Hoxton Square Still a Creative Cluster or Not - Essay Example

Hoxton Square: Not a Creative Cluster Anymore Hoxton Square: Not a Creative Cluster Anymore Introduction Hoxton square is situated in the London Borough of Hackney in London’s east end. It was invented in 1993, before that it was known as ‘Oxton.’ Oxton was laid down in 1683. It was a scruffy no man’s land of pie and mash and cheap market stall clothing (Cartner - Morley, 2003). Moving from an industrial home to being the heart of arts, media scene and local entertainment district in the 1990’s, Hoxton square has become a host to a variety of bars, restaurants and clubs. It contains art galleries, restaurants, bars and pubs. Hoxton became the first great art installation of the young British artists, a place where everyone had scruffy clothes and daft haircuts and no one had a proper job (Wax, 2011). Discussion The shift of Hoxton Square from the earlier lifestyle replaced the fashionable Hoxton fin. The derelict ware houses turned into million pound lofts. Alexander Macqueen, a struggling fashion designer had to move from his former home at 51 Hoxton Square when the landlord doubled the rent. He remembers the area as desolate and rough. “It was strange place, you got a lot of space for your money – you had to go to the garage at Old Street just to get a pint of milk” (Cartner - Morley, 2003). There was a colony of artists who were joined by film makers and architects. The independent was the first newspaper to pick up in Hoxton in 1995 (Sanchez, 2014). In 1996 American fashion magazine Harpers bazaar accompanied a piece about London fashion with photographs of model Stella Tenant posing in Hoxton square. When Steven Meisels exhibition of Versace advertising opened at white cube 2 limousines snaked through it to deliver models Kate Hudson and Liz Hurley (Rallis, 2012). In 1997, the short lived Lux arts cinema was opened at Hoxton square. In 1998 the successful stock and two smoking barrels lent a seedy glamour to the world of east end gangsters. The most recognizable scenes in the film were shot around Borough (Wax, 2011). In 1998 Hoxton was the location for the funeral of bare knuckle fighter Lenny Mclean with dark plumed horses to draw the hearse down Hoxton Street. Mourners included notorious gangsters Charlie Richardson and Tony Lambrianou. At the Hoxton bar and kitchen concrete floors and car headlights swept past the back windows conspiring to create the impression of an underground car park (Cartner - Morley, 2003). The dressing code was vintage of Levi jeans which were paired with t - shirts for men and blonde t – shirts and jewellery, ankle boots and kooky prints for girls which gave them a trashy look. At the time the white cube 2 gallery opened in 2000, most of the pioneer artists had been forced out by the rising lifestyle. The moving out of the artists and proliferation of bars shifted the focus from during the day time to during the night time as before the area was driven by peoples work but now it was being driven by people going out in the evening (Shaw, 2014). The San Francisco writer Rebecca Solnit once warned of the changes to her home town due to gentrification. This is a shift in an urban community towards wealthier residents or businesses and increasing property values. This comes as a result of investment in a community by the local government, community activists or business groups (Bevan, 2014). This can spur economic development, attract business, lower crime rates, population migration of the wealthy residents who can afford the lifestyle in such areas and often displace the poorer residents. When a population is undergoing gentrification, there is an increase in the average income and the average family size decreases. The poorer residents who cannot be able to pay increased rents and property taxes may be driven out. Old industrial buildings are usually converted into residential houses and shops (Sanchez, 2014). New businesses emerge which can cater for the increased commercial rent and also cater for more affluent base of consumers which decreases the accessibility to the poor and increasing appeal to higher income migrants. Residents often respond in political action in either promoting gentrification or opposing economic eviction. The local government may actually favor gentrification because of the increased tax collected with the new high level residents and other benefits of moving people (Gonzalez, 2014). Jane Jacobs commented in her book “The Death and Life of great American cities” that the change that resulted due to flattering large areas of Manhattan by bulldozers had a great impact on its neighborhoods. They became drug and crime ridden ghettos as ‘white flight’ saw large corporations relocate to the suburbs, leaving the city close to bankruptcy by the 1970’s (Bevan, 2014). This similarly happened to U.K cities such as Manchester as slum clearance was going on. Joshua Compston suggested that in 1993 Hoxton looked so much different because at the corner of charlotte road and