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GGR 357 H1F Geography of Housing and Housing Policy

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Title: GGR 357 H1F Geography of Housing and Housing Policy


1
GGR 357 H1F Geography of Housing and Housing
Policy 
Session 6 Neighbourhood transitions June 4, 2008
DR. AMANDA HELDERMAN
2
Session 6 Neighbourhood transitions
  • Announcements
  • Midterm answers
  • Neighbourhood transitions
  • Factors of neighbourhood changes
  • Theoretical models that explain transitions in an
    area
  • Research methods
  • Gentrification, branding, marketing
  • Roles of culture versus that of the economy

3
Announcements
  • Paper assignment due June 20, 2008
    http//individual.utoronto.ca/helderman
  • Dont wait too long with contacting me if you
    have any difficulties!
  • Please consult previous lecture notes/ slides
    before contacting me

4
Announcements
  • Final exam
  • Similar format as midterm
  • 85 about sessions after the midterm
  • 15 about sessions before midterm
  • Final exam on June 23, 2008, 5-7 pm
  • Wilson Hall (New College)
  • Room 1016

5
Announcements
  • Topics to tackle before the final exam
  • Neighbourhood transitions - today
  • Access to housing housing allocation Monday
    (9th)
  • Housing affordability and quality Wednesday
    (11th)
  • Meanings of home and attitudes toward
    homeownership Monday (16th)
  • Reflection on the role of the government and
    other actors in the public domain Wednesday
    (18th)
  • Last session a review if schedule allows it

6
APUS class representative (part 1)
  • The association of Part-Time Undergraduate
    Students (APUS) is accepting those summer
    students who are taking 1.0 credits or less as
    our members. We encourage you to participate in
    APUS by becoming a representative for your class.
    The following are some of the issues that APUS is
    active in by addressing

7
APUS class representative (part 2)
  • tuition freeze,
  • university/government financial aid for part-time
    students,
  • part-time student on-campus housing,
  • family care, and
  • summer/evening course selection.
  • As a class representative, you would receive
    periodic information updates from APUS and keep
    your classmates informed about upcoming summer
    social events, meetings, important issues and
    campaigns. You would also bring back to APUS
    feedback you receive from your classmates on
    issues and concerns.
  • Contact 416-978-3993 or info.apus_at_utoronto.ca

8
Exam answers - Question 1
  • a) Explain why housing is so attractive to
    individuals (mention at least 3 reasons for 1
    point each, up to 3 points).
  • Homeowners build up equity from their homes, they
    enjoy on average a better housing quality, they
    are free to customize their home, they are
    independent and have full control over their
    housing situation, homeownership represents
    continuity and stability, homeownership to many
    represents status, and finally it also represents
    emotional value.

9
Exam answers - Question 1
  • b) Give 3 definitions of housing (6 points).
  • Physical product/ facility (bricks and mortar),
    commodity/ economic/ exchange good, investment
    good/ asset, sector of the economy, social/
    collective good, building block of neighbourhoods
    (2 points each up to 6 points)

10
Exam answers - Question 1
  • c) What was Bournes definition of housing?
    Include an example to illustrate what that means.
    (4 points)
  • Housing can be described as a bundle of services
    (2 points). Services that housing delivers
    shelter, wealth, shelter from inflation
    (capital), accessibility to services,
    accessibility to work, accessibility to
    neighbourhood, social status, right to privacy
    (add 2 points for any of the examples including
    an explanation of the definition).

11
Exam answers - Question 1
  • d) Why did he land on this definition(2 points)?
  • All alternative definitions are applicable at the
    same time, but some meanings are separated or
    confused. Alternative 1 The definitions provided
    previously overlap and are thus confusing
    definitions to co-exist in explaining one and the
    same concept. Alternative 2 They overlap and are
    thus confusing definitions to co-exist in
    explaining one and the same concept (2 points).
  • d) Mention 2 deliverables of housing in this
    context (2 points).
  • Any two of the following 6 is correct Shelter
    from the elements, value/wealth/equity for
    owners, shelter from taxes, accessibility of
    services, accessibility of work, accessibility
    neighbourhood, social status, and/or right to
    privacy.

