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by closeparen 3257 days ago
Gentrification is the movement of white, educated, upper-middle class suburban dwellers into urban neighborhoods.

Reducing car dependence requires exactly that. Any policy which prevents or reduces gentrification necessarily preserves sprawl, because that is where would-be gentrifiers currently live.

1 comments

This is incomplete, in several regards.

1) there is rural gentrification

2) part of the gentrification of London is due to foreigners who buy London property as an investment but don't live there, and only visit for 1-2 weeks a year. Nor do they rent it out. A policy which prevents that sort of ownership would reduce gentrification without increasing sprawl. This is what B.C. is attempting with their new tax.

3) Gentrification exists in places like Oslo where migration to the city does not from suburban dwellers but from residents of smaller cities and rural areas.

4) It's more generally applied to "middle class", and not specifically "upper-middle class". Ruth Glass's book which introduced the term specifically says "One by one, many of the working class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle classes -- upper and lower."