As rental prices go up and neighbourhoods begin to look the same, artists nationwide are finding themselves out in the cold, writes Stefanie Jason.
“I think there are some examples of this in Soho [in New York] that show how artists were the vanguards of gentrification; [they were the reason for] the revalorisation of neighbourhoods and derelict industrial spaces in the city,” says Dr Mpho Matsipa, a lecturer in African urbanism and architectural design at the University of the Witwatersrand and director of Studio-X in Johannesburg.
“Those spaces were quite large and cheap … lending themselves to artistic production. As a consequence, the area became a hub for creative people, which was followed by the interest of developers,” says Matsipa.
Her recently completed PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, looked at urban renewal and the role of public art as a branding strategy for Johannesburg, and how this was tied to attempts to attract investment and forge social cohesion.
Gentrification
According to a 2011 study titled “Potentials of Creative Urban Regeneration”, which focuses on urban renewal and creative industries in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, gentrification usually means that a “working-class quarter is being invaded by the middle class or high-income groups … as a result, housing expenses rise enormously and the character of the neighbourhood completely alters”.
The term gentrification was coined in 1964 by sociologist Ruth Glass to describe the processes by which the poor were pushed out of parts of the United Kingdom as wealthy neighbourhoods were created. And, according to the study, the “original occupants with lower income – including artists and other members of the creative class – are mainly replaced or displaced” as a result of gentrification.
Gentrification often results in the breaking up of diverse communities and the displacement of long-term residents.
Having seen the effects of urban regeneration in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he was born to a Somalian father and an American mother, rapper-actor Abdi Hussein (pictured above) sees parallels in Cape Town’s Salt River.
“When I first moved to Cape Town in 2008, the Old Biscuit Mill’s festivities on a Saturday morning generally attracted people of colour, but it is no longer that,” says Hussein about the city’s artisanal produce market, Neighbourgoods Market, in the industrial and residential community of Salt River.
“In fact, the people of colour feel ostracised. Things are so expensive there now.”
Not far away, Zusa and Zoe Mazula’s eviction deadline is fast approaching.
A day before she and her husband are due to be evicted from the Zula Bar on Cape Town’s Long Street, Zoe is despondent. They’ve run the popular music venue for 10 years, and have been in the 98 Long Street premises since 2011.
“We’ve put our heart and soul into this business, and we face losing everything,” says Zoe,who found it strange that her landlord was evicting them after they fell behind on one month’s rent.
Zoe says that, apart from having a good track record with the landlord, she and Zusa have invested a lot of money in the space since moving in. They have also acquired the necessary licences to make the premises legal for commercial use, which it wasn’t before they moved in.
Contemporary colonisation
On the importance of incorporating artists into increasingly gentrified areas, curator Ingrid LaFleur says: “In every city that I’ve been to, it seems like city officials have quite a hands-off approach to gentrification instead of having an in-depth way of thinking about how they can support the art community so that they don’t get pushed out eventually.”
To avoid what some call ruthless gentrification, LaFleur suggests that city councils get hands-on in the town planning process “so that they can sit down with developers and say: ‘Hey, there’s a better way to do this.’ Local governments should be protecting their citizens better and not allowing us to be treated in any way just because this man or woman has money. How we treat our citizens says a lot about our culture.”
See full report by Stefanie Jason in the Mail & Guardian
