May 3, 2021
By Lucas Rentz, CAIRES Intern
Gentrification is a process that many Gainesville residents are far too familiar with. As development projects arise and wealthy individuals continue to displace community members, long-time residents fear for the future of East Gainesville. To them, the area has unique cultural and historical significance that is too often overlooked. While the COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed the rate of certain development projects, the pattern of gentrification shows no signs of slowing down.
Ethics are intertwined with gentrification and should be at the forefront of discussions on the issue. More often than not, the moral and ethical side of gentrification is ignored in favor of economic and political considerations. By limiting the discussion to these factors, you restrict productive conversation by oversimplifying the issue and ignoring much of the nuance. In order to tackle difficult problems like gentrification, we must incorporate ethics as a tool to help us reach conclusions.
Take a moment to consider what it means to be ethical. What are our obligations to the community we live in? How can we encourage diversity and promote fairness in Gainesville? How should we go about discussing issues such as gentrification? Who should be making decisions on gentrification? These are all fundamental questions that ought to play a role in how we discuss issues and draft policy as a community.
One of the central goals of the Ethics in the Public Sphere group has been to promote healthy, open, and productive conversations about difficult topics that impact our community. Given this mission, we asked ourselves the question: What is the most productive way we can go about discussing the issue of gentrification in Gainesville? This question led us to prepare our “Ethics on Tap” event. The purpose of this event was to engage local community members and create an open forum for people to converse with each other and hear from community advocates who wished to share their unique perspectives.
We held our event on April 15th at Cypress & Grove Brewing company for a crowd of students, local residents, and community members who were all interested in the issue of gentrification. The event consisted of both small and large group discussions with the goal of getting people taking and sharing ideas in a safe environment. The event also featured guest speaker Nkwanda Jah, a community advocate who voiced her experiences and perspective on gentrification in East Gainesville. In her address to the room, Nkwanda emphasized the importance of compassion and humanity in responding to the various challenges associated with gentrification. To learn more about the event, take a look at this article.
In addition to providing a forum for ideas and conversation, the event served as proof that people are interested in engaging with their fellow community members to discuss difficult topics, and they only need a productive space in which to do so. The Ethics in the Public Sphere group will continue to create these spaces in order to allow community members to discuss issues that are important to their lives and local area. Going forward we hope to continue holding both virtual and in-person events in order to accommodate as many people as possible.
While a vast majority of Gainesville faculty and students can often feel detached from the impacts of gentrification in our community, we have an obligation to our fellow residents to take on a more active role in the matter. Adopting a role in raising awareness and promoting productive conversation is just one way that we can assist individuals and community members who are facing the challenges associated with gentrification. It is important that we stay involved with issues that matter even if they do not impact us directly. Engaging in difficult conversations is a simple yet effective practice that can help us address issues as a community while learning from the unique perspectives of others.
Additional articles/recommended reading:
https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/01/a-tale-of-two-gainesvilles-development-along-the-east-west-divide
alligator.org/article/2020/09/looking-east-high-hopes-for-the-progress-of-east-gainesville?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest
https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/columns/more-voices/2020/08/03/robert-mounts-help-neighborhoods-prevent-encroachment-gentrification/112792110/