NEWS via psMag: Ironic Gentrification and the Migration of Globalization

Ironic Gentrification and the Migration of Globalization BY JIM RUSSELL • March 20, 2014 • 2:00 AM Cherry blossom trees in Buffalo, New York, in bloom. (Photo DragonFire1024/Wikimedia Commons) Higher education and health care, two major elements of the new Legacy Economy, are attracting global talent and gentrifying the neighborhoods that surround them, pricing out residents who toil in the local or regional labor market. I link economic globalization to gentrification with migration. Gentrification itself is an indicator of intensifying globalization. The influx of migrants who toil in a global labor market move into a neighborhood and compete with residents who toil in a local or regional labor market. Soon enough, the rent is too damn high. Or, if you like (I do), the wages are too damn low. Both cost for shelter and income impact housing affordability. A conventional measure that captures both variables is percentage of income dedicated to housing. In that light, some surprising results from a recent report, ”Housing Affordability in New York State“: For renters, the highest proportion of households facing housing costs representing at least 30 percent of income in 2012 was in Bronx County, at 57.6 percent. The second-highest proportion of rental households in this category [...]