Jared and Ivanka make big money from Opportunity Zone program they pushed...
https://apnews.com/37b731bd1cc443fa953b112b7afe879a
While the Opportunity Zone program mostly targets census tracts of high poverty and unemployment, it also allows “contiguous” tracts that might not be low-income, but are close enough to deprived communities to be eligible.
Critics say that could allow developers to cash in by targeting zones already teeming with investment and gentrified neighborhoods. Amazon’s recent decision to locate a new headquarters in the bustling New York City neighborhood of Long Island City, for example, drew rebukes following reports it was in an Opportunity Zone.
A study by the Urban Institute in Washington found that nearly a third of the more than 8,700 Opportunity Zones nationwide — and all 13 of the ones containing Kushner properties — were showing signs of heavy investment and gentrification, based on such factors as rent increases and the percentage of college-educated residents....
I'm not a genius, but it seems when people are willing to invest in a certain area of a city that this benefits that area in ways that create more economic opportunity. That said, however, the economic opportunities can only be seized by those who have the education and means to do so. I don't see "gentrification" as a bad thing, but rather it so often a word that is used to keep neighborhoods entrenched in a failure to thrive mode, or kept from transitioning to improved economic activity.
In Philadelphia, there have been numerous neighborhoods that have turned around and now benefit from the shops, restaurants, bars, and other opportunities that emerged through gentrification. Areas like Fishtown, Northern Liberties, and of late, Brewerytown, have turned from impoverished regions of no hope to places where people wish to live and work.
That people are displaced by such changes is a force that has always existed in the USA.
Always.
And if the cities are attracting a more educated populace, then the value of the properties in the area will naturally increase. The potential for a long term benefits to a given city is greater.
No one wanted to live in Jersey City or Hoboken in the 1970's. That's not the case, now. Is that really such a terrible thing?
Poll
