Community Event: Gentrification in Austin & West Philadelphia
By Jessica Ch’ng
“Gentrification in Austin: Lessons Learned for Philadelphia,” Walnut Street West Library, September 20
I heard about this event at the Walnut Street West Public Library on Facebook. To me, “gentrification” had become such an abstracted buzzword, and while I associated it with rising housing costs and displacement, I was otherwise unfamiliar with its mechanics, possible solutions, and the lived experiences of this city. I saw the event as an opportunity to deepen my superficial knowledge about gentrification. Plus, I was excited to check out the local public library and support their programming. I also arrived at the event with complicated feelings about the subject as well – I knew that as a University of Pennsylvania student who had recently moved to West Philadelphia, I was likely to be implicated in a discussion about gentrification in this neighborhood. I knew that despite my commitments to social justice and equality, I had still chosen to join the gentrifying class of this neighborhood to save myself time and money. I had still chosen to attend this school despite its sustained displacement of a long-standing predominantly black neighborhood.
The event began with a lecture by Eric Tang, Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He began by defining gentrification, identifying the central feature of gentrification as the “rapid displacement of populations.” He described the intense gentrification occurring in Austin. He explained that every major growth city in the last couple decades saw growth in their African American population except for one: Austin, which experienced an absolute loss in its black population, shrinking from 64,000 to 60,000 between 2000 and 2010. This has occurred, in part, because of intense segregation in Austin. The African American population has historically been concentrated in only one area of the city, which became a coveted real estate market in the 1990’s and 2000’s. When the area became unaffordable, African American communities were displaced, and no new black neighborhoods developed, nor did other areas integrate. Tang noted a trend in the “suburbanization of poverty” – i.e. black residents of Austin are moving outside the city to areas with less access to resources.
Professor Tang then invited audience members to share their experiences with gentrification in Philadelphia. Attendees, many of whom are or were West Philadelphia residents, described the initial displacement of the African American community by white people and subsequent displacement by developers and wealthier white people. They described the trend of New Yorkers and DC residents moving to Philadelphia and commuting, citing a New York Times article framing Philadelphia as the “sixth borough” of NYC. Attendees discussed how developers promise to bring jobs to the neighborhood, but when residents get priced out of the neighborhood, they must commute to take advantage of those opportunities. They explained how the Penn Alexander School – a lab school for the University of Pennsylvania – has driven gentrification, displacing the Bangladeshi community that once lived in that area. Attendees described black West Philadelphians getting displaced to the northeastern area of the city or getting pushed farther west. They observed the rapid development around 43rd and Powelton, noting that within a 5-block radius, there are 16 buildings being built. They expressed that these buildings do not seem to be built for long-standing West Philadelphia residents: not only are the units unaffordable, parking is increasingly limited, making the buildings far less accessible for older folks and families.
Photo from The Daily Pennsylvanian, taken by a neighbor of the Arvilla building. These affordable housing apartments have been sold to for-profit developers, displacing all of its residents.
Attendees said that groups of residents are trying to fend off gentrification in West Philadelphia. Tang additionally suggested that state interventions needed to deal with displacement, because gentrification has been driven by the deregulation of the housing market. States must preserve public housing on the urban core, invest deeply in public housing, and build in areas that have been resistant to integration.
This event related to our classes discussions around belonging and place. The affordability and design of new built spaces in West Philadelphia send messages to residents about who can or should belong in this community. Additionally, this event was an opportunity to witness Philadelphia residents speaking up and out about gentrification and their evolving neighborhoods. I was left wondering how we can reconcile university-supported academic work like Tang’s – which attempts to serve communities affected by gentrification – with the university-driven displacement attendees describe. I still wonder what we as individuals can do to enable place-based access to resources and services regardless of income, what our role as Penn students should be in preserving local communities, and how we should address our complicity in the gentrification of West Philadelphia.
Read “Outlier: The Case of Austin’s Declining African-American Population” by Eric Tang