentic feel. Reading this book my knowledge on gentrification and how it has affect communities have broadened. Zukin’s reference to movies and music artists made me realize that people might determine certain neighborhoods as a desirable place to live based on how they are depicted in movies or books. I also learned it’s important to consider the trends that are going on around the world. Shops reflect the “class world” that dominates the East Village now: both elegant and derelict, hippie and yuppie, distinctive and diverse (106). The current hipster trend can be a factor of this reflection of East Village. Zukin understands that there are many factors that result in gentrification of an area. It is crucial to look at the tastes ad lifestyles of the upper middle class, for these dominate the cultural representations of cities today (223). Zukin provides a brief history of different New
York cities. Zukin puts her theories into practice allowing different modes of analysis to reveal the complex social, political, and economic relationships shaping the gentrification processes. Naked City provides incite on how gentrified cities have resulted in educated urbanities having a desire to live in cities the regard as “authentic” urban life.
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
“Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture.” (Grant) In layman’s terms, gentrification is when white people move to a black neighborhood for the sake of cheaper living, and in turn, raise up property values and force black neighbors to leave because of a higher price of living. Commonly, the government supports gentrification with the demolition of public housing in areas that are developing with more white neighbors. This is causing a decreasing amount of African Americans to be able to afford to live in the neighborhood as their homes are taken away from them, forcing them to relocate. Whilst gentrification normally has negative connotations, there are several people who believe gentrification brings about “an upward trend in property values in previously neglected neighborhoods.” (Jerzyk) On the other hand, this new trend in property value and business causes those...
Proud (2014) describes Shoreditch, an area in east London as a metonym for unlucky pieces of real estate that have had the hipster formula applied to them. situates the term in space, going one further to describe hipsterfication as “Shoreditchification” However the term “hipster” has been mentioned in other geographical works such as that of David Ley and Tom Butler (1980; 1997), in the theories of “the new middle class” of gentrifiers. Hipsters have turned themselves into “self-gentrifying urban Bedouins”, “popping-off then popping-up” where ever is cheapest (Eror 2014). The perceived advantages and disadvantages that this new “creative class of the skilled, educated and hip”, bring are mixed in literature (Companella; Kotkin
Another noteworthy urban sociologist that’s invested significant research and time into gentrification is Saskia Sassen, among other topical analysis including globalization. “Gentrification was initially understood as the rehabilitation of decaying and low-income housing by middle-class outsiders in central cities. In the late 1970s a broader conceptualization of the process began to emerge, and by the early 1980s new scholarship had developed a far broader meaning of gentrification, linking it with processes of spatial, economic and social restructuring.” (Sassen 1991: 255). This account is an extract from an influential book that extended beyond the field of gentrification and summarizes its basis proficiently. In more recent and localized media, the release the documentary-film ‘In Jackson Heights’ portrayed the devastation that gentrification is causing as it plagues through Jackson Heights, Queens. One of the local businessmen interviewed is shop owner Don Tobon, stating "We live in a
This text also persuades readers about how race is an issue of gentrification. The author’s claims on the issues show that gentrification is mainly influenced by race and income. The writer wrote the text also to show how the media can be influential to be discouraging poor colored communities, criticizing the views on gentrification in those areas. There are some persuasive appeals that are supported by the author in the text. The first is Ethos, he is a credible source in his claims retelling his own experience as a paramedic and how his patient impacted his criticism on how the media portrays the “hood” as being atrocious and worthless in the community. The author also attempts to convince his readers through his own emotions, including specific evidence and claims for his appeals. The second persuasive appeal used is pathos when he explains how these communities are dealt with moving place to place being invaded from their own residence and businesses. The third persuasive appeals he presents is logos, which he describes the situation of the the people being affected by this issue first hand to show the reader it is a mistaken
In contrast to the negatives of gentrification, some people view gentrification as a the only effective way to “revitalize” low-income urban communities. In the article, “Gentrification: A Positive Good For Communities” Turman situates the piece around the opinion that gentrification is not as awful as the negative connotation surrounding it. Furthermore, he attempts to dispel the negative aspects of gentrification by pointing out how some of them are nonexistent. To accomplish this, Turman exemplifies how gentrification could positively impact neighborhoods like Third Ward (a ‘dangerous’ neighborhood in Houston, Texas).Throughout the article, Turman provides copious examples of how gentrification can positively change urban communities, expressing that “gentrification can produce desirable effects upon a community such as a reduced crime rate, investment in the infrastructure of an area and increased economic activity in neighborhoods which gentrify”. Furthermore, he opportunistically uses the Third Ward as an example, which he describes as “the 15th most dangerous neighborhood in the country” and “synonymous with crime”, as an example of an area that could “need the change that gentrification provides”. Consequently, he argues with
New York City’s population is a little over 8.3 million people. 8.3 million people are spread out among five boroughs and each have their own set routine. Each one of those 8.3 million see New York in a different way becuase “You start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it” (“City Limits” 4). Some people are like Colson Whitehead who “was born here and thus ruined for anywhere else” (“City Limits” 3). Others may have “moved here a couple years ago for a job. Maybe [they] came here for school” (“City Limits” 3). Different reasons have brought these people together. They are grouped as New Yorkers, but many times, living in New York is their only bond. With on going changes and never ending commotion, it is hard to define New York and its inhabitants in simple terms.
