gentrification

When new residents and businesses move into low-income neighborhoods, they often deny that they are displacing current residents. In a striking exception, a coffee shop in Denver’s rapidly changing Five Points area posted a sign in 2017 that read “ink! Coffee. Happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014” on one side, and “Nothing says gentrification like being able to order a cortado” on the other side. The sign struck nerves and spurred protests because it illustrated something about urban residents’ experiences of gentrification – changes that occur in moderately priced neighborhoods when more upscale residents and businesses move in. Gentrification fundamentally revolves around who gets to – or has to – live in particular places. But the economics of housing changes cannot be sepa...

Tunde Wey’s dinner series-slash-public art project raised $50,000 to address Nashville’s affordable housing crisis. During the third full week of August, residents of Nashville, Tennessee, gathered to eat chicken tossed in palm oil-fried pepper sauce, yam pottage, jollof rice, fried sweet plantains, and efo riro, or stewed spinach. The cuisine was native to Nigeria, chef Tunde Wey’s home country, and served at Westwood Baptist Church, a place that has been a fixture in the community for nearly a century. On the website for H*t Chicken Sh*t, “a dinner series to end gentrification,” people were asked to pledge money or property for chicken—$100 for one piece, $50,000 for a half-bird and sides. People with access to wealth or disposable incomes were encouraged to contribute. Over the ...

Tag: gentrification

In changing urban neighborhoods, new food offerings can set the table for gentrification

This Chef Is Fighting Gentrification With Hot Chicken