Gentrification is a consequence of improving economic circumstances. Decay is a consequence of declining economic circumstances.
Public policies can plaster over this fact somewhat, but generally policies like rent control or CA's Prop 13 make things worse rather than better.
I have visited Oakland plenty. It's a terrible place, due at least in part to bad public policy as described above.
Please, stay away from the terrible cities! Would you go so far as to call them shitholes?
I'm not tracking the argument you're making. Between the frequent revisions of your comments, I've gathered that HN users are bad for not visiting Oakland, but once you discover that we've been there, now you want us to stay away? I thought I was preferring gentrification to decay, but now I'm personally kicking people out of their houses?
Life is hard and unfair. I get it. But if you make choices based on a short-sighted compassion for the disadvantaged that entirely neglects long-term consequences, you will make life harder and more unfair. Exhibit A: CA's Prop 13.
Nobody is entitled to live in a certain community for a certain price. That road leads to a planned (and failed) economy.
I’m guessing you’re not.
Finally, there is obviously a huge spectrum between free and planned economy. You can probably fill in the rest of the argument from here.
What exactly do you think happens when an apartment complex gets purchased by a buyer whose plans are to redevelop (either remodel or demolish and rebuild) it for a more upscale market.
> Nobody is entitled to live in a certain community for a certain price.
Whether entitled or not, people are in fact harmed by being forcibly displaced from their home.
Once the building owner and tenant both fulfill that which they’ve agreed to, they can mutually choose to extend renew or not. If the building owner wants to redevelop, they need to wait for leases to run their term or they need to buy out of the lease with each tenant.
When they do that, they’ve fulfilled their end of the bargain. If a tenant wants more than that, they can negotiate (and pay for) lease renewal options. Most residential tenants do not (most commercial tenants do), but should then not be surprised when they don’t have that ironclad option to extend the lease that they didn’t choose to buy.
Yes, that's exactly a downward distribution of pain.
> "Forced" is the wrong term here.
As they are compelled by the actions of others, it is exactly the right word.
> Nobody deserves cheap rent.
That certainly includes the wealthier beneficiaries (the new residents, not the even wealthier investors) of government-subsidized gentrification, who are, after all, getting exaxtly what the poorer losers in that process are losing.
If nobody deserves it, taxpayers shouldn't be paying to transfer it from the poor to the wealthy.