Gentrification with Justice

Throughout this semester, I've been connecting discussions to my Urban Geography class because in that class we often talk about concentration of poverty and race. I'm writing my final paper on a topic we discussed a while ago about the idea of re-neighboring. Re-neighboring is the idea of people who have access to certain resources such as those who contain jobs and have an education relocating to inner-city neighborhoods that lack these resources. The neighborhoods formed in the first place for a few resources but namely, joblessness. This joblessness caused a concentration of impoverished people in certain inner-city areas. In these areas, we see the same cycle occur over and over simply because the people do not have access to outside resources to make any kind of change. This is where re-neighboring comes into play. People move in to these neighborhoods with the intent of connecting, as a neighbor, with these people to both provide and receive resources that the other doesn't have but could benefit from. In other words, it's not a bunch white, affluent people taking over these neighborhoods or the individual lives of these people. It's a mutual decision to become closer to our neighbors and provide each other with what we have to help end a period of social isolation and poverty.

I personally believe that this could be the forefront to social change. However, critics have presented opposing views. You can probably imagine the most heavily cited critique. Most people take this idea of re-neighboring to mean that white people (because yes, it is generally white faith based volunteers) need to move in to help impoverished black people and immigrants. This is absolutely not the case at all. From personal accounts of people who have chosen to move into these communities to support their neighbors, I've read stories where the new residents actually have gained more since they've been there than they felt they've contributed. Both groups has something to offer and they are mutually benefitting each other by strengthening their neighborly bonds, because that's what they are, that's what we all are, neighbors.

I see more benefit coming out of implementing this outreach, but clearly it has it opposition as well. Where do you think you would stand on the issue? A prominent group in this social change is FCS Urban Ministries, and you can go here to learn more about them like where they do their work and the successes they've had (http://fcsministries.org/). I think it's a highly interesting concept and is worth much, much more further investigating. Do you have any qualms about it? Do you think that it potentially instills this idea of racial separation in inequality even though it's bringing these communities together? Maybe I'm just being hopeful in thinking that all communities will see it this way when really some will see it as an infringement upon their rights and as subjecting the impoverished people.