Blog 1: The “G” Word.

When I began to hear the term gentrification used in academia it seemed like it was surrounded by an air of prohibition. It struck me as odd that so many people seemed to speak about it in the same hushed tone that they would normally reserve for other undesirable and uncomfortable topics like racism, as if it was too risqué to talk about publicly. It seemed that people would skirt the conversation around gentrification when it was mentioned, and I would often see terms like terms “urban development”, “neighborhood revitalization”, or “urban renewal” used synonymously for it in conversations and texts. Replacing the term "gentrification" with a term like “urban renewal” makes me uncomfortable though, because I feel that it is misleading. When I hear gentrification I think of displaced communities not revitalized communities. For our projects I am interested in learning more about the role that art can play in gentrification or community revitalization. I don't have any project ideas at the moment but I do have questions. How do public spaces change when neighborhoods are gentrified? Does gentrification reduce the amount of free public spaces? Is there a place for public/community art in gentrified neighborhoods?