Rivington street where he had staged a fete worse than death (Cartner - Morley, 2003). Some people have suggested that New York City has been taken by artists while others say that it’s because of the artists that the cost of living is so high. Other cities such as London and Paris are experiencing the same case. They used to nurture emerging artists for decades but now are in the hands of the wealthy and tourists (Martty, 2014). Gentrification usually occurs when neighborhoods are transformed from low value to high value places. It is characterized by higher rent, mortgages and property taxes. It causes housing, economic and health issues that affects the communities’ culture and characteristics. This causes displacement of the original inhabitants of such a place. It often shifts neighborhoods characteristics such as racial and ethnic composition (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Cities that have Undergone Gentrification Brian Rutenberg’s New York Studio The processes undergone by New York city is similar to the other cities around the world in that the artists were initially attracted to these low cost neighborhoods as they could afford studio space. After this bars, cafes, shops and apartment complexes popped up (Wax, 2011). Some elements which promote creativity are affordable housing, access to funding, good transport system, creative community and level of discrimination among minority groups (Martty, 2014). When gentrification occurred a section of the population moved to other more affordable suburbs like New Jersey. It is just across the river from New York City and its 35 per cent less expensive than New York City. London Street Piano London has an excellent public transport system that allows citizens to live out of the city in much cheaper suburbs. Some of the suburbs are Dollis hill, Finchley road, Putney Bridge and Earling Common (Shaw, 2014). When the services provided are not up to the standards of the minority groups, they shift to the suburbs where life is more endurable. Barcelona’s Street Life The city of Barcelona is also a favorite among artists. It encourages social activities around the public places full of bars, restaurants, fashion houses, music and street art (Martty, 2014). The city is affordable in that the rent rate and the cost of living is not very high. Berlin Wall Berlin City offers low rent rates and public transport fees. It’s a favorable city for designers, artists, photographers and entrepreneurs. Berlin offers a unique coolness, accessibility and affordability. The cost of living is lower which is great for artists who want to focus on their work rather than just on making money (Sanchez, 2014). Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne Melbourne has been ranked among the most livable cities in the world due to its culture, creativity and innovation that remains significant and relevant at an international level. It also has the largest tram network in the world and so it’s easy to connect suburbs with the CBD. Rent rates are not so elevated in the suburbs thus favoring artists and designers (Martty, 2014). It has a median dwelling price of a$553,000. It is placed as the nation’s most livable and cultural capital. Melbourne’s arts and live music are internationally renowned Sydney It is Australia’s financial capital with a median dwelling price of a$660,000. The city is trying to revive its long gone music scene (Shaw, 2014). The inner city councils of Yarra and Port Phillip have set up a live music task force and the Victorian state governments have established a live music round table. They are responding to the effects of increasing prices in property and residential population on local arts and cultural activities. Recent reports have confirmed that the cost of living in other Australian cities is among the highest in the world. The cities have recorded the highest growth rate over the last 15 years (Wax, 2011). The property prices and debt to income ratio is rising significantly which suggests that as more households invest more on mortgage repayment the prices keep rising. Columbia It is located in north east Indiana. Garcia remembered the plight of the minorities who once populated the low income communities such as Chicago’s lower west side, Atlanta’s old fourth ward, Denvels highland and Los Angeles Lincoln heights. He looked into the tensions that new faces often bring to historically minority neighborhoods (Martty, 2014). During the boom of late 1990’s, home prices rose to more than twice while the rent increased considerably. In respect to this change minority residents moved to get cheaper housing in the suburbs while the majority groups returned to the cities as they could well afford the lifestyle. Garcia’s family sold and moved out of their one bedroom apartment. As an adult he wanted to return to Columbia but couldn’t afford it so he moved to Petown which is two miles north of Columbia (Gonzalez, 2014). Many displaced residents in U.S. actually blame the city governments who do not care