Quote:
Originally Posted by miketoronto
Niwell, I am all for affortable housing. However the state these buildings are in is not good and I see no reason why we should turn a blind eye and act like everything is great and not press to get these buildings cleaned up. I am sorry, but there is no excuse to have broken lights and rusted childrens playgrounds, and act like this is great because the apartments are cheap.
The fact is that I would bet everyone of us on this site would not live in these buildings if given the chance, unless as a last resort. Because we all know the conditions are crappy.
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I think you completely missed what I was trying to say. Despite the exaggerations I'm pretty much on board with what you're saying regarding priority neighbourhoods such as this. You need to realize though that things are a bit more complicated than just saying "oh, we need to clean this place up!". These are privately owned buildings which are in the state they are (and charge the rents they do) because of the level of attention the owners give to them. TCHC is a different story of course, but if these conditions are to be addressed, where is the money coming from?
And induced gentrification as a by-product of building retrofits is a very real thing. If you're a building owner and decide to pour a bunch of money into fixing things up (and though the fixes may look minimal, I guarantee you they are not for large buildings of this age) you're going to want to get some return on your investment, right? That's the whole catch-22 of the tower renewal project, though as I said most proponents are acutely aware of this. I'm surprised you haven't talked about it at Ryerson if you're looking at such areas. We're not talking an influx of yuppies, but even a minimal rent increase has the potential to price many people out of these areas.
The residents of this particular area might be actively seeking change, but I know for a fact (based on empirical research done by a friend) other areas are wary of any change for the reasons cited above.
EDIT: And I'm using the word gentrification as a very general term here. Not in the classic "return of the gentry" sense but more the broad approach that's being taken but contemporary researchers such as Slater, Lees et al.