9 Ways Privileged People Can Reduce the Negative Impact of Gentrification

[leanderman]

You've just shat all over your own argument. The sort of exclusivity you're talking about...it excludes the majority in an area like this. Economically and socially, which is a great way to be made to feel about the area you've grown up in/spent most of your life in.

Projection again, though it may be true.

 

[299 old timer]

You've just shat all over your own argument. The sort of exclusivity you're talking about...it excludes the majority in an area like this. Economically and socially, which is a great way to be made to feel about the area you've grown up in/spent most of your life in.

I've lived round these parts all my life. Longer, I'd say, than the majority of the johnny come lately types on here, judging by the comments. Anyway, I'd rather not spend 9 quid on a cocktail any place, and I certainly don't have the money to spend on the bookies, of which there are 3 on the High Street. I note the local community avail themselves of that particular vice well enough.

What you probably do realise, is that this exclusive cobblers works, it's the oldest trick in the book. If you fall for it. Why would locals want to go to some crappy overpriced cocktail bar when there are better places to go to?
As the poster Co-op mentions, it's the landlord who is mostly to blame.

 

[IC3D]

The key factor is the local night businesses getting shut down is noise. It only takes one complaint by cunty and areas change. See soho and work outwards in all directions.

 

[editor]

Why would locals want to go to some crappy overpriced cocktail bar when there are better places to go to?

Sadly, the presence of crappy overpriced cocktail bars often marks the beginning of the end for 'better places to go' (i.e old fashioned pubs).

 

[editor]

The Kaff ones are cheaper than Shrub but some of this may be explained by significantly lower alcohol content.

How does this alcohol content/price argument work?

 

[leanderman]

How does this alcohol content/price argument work?

One shot rather than two etc

 

[Winot]

One shot rather than two etc

One shot cocktails are as pointless as one shot coffees.

 

[JTG]

Hadn't noticed this was in the brixton forum. That advice then would be better directed at places just starting to come under threat - in bristol we'd be looking at whitehall, eastville...

I fear Whitehall may be lost already.

I'll see what I can do about Eastville

 

[ViolentPanda]

I've lived round these parts all my life. Longer, I'd say, than the majority of the johnny come lately types on here, judging by the comments.

At least that's what you'd like to think.

Anyway, I'd rather not spend 9 quid on a cocktail any place, and I certainly don't have the money to spend on the bookies, of which there are 3 on the High Street. I note the local community avail themselves of that particular vice well enough.

That's right. Us council estate scum can't do without putting a few quid on the 3.30 at Newmarket.

What you probably do realise, is that this exclusive cobblers works, it's the oldest trick in the book. If you fall for it. Why would locals want to go to some crappy overpriced cocktail bar when there are better places to go to?
As the poster Co-op mentions, it's the landlord who is mostly to blame.

The problem, which you appear to be unable to see, is that eventually there will be little "old Brixton" left, and that includes the shops etc that make living here bearable for anyone on a low income.
We're being progressively excluded from the area (even by Lambeth Council, who feel that there's "too much" social housing in the borough). That's a physical fact. The exclusivity isn't just about a handful of shops and restaurants, it's about the alteration of the area from a multi-class, multi-ethnic place where everyone tries to rub along, to an increasingly monocultural desert being peopled by the aspirational middle classes, the majority of whom are white.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Projection again, though it may be true.

So I'm projecting my opinion onto...other people...the area?
Or perhaps you don't quite understand what "projection" means?

 

[editor]

One shot rather than two etc

Not sure how much stronger you want a cocktail to be, but some of the ones I've had from Kaff have been strong enough for my tastes.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The key factor is the local night businesses getting shut down is noise. It only takes one complaint by cunty and areas change. See soho and work outwards in all directions.

It's not just urban settings either, where this happens. Apparently, my uncle's favourite pub, just outside Norwich, has just lost its' entertainment licence after several people from a newbuild private estate next door had a whine to the licencing committee.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Not sure how much stronger you want a cocktail to be, but some of the ones I've had from Kaff have been strong enough for my tastes.

The man is/was a journo. He needs at least 3 measures of spirits in a cocktail to provide his essential daily intake!

Ah, those were the days...

 

[299 old timer]

At least that's what you'd like to think..

That's what I know, given previous comments on how long people have been in the area. Go speculate and grasp at straws elsewhere.

Yep, folk can waste their money down the bookies (3 in one High St!) or they can waste it in some crappy cocktail bar.

 

[editor]

Yep, folk can waste their money down the bookies (3 in one High St!) or they can waste it in some crappy cocktail bar.

If they can afford the cocktails, of course.

 

[299 old timer]

If they can afford the cocktails, of course.

Of course.

 

[ViolentPanda]

That's what I know, given previous comments on how long people have been in the area. Go speculate and grasp at straws elsewhere.

It's "grasp", and I'm not speculating.

Yep, folk can waste their money down the bookies (3 in one High St!) or they can waste it in some crappy cocktail bar.

And we're all grateful for your permission to do so, believe me!