12
Exam answers - Question 1
  • e) Describe why housing is important for
    understanding neighbourhood dynamics (4 points).
  • Housing is the principle mechanism through which
    urban neighbourhoods change moves of households/
    activities (demographic change), new developments
    (demographic, economic, social, cultural), aging
    of real estate, and/or fluctuations in house
    prices. Not all examples are necessary. Answer
    must reflect some idea of how neighbourhoods
    change through housing or rather the matching
    process of households and housing (stock).

13
Exam answers - Question 1
  • f) Explain, by using an example, why housing can
    mean different things to different people at the
    same time (4 points).
  • Housing can mean different things to different
    people at the same time. First it is an
    investment good for the developer, and later it
    can be an investment good for the owner-occupier,
    anticipating that the property will increase in
    price. To the construction company housing is an
    industry, to the user the same object can mean
    shelter. Any logical explanation is OK, as long
    as definitions of housing are matched as
    described under b.
  • So far all answers could be retrieved/ could have
    been studied in Bournes chapter 2 and lecture
    slides of the introduction/ first lecture.

14
Exam answers - Question 2
  • a) Mention the three classic ways of modelling
    housing market behaviour (6 points).
  • Gravity Models, Push-Pull Models, Markov Chains
    (2 points each, up to 6 points).
  • b) Explain the main differences in the
    assumptions of these models (5 points).
  • Gravity models assumptions are based on the
    characteristics of places, push-pull models are
    based on the individual assessments of
    characteristics of places, Markov chains are
    based on the probabilities of moving to each home
    in the chain of housing vacancies (4 points plus
    1 point for the latter).

15
Exam answers - Question 2
  • c) Mention the two newer approaches (4 points).
  • Microeconomic and life course approaches (2
    points each).
  • d) Name one main difference and one commonality
    between the two (4 points).
  • They both view moving behaviour as adjustment
    mechanisms to adapt to new needs in the
    household and/ or dissatisfaction. They both
    incorporate micro-economic decision making. ?

16
Exam answers - Question 2
  • The life course perspective however, adds
    individual perspective on how a move may occur
    (by changes in the household, labour, education
    and housing career). In other words, demographic
    events (which are universal) are introduced as
    milestones that help understand housing market
    behaviour. The life course theory forges
    theoretical and empirical work. (2 points for one
    difference, 2 points for one commonality, up to 4
    points in total.)

17
Exam answers - Question 2
  • Give two reasons why short distance moves occur
    more frequently than long distance moves (3
    points each, up to 6 points in total).
  • Short distance moves occur more often because the
    dominating motive for moving (housing and
    household motives) relate to housing
    characteristics (3 points). (Larger house
    required because more members in the household. A
    better house, etc.) These motives do not incur a
    long-distance moves like moving for a job might
    do. If you move over a short distance, you do not
    need to change jobs in most cases (another 3
    points). Predominance of motives for moving thus
    incurs more short-distance moves.

18
Exam answers - Question 3
  • III. Touch upon The parallel careers or domains
    in the life course (mention at least three, one
    point each, up to a maximum of 3 points).
  • Household career
  • Housing career
  • Education career
  • Labour career

19
Exam answers - Question 3
  • How these trigger a move, by describing examples
    (2 points each, up to a maximum of 6 points).
  • Household career triggers a move by
    cohabitation, child birth, divorce/separation,
    remarriage, widowhood through demand for less or
    more space, or a necessary change in location.
  • Education career triggers a move by enrolling
    into higher education that is not in the same
    place as your parental home.
  • Labour career triggers a move by changing jobs in
    a location to where there is no sustainable daily
    commute possible. Generally this is due to
    distance.

