OBE 6
Sharon Zukin describes in her article “Who’s Culture? Who’s City?” the marketing of symbols and privatization of space in urban settings. This growing economy of culture continues to influence the way cities are structured, the way business operate, and the interaction of people within those places.
My research on the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and my residency within the Seward neighborhood backs up many of Zukin’s theories on cultural commodification and the struggle over public and private space. Presenting a particular sector of a city as culturally rich correlates to the commercial successes found there, therefore making areas more likeable to the public and more fiscally in control. Organizations like the NRP (the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan), which is a city wide urban renewal plan, targets individual neighborhoods and helps them both financially and structurally to revamp the area and make it more inviting/welcoming. This invitation usually comes in the form of new business who cater to those who will buy into their symbolic trendiest. Art museums, parks, cafés all fit into this model. Cultural revitalization can, at times, be detrimental to the social structure of an area. As Zukin puts it, “it offers a coded means of discrimination” (139). Being said, there are also many positive outcomes of cultural growth.
In Seward, we recently built a new children’s park that marks the entrance into the neighborhood. Although this form of revitalization cannot really be labeled as negative, and offers a public space to the entire community, other projects in the area are more concerning. One recent project involves local graffiti artists as they attempt to revamp an abandoned building down the street from my house. This will soon be the new home of the Seward Co-op. While I completely agree with using vacant spaces to improve a community, employing local artists to contribute their talents, and supporting co-operative establishments, I have reservations about the demographic that this building will reach. The money from the city and neighborhood funds are going towards the financing of a new co-op that most people in our neighborhood are unable to afford in the first place. Meanwhile immigrant owned convenience stores and small markets just blocks from the new business will never be helped by these same funds.
In Cedar-Riverside, Dania Halls stands (or rather doesn’t stand) as a reminder of the many old historical buildings that are being taken over by revitalization plans. Once a safe place for immigrants, drifters, and other displaced people, the city felt it threatened the safety of the neighborhood and they decided to abandon the building, set it on fire, and reduce it to a paved parking lot for all the new business in the area from bars, theaters and cafés. Similarly, the Cedar-Riverside Business Association, while open to all community businesses, rarely reaches its immigrant business owners due to the material provided and a lack of understanding. This is yet another form of coded discrimination which affects the successes of marginalized business owners and supports the advancements of desired culture which is described by “constant political pressures by interest groups and complex interwoven networks of community groups, corporations, and public officials” who have “multiple visions” (Zukin, 140).