 

[leanderman]

So I'm projecting my opinion onto...other people...the area?
Or perhaps you don't quite understand what "projection" means?

True. What I meant was ... presuming that others feel the same way as oneself.

 

[299 old timer]

It's "grasp"

Yeah, that's what is written

 

[ViolentPanda]

True. What I meant was ... presuming that others feel the same way as oneself.

I'm not presuming. I'm passing on what I hear around me. Admittedly, one is slightly more likely to hear such sentiment if one lives in social housing, but I don't need to presume that people feel the same when they're actually enunciating those sentiments.

 

[ash]

At least that's what you'd like to think.



That's right. Us council estate scum can't do without putting a few quid on the 3.30 at Newmarket.



The problem, which you appear to be unable to see, is that eventually there will be little "old Brixton" left, and that includes the shops etc that make living here bearable for anyone on a low income.
We're being progressively excluded from the area (even by Lambeth Council, who feel that there's "too much" social housing in the borough). That's a physical fact. The exclusivity isn't just about a handful of shops and restaurants, it's about the alteration of the area from a multi-class, multi-ethnic place where everyone tries to rub along, to an increasingly monocultural desert being peopled by the aspirational middle classes, the majority of whom are white.

It's also about the 'practical and day to day living shops' - when I lived in Clapham (no burning torches please : )) there was a lovely Cypriot green grocers, a butchers and the clapham north cobbler (shoe mender-not a loaf or pub) -all demised sadly and replaced by bars for the young interlopers. The 24 hour convenience store opposite the railway has recently closed after competing with Sainsburys local for 11 years; so on and so on. In brixton we have lost shops and will loose more.

 

[leanderman]

I'm not presuming. I'm passing on what I hear around me. Admittedly, one is slightly more likely to hear such sentiment if one lives in social housing, but I don't need to presume that people feel the same when they're actually enunciating those sentiments.

It's not what I have heard in this road, which is half social housing.

 

[Manter]

Possibly because it is impossible to stop "gentrification". Money speaks loudest. Local voices get overwhelmed by the sound of the pound.

I know there is a bigger piece we probably can't influence around government policy and London's status as a world financial haven- and that was what they were getting at with their final point about voting- but it just felt like a lot of earnest talking points for liberal guilt.... To Winot's point, what does one actually *do* to mitigate the impact of just being here?
I try and use local businesses*, I try to be a responsible member of the community......But by the virtue of just being who I am I am contributing to gentrification. So what can I actually *do*? Carry on as I am and feel guilty? What use is that to anyone? Is there an actual, concrete do differently?

*where they produce anything I might conceivably want- but even that decision is a function of gentrification.

 

[hot air baboon]

....from this eve's Standard...

Thackeray Estates, run by Brett Palos, stepson of billionaire retailer Philip Green (.....) strategy is to buy up clusters of properties — such as shopping parades with upper parts that can be refurbished into smart flats — with the aim of improving a neighbourhood by building a “village”.

“One thing that grates on us is the inability of successful people, career professionals, to buy a flat in central London. They go to university, become a lawyer or accountant, but still can’t afford it.”

Dover House, a former hotel and restaurant in Waterloo, is its latest project..

“It’s quirky and individual, with an organic food shop, a vintage clothes store and even a moped retailer that sells coffee,”

.....pretty much covers the day-to-day requirements then...

 

[editor]

....from this eve's Standard...

One thing that grates on us is the inability of successful people, career professionals, to buy a flat in central London

I want to debag him and throw him in a vat of piranha.

 

[leanderman]

Brixton's Junction development featured in the ES today:

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/bank-brixton-new-flats-first-time-buyers

£200k gets you half a one-bedroom flat.

 

[tony heath]

There was a thread on here about rich Americans popping round to their neighbours with a tray of cakes, nice. Also they could put their unwanted furniture, clothes, electronics etc outside instead of taking them down the dump, and they could rent out spare rooms at a peppercorn rent to anarcho punk syndicalists

 

[Belushi]

Brixton's Junction development featured in the ES today:

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/bank-brixton-new-flats-first-time-buyers

£200k gets you half a one-bedroom flat.

Another developers pic containing only white people..

 

[Manter]

I think it's a very balanced piece. That's why I posted it, but already the same old off-topic guff about 'obsessions' with the are Village being brought up.
No one is saying that here either, but if new businesses are going to claim that they're part of the community or that they are truly accessible to all or that they're somehow continuing a local tradition, it's only right that those claims are examined. I'm not convinced by Wahaca's highly selective approach in this regard, for example, <<snip>>.

The wahaca thing is interesting. They have used a local artist to paint the outside: the lampshades were a commission from another local artist. They are supporting small local businesses (it would be easier and cheaper for them to do what most chains do, and use their usual decorators and suppliers and get bulk discounts).... But I can see how, if your memory is of a fundamentally different Brady's, that is no consolation.

 

[prunus]

Brixton's Junction development featured in the ES today:

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/bank-brixton-new-flats-first-time-buyers

£200k gets you half a one-bedroom flat.

Ah look at that lovely portrayal of Brixton's multi-ethnic culture. Fair warms the heart.