20
Exam answers - Question 3
  • Name 2 out of 4 life course stages (2 points
    each, up to a total of 4 points).
  • The four life course stages are home making,
    child bearing, child rearing, post child.
  • Describe what the link is between the life course
    theory and housing demand (up to 3 points).
  • Households create a set of circumstances by their
    combined behaviour. Alternatives are OK, within
    reason.

21
Exam answers - Question 3
  • Explain what was so new about the life course
    theory (name 3 innovative aspects out of the 6
    discussed for 3 points each, for up to 9 points
    in total).
  • Convergence of theory and empirical work
  • Attention to individual households (micro-level)
  • Residential location topic was brought into the
    centre of housing studies
  • Individual action was linked with social change
    and social structure
  • Demographic events were introduced as milestones
    and critical transitions in peoples lives
  • The mechanisms are universal, applying to almost
    anyone, and throughout history

22
Exam answers - Question 4
  • Touch upon The definition of social exclusion (3
    points).
  • Social exclusion Social exclusion occurs when
    people or groups decide consciously or
    unconsciously, to put up barriers, preventing
    others from full and equal participation, leading
    to a loss of rights, loss of power, lack of
    integration in society, affecting the ability to
    live fully.

23
Exam answers - Question 4
  • Background factors of social exclusion (3 for 2
    points each, up to a total of 6)
  • Backgrounds of social exclusion racial
    discrimination, economic discrimination, gender
    discrimination, health discrimination, poverty
    discrimination, neighbourhood discrimination.

24
Exam answers - Question 4
  • The differences between social exclusion through
    housing and social exclusion from housing (2
    points)
  • Exclusion from housing focuses on unmet housing
    demands while exclusion through housing focuses
    the shift outwards the impact of housing on
    broader societal participation.

25
Exam answers - Question 4
  • The definition of spatial segregation (3 points)
  • Spatial segregation Spatial effect of social
    exclusion.
  • The term social location (2 points)
  • Social location Through housing, ones
    residential location and with that access to
    other services than housing is determined.

26
Exam answers - Question 4
  • A description with examples- of
    neighbourhoodism (4 points).
  • Neighbourhoodism is a diminished access to
    services such as food deliveries, taxis, home
    insurance, housing elsewhere due to the
    reputation of the neighbourhood where individuals
    reside.

27
Exam answers - Question 4
  • How the spatial assimilation model aims to solve
    spatial segregation issues and why its
    applicability, in cases of neighbourhoodism, is
    limited (5 points).
  • The spatial assimilation model assumes that
    newcomers start at the bottom of the
    socio-economic ladder. Once their socio-economic
    status improves, they will leave their initial
    neighbourhoods and start a cultural assimilation
    process. Cultural assimilation process does not
    account for limited possibilities of doing so by
    discrimination. Neighbourhoodism is one form of
    discrimination housing distributors may be
    biased about neighbourhoods with a certain
    reputation, limiting individuals opportunity
    structure.

28
Exam answers - Question 5
  • Match and explain
  • Landlords
  • Mortgage lenders
  • Real-estate agents
  • Planners
  • Residents X
  • Steering
  • Family-based planning X
  • Discrimination
  • Gender-based planning X
  • Redlining

Items marked with X do not have to be considered.
(One of both at the right side must be considered
though 1 point each)
29
Exam answers - Question 5
  • Match (1 point each) and explain (2 points each,
    total of 12 points)
  • Steering Real-estate agents may direct certain
    buyers/ renters to certain areas (bias)
  • Family-based planning Planners often design
    types of neighbourhoods based on a nuclear
    familys needs while nowadays one-person
    households and households without children are
    increasing
  • Discrimination Putting up barriers for or
    denying access to groups of people based on
    certain characteristics
  • Gender-based planning Planners often design
    types of neighbourhoods based on a nuclear
    familys needs while nowadays single women
    increasingly run their own household
  • Redlining Refusal to provide loans/ mortgages
    for objects in low-income neighbourhoods or
    neighbourhoods with poor housing conditions

