Student Thoughts: Wynwood’s gentrification displaces impoverished

Nicole Stone / Contributing Writer

Gentrification: the purchase and renovation of worn-down properties by wealthy individuals for revival.

Gentrification, in a sense, is all about the classic notion of “out with the old, in with the new” and it is occurring right here in Wynwood.

Wynwood is now affectionately titled the “art district” after being taken into the hands of various wealthy developers who saw its potential. Graffiti brings the district to life.; anyone who has been there has felt the atmospheric magic of being dwarfed by the art on the district’s towering buildings.

A night of enjoying this new Wynwood culture is quickly being added to bucket lists everywhere. There are coffee shops, classy restaurants and numerous bars to suit the nightlife groove sought by many checking out the district.

This rebirth would not have been possible without the encouragement of its developers. Among these developers are David Lombardi and Tony Goldman who helped push out the old and replaced it with upscale art museums and dining venues.

Unfortunately, all this came at the cost of the people who didn’t fit the portrait of a hip, new, Wynwood.

Gentrification is a dark and ugly process. A massive part of urban redevelopment is improving property values, something that isn’t foreign to Wynwood’s own redevelopment. More often than not, the original inhabitants are forced to leave, as they are unable to pay the increased rent.

During an interview featured in Camila Álvarez’s documentary, “Right to Wynwood,” Lombardi proudly recalls pushing out an entire building of tenants in order to demolish the structure.

“I delivered a big machine that rips the building down… I parked it there as an omen for them… The morning I got the permit [for demolition], I had the policemen come and knock on every door and tell them they had one hour to get out… They all stood on the sidewalk with their suitcases… I went by and wished them well on their future endeavors,” said Lombardi.

This displacement of one community of people for another should be firing alarms in the minds of Wynwood’s visitors. Maybe they are unaware of what gentrification truly means for the community; and it means the farthest from community.

If Wynwood is really about diverse people coming together in an urban microcosm, there should be options for the lower income residents who existed there previously. What is happening in Wynwood is not progress at all. It is just a flip in the social hierarchy of the city.

Instead of those with low-income, what we have now are high-income residents. Progress does not breed the elimination of entire communities; rather, it should integrate them. The truth of Wynwood’s revamping in particular is essentially “Out with the poor, in with the rich.”

The artists of Wynwood may not realize their role as catalysts for their own exploitation and the exploitations of their art. The art district in Wynwood was once an outlet for artists to put themselves out there and further develop their careers. After the incitement of Wynwood’s gentrification, art in Wynwood is no longer about art.

Wynwood’s art is a device to bring in an audience and raise property values. This art is about making money. Many of the artists featured in “Right to Wynwood” stated that they didn’t care why the art was there – what mattered to them was that it simply existed there, and bountifully.

The gentrification of Wynwood is not a light matter, and the costs of its progress should be taken into account when deciding whether this is truly a rags-to-riches success story.

[Image from Flickr, resized]