Could this be a Solution to Gentrification?
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2024
- Kensington Market Community Land Trust's community bond campaign is now live! You can inquire about them at this link: kmclt.ca/Kensington-Community...
Thank you to both the Kensington Market Community Land Trust and Tapestry Community Capital for partnering with me on this video.
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After I moved to Japan I really realized how zoning laws are really hurting America. Being able to own a business and live in the same space really changes the game on what you are able to do to generate business. In America you have to pay so much money for rent and also have a home to have a business. But in Japan if you can afford to one one building, you can make a business on the bottom and a home on the top. And flourish. Not only that, you make business accessible to a lot more people.
That's the problem is that the way America is designed isn't a bug, it's a feature. Unfortunately the powers that be see the American dream as a zero-sum game where if one person is living it, then someone HAS to be losing it. And they keep everyone down to make sure it isn't them losing. Truth be told, we need a little more socialism.
And after 30 years your house wont be worth anything
I like it that way much more. It makes the neighborhoods more lively, and it's good for the local economy.
@@fallendevonish1869true. The Japanese view homes the same way as cars, a necessary liability, rather than an investment.
This mentality is part of the reason why Japan (even Tokyo, that has a steadily growing population) doesn't have much of a housing crisis.
@@fallendevonish1869 There are very few houses that are 'worth" anything if we were to look at the state of the building. What is valuable is the land. The zoning at best limits that in dense neighbourhoods by preventing the adition of small businesses. That's the whole draw for Kensington market.
Canada is weirdly against commercial shops on the first floor of apartment buildings, whereas it's the norm in everywhere else in the world. Places like Kensington Market is where people actually enjoy going to and living nearby.
Probably american influence, so many areas have zoning laws that ban shops in residential areas
Definitely not the case for condo towers and 5-over-1's in Canada, but that's the point eh, countering gentrification that erases culture
It's still fairly common in large chunks of Montreal, but typically just older neighborhoods & downtown.
Its the same in New Zealand. You only see asians living above their shops and restraunts
Not weird .. good law to protect residents from suspect commercial businesses and bankrupt ones
I wrote a dissertation on community land trusts. Didn’t make a splash in the US, but seems to have aroused interest in other countries, based on the scholars who contacted me. Glad to see this happening in Canada.
Nerd
@tranquil2706 I would love to read about it, can you tell me the title? Am I able to find on Scholar?
Many thanks
@@johnburke5208loser
likewise, I would be interested to read
I would also love to read your dissertation, it sounds super fascinating!
The key is "Community". People need to learn that individualism only benefits the big corporations. In housing, in politics, agriculture, and everything.
You bring up a good point. There are so many books on western philosophy claiming individualism is the backbone of a successful community. When an individual focuses on being their greatest selves, their immediate surrounding gets the benefits. For example, a husband working 100 hours because he loves to work and then his family having a quarter million dollars of disposable income. Mottos like, "You can't help others if you don't help yourself." It's all a facade.
Start with telling the mass influx of Indians you are receiving those words. They are culturally reclusive and conservative and as a result they don't integrate into Canadian culture, you can see it in how Indians post exclusive room for rent ad's seeking only other male Indians or saying for vegetarians only. They should be tolerant of other cultures themselves and expose themselves, and participate in other cultures activities.
Amen
@@andressoto739how do you help others from a disadvantageous position? The problem in this equation is the dissolving small business. Government has benefited the large corporations and all but shut down the local businesses. Capitalism is not at fault. It’s the government intrusion.
Individualism benefits the community. An individual can still be community minded. A community is comprised of individuals. Take away individual freedom, innovation, vision and the ability to create, the community will suffer in the long run (socialism). Dependent individuals benefit big corporations. Strong, driven individuals benefit their community by creating opportunity for others in their community. Just a thought
I’ve lived in Toronto for only 5 years and honestly I’ve been shocked at how quickly Kensington market became more gentrified after the pandemic. A lot of places that were small grocers are now coffee shops or dispensaries. It’s good to hear there are efforts to slow it down.
The government mandated shut downs were basically an F you small businesses and a massive win for large corporations. Its the same almost any time a non local government steps in.
Got something against coffee shops and pot shops neo nazi?
@@isaacs4050 yeah this guy is nothing but a NIMBY.
@@isaacs4050 this isn't twitter, get a personality
@isaacs4050 And you wonder why your parents never loved you...
They should rename them “Community Land Investment Trusts” or C.L.I.T ‘s for short. Then nobody would be able to find them .❤
This comment is critically under thumbs upped.
😂😂😂
@@Joe-sg9llWHAT?! Do you not understand the importance of C.L.I.T.’s…? 🤔🤔🤔🤣🤣🤣
Ohhhhh jay and silent bob🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 “we are the clit man” 🤣🤣🤣🤣💕💕
This is the best comment I have ever seen
I am from Harlem NYC and lived in Broadway Housing Communities almost my whole life. it’s a Non profit that does a similar thing with 99-year leases focusing on families and struggling people and combining art, education, and affordable housing. it’s tough in NY but it’s definitely a diamond in the rough. We need to organize this kind of work all over America and work to reinstate displaced families
youre not even a real american why do you think we need any help from you?