30
Exam answers - Question 5
  • Explain
  • Social class hypothesis (4 points)
  • Social class hypothesis assumes that all spatial
    segregation can be explained by socio-economic
    characteristics

31
Exam answers - Question 5
  • Explain
  • How government policy of multiculturalism may
    lead to social exclusion (4 points)
  • Multiculturalism may lead to social exclusion if
    sufficient access to language books and
    newspapers decreases literacy and English
    proficiency among second (or more) generation
    immigrants.

32
Exam answers - Question 5
  • Explain
  • What the ethnic enclave model is based on (2
    points)
  • The Ethnic Enclave Model is based on the notion
    that bonding with the own (ethnic) community does
    not necessarily weaken in the course of time.
    Spatial assimilation (acculturation) therefore is
    not necessarily a goal for ethnic groups, despite
    increased wealth/ higher income/ greater social
    mobility.

33
Exam answers - Question 5
  • What chain immigration is (1 point)
  • Immigrants chose to live near their previously
    established immigrant friends and relatives
    resulting in a process named chain immigration.

34
Exam answers - Question 5
  • Explain
  • How researchers who adopted the ethnic enclave
    theory would feel about the criticism on
    multiculturalism (2 points)
  • Ethnic Enclave researchers will stress the
    advantages of threshold populations for not only
    language newspapers, but also for specialized
    products, churches and opportunities in ethnic
    entrepreneurship (often within the home).
  • ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MIDTERM?

35
Neighbourhood transitions
  • Aging of real estate
  • Changing values of housing as a consequence of
    neighbourhood transitions
  • Depreciation
  • Declining housing quality
  • Mismatches between housing and households
  • Filtering downward or upward
  • Residential relocations
  • Changing composition of households
  • Changing quality of housing and neighbourhoods

36
Introduction to neighbourhood transitions
  • Mechanisms of change
  • Upward/ downward changes
  • Theories/ concepts
  • Effects of revitalization
  • Literature

37
Neighbourhood transitions
  • When prices are low, some inner city environments
    are prone to gentrification
  • Improvement in quality housing and neighbourhood
  • Services may change (daily necessities get
    crowded out by trendy shops, restaurants and
    branches)
  • Reduction in the availability of low cost housing
  • Ultimately social polarization and displacement?

38
Six major processes of change on the housing
market
  • Occupancy turnover and the movements of
    households within the housing stock
  • Filtering process and changes in housing quality
  • Housing and neighbourhood change arbitrage
  • Progression of housing vacancies through the
    stock (vacancy chains)
  • Spatial variations in house price changes
  • Revitalization and the return-to-the-city
    movement gentrification
  • (Bourne, 1981)

39
Households move through the housing stock
  • Matching of households and housing
  • Incomes and house prices act as the broad
    constraints on the likely behaviour of households
    and their occupancy of the housing stock
  • Most moves within same tenure, but there is
    movement between segments, from private rental to
    owner-occupied
  • Changes within housing stock (conversion)
  • Simplified Cheap, small rental housing in CBD
    and expensive large owner-occupied housing on the
    edge of the city

40
Filtering
  • Any change in the relative position of the
    housing unit or the household in the inventory,
    or matrix, of housing units in the area
    filtering up and filtering down
  • History concept Innermost rings in the city were
    occupied by a succession of social groups of
    decreasing income.
  • Each zone filtered down over time.

