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by karmonhardan 672 days ago
My intuition is that art scenes don't cause gentrification so much as they are one of many signals that a neighborhood is "safe" enough for people to begin displacing the incumbent community. It's possible - maybe even likely - that the neighborhood was suitable for investment before that point, but no one noticed until they were forced to visit it while attending a gallery showing or something.
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The other take is that a neighborhood that has a vibrant art scene is one that people want to live in not that they want to supplant the current population living there. Theres a natural draw to live there.
The real cause of gentrification is failing to build enough housing, which means people can't move in without displacing others. It causes a zero sum mentality.

Build. More. Housing.

Yes, build more housing, but, art scenes don’t happen in housing, they happen in spaces that people can turn into their community spaces.

Also build more community spaces.

You could have saved the people doing this study a lot of time and money. The artistic types have definitely just found the cheapest place to live that is also the best place to live out of all of the cheap options.
Wynwood in Miami had that plan. a few developers bought pretty much everything and gave artists and cool concepts/restaurants cheap rent to build there. Once it became popular they jacked up the rents and built condos on it. It’s a completely different animal now
If you think about "art walks" or "artist open studios tours" (I like those) the art scenes need to be close enough to the wealthier zip codes that people with some money can get there. They also need to be at least somewhat safe to visit, safer than living there given that they usually take place in daylight.
> enough for people to begin displacing the incumbent community.

This means... what, that when someone moves out now the household that buys their old house has enough money that they choose that neighborhood by choice rather than necessity?

Typically gentrification at its simplest and most “popular” descriptive level is when people with more wealth move in and so property rates climb, and cost of living rises, and existing people in the community are no longer able to afford rent or other aspects of living there.