about the fate of those residents who are driven away from their traditions and communities. Charleston Charleston city which is located in South Carolina has changed considerably from what it used to be in earlier times. The city designed plans to improve population density, traffic flow and the appearance of its down-town business district. They aimed at drawing consumers back from the suburbs (Gonzalez, 2014). This led to population increase, the wealthy acquired property and moved to the city while pushing the poorer residents to the neighboring suburbs. Atlanta The city of Atlanta has experienced a demographic change leading to its reshaping. It was earlier considered a black haven and the birth place of the civil rights movement. The Atlanta housing authority demolished most of the houses, hotels and restaurants and replaced this with mix used housing (Martty, 2014). This led to an influx in population where the blacks decreased by 7.4 percent while the whites increased by 5.2 percent. Most of the blacks were displaced to the suburbs by the incoming whites (Gonzalez, 2014). In 2003, Columbia academic Lance Freeman noted that even those low income earners in the developing neighborhoods benefit from the changes such as low crime rates. Spike Lee outburst “Why does it take an influx of white new Yorkers in he south Bronx, Harlem Bed Stuy and Crown heights for the facilities to get better” (Sanchez, 2014). He noted that the garbage was not picked every day when he was living in 165 Washington Park, the public school was not good, the police were not around. You could see mothers delivering babies in strollers in the wee morning hours on 125th street (Molley, 2003). New York has much rent controlled and rent – stabilized apartments. In 2011 over 47% of the apartments offered some form of rent protection. However in the U.K. such controls have long been abolished. Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy scheme led to ownership of the best council owned street properties shift masses of residents to the private sector (Bevan, 2014). Some council estates such as Sheffield’s Park Hill or London’s Robin Hood gardens are currently being partly privatized in the name of regeneration. Also little affordable housing has been built to replace these losses (Bevan, 2014). Under the Civic amenities act of 1967 that designated some areas of England for conservation, heritage became a problem for those arguing that conservation actually favors the rich. However in some areas such as Liver pools Welsh streets the property values remain low and the 19th century neighborhoods are under threat of demolition (Shaw, 2014). In London, super gentrification has been fuelled by foot loose international property investments which have led to some of its suburbs getting poorer as the lowly paid workers are subjected to high rents. Government policies such as housing benefit caps and the bedroom tax can only fuel this centrifugal force while rising land values make social housing provision ever more difficult (Bevan, 2014). The pioneers and lowly paid workers who majorly consist of artists, designers and young entrepreneurs are driven out of these areas. These are the people who helped save the history of the inner cities. This has long term consequences and effects for creative and knowledge based economies (Wax, 2011). While collecting his 2014 gold medal which was awarded by Royal Institute of British Architects, historian and theorist Joseph Rykwert pointed out that the price of property in city centers is making it impossible particularly in the big cities for any kind of social mix to take place. It’s entirely possible that the capital will end up resembling Paris or Sydney where social problems and poverty are confined to the very edge of the city and creativity stifled by mass averse new residents (Bevan, 2014). Reasons behind Gentrification Demographic/ Ecological Approach This attempt to explain gentrification through the analysis of Demographics: social organization, environment and technology. The theory refers to the growing number of people between the ages 25 and 35 in the 1970’s also known as the baby boom generation (Sanchez, 2014). As the number of people who sought housing increased the demand for housing also increased. The baby boomers were very different demographically from the earlier house hunting. The residents got married older and had fewer children. Women were joining the labor force at higher rates which led to an increase in the dual wage earner households which were composed of young couples without children (Rallis, 2012). Due to the fact that the couples were child free and were not concerned with the conditions of schools, they chose to live in the inner city in close proximity to their jobs. These more affluent residents had white collar jobs. Socio-cultural Explanation of Gentrification Approach It suggests that values, sentiments, attitudes, ideas, beliefs and choices should be used to explain human behavior but not demographics. The analysis focuses on