41
Filtering
  • Based on specific assumptions from the ecological
    literature
  • Demand for housing related to income (newer and
    more accessible)
  • Housing depreciates with age, reducing the flow
    of housing services
  • Encouraging those with sufficient income to
    relocate
  • New construction is necessary and stimulating for
    filtering
  • Welfare component housing could filter down to
    lower income groups, improving their housing
    quality
  • Park, 1925 Hoyt, 1939 Ratcliffe, 1949

42
Filtering
  • Filtering up only occurs when price declines more
    rapidly than housing quality (Grigsby, 1963)
  • Filtering up only occurs when the change is to a
    more preferred bundle of housing services (Leven,
    1976)
  • Households can undergo filtering without moving
    passive filtering
  • Households can undergo filtering by relocating
    active filtering
  • Filtering recognizes the importance of external
    factors in determining housing conditions
  • Filtering incorporated consumer preferences and
    expectations about housing services

43
Types of filtering
  • Changes in supply
  • Changes in the position of households
  • Changes in the matching of households and housing
  • Changes in household welfare

44
Filtering and policy
  • Policy thinking if rate of new construction is
    faster than the rate of filtering downward, most
    lower-income households will be able to improve
    housing
  • Lacks regard for distribution by price and
    quality
  • Justifies construction of middle- and
    upper-income housing
  • Assumption New housing will exceed household
    formation and real incomes will rise

45
Criticism for filtering
  • Housing of reasonable quality does not filter
    down and thus does not become available to
    lower-income groups
  • Other reasons of unavailability
  • Conversion to other uses or other forms of
    tenure, often for investment purposes
  • Demolishment for roads, redevelopment, or parking
  • Even if housing filters down, there is lack of
    mortgage availability, high rents,
    discrimination, and a low housing quality
  • Filtering may not be an efficient or humane way
    of providing housing

46
Arbitrage model of neighbourhood change
  • A more recent version on filtering
  • Placed central are the conditions and mechanisms
    that move boundaries between neighbourhoods of
    different socio-economic status and ethnic
    differences in an unstable housing market
  • This approach unites elements of neighbourhood
    change with sub-market interrelationships,
    filtering and housing preferences
  • Differs from filtering direct response to
    changes in preferences
  • Leven, 1976 Little 1976

47
Arbitrage model
  • Mismatch of supply and demand
  • Shift of boundaries between neighbourhoods
  • Self-generating (self-fulfilling expectations of
    transitions)
  • Access to housing by higher-income groups
  • New housing realized outside neighbourhood
  • Assumption people want to live with similar
    people

48
Arbitrage model
  • As boundaries shift, house prices differentiate
    according to four levels
  • Centre of high status area
  • Near boundary of low status area, in high status
    area (locational discount)
  • Near boundary of high status, in lower status
    area (premium)
  • Centre of lower status
  • Demand influences prices and moves boundaries

49
Arbitrage model
  • The direction in which a boundary shifts is
    dependent on which group exercises the largest
    demand on housing
  • If this is a low income group higher-income
    groups may be blown out by the demand, leading
    to a continued deterioration of the housing stock
  • This is the core of the process of arbitrage
  • Higher income households perceive a future
    decline in housing services through neighbourhood
    transitions
  • They seek to move out to newer housing

50
Arbitrage model
  • Lower income households can not exercise that
    much choice
  • Shrinking demand because of deterioration,
    demolition and abandonment
  • Only profitable market alternative conversion
    (e.g. multi-family) arbitrage
  • Discounted housing leads to lack of maintenance
    and physical deterioration

51
Arbitrage model and non-residents
  • Institutional lenders reinforce expectations of
    neighbourhood change by withdrawing investments,
    refusing loans, or demanding higher down payments
  • Speculators may purchase housing but want a quick
    return which further accelerates under-investment
    and deterioration

52
Vacancy Chains
  • Perspective related to filtering
  • Directly links housing units involved in
    household relocations
  • Tricky to understand because, like housing
    careers and Markov Chains, they do not focus on
    households but on vacancy that is being
    displaced with every step (the moves thus go in
    the opposite direction)

