Laura Gougeon, Brianna Montes, Edman Wong, Amber Thomas

Power and Imagination

Prof Trimble
May 21, 2016
Gentrification and Know Your City
The definition given by the Merriam-Webster dictionary for the word gentrification is,
the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent
people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents. The general history of this
problem seems to be simple: middle class people move into a neighborhood and drive out people
who have been living there longer. Many think that it is that simple, and that it is actually doing
these neighborhoods good, as the renewal and rebuilding tends to make the neighborhoods look
nicer and seem more friendly at first glance.
Though the remodeling may make these neighborhoods seem better to someone who is
looking for what they think is cheap housing in a hip and trendy part of portland, it is drastically
hurting the community that already exists. The neighborhoods it affects are usually poorer parts
of the city that are made up of people of color. As people come in, usually white college students
and families that are much more privileged and wealthy, housing prices shoot up, causing the
people who have been in these communities for years to suddenly begin having problems with
paying their bills. This pushes the original community members out, giving the new inhabitants
of the neighborhood more control to change more things, and erasing the culture and history of
the old neighborhood in the process.
Gentrification in Portland seems to be a very big conversation, which is good. The
majority of us had not heard about gentrification before moving to portland, though it didnt take

a lot of searching to find that a lot of people are talking about it and trying to change it. One
reason that we think it affects Portland a lot is because we have a certain reputation for having a
city so rich in history. People want to move here because they like the idea of living somewhere
that has a lot of cool backstory. This is fine, but it becomes a problem when the people who are
moving in are pushing out the people who know about and are part of the history of our city,
especially neighborhoods that have specific racial culture and history tied to them.
The main goal of Know Your City is to educate the people of Portland, so that
gentrification can be something that we are aware of. They give tours of neighborhoods that are
affected by gentrification and make videos teaching people about the issue. This is important to
do as people are still unaware that this is such a huge problem in Portland. By getting the
information out there, it makes it so that more people are willing to think before they contribute
to the problem and also gets more people interested in finding ways to make change. We have
talked in class about how educating others is one of the most important first steps in making any
change.
The idea of power and imagination came through several times throughout the process
that helped reinforce the analysis we concluded with on this project. One of the main ideas we
found was the use of power in the gentrification process was very prevalent especially with the
use of compensatory power was the one that was the most prominent. According to Galbraith,
compensatory power is the idea that people that have power are those who have all the money
and can buy their way through life (6). Gentrification allows real estate agents to raise the price
of housing which causes the people renting the houses to either be evicted from their homes
because they can no longer afford it anymore or it forces them to find a new job that will allow
them to afford the house (Grant). In both circumstance, it's a threat to the people that are

currently living in the community because the people with the money to buy the houses have the
power over those who no longer can afford it. At this point, with the renovations of housing,
higher income individuals come in and either buy the updated houses to either live in, which in
turn makes the low income people living there forced to leave or the new owners of the houses
raise the price of rent, which also would force the current tenants to move out unless they are
able to find a new higher paying job. Also, when the process of gentrification occurs, new
businesses are built in those neighborhoods that attract high income individuals and families. So
if the low income families are unable to afford these services, they will have no means to live
which is another threat in forcing individuals and families to leave (Delegato).
Ethically, gentrification breaks a few moral standards in the eyes of those who have to go
through it and the ones who understand how this problem affects people and the communities.
The process of gentrification is essentially wealthier people coming and buying land and homes
that they do not need besides for the purpose to show their power by owning as much property as
they can and making more money(Grant). This affects the low income individuals and families
because they earn the bare minimum to buy the essentials to survive. The ethics of the people
that run the low income families out of their homes is non existent. Also, the ethics of the banks
are not their either for the fact that they are the ones raising the prices of the homes so that they
can generate more money for their corporations.
The imaginative side of the gentrification process is through the forms of which Know
Your City and other organizations are helping solve the problem of gentrification. From
preserving the different cultures of the individuals living in the communities before all of the
renovations such as the Native americans to the African Americans, to doing group dialog
sessions in order to give different race individuals and families with difficult economic class

