Gentrification is the transformation of a neighborhood from low value to high value.
To comprehend the gentrification process and its roots, you need to properly understand what 'value' means, how we evaluate it by today’s standards, how we define a healthy society, and why we measure these things in a particular way.
What are the authentic characteristics, KPIs, and metrics of a neighborhood with 'high' value?
How do we actually measure the well-being, happiness, and collective health of a neighborhood? What qualities and properties do we use to describe how much we love the area we live in, and why?
What do we actually evaluate to attribute a 'high' value to a living area? How do we invest in gentrification, and why do we do this?
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These are complex questions that require the thoughtful consideration of many different experts and ordinary human minds.
Most people today define 'value' as something purely economic or money-related. If you work for a bank or Wall Street, it might make sense to see 'value' in this way. But when talking about a living area, is the economy the right metric to assess the high 'value' of a neighborhood?
Is it the inflated real estate value, the well-paid corporate jobs of its citizens, or the big overpriced chain restaurants with mediocre food that define how cool and happy the neighborhood is?
Is it about how fancy, expensive, or trendy the shops are, or about how joyful and healthy the local community is?
Is it about how much money the people around you have, or is it about how many smiles you encounter when you walk down the street and how many neighbors take the time to say a genuine hello and ask how you’ve been doing lately?
Is it about how rich and fancy your living area is, or about how pleasurable and enjoyable it is for you to live there and your potential to build a vibrant and abundant community with those around you?
The actual well-being of a living community of human beings should not be measured by economic value. It makes no sense, and those numbers mean nothing in evaluating such things.
A community’s well-being is measured by how close the best available food is to their tables and how affordable it is for them to nourish themselves healthily.
The number of community gardens and citizens having time to grow their own tomatoes should be an indicator of a healthy local community, not the presence of overpriced organic shops importing goods from far away.
How much citizens invest of their time, effort, and personal energy to take care of their environment, their local community, each other, and the overall well-being of their area should give us an idea of how much value a neighborhood has.
The kindness and simplicity of a happy and healthy life make a community abundant, successful, and joyful—not how well the pockets of its citizens are filled with money.
If your landlord had to evict an elderly woman to offer you a triple-priced, newly renovated apartment, that is not what a 'high-value' community should be.
The 'crazy' person near the metro or the addict in his tent in the park might have been the one who lived in your apartment a couple of years ago but was evicted to make your area more gentrified, richer, and to offer you a cool place to stay and build your new urban cosmopolitan life.
If, when you go to a local café, there’s literally no one to talk to because everyone is engrossed in important work behind their screens, it’s not a sign of a healthy and resilient local community.
When you don’t know your neighbors' names or don’t understand why most local businesses in your area don’t survive more than three years, you can’t seriously talk about a strong and coherent social network.
If you don’t take the time to understand why the parks and streets of our wealthy neighborhoods are also filled with poverty, mental health issues, and violence, you are not building a truly high-value shared living area for us or our kids.
You’re just creating another illusion that perpetual growth is possible and that we can magically survive and be happy without bothering to invest time and energy in co-creating cultural, social, and natural abundance for ourselves.
Do you think systemic happiness and authentic health will fall into your lap if you economically gentrify your neighborhood? Do you think the price of the apartment, overpriced coffee shops, or the concentration of fancy yoga studios defines the quality of your community or your personal life?
Or is it actually about the people you meet daily on the streets and say a genuine, “Hello, how are you?” to?
Is it about how many collective dinners you’ve had with your neighbors this week, or about how many restaurants are open past 11 p.m.?
Is it about how tall and big the private buildings are, or about how many parks and natural spaces, social clubs, and shared public areas you have access to for spending quality time with your local community?
Is it about a community where its citizens earn over $150,000 per year while working over 100 hours per week, or about a community that generates local wealth and abundance beyond those numbers but in a more responsible and enjoyable way by working together to co-create a neighborhood where they actually want to relax and connect with others?
People who might have less money but more energy, time, and personal motivation to build a living area and shared space that has meaning and real value to them—not to enrich the system of economic nonsense by spending our lives working in boxed offices, uncomfortably dressed in front of a computer to pay for expensive apartments in cool living areas we have no time to enjoy or benefit from.
What is the true 'value' of a shared living space, a local community, or an abundant, coherent, and meaningful neighborhood?
How do you evaluate the well-being and systemic health of the people walking next to you every day?
How much are you actually contributing of your personal energy, time, and inner resources to make your own local community more efficient, more resilient, more sustainable, and simply happier?
Should the value of gentrification be evaluated in terms of economic value, or in terms of the systemic well-being of its citizens and the quality of their social relationships?
Do you want wealthy neighbors, or do you want neighbors who have time to take a walk with you, to go for tea, or even to co-create a project with you to make your area even more meaningful and coherent for all of us?
We decide what 'value' means to us. We are also all responsible and accountable for this choice. We are the ones to co-create a shared reality that has authentic value (or not).
Gentrification can also be the process of transforming a neighborhood from low happiness and well-being to high shared joy, health, and collective accomplishment.
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