the changing attitudes, lifestyles and values of the middle and upper middle class of the 1970’s. These people were becoming more pro urban than before and so they opted not to live in rural or even sub urban areas and thus more and more people moved into the cities. The urban pioneers demonstrated that the inner city was an appropriate place to live (Sanchez, 2014). Political/ Economic Approach It is divided into two: Traditional and Marxist approach. The traditional approach suggests that both economic and political factors have resulted to the invasion of inner city (Rallis, 2012). The changing legal and political climate in the 1950’s and 1960’s such as new civil rights registration, antidiscrimination laws in housing and employment and disintegration had a role in the gentrification of neighborhoods. The whites moved to the cities while the blacks moved to the suburbs (Wax, 2011). The Marxist approach suggests that powerful interest groups follow a policy of neglect of the inner city until such time that an awareness of policy changes yields tremendous profits. Once the inner city becomes a source of revenue the powerless and helpless individuals are displaced. Community Network Approach It suggests that the community is an interactive social group. Two perspectives are derived from this approach: community lost and community saved. Community lost perspective states that technological advances in transportation and communication has led to a lessened role of neighborhoods (Gonzalez, 2014). This means that large-scale political and social organizations are actually replacing the local micro community. The community saved perspective holds that due to the fact that these neighborhoods are changing the community activity increases. Social Movements Approach It is majorly focused on the ideologically based movements in terms of leader follower relationships. The group that is in support of gentrification such as political and economic elites, lending institutions like banks and land developers such as those involved in real estate are encouraged by their leaders to revive the inner city (Gonzalez, 2014). Those who live in rather dilapidated areas such as poor drainage, lack of security and poor waste disposal and management are usually on the opposition side (Wax, 2011). They develop movements so as to revive themselves from the authoritative power of the elites. Ruth Glass, a Marxist sociologist suggested that gentrification had its negative connotations. This included the displacement the blue collar communities who could no longer afford the lifestyle in those upgraded cities (Martty, 2014). Marxist sociologists put forward the theory of class struggle to explain the tension that occurs in a society due to competing socio economic interests between people of different classes. Class conflict in societies can actually take different forms such as direct violence which includes deaths from poverty, unsafe working conditions and threats. A typical example of class conflict is within capitalist societies (Rallis, 2012). The conflict actually occurs between the bourgeoisie (wealth owners) who derive their income from exploitation of the workers and the proletariats (workers). The workers have nothing else to offer other than their labor and so they are subjected to extensive exploitation in the form of working hours, value of wages, working culture, bureaucracy and economic inequalities (The Socialist Party of Great Britain, 2014). Marxist sociologist Karl Max suggested that class occurs in societies when the members achieve class consciousness and solidarity as when they become aware of their exploitation and conflict with another class. The members of the two conflicting classes have common interests (Sanchez, 2014). Class antagonism may not always be violent as it may be expressed as low worker morale, abuse of authority, information hoarding, support of socialist or populist parties and lobbying for anti-union laws. Max notes that capitalism creates a division between classes as the proletariats are separated from the bourgeoisie because production becomes a social enterprise (Cartner - Morley, 2003). Technology alienates workers as they are not viewed as having specialized skills (Wax, 2011). The main task of the state apparatus and the government of the day is to uphold the power of the capitalists. Without classes that delineate the society into different portions there would be no need for a state as this could lead to a classless, communist society (The Socialist Party of Great Britain, 2014). According to max, the first class to achieve dominance in a society is the slave owners who dictated what the slaves would or would not do. Feudalism then follows where the social system is structured around holding of land in exchange for labor (Sanchez, 2014). There is no formal political system and the Peasants have feudal obligations to the state where they are paid for working in these lands for a certain period of time. Under this the slave owners receive their wealth without