Gentrification: [noun.]: The process of renewal and rebuilding accompanied by an increase of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents. (definition from Miriam-Webster, edited for clarity.) I realize from seeing my newsfeed tonight that the following opinion will be a controversial one, but I ask all of my friends, acquaintances, and people I love from Waxahachie to please read and consider. My degree focuses on architecture and the study of memory in urban spaces. In my classes, we spend an overwhelming amount of time talking about historic preservation, renovation, and the dirty step-child of the two, gentrification. The video Lake Moreno Partners has produced is visually stunning, and powerful. It shows all the beauty of Waxahachie, touches on history and local sense of pride, and is filled with buzz words- words that are exciting (renovation! culture! economic improvement! pioneers! development! LEGACY!), but are used to quickly get the viewers attention, interest, and agreement, without having actual depth or meaning behind them. The video is made to create a campaign that is impossible to disagree with. One of these buzz words, besides the ones listed above, is Bishop Arts. Lake Moreno Partners, the developer who has bought the cited roughly 63,000 sq ft in Waxahachie, is half owned by Jim Lake Companies. Jim Lake, the man in this video, is indeed responsible for what we now know as Bishop Arts- but it is not as simple, or as innocent of a change as he paints it to be. Jim Lake Companies does not specialize, or focus at all on historic preservation, as they claim to. They do not hold any type of preservation licensure. Historic preservation is an extremely expensive, strict process (I spent four months working with the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission of New York, and was constantly amazed at the amount of rules and insane costs of preservation). Jim Lake Companies did no historical preservation in Bishop Arts. We can then call the change in Bishop Arts either renovation, which in a city involves community empowerment (aka, giving and teaching residents who live in the area the tools that they need in order to succeed economically and socially [ie, in terms of money and happiness]), or it was gentrification, which is defined above as: The process of renewal and rebuilding accompanied by an increase of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents. Bishop Arts, along with the rest of Oak Cliff, was predominantly poor, and predominantly black (the two are often linked because of the affect that racism has on politics, education, employment, and stereotyping). Over the past several years, as Jim Lake Companies remodeled buildings (which is not allowed in historic preservation- you must make the building look exactly as it was when it was first built, using the same materials) and brought in new shops and restaurants, the population of Bishop Arts has completely changed: it has become mostly white, and mostly middle and upper-middle class. Jim Lake Companies brought in new vendors that were trendy- that young people from Dallas grouped as hipsters and yuppies would enjoy. Because the area was originally very cheap, the vendors were offered fantastic- even irresistible- prices for rent. Hundreds, if not thousands, of young entrepreneurs, chefs, craft workers, fashion retailers, and more submitted applications to open shops and restaurants. Jim Lake Companies were able to select the very best of the very best, and to select a group of vendors that all fit this trendy theme- which explains the perfect eclectic nature of Bishop Arts. Have you ever walked through the area and noticed how well the colors and design of the space go together? Quirky, yet not clashing? Thats Jim Lake Companies doing- they created a utopian little space, their perfect community. And they did a great job! Bishop Arts is fun, the food is awesome and often weird enough to be interesting, and it feels lively and exciting. However, it is still problematic. As mentioned above, the original rent for these new businesses and stores was cheap, because the area was cheap. However, it very soon became popular with young people from Dallas- as it was intended to, as many of the shops and restaurants were priced so highly that the local community could not afford them. As people from Dallas came in and spent money in the area, making the vendors more economically successful, rent rose. The vendors were doing well, so they could afford rent increases. Others were not so lucky. Most famously, El Padrino, a 20 year old taco stand that had been a community staple, closed. Local family owned business after local family owned business followed. The original population, the community which called North Oak Cliff home, was pushed further and further away from the neighborhoods center, as real estate prices rose and the businesses and restaurants that they could afford, the ones that had been run by community members who had lived in Bishop Arts their entire lives, closed. The new, better Bishop Arts was represented as being for new, better people. It was not renovation for the community, it was renovation for the developer (Jim Lake Company) to make money. And Jim Lake Company did indeed make a LOT of money. This is textbook gentrification in every sense of the word. Really, textbook- when academics who study gentrification write papers and give examples, they talk about Brooklyn in New York, Echo Park in Los Angeles, and Bishop Arts in Dallas. Bishop Arts has been mentioned in my classes at NYU by both professors and visiting lecturers. It is a clean cut example of a very real problem. Bishop Arts was not Jim Lakes first project leading to gentrification- in 2005, he made certain that a then undesirable part of Dallas was rezoned to residential (zoning laws, first formally established in 1916, mean that different parts of a city are for different things- there are industrial commercial and residential zones, among others. This ensures that people dont end up living in the middle of a circle of toxic factories and similar situations). After the rezoning, his company bought the affordably priced land and build a set of lofts, which also made them a nice, big pile of cash. This was not as dramatic as the events in Bishop Arts, but it works alongside the neighborhood to show what Jim Lake is really interested in: not community, not history, just money. In his plans for Waxahachie with Lake Moreno Partners, Jim Lake has avoided having to rezone anything by planning live and work lofts, which technically can be in a commercial area (which the historic town square is). These live and work lofts (meaning exactly what the title says- theyre meant for artists and professionals to have both a working space and a living space in the same place) will be located over scores of new shops and restaurants, which will be similar to Bishop Arts: vendors picked by Lake Moreno Partners NOT on how well they fit into the Waxahachie community, NOT on their moral values, NOT on their community impact- but on how well they are designed, and how good they will be on drawing people from Dallas, Fort Worth, Cedar Hill, and other areas to Waxahachie as the new, hip/trendy/cool/hot hangout. As Jim Lake