Opinion: Fighting gentrification of our cities isn't futile

“This neighbourhood isn’t the same. Rents are out of control. Most of the people I’ve known my entire life left long ago, and the ones who can afford to stay are now feeling excluded in their neighbourhood.” This is what a friend in Brooklyn told me when I was in New York a few months ago, but it’s something we hear a lot these days in Montreal, too.

Across North America, many are witnessing their neighbourhoods changing so drastically they can barely recognize them; a spreading global phenomenon commonly called “gentrification.”

Historically, gentrification has been defined as the process by which a low-income neighbourhood becomes home to more affluent residents, businesses and amenities, eventually leading to the displacement of long-term residents and businesses. Communities often end up with luxury condos instead of the affordable housing they need.

Once known as Canada’s rental city, Montreal is now following the same path as Toronto and Vancouver, becoming alarmingly unaffordable to many. In 2022, the Regroupement des Comités Logements et Associations de Locataires du Québec found that listed rental units are now 49 per cent more expensive than rents paid by existing tenants, while property values have increased by 32.4 per cent over the past three years. But gentrification is not only about investments flowing into a neighbourhood. It is also a vicious process that dismantles traditional low-income communities, reshaping the very social and cultural fabric of the city.

As gentrification expends, many people consider it unstoppable. But as scholar Leslie Kern rightly points out in her last book Gentrification Is Inevitable and Other Lies, such narratives keep us isolated and unaware that local collective actions can prevail.

One of the most outstanding fights took place a few years ago in Long Island, Queens, New York City, culminating with the victory of anti-gentrification activists against the implementation of Amazon’s “HQ2” headquarters. Although the project was vigorously supported by both New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, arguments raged over issues that included the prospect of Amazon receiving $3 billion in tax credits and incentives, and the potential for the project to catalyze gentrification, given that it would be accompanied by the massive arrival of wealthy tech workers in the area. Residents, community organizations, and unions rapidly mobilized against the project. Through door-to-door, public hearings, marches, and sit-ins, they ultimately succeeded in raising public awareness. Following enormous backlash, the e-commerce giant evidently felt it had no other option but to pull out of the deal in February 2019. Because of the project’s size and supposed desirability, the victory against HQ2 marked a turning point in the fight against gentrification: community action could indeed defeat a multi-billion-dollar corporation.

More recently, in Montreal’s Parc-Extension, victim of intense gentrification following the implementation of Université de Montréal’s Campus MIL and the subsequent influx of students and faculty members, community organizers and long-term tenants also succeeded in preserving the lot located at 700 Jarry Street West. Following an intense struggle, the lot — initially supposed to be sold to private developers — will now be used for affordable housing.

In 1967, French philosopher Henri Lefebvre conceptualized the right to the city as the inalienable human right to live happily in the city. According to Lefebvre, the city is not only made of concrete and glass: it is a collective project, constantly (re)invented through shared social practices and visions. By prioritizing residents’ needs over corporate interests, people-led anti-gentrification initiatives materialize the “right to the city” movement that is happening across cities worldwide.

These victories remind us that community activism in defence of existing neighbourhoods is never futile. In a time of gross unfairness and widening inequalities, people-led actions act as the last countervailing power against corporate profit-seeking, the last defence to preserve our cities and our communities.

Mieko Tarrius is a PhD student in geography and Public Scholar at Concordia University.

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