having to work while the toilers receive just enough to keep themselves and their families alive (The Socialist Party of Great Britain, 2014). In capitalist societies class struggle emerges between the interests of the capitalists and those of the workers. The interests are antagonistic as the capitalists control the media, education system (The Socialist Party of Great Britain, 2014). Capitalism is slowly replaced by communism which is characterized by the absence of classes, social, political and economic ideology. Socialism eventually will overtake communism where there is a social ownership of the means of production in the society (Rallis, 2012). Social ownership encompasses cooperative enterprises, common ownership, state ownership or citizen equity. Defenders of gentrification have argued that repopulating the inner cities has had a good effect for all because it has created substantially dense neighborhoods that are not car reliant, saving our architectural heritage, rebuilding derelict sites and introducing articulate new residents who then press for improved schools and services for all (Bevan, 2014). Pressures of gentrification Gentrification is placing all sorts of pressures on arts and cultural avenues and on people who work, play, live around and support them. The inner south and eastern areas in Melbourne which are being emptied of their arts and music scenes were subject to urban regeneration strategies (Bevan, 2014). These strategies actually bring revenue to the local governments as they are intended to decrease vacancy rates and increase land values and eventually leading to capital gains to land owners as the lower cost housing are displaced. Local governments in San Francisco, London, New York, Portland, Amsterdam and Berlin are unwilling to curb gentrification (Shaw, 2014). Australian governments must accord a place to independent arts and cultural uses in their planning policies, zoning designations and regeneration strategies (Bevan, 2014). They must also make investment decisions that neither are nor majorly based on the interest of the culture but of those low income earners who put social, cultural and economic diversity into gentrifying cities. Health effects of gentrification Displacement that usually results from gentrification leads to a vast range of health implications including higher cancer rates, babies born with birth defects, higher infant mortality, and higher incidence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular illnesses (Rallis, 2012). The population lacks proper housing, healthy food choices, transportation choices, quality schools and social amenities. It can also lead to poor psychological wellbeing with increased stress levels which is displayed in delinquent gangs usually involved in violence and crime (Center for disease control & prevention, 2014). Conclusion There is a rumor going around that Hoxton square is on its way down. This is unexpected because Hoxton had spawned an entire lifestyle by the end of 1990’s. Popularity has been blamed in Hoxton’s fall because its overexposure has destroyed the sense of Hoxton as an exclusive club for the ultra-fashionable (Cartner - Morley, 2003). Pengilley has a different view insisting that people are even busier than ever nowadays. She insists that most of the people who started in Hoxton talk about how Shoreditch has changed. “They loved it here when they were in their 20’s but now they are in their 30’s, getting married and having babies” (Cartner-Morley, 2003). Bibliography Bevan, R. (February 27, 2014). From Ruth Glass to Spike Lee: 50 years of gentrification. The Guardian. [Online]. http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/27/ruth-glass-spike-lee-gentrification-50-years. [Accessed May 6, 2014]. Cartner-Morley, J. (November 21, 2003). Where have all the cool people gone? The Guardian. [Online]. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/nov/21/fashion1. [Accessed May 4, 2014]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (March 19, 2014). Health effects of gentrification. [Online]. http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/healthtopics/gentrification.htm. [Accessed May 6, 2014]. Gonzalez, A. (February 28, 2014). Not just Spike Lee’s Brooklyn: Gentrification spurs tensions nationwide. CNN. [Online]. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/us/gentrification-american-cities/index.html. [Accessed May 5, 2014]. Rallis, N. (July 5, 2012). Gentrification and the city: the struggle for reclaiming public places in Hamilton. [Online]. http://thisishamilton.com/2012/07/05/gentrification-and-the-city-the-struggle-for-re-claiming-public-spaces-and-mind-frames-in-hamilton/. [Accessed May 7, 2014]. Sanchez, R. and Almasy, S. (February 27, 2014). Spike Lee explains expletive-filled gentrification rant. CNN. [Online]. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/26/us/new-york-spike-lee-gentrification/index.html. [Accessed May 8, 2014]. Shaw, K. (February 9, 2014). 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