I’m not understanding how the renters benefit. I believe there are quite a few long term renters in the community, but don’t have any stats on that.
quit bringing empathy into this…some people just care about $$$
Renters don’t have a say in what happens to the property they are renting. I rent. If a developer bought my building and decided to level it for an Arby’s I would have to move. Such is life.
I also used to live in a rental house in 3rd Ward. The owner sold and that house is now two fancy townhouses. We couldn’t renew the lease and had to move.
That’s only because the people moving in are providing a larger tax revenue base to afford to fix up the area
In the 3rd Ward’s case, it’s a historically black population that wasn’t allowed to live in white neighborhoods once sprawling began in the 50s, so they were trapped in a low income community that was hardly given resources to improve. They were also not allowed the same job and education opportunities as white people and were thus stuck in an endless cycle of poverty and crime
If you’re a victim of gentrification, you don’t just magically gain enormous wealth. You likely end up being forced to move into another low income neighborhood.
Nobody wanted to live in 3rd Ward, midtown or Heights until the late 90s / early 2000s. Suddenly everyone once to live closer to cities now, and it forces the initial populations out because they can no longer afford rent or property tax anymore
Why are any of those resident better off in 3rd Ward as opposed to any of the suburbs Section102 mentioned above? I used to lifeguard in Fresno. It’s way better than 3rd Ward was before gentrification. Fort bend has way better schools. There is way less crime, etc etc etc. Its an opportunity for the current residents. Sugar Land has areas they could go to with what they’re getting for these shabby 5k sqft lots. Give me a break.
Because not everyone wants to live in suburbs.
Based on the historical patterns of urban sprawl especially Houston, suburbs that start gaining more black people naturally decline because the wealth leaves for newer white suburbs
Living in sugar land also requires a vehicle and lacks any decent public transportation
By the way I’m not actively fighting gentrification. It’s going to happen in the 3rd Ward regardless of anyone’s opinion. It’s also happening at a faster rate with each year
It’s an unfortunate situation, and I hope the area preserves the history so that new residents will always be reminded of what they are buying into
You can’t always get what you want, but if you try some times you just might find you get what you need.
I want to live in the city but it’s too expensive so when we buy we will probably buy in the suburbs. We all make tradeoffs. The more money you have the less you have to compromise I guess.
But if I lived in 3rd Ward and had kids, I would jump at the opportunity to buy in a safer area with better schools so maybe my kids didn’t have to grow up and live in a place like 3rd ward.
have you done a study on the development patterns of the United States.
Immigrant and ancestry groups move out of their lower value neighborhoods ALL THE TIME …like clock work.
The “Little XYZ’s” of most of the northeast and California cities were the poorest areas fit for only newly arrived immigrants or 1st generation Americans for EVER. Yeah, they are cute tourist attractions today but back in the day, Americans avoided those districts as they were deemed unsafe, and lower quality than where they lived.
In fact, the third ward has been emptying out for 50 years now, Only until recently, those African Americans that earned a college degree often moved OUT of the Third Ward on their own…they bought higher quality homes in the Houston suburbs…Pearland, Missouri City, Katy, etc.
Only until recently have they had the option of STAYING IN their neighborhood and WHY? Because there is scant evidence of some level one gentrification giving hope to residents who want their area to IMPROVE.
HEB is NOT whipping out their BEST Concept in the Third Ward…No, they leave that concept for Washington and Buffalo Speedway, etc. Instead they build a nice, but lower grade ‘Market’ line of their stores.
Now the bigger issue for the Third Ward are the schools that rank among the lowest in HISD…THAT is a problem and the ONLY way yo fix that is GENTRIFICATION as you have more parents move in that hold the teachers and school accountable.
HISD schools in the nicer areas, like Kirby/River Oaks/ etc. do not have that problem because their residents CARE…that’s one of the benefits of GENTRIFICATION…people who actually care about their surroundings move in and those that treat their neighborhood as a giant trash can…move out.
Not a race issue…there are White Trash examples everywhere…it;s a CARING ABOUT YOUR DISTRICT area. In fact, that’s one of the reason Houston has so many Management Districts…they know they need to keep their "District’ to a certain level.
Believe me I completely understand
But just keep in mind that suburban life is largely subsidized by dense inner cities. In other words, if you live any area outside the 610 loop, the infrastructure that allows you to commute into the city is also funded by taxpayers living in the loop who might not even use the same infrastructure.
Suburban life is not free and largely financially unsustainable, and the high property taxes has kept out black peoplev for decades
I think your perspective is very backwards, and HISD school in areas such as River Oaks do share a large percentage of black / brown kids. For example, a Mexican mother might have employment near river oaks in a minimum wage job and thus is able to get zoned to a school in the neighborhood.
It seems that you’re blaming victims of gentrification for their own problems without fundamentally understanding why gentrification happens in the first place
The culture of inner cities and suburbs are vastly different, and poor people for most of American history were not welcomed in suburbs
You’re also completely ignoring the significance of public transportation which is also largely rejected in suburbs
That’s what im saying…don’t follow race…don’t follow immigrant groups…this is America…
We aren’t a country of exclusuve ethnic enclaves…we are a country of opportunity.
The French speaking Cajuns are gone
The German speaking Germans that had enclaves in Houston are gone
By Gone…im mean living im a non exclusive area and the same has been hapoening to African Americans in Houston for the last 40 years.
They are well represented in the Houston suburbs along with a diverse group of Americans or newly arrived immigrants.
Ethnic enclaves have ALWAYS disperesed over time…100%
Just in one part of Manhattan the Dutch Areas became Chinese then Irish then Italian then Chinese Again with curious trendy Americans moving in
Look…im a living example of the benefits of gentrification.
My family lived in the dumbell tenements in the ethnic enclaves of Manhattan. Those buildings were so low quality they were viewed as death traps. Didn’t help that multiple Italian immigrant families lived in a single apartment.
So mu grandparents were displaced…first moving to Brooklyn and Queens and then to a working Jewish/Italian neighborhood on Long Island
From there, the education improved and my father became the first one in his family to go to college.
Almost all other erhnic groups share a similar benefit of gentrification and many residents of the third ward got out all on their own.
Why in the world do you want to keep people DOWN in a bubble that holds them back?
Their children deserve WAY BETTER than the worst schools in HISD!
Of course.
just saying not everyone benefits
And the schools, little by little, improved by the increased property tax.
That’s how the United States of America works
Gentrification? Looks like someone didn’t want to sell. I guess they wanted to keep their dilapidated house than sell it for like $300K.
![]()
This is north of UH.
Im not ignoring it…I grew up in the Houston suburbs in the 1980s…with African American neighbors.
You’re acting like they weren’t allowed to move to the suburbs on their own…that is FALSE!
Remember when this thread was about TDECU stadium renovations? Pepperidge Farm remembers…
![]()
[quote=“3rdWardCoog, post:1720, topic:53455”]
“Nobody wanted to live in 3rd Ward, midtown or Heights until the late 90s / early 2000s. Suddenly everyone once to live closer to cities now, and it forces the initial populations out because they can no longer afford rent or property tax anymore.”
Where have you been, dude? I bought my Heights house in 1985 because I couldn’t afford midtown, and there weren’t many affordable places left in the Heights then, unless you went west of Yale. My property value has grown 10x since then.
Nothing is a UH tradition like a good thread hijack on coogfans.
