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GEOG 340. Day 9 : Why Neighbourhoods Change. H ousekeeping Items.
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GEOG 340 Day 9: Why Neighbourhoods Change
Housekeeping Items • A mea culpa regarding the urban assignment. I thought I had sent it out, but apparently in the mad scramble I did not. It was on my flash drive which went missing in Nantes, but I will check my laptop tonight and see if it’s on there, in which case I will send it out.
Housekeeping Items • Just a reminder that the outlines are due on Thursday. • How did you like Bill Derby last Thursday? Any specific feedback? Unfortunately, numbers were fairly low that day. • Today, Dominique will be presenting on material covered last week, and Natasha will present on housing issues. Doug #1 can either present today or on Thursday, as he chooses. • Here are the criteria I’m using to evaluate the presentations: 1)Did the presentation give a brief, but useful, overview of the chapter or section thereof? 2( Were the slides, if used, well-organized and attractive – i.e. not text-heavy, having appropriate graphics, and aesthetically pleasing, not bland? 3)Was the presenter’s voice clear, without mumbling or tripping over words, and was their presence centred and confident? 4) Did they maintain eye contact with all parts of the room and not overly rely on reading? 5) Were the questions a useful starting-point for discussion, and was the discussion skillfully facilitated? [also whether you kept to time limits]
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • On p. 209, the authors make the statement that “for fragments of the urban fabric… 50 to 60 years can be considered to be a reasonable life expectancy.” • Having just come back from Europe, where buildings and houses date back 100s and, in some cases, 1000s of years, this is a very different reality. • The depreciation curve is caused, they say, by quality of initial construction and by ability of current residents to maintain their properties, including the role played by municipal maintenance.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • Housing and other structures can become obsolete because of new needs – for instance, for garages or other parking, or changes in desired residential appurtenances, such as kitchen layouts/ appliances, swimming pools, backyards, decks, etc. • Also: empty nesters may choose to move into condos with less maintenance requirements, and new families may take their place or, in areas that have become rundown and deteriorated, ‘urban pioneers’ may move in, such as artists and students who can’t afford expensive rent and who like the ‘edgy’ atmosphere. • See Figure 9.2. on p. 209 regarding the role of disinvestment, often aided in the past by red-lining.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • See Figure 9.4 for a visual continuum of the household life-cycle. What experience do you have with this process in terms of yourself, your family members, friends and acquaintances? • Last chapter we talked about the ‘political economy’ of urban development. Since incentives initiated under the Trudeau government to build rental apartments were discontinued, reasonably priced rental apartment units have become scarce in major Canadian housing markets. In addition, in Vancouver, many former rentals have been ‘condo-ized’ and sold off as private units. • Some neighbourhoods may be ripe for investment because of location – such as the Downtown Eastside – but have a population in place which is not keen to be pushed out of the way.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • Authors proposed model for neighbourhood change: • suburbanization (low-density single-family); • in-filling (multifamily and rental additions increase density and socioeconomic diversity); • downgrading (slow and steady deterioration); • thinning out (high population turnover; conversion and demolition); • renewal (public housing) or gentrification. • In the latter case, new residents or gentrifiers will often occupy old houses and invest sweat equity to renovate them to a new standard.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • Indian Village: an old wealthy Neighbourhood close to down- town Detroit.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • In addition, industrial precincts are often rezoned and converted to residential uses, as occurred with my neighbourhood in Vancouver, and with Concord Pacific and the Yaletown warehouse-to-loft conversions.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • Another factor that can influence neighbour-hood change is seniors cashing out their homes in a high-price market and moving into a lower-price market. Can you think of examples of that? • Also: seniors may move to the Sun Belt for part or all of the year. (In Europe, the equivalent would be Brits buying apartments in Portugal or elsewhere and driving up the price of real estate). • In general, housing serves four main needs: · shelter and privacy; · as a status good; · in an area with social and environmental amenities; · accessibility (to work, schools, shopping, entertainment, etc.) and convenience.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • One could also add affordability, and as a revenue source both short-term and long-term. What are the main factors that determine your housing choices? • While owning a home (or, less frequently, an apartment or condo) is the desired norm in North America, in Europe it is quite common for people to spend their whole lives renting. • Promoting home ownership tends to make people more conservative, and thus promoting home ownership has tended to be a key strategy for North American governments. In the U.S., owner-occupied dwellings went from 20% in 1920 to 68% in 2010.
Chapter 9 – Neighbourhood Change • The increase in home ownership and the decline of rentals was due, according to the authors, to four factors: · increasing affluence; · increasing perception of the benefits of home ownership, especially when it enabled one to live in neighbourhoods of one’s peers; · importance of homeownership to political and economic stability and its various multiplier effects, and · a sharp decline in the profitability of the rental sector (see detailed description on p. 213). • On Thursday, we’ll deal with public housing in the U.S. and Canada, and also with key agents that act to facilitate residential segregation.
