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Student
Professor Mitchell
College Writing 101
5 December 2014
Capstone: Gentrification in the City of Cleveland
Gentrification is a contemporary urban planning process that is currently taking place in
cities across the United States. This approach to urban development involves taking over
neighborhoods buried in poverty and transforming them into desirable places to live. This idea is
extremely controversial in the modern world, and has sparked intense debate as to whether or not
cities should invest in this new urban design. However, in concern of local matters, gentrification
will create immense challenges for the city of Cleveland, a city that has faced much hardship in
contemporary America. The process of gentrification will strengthen injustice throughout the
city, destroy the identity of Clevelands poor communities, and produce a city focused on
consumerism rather than its individual citizens.
In the article Is Gentrification All Bad?, Justin Davidson, a graduate of Columbia
and Harvard University, describes both the benefits and misconceptions of gentrification. He
believes that gentrification is not necessarily as harmful as its reputation entails. Davidson thinks
that gentrification creates cultural communities and improves living conditions in povertystricken neighborhoods. He also reveals that displacement of residents in these gentrified
neighborhoods is difficult to prove, and according to statistics, it rarely occurs. Davidson feels
that gentrification can bring much needed prosperity to run-down urban areas, and he believes
there is little to no proof of the negative aspects of gentrification. All in all, he aims to put down
those who claim that gentrification will devastate communities across the United States.

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In contrast with Davidson, Daniel Jos Older, author of Gentrifications Insidious
Violence: The Truth about American Cities, believes that gentrification is an act of
violence against impoverished citizens, and that the process leads to the displacement of
residents. Older believes that gentrification is another form of prejudice and racism that has
existed in the American way of life for centuries. This modern process results in erasing
communities of color, and this erasure, according to Older, continues to promote the prevalence
of white supremacy in contemporary American society. Unlike Davidson, Older strongly
disagrees with encouraging gentrification because it is a form of injustice towards African-A
mericans, and, while it may seem beneficial to some, it is extremely harmful for the original
citizens of the gentrified community.
Richey Piiparinen, author of Gentrification and its Discontents: Cleveland
Needs to Go Beyond Being Creatively Classes, also believes that gentrification is
damaging to urban life. Older generalizes the topic to focus on urban life across the United
States, while Piiparinen specifically applies the idea of gentrification to the city of Cleveland.
This article focuses on gentrification as a process that supports the wide-spread consumerist
lifestyle present in contemporary American society. Piiparinen feels that this thoughtless focus
will eventually end Clevelands recent recovery. In order to fix this problem, he suggests that the
city turn its attention towards the needs of individual citizens and stop trying to transform
Cleveland into something that it is not.
These viewpoints provide deeper insight into the idea of gentrification, and they
demonstrate the opinions of people across America. However, gentrification is a serious concern
in Cleveland because it will further intensify injustice towards low-income residents throughout
the city. This procedure of forcing certain groups of people, mainly African-Americans, to move

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in order to make room for more desirable citizens is clearly a form of discrimination. Older, a
writer for Salon magazine, believes that the forced displacement of peoples and dispersal of
communities, whether through economic, political or cultural policies, is a long-term human
rights violation (359). Threatening the livelihood of current residents, especially those of poor,
working-class backgrounds, will only lead to further problems for these individuals.
Gentrification leads to increases in rent, which results in people being forced to move, especially
in neighborhoods with a large African-American population. Jacy Webster, an original
homeowner in a gentrified neighborhood in South Philadelphia, has experienced drastic changes
that have caused the assessment on his house to more than quintuple during the past year--to
$250,000 from $45,000--which he said might force him to move and perhaps rent his home
(Williams 348). Many people ignore the fate of the original residents of the area because of the
do not seem to benefit the economy of the community as much as the higher-income newcomers.
Displacing so-called undesirable citizens is a form of injustice that will only escalate the social
ills of a city, and Cleveland is not an exception.
Along the lines of forced displacement, gentrification will dissolve the identity of various
Cleveland neighborhoods. Although many people are forced to leave their districts, those who do
stay behind feel as if they do not belong. Jacy Webster explains that he has come to feel like a
stranger in his own community (Williams 347). The gentrifiers of the community tend not to
associate with the original residents of the neighborhood, creating an awkward atmosphere in
these communities. Dashka Slater, a journalist for Mother Jones and a member of a gentrified
neighborhood, describes that newcomers to the area tend to live behind locked gates, send their
kids to private schools, shop outside the neighborhood, and avoid the parks (362). This
avoidance enhances the uprooting of these communities and gives rise to districts without

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apparent identities. In the city of Cleveland, these uprooted communities will create an
atmosphere different from the citys true identity.
Gentrification will not only damage community life in Cleveland, but it will also create a
city focused solely on consumerism, as opposed to the needs of its citizens. The idea of
gentrification is creating a transformed neighborhood of people that will be able to stimulate the
economy of the area. However, this focus ignores the citizens of the community, especially those
who are less fortunate. Lisa Sturtevant, a director of Center of Housing Policy, revealed that
many of the younger, newer arrivals do not necessarily plan to stay for long, so it does not
really make sense to invest in people who are bound to move anyway (346). Instead, Cleveland
should invest in the people who want to stay here, and those who have vested in the
infrastructure of the city. If Cleveland focuses on the well being of its citizens, then people will
be more inclined to visit and find comfort in this city.
The gentrification procedure involves remodeling urban areas across the United States in
order to create neighborhoods that are desirable to wealthier citizens. This process will enhance
Clevelands current problems because gentrification will heighten injustice, ruin communities,
and ignore the citys individual people. Cleveland is currently on the rise, with immense cultural
communities, economic prosperity, and low unemployment rates. The city may one day evolve
into a successful area, as it was in the past. However, this will not occur through the process of
gentrification because this process further increases problems for low-income, blue-collar,
working-class Americans, a population that is at the backbone of the Cleveland area. In order to
sustain this growth, Cleveland needs to maintain a commitment to the people loyal to the city,
and who have lived here and want to continue living here.

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Works Cited
Davidson, Justin. Is Gentrification All Bad? The Engaged Reader: Issues and
Conversations

for Composition. Ed. William Breeze, Jane Dugan, Melanie Gagich,

Alex Nielsen, and

Jessica Schantz. Cincinnati: Van-Griner, 2015. 349-356. Print.

Older, Daniel Jos. Gentrifications Insidious Violence: The Truth about American Cities. The
Engaged Reader: Issues and Conversations for Composition. Ed. William
Breeze, Jane Dugan, Melanie Gagich, Alex Nielsen, and Jessica Schantz. Cincinnati: VanGriner,

2015. 357-360. Print.

Piiparinen, Richey. Gentrification and its Discontents: Cleveland Needs to Go Beyond Being
Creatively Classes. The Engaged Reader: Issues and Conversations for
Composition.

Ed. William Breeze, Jane Dugan, Melanie Gagich, Alex Nielsen, and

Jessica Schantz.

Cincinnati: Van-Griner, 2015. 341-343. Print.

Slater, Dashka. Go Forth and Gentrify. The Engaged Reader: Issues and
Conversations

for Composition. Ed. William Breeze, Jane Dugan, Melanie Gagich,

Alex Nielsen, and

Jessica Schantz. Cincinnati: Van-Griner, 2015. 361-362. Print.

Williams, Timothy. Cities Mobilize to Help Those Threatened by Gentrification. The

Engaged

Reader: Issues and Conversations for Composition. Ed. William

Breeze, Jane Dugan, Melanie Gagich, Alex Nielsen, and Jessica Schantz. Cincinnati: VanGriner, 2015. 345-348. Print.