What is the difference between Revitalization vs. Gentrification ?

Revitalizing communities with home-owner rehabilitation, new housing, first-time homebuyer’s assistance, and adequate supportive services. Given the opportunity, most long time residents would choose to return to their own neighborhood, if adequate affordable housing was presented to them. So, as we think about gentrification, I ask that you keep in mind the difference between gentrification and revitalization.
Only by the process of revitalization can communities keep intact and avoid creating more homelessness. Gentrification means restoration of deteriorated urban property by the middle and upper classes, often resulting in the displacement of lower-income people and revitalization is to give new life to a community, by creating decent, safe, and stable affordable housing. It is vital, in order to prevent future homelessness and end current homelessness. However, when thinking and talking about affordable housing, it is important to frame our thoughts and words in ways that build people and communities up, rather then tearing them down.
James Jacob states,” The Death and life of Great American Cities, “Convention planning embodies a fantasy about the bewildering presence of people in slum, whose slums do not conform to slum dwellers such people are characterized as victims of inertia.…who need a push by forcing them to better themselves, which means finding their squadron of price tagged population and marching with it.” Slums and population are the victims and the perpetuators of seemingly endless troubles that reinforce each other. Slums operate a vicious cycle that deteriorates the people and community. These housing projects must be converted to assist human life and empower urban communities. Projects are too dangerous, demoralizing, and unstable within themselves, they make it too hard in many cases to maintain tolerable family and healthy community.
Noting the revitalization programs has helped govenerment, the commonwealth’s downtowns, and long time constituents. Many political leaders enthusiastically agreed and passed legislation unanimously on behalf of these urban planning programs. The Revitalization program was created to strengthen the older historic neighborhoods that characterize many of the commonwealth’s communities. Too many of them today are beset by low property values, a negative image, and perceptions of poor public safety. While Revitalization programs have made positive changes in older urban communities, however, urban communities that are surrounded by distressed neighborhoods continue to struggle despite gentrification being intergraded in many inner city communities.

Theories of Gentrification

The process of gentrification has begun to affect the majority of large and moderately sized urban areas, including Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, gentrification is changing the demographic in Atlanta. Historically, time has demonstrated that when middle class families and yuppies move into urban communities, too often existing communities are displaced, due to high unaffordable housing. Gentrification results in the rich getting wealthier and the poor getting poorer. Gentrification has not only displaced long time senior residents, but has also shaped urban communities. To say that a neighborhood has gentrified conjures up images of yuppie pioneers buying up fabulous old houses and then renovating them for thousands of dollars. After business, such as star bucks and the food emporium then follow behind these urban pioneers. But for people who are living there, often people of color, gentrification equals dislocation. In Urban Visionary, Jane Jacob states, “Community leaders, sometimes refers to this process as hood snatching.”
The term "gentrification" was coined in 1964, by British sociologist Ruth Glass. She used the word to refer to what was then taking place in a part of London called Islington neighborhood. Islington originated as an affluent place, but had become a rough, working-class area. In the 1960s, it experienced gentrification. The London papers reported that a working class family sold it’s Islington house for £750,000 while it was actually worth £1.5 million. The word "gentrification" first appeared in the New York Times in 1972 in reference to London. Gentrification has since spread to London, and is evident in many cities in America. As many urban areas continue to attract newcomers and refurbish old buildings, creative citizens who have been living in urban areas are being driven out to make way for rich and middle class people.
The word gentrification brings different images to mind for different people. The term gentrification means a process in which low cost, deteriorated neighborhoods experience urban restoration and an increase in property values along with a flood of wealthier residents, who displace the neighborhoods original inhabitants.

What is a Neighborhood Planning Unit?

The City of Atlanta is divided into twenty-four Neighborhood Planning Units or NPUs, which are citizen advisory councils that make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on zoning, land use, and other planning issues.  The NPU system was established in 1974 to provide an opportunity for citizens to participate actively in the Comprehensive Development Plan, which is the city's vision for the next five, ten, and fifteen years.  It's also used as a way for citizens to receive information concerning all functions of city government.  The system enables citizens to express ideas and comment on city plans and proposals while assisting the city in developing plans that best meet the needs of different areas.

Mix Communities and Rent Gap

Effective strategies for building revitalized mixed-income communities, expanding affordable housing opportunities, and maintaining some of the original neighborhood flavor. Maintaining economically and socially diverse communities while minimizing transition costs that otherwise fall unfairly on lower income residents.

Trend-setters

Artists started the recent renaissance, Castleberry Hill is now home to more than 900 residents in more than 500 lofts, everyone from first-time homebuyers to empty nesters. "Atlanta artists were looking for a cool, funky place to live," he says. "They uncovered a treasure for the entire city."Miller Gallman Developers has had a string of successes in the neighborhood. The company's philosophy of retaining historical integrity by converting underutilized space has been a good fit with the community. It has recently announced its latest project, Castleberry Point – a four-story building that will serve as the gateway to Castleberry Hill on Centennial Olympic Park Drive.

Umbrella of Gentrification

Neighborhoods+Developers+Gentrifiers+Displacement of Old Residents

A neighbor in Castleberry Hill states, "One of my first realizations was that suburban living just wasn't for me.I'd always liked the thought of living in a loft and had some friends moving to Castleberry Hill around that time." She states that she wanted a creative intown neighborhood that would feel less "disconnected" from the energy and culture of Atlanta. So she says, she went and had look at the neighborhood that was being gentrified. She found a whole lot of creativity going on in this three-block triangle between CNN Center and Atlanta's West End. Photographers, artists and designers of all kinds have set up shop in the historic warehouse district, bordered by Walker and Peters streets. At least a dozen art galleries are open, including Skot Foreman Fine Art and Marcia Wood Gallery. Castleberry Hill features Atlanta's largest concentration of authentic railway buildings and is on the National Register of Historic Places, but behind the gritty, industrial facades are chic lofts, studios and shops.

More than a decade ago, Skelton became one of Atlanta's first urban pioneers when he converted a Castleberry Hill building into a beautiful loft project. Back then, loft projects weren't exactly trendy in Atlanta."When I started in 1989, people thought of lofts in terms of Flashdance -- leaky roofs, wet puddles, huge empty spaces, Skelton recalls. "Flash forward to 2000: Loft living is the latest rage in downtown Atlanta. It's tough to traverse a major city thoroughfare without spotting another loft project under way. A true renaissance is emerging in downtown Atlanta.

The gentrification of urban areas can be beneficial when it is managed in a way that improves a neighborhood’s economic vitality without compromising. While the revitalization trend has attracted much-needed private investment in U.S. cities, participants said that neighborhood makeovers have, in some cases, ignored the heritage of existing neighborhoods, ultimately causing the entire city to lose a piece of its unique identity. James Carr, senior vice president of the Fannie Mae Foundation in Washington, D.C. Stated, “There is a much smaller focus on those who are mixed out…..We need to find more ways to preserve the cultural authenticity of a neighborhood that is undergoing gentrification.”

Background on Gentrification

The process of gentrification has begun to affect the majority of large and moderately sized urban areas, including Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, gentrification is changing the demographic in Atlanta.The term "gentrification" was coined in 1964, by British sociologist Ruth Glass. She used the word to refer to what was then taking place in a part of London called Islington neighborhood. Islington originated as an affluent place, but had become a rough, working-class area. In the 1960s, it experienced gentrification. The London papers reported that a working class family sold it’s Islington house for £750,000 while it was actually worth £1.5 million. The word "gentrification" first appeared in the New York Times in 1972 in reference to London. Gentrification has since spread to London, and is evident in many cities in America.