implied when, towards the end of the video, he commends Waxahachies strong tourism draw, he does not care about the community of Waxahachie: he cares about Waxahachies ability to draw in outsiders to spend money there so that he, the developer, gets money. Of course, this is completely valid. I will never argue that tourism is a bad thing. Nothing brightens my day faster than when someone tells me theyve been to Waxahachie, and I get to spend far too long gushing about the history of the sculptures on the courthouse and a million other things until they make an excuse to leave the conversation (kidding!... sort of.) Tourists DO bring in money, and that would boost the local economy, not only Lake Moreno Partners wallet. The problem lies in considering that its not just tourism. Lake Moreno Partners seeks to attract people permanently to Waxahachie- to get them to move there. This also isnt a completely bad thing- us Southerners are welcoming, and we love our neighbors. However, take a while to consider the housing that exists near the historic town square. There are some of the beautiful Victorian Gingerbread homes that make our town famous, but there is also quite a bit of housing that would not be described as high income. The people in these houses are nonetheless the ones who give Waxahachie life. The community is STRONG- stronger than anywhere else Ive ever lived. Every person in Waxahachie matters. Yet, after Lake Moreno Partners proposed plan, a significant portion of Waxahachies population would be economically alienated and pushed away, just like what happened in Bishop Arts. What Lake Moreno Partners is proposing is gentrification. Lake Moreno Partners does not know Waxahachie, they see Waxahachies potential from yes, its beauty. They see its history as something to be manipulated as quaint in order to draw attention and money, not something to be honored. They do not care about the people who created that history, only about the present. The woman in the video says early on that she sees Waxahachie as Sleeping Beauty, and that its time [for Waxahachie] to wake up. Waxahachie, though, is anything BUT a Sleeping Beauty- Waxahachie is growing and thriving at a very healthy rate. Over the past 6 years so much has been added to the town- local, non-chain restaurants like Tuscan Slice, but also popular chains that people wanted and were happy to have, like the Dairy Queen that opened the same day I got my drivers license. I vividly remember sitting in the DMV, listening to everyone around us talk about how it was so nice... It even has palm trees! Mrs. Pat French Smith always told us stories in high school about how the town limits once ended at the high school- those days have long gone. Many towns stayed stagnant, but Waxahachie has grown and progressed in every way, including by producing a nationally ranked high school- an amazing accomplishment. Waxahachie is not sleepy, and to imply so is to discredit the community. Also a discredit to Waxahachies community is Jim Lakes comment that the incoming vendors will be the pioneers of a modern Waxahachie. They will not be the pioneers- the pioneers are already in the historic town square, running the Webb Gallery Waxahachie, whose eclectic collection of folk art and carnival eccentricities rivals any in Austin or Bushwick. The pioneers are the lovely ladies running the Doves Nest, who expanded their carefully designed and curated store into a restaurant with food every bit as delicious as that in Bishop Arts. They are the passionate owners of Zulas Coffee House, which has been long absent from the square but has stayed alive and strong. Zulas was selling fair trade and organic coffees at the same time they were becoming popular in Americas biggest cities, and has now happily brought the food truck phenomenon to Waxahachie. Lake Moreno Partners do speak honestly about the amount of empty storefronts in Waxahachie, and they are right- theres plenty of room for development. However, they are the only ones who said this development has to come from the outside, from pulling vendors into Waxahachie. Lake Moreno Partners has a chance not to gentrify Waxahachie like they did Bishop Arts, but to renovate and rejuvenate it, like they claim to want to in their video. Jim Lake Company is GOOD at what they do, and so will Lake Moreno Partners be. They know what sells, what design looks good and draws people in, and how to create a scene. The community of Waxahachie knows what it values, knows what kind of people it wants to attract, and knows what an appropriate range of prices is for its populations average income. Isnt there a way to work together, rather than Lake Moreno Partners dictating development without significant, meaningful community input? Furthermore, Waxahachie is filled with dreamers and doers alike. People with all sorts of incredible skills create its community. Among them are entrepreneurs waiting for their chance, who need just a few helpful nudges in the right direction. The video shows massage therapists and dance teachers- I know several of both in Waxahachie, as well as men and women who are talented at cooking, baking, have an eye for fashion, and know exactly what home interior looks great together. Many of them would like to escalate these passions into careers. By creating mentorship programs and helping to guide hard-working, passionate individuals, the vendors Lake Moreno Partners seek could easily come from within Waxahachie as well as other areas, instead of only from the outside. This could become a community effort, not a developer effort that considers the community a disposable asset rather than the very essence of the project. A better Waxahachie (or even better, I should say, as Waxahachie is a truly great, healthy, moral city) can and will be built- but not the way Lake Moreno Partners has planned. Thanks to everyone who bore with me on this long, looong commentary on a project I see as harmful to a town I love dearly. Waxahachie was home during the hardest time of my life, and I never would have made it through without loving teachers, family friends, advisors, and a place that welcomed me into every nook and cranny, from the court house to Sims Library to the abandoned railway bridge. I dont want to see any of those people pushed out, or for the town values to change without community approval. I would love to hear all of your thoughts, disagreements included- what is important is that you have an education opinion on your home, not who you side with. I will not be hurt or think any less of you; and for the record I love Bishop Arts as much as the next person- but I do honestly believe that with a little more time and effort, the same effect could have been produced by the community, rather than having to displace the community to achieve the affect. This was researched and written from 2:30 to 4:30 am, after I was too upset by the video to sleep, so please excuse any typos. Tagging April Edwards Moon, Glenna Clark Reisner, Alyssa Reisner, Loren Noelle Page, Claudia K Williams, JoAnn Livingston, Cody Daniel Vesley, Andrea Norris Kline, Melody Grace Mitchell, and YOU, whomever you are.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 08:41:56 +0000
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