Dear Editor,

After reading one of the articles in your newspaper regarding the process of gentrification in
Charlotte, I felt it was only proper to bring up the topic once again. I need to clarify some
information on this phenomenon, particularly considering the affects it has on any community
that undertakes this approach. These happen to run differently than stated within the piece I
read, ending up hurting more individuals than helping in the way you describe. If you look for
further resources on this, please note the below list where I will list the ones I used. So as I
begin, I believe it is necessary for me to start from the beginning rather than actually explaining
what it means for each area outright, so I will do just that.
Gentrification affects many communities around the world, changing various parts of
the landscape (both physical and cultural) when undertaken. Charlotte, North Carolina, is one
of these areas where the affects can already be seen; even in an area that is mostly developed
and does well in most parts already. Going back a few steps, this specific process is what
happens when a city wants to update their status and attract more businesses, so they remodel
existing buildings and add new spaces looking to bring in wealthier individuals. They know with
these new people will come a neighborhood of “better quality,” so it is believed to eventually,
once severely put in place, benefit the area. It may have turned out differently than originally
intended though, considering both the pros and cons of the story.
First off on this list, we have the positive effects, changing the specific community for
the better. These are why places in Charlotte began following this protocol in the first place,
because they wanted their communities to have the benefits. For example, you found this
process occurred in areas where many low-income families reside, eventually replacing these
individuals with people of a higher economic status. Having the lower-income families replaced
eventually lead to higher graduation rates, better educational funding, and improvements in
infrastructure for the area. You have to note though, that these people had all of these
amenities before they moved in the first place. You can also see that property values also went
up after these improvements set in, giving the area an entirely whole new appeal, especially for
wealthy families who can afford the housing costs. This does not come without negative
consequences though, which affect many people both in and outside the focused location.
Some of these affects are not as serious and come with the territory, like higher housing costs
for example, but others are very serious and need to be paid close attention to. For example,
things such as the disproportionate displacement of minorities throughout the city compared to
their white counterparts is something evident due to this. It starts with the process taking over
low-income areas, and since poverty tends to affect minorities at a much higher rate than
majorities, they are affected at a much higher rate. In addition to this, when they gentrified
these areas, the people there previously were replaced with mostly upper-class whites. This
erases the culture present previously in the urban areas, hurting the cultural diversity of a
neighborhood or city in general. Not only this but having upper-class families in these hotspots
gives the majority a further advantage by putting them in some of the best areas, leaving
minority communities with less educational funding and much larger array of problems.
In the end, considering the disastrous affects, this was inevitably a bad policy to employ on the
local government’s part. It was a good idea when the plan when first presented, but it was
poorly undertaken. Even with the various positives presented previously, it only ever benefited
people already living in high-income areas, so the people it was meant to help were not able to
stay long enough to see the other side. It even ended up putting these individuals in a worse
position than before by displacing them from their previous home, forcing them to move
farther away from their jobs and current schools. Considering this, implementing gentrification
in Charlotte was not the best plan, putting me to disagree with your position within the article. I
hope you don’t take this to offense, for I am sure you did not know any better at the time, but I
hope I may have enlightened you towards a more humane stance which works to consider
everyone involved. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter!

Best Regards,
Felix Mathieson

Resources:
Bose, Devna. “Gentrification Is at the Doorstep. Can Black Investors Protect This Charlotte
Community?” Charlotteobserver.com, The Charlotte Observer, 27 Oct. 2020,
www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article246238200.html.
Johnson, Kimberly. “Gentrification In Charlotte: See Areas Most Affected.” Charlotte, NC Patch,
Patch, 22 Mar. 2019, patch.com/north-carolina/charlotte/gentrification-charlotte-see-
areas-most-affected