Can Neighborhoods Be Revitalized Without Gentrifying Them? (xpost from GD)
http://www.thenation.com/article/trusting-baltimore-communities/Facing a change in administration in pending elections, activists are pushing a plan before the City Council to devote about $40 million to housing development, not just to fix up vacancies or construct commercial towers but to overhaul neighborhoods through developing Community Land Trusts. As weve reported before, the idea would be to establish communally owned property under a democratic governance structure, which allows residents and the surrounding neighborhood to cooperatively manage land and property use.
Baltimore struggles with both massive abandoned vacancies and pockets of gentrification. Residents face tracts of sky-high rents alongside chronically neglected housing stock, dividing wealthy and impoverished areas. Now the Baltimore Housing Roundtable, a coalition of grassroots groups, envisions a plan to curb displacement and rationalize the twisted housing market. It sees joint ownership as a path to revitalizing community oriented housing....
Under the CLTs cooperative ownership structure, the resident owns the property, while the community retains the land. The resident pays an annual leasing fee, plus other mortgage and maintenance expenses. When the property is sold, price is controlled through a prearranged agreement with a community authority, with representation from neighbors and public stakeholders such as local officials or community-development organizations. The homeowner can share in any appreciation of the sales value.
Press Virginia
(2,329 posts)to suddenly have the ability to pay for and maintain the property in a manner that would lead to appreciation without private developers building amenities to service the residents which, still, would only provide low wage jobs.
Like it or not, private development is the only real way to revitalize these communities
marmar
(78,064 posts)A neighborhood doesn't need to be wealthy and overrun with Starbucks to be vital.
Press Virginia
(2,329 posts)and it's certainly not a very promising program when the cities revenue stream relies on people who have trouble paying rent at their current residence.
The idea is to build something that attracts businesses like Starbucks who see opportunity to invest in the community...which is kind of hard when the people responsible for building it would need a job at Starbucks just to pay their "mortgage" and probably have littls to spend in the businesses that are essential in a community revitalization project.