Gentrification is an inescapable urban phenomenon. In these days, there are pros and cons regarding gentrification, whether it is good or bad?
In Monday (12/3), an Urban Heritage Strategies Expert, Remco Vermeulen, has explained about the phenomenon of gentrification. The public lecture was held in collaboration between Master of Urban and Regional Planning, Universitas Gadjah Mada and Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies. Mr. Vermeulen has relevant working experience in the private and (semi-)public sector, mainly in the field of urban heritage, inner city revitalization and public-private partnerships. Currently, he is working as coordinator of the Visitor Programme Heritage of Dutch Culture, Center for International Cultural Cooperation in Amsterdam. On this occasion, he delivered a presentation and discussion on “Gentrification in Amsterdam”.
The term gentrification is commonly used to explain a process of socioeconomic change to a neighborhood when there is an influx of new, relatively wealthy residents, leading to the upgrading of the area and displacement of the lower-income incumbent residents (Moore, 2015). The form of gentrification may vary in different circumstances, such as classical, inner city, suburban, rural, new-build, commercial, super, tourism/beautification, etc. As introduction to this topic, Mr. Vermeulen played a video about gentrification phenomenon occurring in USA (video here).
Richard Florida in The Rise of the Creative Class (2002) presented the creative class hypothesis, that the cities can be benefited from the creative people move into the neighborhood instead of trying to incentivize firms to locate in their city. Thus, cities development guided to support new activities and crowds by enhance ‘people climate’, along with business climate. This “climate” attracts creative people such as artists, musicians and creative types to inhabit the city. As it grows, rent and real estate increases price, and the original inhabitants forced to move out because they are no longer able to afford the cost and seek for more affordable housing. Thereafter, Florida (2017) finds that later it resulted gentrification, as he defined as “new urban crisis”.
In order to recognize gentrification, we should examine the area by its 1) historical layers, 2) character or uniqueness, 3) challenges in the past and now, and 4) mapping. In the case of Amsterdam, Mr. Vermeulen started by identifying the significant development happened in the growth of the city, how the city is expanding. A video was played to show the changes occurred in Amsterdam historically. With its growing population, Amsterdam is also challenged with industrialization, modernization, accessibility, up-scaling and urban decay.
Mr. Vermeulen also requested the audience to discuss about gentrification issue in Indonesia context, remarkably in Yogyakarta. Led by Prof. Bakti Setiawan, the audience then listed the iconic moments occurred in the history of Yogyakarta, started from the Kingdom of Mataram was established, to the era of Dutch and Japan colonial, the era of independence until the present time. These historic events build the characteristics of Yogyakarta, both spatial and social context. Gentrification occurred in Yogyakarta is mostly resulted from the growing population, caused by the development of educational institutions as the generator. This issue also becomes a challenge for urban planning in Yogyakarta.
The effect of gentrification can be diverse in various perspectives; one could not conclude that the phenomenon is good or bad by considering from one-sided viewpoint. The assessment requires wide understanding of the issue by tracing the history of gentrification in the area. In future development, this phenomenon should be considered in planning process in order to build improved policy.
(AH)
Reference:
Russell David Moore (2015) Gentrification and displacement: The impacts of mass transit in Bangkok, Urban Policy and Research, 33:4, 472-489, DOI: 10.1080/08111146.2015.1028615