53
Example hermit crabs
54
Vacancy Chains
  • Vacancy chains are short because of diversity in
    the housing stock and because of the weakness of
    the method
  • Especially short when there are a lot of new
    households and in-migrants, and where demolitions
    take place, chains are shorter when new public
    sector housing is constructed
  • No or few homes are left behind in such cases

55
Criticism on vacancy chains
  • Links imply causal linkage that may not be
    existent (households do not know each other, no
    common denominator)
  • Unsuitable for measuring if quality of housing
    for the poor is improved by filtering because the
    poor seldom appear in such chains, except when
    social housing is constructed
  • Descriptive index on the aggregate level
  • Insight into turnover generated by new
    construction

56
Spatial variations in house prices
  • Price most common index of housing market
    performance
  • Four sets of factors that determine price
  • Structural characteristics of the house
  • Neighbourhood characteristics (phys soc)
  • Location (accessibility)
  • Institutional behaviour (fin. real est. agents)

57
Stuctural characteristics of the house
  • Size/ Floor area
  • Lot size
  • Number of rooms
  • Level of improvements
  • Garage
  • Air Conditioning

58
Neighbourhood characteristics
  • Physically attractive/ scenic
  • Pollution
  • Higher-income neighbours

59
Location
  • Accessibility CBD (Hoyt, 1939)
  • Multi-centred city many work locations
  • Not the most important characteristic anymore,
    but there are still some signs of it

60
Hedonic price estimation
  • House value hard to determine sometimes
  • Not many comparable units
  • Individuals may value characteristics differently
  • Solution hedonic price estimation, which is the
    result of multiple regression of housing
    characteristics

61
Return-to-the-city
  • Return-to-the-city movement since the 1970s, even
    though trend has always shifted between high- and
    low-income areas
  • Suburban middle- and higher-income households
  • Many labels revitalization, gentrification,
    white-painting

62
Revitalization
  • Improvement in housing and neighbourhood quality,
    combined with increase of average income
  • Private action, individual or corporation action
  • Quasi public housing associations, self-help
    groups, direct public grants action
  • Streets or single houses
  • Usually within fixed distance of CBD ( 3 km)

63
Gentrification
  • The investment of urban space for the use of a
    more affluent clientele (Hackworth Rekers)
  • More explicit class connotation than
    revitalization
  • Traditional working class neighbourhoods are
    invaded by middle and upper income groups
    (Hamnett, 1973)

64
The Usual Areas
  • Historic and attractive central area
  • High proportion of professional occupations/
    offices
  • Tight housing market
  • Older housing with architectural merit
  • Inner city amenities (parks, cultural
    institutions, etc.)
  • Absence of ethnic strife
  • Relative difficulties in commuting from suburbs

65
The Usual Circumstances
  • Demographic shifts (dink, smaller families)
  • Employment (dual income) Disposable income and
    share to spend on housing has increased
  • Costs suburban housing has increased since the
    1970s, while costs of commuting increased
  • Shifts in tastes and housing preferences

66
Image branding/ packaging
  • Developers can do a lot to create an image for a
    neighbourhood
  • Financial institutions have influence by
    expediting transitions by extending mortgages to
    in-areas
  • Ethnic packaging
  • Ethnic commercial strips are marketable branding
    mechanisms, intended or not

67
Ethnic packaging
  • Mistaken identities of areas such as Little Italy
  • Only 10 of population Italian by mother tongue,
    even less by place of birth or spoken language
  • Dissonance between cultural and commercial
    identities
  • Since the 1980s and 1990s there is a recognition
    for the importance of culture
  • Complication sometimes culture is produced by
    economic interests, not autonomous

68
Dualism between culture approach and economic
approach
  • Culture approach gentrification is the spatial
    expression of a critical class politics
  • Consumer dominance
  • Neighbourhoods gentrify because of changing
    tastes and preferences
  • Rejection of the suburbs because of the distance
    to work, isolation, and lack of diversity
  • Cultural humanism as dominant influence humans
    have a certain degree of decision-making
    autonomy, and are not easily predictable (Ley,
    Caulfield)