The purpose of the “Sidewalk” study is to take people into the socio-culture environment who are often seen as threats in society and work daily in the diverse neighborhood of New York City. Sidewalk also gives a portrait of several poverty-stricken black men who attempt to make their livelihoods on the sidewalks of Eighth Street, Greenwich Village, and Sixth Avenue by selling books, magazines, secondhand goods, and other merchandise. Duneier who is a sociologist who has taught at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, recounts their failures along with
The Tomorrow City by Monica Hughes The plot of this book centres around two adolescents, David and Caro and an evil supercomputer which aspires to control the futuristic city of Thompsonville. Dr. Henderson, Caro's Father creates the "perfect" computer designed to solve all of the problems of Thompsonville by gaining almost complete power of the city. The computer then begins to make rash decisions of it's own. It decides that humans are incapable of making decisions of there
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
Jackelyn Hwang and Robert J. Sampson’s article “Divergent Pathways of Gentrification: Racial Inequality and the Social Order of Renewal in Chicago Neighborhoods” addresses the evolution of gentrification over time. The direct examination of gentrification is difficult to observe; however, by examining social pathways we are able to further advance our studies.
Lance Freeman tackles the issue of gentrification from the perspectives of residents in the gentrified neighborhood. He criticizes the literature for overlooking the experiences of the victims of gentrification. The author argues that people’s conceptions on the issue are somewhat misinformed in that most people consider it as completely deplorable, whereas in reality, it benefits the community by promoting businesses, different types of stores, and cleaner streets. These benefits are even acknowledged by many residents in the gentrified neighborhood. However, the author admits that gentrification indeed does harm. Although gentrification does not equate to displacement per se, it serves to benefit primarily homeowners and harm the poor. Additionally,
Gentrification is the keystone for the progression of the basic standards of living in urban environments. A prerequisite for the advancement of urban areas is an improvement of housing, dining, and general social services. One of the most revered and illustrious examples of gentrification in an urban setting is New York City. New York City’s gentrification projects are seen as a model for gentrification for not only America, but also the rest of the world. Gentrification in an urban setting is much more complex and has deeper ramifications than seen at face value. With changes in housing, modifications to the quality of life in the surrounding area must be considered as well. Constant lifestyle changes in a community can push out life-time
In Jane Jacobs’s acclaimed The Life and Death of Great American Cities, she intricately articulates urban blight and the ills of metropolitan society by addressing several binaries throughout the course of the text. One of the more culturally significant binaries that Jacobs relies on in her narrative is the effectively paradoxical relationship between diversity and homogeneity in urban environments at the time. In particular, beginning in Chapter 12 throughout Chapter 13, Jacobs is concerned greatly with debunking widely held misconceptions about urban diversity.
When you associate anything with New York City it is usually the extraordinary buildings that pierce the sky or the congested sidewalks with people desperate to shop in the famous stores in which celebrities dwell. Even with my short visit there I found myself lost within the Big Apple. The voices of the never-ending attractions call out and envelop you in their awe. The streets are filled with an atmosphere that is like a young child on a shopping spree in a candy store. Although your feet swelter from the continuous walking, you find yourself pressing on with the yearning to discover the 'New York Experience'.