standings a new perspective on what the problem is with gentrification(Korn). These are creative
approaches on how to try and stop gentrification and inform people about the problem.
New ideas about power, imagination and ethics our researched has raised for our team is
that compensatory power does not have to be a directly buying people out of things but like in
the process of gentrification it's the threat the the people with power can show up and buy people
out without any warning. It also opened our eyes on the views of discrimination in today's
society. There are many ways and reasons for why people are discriminated against and in this
case it's through the material objects that people own from the cars they drive to the cloths that
they wear. Instead of using verbal or physical abuse to discriminate against them, they are getting
their homes and communities taken away from them by people with no higher statuses besides
that they have money on their side.
By renovating neighborhood's, long time residents are often driven out, or begin to feel
alienated from their communities. The increased price of property leads to the exclusion of
certain economic classes, and only allows for the inclusion of professional level salaries.
Gentrification leads to the separation of lower and upper class, those who can afford to buy and
renovate property are getting richer while those who cannot are being pushed out further into up
and coming neighborhoods.
In order for gentrification to stop, the institutions of capitalism must be regulated. Private
property, and free market lead to more consumption which ultimately leads to the continued
renovation and expansion of property. These institutions can give economic power to buyers who
want to continue gentrifying places in the world for profit. Capitalism is the institution that
America was founded on, politically it is the system of laissez-faire which means freedom. When
applied economically we get things like the free market and private property both of which the

government cannot control and regulate because thats how the system works. And through the
abuse of the institutions of private property, and free market the consumption and renovation of
properties continues worldwide.
The change agent Know Your City, isnt a typical change agent. Rather than protesting or
even petition signing they use the method of just educating people. They hold meetings with the
community to educate those who want to learn about gentrification and to allow those who have
been affected to speak out about the truth of gentrification. They also hold a more intimate
meetings in which people who have been affected by gentrification have a one on one talk with
those who support gentrification to give both sides different perspectives. They have asked
people who have been affected by gentrification to make videos to educate on gentrification as
well. They also have videos interviewing people and asking if they know anything about
gentrification. Most importantly they have tours in which they take you around to cultural hot
spots rather than the traditional hot spots. They take you to land that has been changed and
evolved due to gentrification and tell you what was originally on the land.
In most cases gentrification has been stopped when a community has come together
against a possible gentrification and all agreed and said that they wish for gentrification to stop.
A few social and responsibilities we hold are to stop accepting Portland's problems just because
Portland's as bad as other cities. Portland isn't New York or Los Angeles, but it's a fast growing
city. Slowly there's becoming more people than housing. Making affordable housing rather than
big, expensive, and cliche Portlandia housing could also help stop gentrification. Start being
aware of the true costs of gentrification. As Portland changes, figure out what's worth saving.
Things change no matter what, people buy up property and remodel and resell, thinking about
what is important and worth saving can make the remodeling less expensive and the outcome

more affordable. Realizing what's important to the people of Portland is what keeps the city
happy, having city meetings before making drastic changes to certain parts of town can give the
people of Portland a warning and a say in how they feel about the changes. Just talking about
gentrification and being aware of the costs economically and culturally can help bring together a
community to stop gentrification. Another responsibility is to stop viewing Portland as this cliche
hipster city. If we continue to think like this, it will attract more people who are willing to spend
money on that aesthetic causing rent prices to rise. Buying a home now in Portland and paying
mortgage is cheaper than renting in downtown.
Unfortunately, change isn't going to stop, eventually we could have more homeless than
people living in homes. Paying for a home can become just as expensive as renting. Portland can
become just like New York or Los Angeles, the rich living in the city while the poor all live on
the outskirts. But simply speaking out against gentrification and educating those who don't know
about it can help stop it or take gentrification into a different direction. Rather than making an
expensive building, making a new affordable living can be just as rewarding. People can
continue to afford rent and don't have to move out, and the owner continues to get their money
while not spending as much for a whole new modified one. Whether you've been here a year or a
lifetime, we're all stakeholders in Portland's future.

Works Cited
Drew, Emily M. "'Listening Through White Ears': Cross-Racial Dialogues As A Strategy To
Address The Racial Effects Of Gentrification." Journal Of Urban Affairs 34.1 (2012): 99115. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

Grant, Benjamin. "Flag Wars." PBS. PBS, 17 June 2003. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
Hwang, J. (2015). Gentrification in changing cities: Immigration, new diversity, and
racial inequality in neighborhood renewal. Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, 660(1), 319-340.
Korn, Peter. "Know Your City's Hidden Histories." Portland Tribune. N.p., 31 Mar. 2016.
Web. 04 May 2016.

McKinnish, Terra, Randall Walsh, and T. Kirk White. "Who Gentrifies Low-Income
Neighborhoods?" Journal of Urban Economics. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1
Mar. 2011. Web. 04 May 2016.
Paton, Kirsteen, Dr. Gentrification : A Working-Class Perspective. Farnham: Ashgate
Publishing Ltd, 2014. Ebook Library. Web. 05 May. 2016.
Sullivan, Daniel Monroe, and Samuel C. Shaw. "Retail Gentrification and Race: The
Case of Alberta Street in Portland, Oregon." Http://uar.sagepub.com/. 6 Apr. 2011. Web.
05 May 2016.
Delegato, Yume. "How to Fight for Portland." Portland Mercury. 17 June 2015. Web. 16
May 2016.