69
Dualism between culture approach and economic
approach
  • Economics placed central gentrification is
    caused by the availability of inexpensive real
    estate.
  • Rent gap theory many neighbourhoods experienced
    disinvestment in inner-city, leading to a decline
    in potential rent (highest and best use)
  • Gentrification takes place where the potential
    rent is far above the actual rent ? supply and
    concentration of devalorized land is necessary
  • Gentrification is facilitated by developers and
    governments
  • Marxian economics is the primary influence
  • Smith/ Badcock/ Clark

70
Dualism between culture approach and economic
approach
  • The early 1990s recession brought an end to large
    scale gentrification, seemingly supporting the
    culture hypothesis
  • Note Demographics pointed in the direction of
    there being more people that would be interested
    in living in the suburbs at that time (maturing
    families)
  • Two sides of the same coin, rather than a
    polarity of culture and economics
  • Dualism is only problematic if ethnic identity
    may be marketed to sell real estate, because it
    draws the attention away from the way cultural
    amenities are strategically produced

71
Toronto examples
  • Some areas have historical cultural identity, and
    some dont
  • Little Italy has an Italian history, but there
    has been a shift since the 1970s in the type of
    economy and population from traditional and
    family orientated to trendy, the ethnic swoosh is
    all that remained of the original Little Italy
  • College degree went up from 2.5 in 1971 to 32.5
    in 2001

72
Toronto examples
  • A history of many identities Greektown on the
    Danforth (Cuban, Afghani, Japanese, Greek)
  • Gentrification changed the economy, the
    population and housing
  • House value and rent higher than for metropolitan
    area as a whole, exclusion of everyone except
    upwardly mobile young professionals
  • More self-conscious promotion has led to a less
    trendy area than Little Italy, but still a
    happening place
  • Chains moved in

73
Branches moving into gentrified areas
74
Toronto examples
  • Corso Italia/ St. Clair area
  • Some Italian history, though more recent than
    Little Italy
  • Fashionable and high end, geographically and
    culturally isolated from rest of downtown, less
    tourist oriented
  • The feel remains more working class and more
    Italian than yup, even though there are early
    signs of gentrification

75
Toronto examples
  • Gerard India Bazaar
  • Interestingly, no ethnic history except for a
    Hindi movie theatre (Bollywood productions) that
    drew in the East-Indian crowd from all over the
    GTA
  • Entrepreneurs noticed the interest and started
    opening business but the residential identity was
    never parallelled
  • Many immigrants, mostly Chinese
  • Values of rent are below the metropolitan level
    and fluctuate considerably
  • Incomes have declined in this area

76
Culture/ Economy
  • Inclusion of culture seems analytically helpful
    for the study of cities
  • Reproduction of ethnicity for consumption is
    rarely to promote displacement of residents
  • Instead it attracts YUPs, whose activities are
    government supported (all levels of government)

77
Consequences of revitalization
  • Physical improvement of housing stock in the area
  • Physical improvement of neighbourhood
  • Higher prices and rents
  • Reduces inventory of low-cost housing
  • Dislodgement of original residents
  • Social fabric of neighbourhood decreases
  • Demand for local services (daily grocery
    shopping, schools) changes
  • Land use densities and patterns
  • Not necessarily bad or good

78
Literature for this session
  • Hackworth, J. J. Rekers (2005), Ethnic
    packaging and gentrification. The case of four
    neighbourhoods in Toronto. Urban Affairs Review
    41/2, pp. 211-236.
  • Slater, T. (2005), Gentrification in Canadas
    cities. In R. Atkinson and G. Bridge (eds),
    Gentrification in a global context the new urban
    colonialism, Chapter 3. London/ New York
    Routledge, pp. 39-56.
  • Smith, N. (1987), Gentrification and the rent
    gap. Annals of the Association of American
    Geographers, 77/3, pp. 462-465.
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