Urban Revitalization without Gentrification

Basics

• This page aims to combine The History of Urban Revitalization Efforts and discussions on the concept of Gentrification into a unified stance/policy to apply as part of potential OSE / OBI Programs in Low Income Areas
• Be Aware this page is still a work in progress

Preface

• Upon seeing the conditions those living in Low Income (and thus often High Crime / Low Investment, Social Contract Collapse, etc) Areas such as Favelas, Ghettos, and Shantytowns most people want to help
• This admirable and should be done
• HOWEVER:
  • Before "diving into" anything one should do their reading and understand the underlying issues for that area that lead to it being that way
  • Any solutions should be made in collaboration with the local community; One should respect their Collective Agency
    • Individual Agency / Sense of Agency are also related, but this second point overall needs some clarification

Internal Links

• Renovation with a Focus on Current Building Code Compliance in Shantytowns
  • I remember in the Precious Plastic discord a while back, one of the people who was also in the OSE discord was discussing with some people on using Recycled Plastic Bricks for construction. He mentioned a concern similar to mine on the Fire Risk.
    • Due to being built very densely, and with little Passive Fire Safety (or accomodations for Firefighting in terms of Fire Lanes etc) short of what people can assume would be wise to do (Plenty of people made mistakes in order for the Building Codes to get all their rules so it's reasonable for it to happen again, sort of the evil side of Inevitable Invention ), but more importantly with only what the people could afford, Fires spread RAPIDLY in Shantytowns and kill/injure more than planned developments (*Citation needed)
  • It would be very interesting to look into equitable ways of dealing with the issue of them (and what has been done already, what worked, what was horrible etc)

External Links

• Urban Renewal (Seems there are quite a few different terms, 'Urban Redevelopment" may be a better term. Although "revitalization" could also encompass poverty reduction/mental health+other healthcare infrastructure improvement, etc. A pessimist could call it an innuendo to an extent, so there is that aspect to look into
• The Wikipedia Page On Gentrification
• A "Definitions" Section may be good pre-discussion section so everyone would know what one meant by each phrase:
  • • The Wikipedia Page On Ghetto defines one as:
      • "A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure.[1] Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city."
      • I understood this context in "Ghettoization", but didn't realize that was the proper usage of the word, in the American English i have heard it focuses mainly on the area having that visible symptoms of poverty etc, but in hindsight with Redlining and all that it makes sense
  • The Wikipedia Page On Skid Row (This term could work, but is a bit archaic short of mention in music/movies etc)
  • The Wikipedia Page On Slums
    • This is interesting too in that it focuses not just on the poverty but highlights the mass Rural to Urban Migration aspect (although this may better fit Shantytowns )
    • At the end of the day as long as everyone knows what you mean when you say the name, and it fits all contexts it needs to it works
    • I personally feel Low Income Neighborhoods or perhaps with the preface "Chronically-" or "Historically-" works well, i'd love to hear what others think about all this
    • As per usual looking into non-wikipedia media and sources will be useful
• Relevant Articles and Papers to Look Through Later:
• "Is Urban Revitalization Without Gentrification Possible?" - Jared L Green
• A 2023 Article from the 7th Edition of "Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems" Titled "Scaffolding collective agency curriculum within food-systems education programs"
• A 2017 Paper Titled "Linking Individual and Collective Agency for Enhancing Community Resilience in Northern Ghana"
• A 2016 Paper in BCM Medical Ethics Titled "Collective agency and the concept of ‘public’ in public involvement: A practice-oriented analysis"