Gentrification 

North Philadelphia reminded Wes of the Baltimore neighborhood he had just left. The check-cashing stores instead of banks, the rows of beauty salons, liquor stores, laundromats, funeral homes, and their graffiti-laced walls were the universal streetscape of poverty. The hood was the hood, no matter what city you were in. But just blocks away from their uncle’s house, scattered evidence of gentrification—driven by the looming presence of Temple University—had started to manifest. Their uncle’s block, where half of the homes sat abandoned and burnt out, represented what the neighborhood had become. Blocks away, where newly built mixed-income homes sat next to picturesque buildings like the gothic Church of the Advocate, built in 1887, was the direction the neighborhood wanted to go. But even that dynamic wasn’t unique; the same thing was happening in Wes’s neighborhood, where Hopkins was the driving force of change, aimed at improving the quality of life for students and faculty. Wes wondered where people like him were supposed to go once they’d been priced out of the old neighborhoods, once the land changed hands right under their feet (p.153).

In this section, the other Wes is faced with a difficult realization. He notices that there are mixed income houses being added to “the hood”. Although this may sound like a positive thing, the improvement of a poor urban neighborhood many times does not match the budget of the citizens living in the area. Most of them are not happy to live there, it is just all they can afford. The better living conditions actually now poses a bigger problem because it increases the living costs in the area. This now means that these people who could not afford the living costs before, let alone now, must find a new place to live. This is why the text states, “Wes wondered where people like him were supposed to go once they’d been priced out of the old neighborhoods, once the land changed hands right under their feet” (p.153).

Gentrification is not an old concept. As a matter of fact it is happening right now in our communities. For instance, the Hudson County area has recently met with a lot of people who work in New York City moving to condominiums that are built in these poorer urban areas. It is not uncommon to walk past streets where people live in housing or buildings whose rent is incredibly high and are in bad conditions while on the corner seeing a nice and well-maintained condominium. This creates a very visible divide not only between the overall look of the neighborhoods but the social classes who reside in these neighborhoods. It creates an ‘us and them’ dilemma. As more people who have money move to a low-income area, this creates a vicious cycle in which the rent in that area becomes so high all the individuals eventually have to leave and that area becomes exclusive for the select few who can afford it. In the case of the people who lived there before, since their jobs do not allow them to pay the rent, they are forced to find housing in even more impoverished neighborhoods than what this place was before, in other words a downgrade from a downgrade. 

The reason why this is such a big problem is because it leaves a vast majority of people without housing. What is even more alarming, it can corner them to resort to illegal ways of obtaining rent money. There is no surprise that these communities have higher crime rates. Is it because the individuals decide to be criminals or because it is easier for them to make money on the streets than with the limited honorable jobs available for people that already have a criminal record? For a person who is trying to turn their life around it takes double the effort to do this. This is exactly what happened to Wes. 

Wes’s first job was as a landscaper at a home in Baltimore County. It was a temporary gig, and after five months he moved on to rehabbing homes in the city—another temporary job. After that, he worked as a food preparer at a mall in Baltimore. A year after completing the Job Corps training, Wes realized the only consistency in his employment was inconsistency. That, and the fact that none of these jobs paid over nine dollars an hour (p.144). 

The pressure was breaking Wes down. Alicia complained that he was not giving her enough money to provide for the kids they shared. Cheryl was now constantly calling him about wanting more time with the kids— which meant she wanted more money to take care of them. His mother needed more money because she was raising both Wes’s and Tony’s kids. Wes banged his fists against the top of his head as his elbows rested on the kitchen table. While at the Job Corps Center, Wes had felt his problems floating of in the soft country air of Laurel. A year after graduating, he realized they had not disappeared—they’d simply returned to Baltimore, waiting for him to come back. In his absence, they’d compounded. Tears welled in Wes’s eyes but never fell. He’d realized long ago that crying does no good (p.145).

The film In The Heights covers the issue of gentrification. The film discusses the lives of the members of a community who each have their own dreams they wish to accomplish. They all enter the lottery and are told one person had the winning ticket. In the song 96000 Sonny sings:

Yo, with 96, 000, I'd finally fix housing
Give the barrio computers and wireless web browsing
Your kids are living without a good edumacation change the station,
Teach them about gentrification, the rent is escalating (what?)
The rich are penetrating (what?)
We pay our corporations
When we should be demonstrating (what?)
What about immigration? (what?)
Politicians be hating (what?)
Racism in this nation's gone
From latent to blatent!
OOOH!
I'll cash my ticket and picket
Invest in protest
Never lose my focus 'til the
City takes notice
And you know this, man!
I'll never sleep
Because the ghetto has a million promises for me to keep!

This is a similar dream many kids have. They do not want to leave their homes; they want to preserve their culture and beauty. The film maker, Lin Manuel Miranda explains in an interview how the majority of neighborhoods in Broadway shows do not exist anymore due to gentrification and he explains his own encounters with gentrification while living as a New Yorker. 

Apple Music Interview

Gentrification is a topic that is getting discussed more and more. The more discussion around the topic the more we can find a solution. A way everyone can co-exist without kicking some people out of their homes. This was definitely a big topic in The Other Wes Moore. Both Wesses moved multiple times because they could not afford housing and usually this meant moving to disadvantaged neighborhoods. Years later, it continues to cause worry. However, the more this issue is discussed in the media and in classrooms, the higher chances we would have as a society to preserve the cultural beauty of old neighborhoods and create affordable housing for all. 

Works Cited

Moore, W. (2011). The other Wes Moore: One name, two Fates. Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks.

UrbanDisplacementProject. (2017). Gentrification explained . You Tube. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://youtu.be/V0zAvlmzDFc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment. (2021). In The Heights | 96,000 Sing-a-long | Warner Bros. Entertainment. You Tube. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://youtu.be/J1THRAluOGI.