Cultural economy

This is a review of a new book called Good Neighbors: Gentrifying Diversity in Boston’s South End  It describes how cultural cues and shifts are used as a means of wresting power away from a neighborhood's long-term residents and toward newer, wealthier arrivals. In New Orleans, we often worry that grumbling over the seeming cosmetic effects of gentrification, (i.e. hipster hating) obscures the more substantive story of economic displacement.  This study argues that the two are really one and the same.

Good Neighbors brings together culture and politics to show how such tastes can lead to political power for gentrifiers, creating a wedge with which they penetrate neighborhood organizations and assume authority over others. The process of forming a neighborhood elite in Boston’s South End happened, according to Tissot, not always through the often-colorful world of the city’s democratic politics but through voluntary associations that, despite being private, wielded considerable power—interior design or park conservation is not just a hobby. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of how groups use cultural capital for social advancement, Parisian sociologist Tissot shows how wealthier newcomers used city boards and nonprofits to mold Boston’s South End in their own image and to actively exclude those who lived there before them from decision-making and positions of power.

Of particular import for New Orleans are the way this dynamic plays out through the "Historic Preservation" movement. 

Historic preservation of Boston’s uniquely large stock of old homes is the key to the book’s cultural argument. In a series of lively accounts of home renovation, Tissot shows how neighborhood boards concerned with scrupulous Victorian “authenticity” for rehabbed houses often alienated community members through conversations littered with arcane architectural terms. That exclusionary discourse, Tissot argues, became the norm across many kinds of organizations and historic preservation itself became the paramount neighborhood issue. Not only did poorer long-term residents have less of a stake in this conversation—because they were less frequently homeowners—but the importance of properly restoring lintels and Doric columns often failed to move those among them living paycheck to paycheck. Tissot makes clear that this new community concern was not just an innocent refocus, based on gentrifiers’ group interests, but a deliberate ordering of what culture matters at the expense of less “worthy” subjects like rent control and subsidized preschool.

It's okay, though. Because those neighborhoods are now "revitalized" in the care of a better class of people who can truly appreciate them, right?  Think about that the next time the city comes around with a proposal to slap yet another "Historic District" designation on your neighborhood.

The next time is right now, by the way.

A committee studying the idea of making parts of Uptown New Orleans and Carrollton a local historic district will hold its second public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday (Oct 19) at 8539 Willow St.

The Uptown/Carrollton Historic District Study Committee is one of two panels recently appointed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu to consider expanding the jurisdiction of the city’s Historic District Landmarks Commission to additional areas. The HDLC already reviews changes to the exterior of properties in 14 historic neighborhoods.

The other committee is studying the Mid-City/Parkview area.

Sorry I don't see any information about how that public meeting went yet. But it looks like plans are proceeding apace. This is part of a larger study aimed at pretty much just putting historic districts everywhere if possible. 

Meanwhile, on a more positive note,  it looks like someone is at least trying to get the city to pay attention to the cost burdens of code enforcement or HDLC requirements on low income homeowners.

A city fund and tax millage New Orleans voters approved in 1991 to improve neighborhood housing and combat blight will be more directly applied to that mission starting in 2017. The City Council voted unanimously Thursday (Oct. 15) to update the Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund (NHIF) ordinance, adding more specificity to how its resources are spent.

Money from the fund has traditionally been used to pay for code enforcement, supporting city inspectors and attorney costs in addressing blighted structures around the city. The change the council made Thursday dedicates the fund to actual home improvements and affordable housing efforts. It would help owners pay to correct potential code violations, rather than fining them.

Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell authored the amendments to the NHIF ordinance.

"By updating the ordinance, we have two tremendous opportunities. First, we can begin to follow the law and use money as intended by voters ..." she said. "Second, we can use this opportunity to tie badly needed resources to affordable housing and special needs housing that are right now being identified in the (New Orleans Consolidated) Housing Plan.

This looks like they're talking about a 2 or 3 million dollar pot of money; not an  insignificant amount for its purpose if spent wisely. But, in the larger context, it just treats one symptom of the larger problem of  economic and cultural displacement.

Shrinking the HDLC footprint

The mayor is going to cause some garment rending with this one.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu not only opposes expanding the Historic District Landmark Commission's remit to regulate building and renovations, his vision for the city's preservation regime would actually shrink the area where you are required to seek special permission before demolishing structures.

Property owners in Hollygrove, Gert Town, most of the Lower 9th Ward, and parts of Broadmoor, Central City and the 7th Ward would be allowed to demolish houses and buildings on their land with no sign-off from the city required beyond a regular demolition permit.

Well, you know how Mitch loves to "fight blight." But this is much more complicated as we get into the tricky boards and fiefs set up, ostensibly, to "preserve" neighborhoods.

Landrieu wants to get rid of the Neighborhood Conservation District and its committee tasked with assessing demolition applications. The committee lacks a technical staff and was, until a recent reform, considered to be represent a legally tenuous restriction on private property rights.

The administration would like to limit the area where property owners need special demolition permits to historic districts, which are governed by the Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC).

However, the few existing historic districts cover only a small part of the city, mostly around the waterfront from the Irish Channel to Holy Cross in the Lower 9th Ward. Others are in Esplanade Ridge, Treme and Algiers Point.

Apart from the French Quarter, which is governed separately through the Vieux Carré Commission, the rest of the city operates outside the HDLC's control. If the Neighborhood Conservation District disappeared today, developers and property owners would have a free hand to demolish at will in hot real estate markets like Uptown and Mid-City.

So, yeah,  as we've seen over and over again, in post-Katina New Orleans, the only motivation anyone ever has for clearing land use red tape is so that someone can build more nice things for rich people. It should come as little surprise that Mitch wants to expedite demolitions in "hot real estate markets" now.

But too often all these boards do is harass people.  An HDLC inspector notices a transom out of place and suddenly a homeowner is ordered to affect an expensive cosmetic renovation.  At a recent public forum on gentrification, LaToya Cantrell noted that "code enforcement" (she was politically careful not to use the words "historic preservation") may be a check on wholesale redevelopment, but it's also a pressure point on less wealthy residents.

While Cantrell — both as a Broadmoor neighborhood leader and a city council member — is an advocate for property maintenance (for example, as a proponent of stronger inspections of rental properties), she said that code-enforcement can also add to the pressure low-income residents feel to move out of gentrifying historic neighborhoods. As houses are bought up and renovated, new residents may complain about the conditions of occupied homes, and a visit from Code Enforcement officials could serve as additional pressure for the long-time residents to simply sell and move somewhere cheaper.

“All of a sudden, somehow code enforcement is on them a little bit strong,” Cantrell said. “The 70-year-old is getting fines for her shutters, because the paint is peeling. They’re feeling the pressure.”

So while Mitch's proposal is sure to generate a round of heated discussion between developers and preservationists, it doesn't really matter to residents squeezed for affordable housing who wins this particular fight. All they're arguing over is who gets to gentrify these neighborhoods and how. 

Quote of the Day

“If I spent time verifying who was being honest, it would take all day.”


Deputy HDLC Director Eleanor Burke regarding a rather weird demolition request.

What does the VCC do again?

While powerless to do anything about the spread of noisy nuisance tourist traps, it's a real bitch when it comes to preventing French Quarter residents from availing themselves of common sense energy efficient technology.

Priorities.