Thinking Aloud, on the gentrification of Harlem
BBC Radio 4 program Thinking Aloud investigates the impacts of gentrification on Harlem’s longtime residents. Listen to the mp3.
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gen·tri·fi·ca·tion (n.): “a benign ethnic cleansing”
“What’s kind of going on now is a benign ethnic cleansing of the borough of Manhattan. . .”
“The haunted house film mimics the workings of the real estate market…”
“The haunted house film mimics the workings of the real estate market”; the displaced homeless haunt the wealthy, urban gentrifiers. Sure, it’s late for Halloween, but I just read it:
Haunted-house escapism allows us to evade two fundamental truths: that on some level we participate in the displacement of others, and that we ourselves are vulnerable to displacement and homelessness. At the same time, the stigmatization of the homeless in media and in governmental policy has become so extreme that “we” equate the homeless with monsters. When you lose your home, you lose your membership in the human community. You become something else: a ghost, a monster.
A Monocle video report from Murmansk
Monocle’s Shaun Walker reports on the revival of Murmansk [wiki, map]. In the wake of the Cold War, the far-north Russian naval port went south; it seems to be doing much better now.
The gentrification of Beijing’s hutongs
Iain Masterton takes photographs of Beijing’s hutongs, the city’s maze of narrow streets and alleyways. These hutongs–and the way of life they foster–are increasingly falling victim to rapid and unchecked development. Sean Gallagher documents their destruction in a collection of photographs entitled Bye Bye Beijing.
Update: A simple Google image search also turns up some great hutong photographs.