No bro. You solutions for NYC only work for nyc and need to stay there. The world doesn’t and shouldn’t follow everything you guys do like it’s a miracle no one has ever thought of before. The answer is fix New York before telling others how to fix theirs
@Metzgeweiser they were just offering a suggestion - of course not every place in the country is like NYC (and so this plan can be modified depending on the town or city), but also, NY doesn't need to "fix itself" and not care about others
@@miau6451 it’s 3k for a studio apartment up there. NYC is in the middle of what they describe as a migrant housing crisis. And yes, NYC needs to fix the problems in NYC before suggesting what the rest of the country should do. My state does the same thing and needs to focus on the same issues as well.
Yes we really do
I literally wrote my thesis on community land trusts (and against zoning) and I grew up hanging out in Kensington. I don’t live in Toronto anymore so I didn’t know there was a CLT being developed but this makes me so happy!!
Land trusts are nice, but ultimately we need to simply allow places like Kensington market to form by-right. Zoning keeps new ones from naturally forming and shifting around as they have historically in cities.
This. As it stands today, North American city design has been throttled by stifling zoning laws. It's prohibitively expensive to purchase commercial properties for many who take residence in the city, but relatively cheap for larger corporations to swoop in and buy / sell land wholesale. It's little wonder, then, as to why so many of these cities are jam-packed with corporate names but increasingly lack in culture and cohesion.
And of course, these 2 issues are interconnected. The reason why Kensington Market is in such high demand is that new places like it are not allowed to be developed. People wouldn't be flocking to gentrify historic neighborhoods if a new one next door were allowed to flourish in much the same way.
It's hard to see how these land trusts are different than the KKK who used community organization to keep immigrants out of their neighborhood and keep current residents in power. The only difference I see is the land trusts use police as their enforcement arm through the government whereas the KKK handled things themselves. Land truste wont age well
Also to any racists that think this is a white problem, see Chicago right now where black residents are pleading with their city government to get migrants out of the neighborhood because of "crime". You will see news videos where the residents say if the government doesn't handle the problem they will. Land trusts keep certain people out of areas and use police to ensure the unwanted people can't get access. Use of police is always a threat on life. Land Trusts are not a social good, its about keeping minorities out
zoning + concerted effort and buy-in to transform areas that are ravaged by bad zoning / land use. Strong Towns I think had a podcast on this recently. It can be prohibitively expensive to transform areas that have bad land use. Perhaps Land Trusts can helpful here too?
I love how you covered all aspects of gentrification. I lived a couple blocks from Kensington Market a decade ago. I loved Kensington because there were basically ma-and-pop shops and independent retailers that sold terrific foods. I also love vintage clothing, so there were a lot of clothing stores. If you need a Halloween costume, check; if you need an empanada or fresh avocados, check; if you need a delicious cup of coffee, check. The community would not be better with a Canadian Tire, a Walmart, or a McDonald's in the neighbourhood. Keep it local!
*would not be better with
@@c7lee This is why I am going back to school. My editing is terrible. Thanks for catching that mistake, friend.
If replaced by a Can Tire and/or Walmart, that entire community and all of it's diversity and historical fabric would become a parking lot... I shudder to think that some people out there would still view that as "pRogReSs".
@@brandonpeniukthe most Canadian response you could think of 😂
Walmart is terrible for the environment too. All those cars and trucks leaking fluids and wearing out tires which contain lead and various toxins. Not to mention Walmarts tendency to destroy small businesses. We have to stop shopping at these places if we want any changes to happen.
I think it's really interesting looking at that payment breakdown. Just under 0.02% of that money actually comes from the community, the rest coming from governments and banks. That means these organisations exist almost entirely on the whim of local government, and presumably these banks aren't donating out of the kindness of their hearts. These seem to act as glorified debt traps for local people, and as repayments and maintenance costs rise these community land trusts will feel the exact same market pressures that landlords currently do and will themselves become a force for gentrification.
Underrated comment fr. So often they sell us "economic assistance" but really it's just more friggin debt. At disgusting rates too.
The members of the trust pay the mortgage, which in their majority are members of the community.
Excellent video. Really well put together! Thanks for taking the time. Hope this creates change for the better!
The easy answer to both protecting popular areas like Kensington Market and helping making more affordable housing is to simply look at WHY these old neighbourhoods are popular and fix our zoning. These communities are popular because they're built like exactly that...communities. Walkable and with less zoning restrictions, allowing mixed use and little to no absurd setback and side space requirements, and loosening these zoning laws across the board instead of just small areas one at a time as that just increases the values of those small areas.
UK style terraced/row housing and similar styles like those in old Toronto neighbourhoods, are the ideal way to go for single family homes. Way more density, yet with street facing communities, back alley parking where needed, getting cars off main streets, and still maintaining non-strata/HOA private ownership. Along main streets mixed use mid-rise rental apartments and condos are ideal.
You should be able to do with your property what you wish, with very little restrictions, and if you don't own the property, you don't get a say. NIMBYism and red tape has run amok in Canada.
Yeah kinda pisses me off that his solution to the problem caused by nibmyism (no other livable spaces in the city because of zoning makes this neighborhood very desired) is to just have ever more nimbyism, but now we call it a “community land trust”
On my block we fight hard to keep commercial property OUT. It's OUR block, no one is coming in and ruining our homes
@@michah7214nobody’s forcing you to open a shop in your living room. Were you dropped on your head?
@@michah7214 No, it's not your block; you have your house on that public block. You control your house, not the entire area. Thinking you have or should have control beyond the boundaries of property you actually own is a wild sense of entitlement.
@@icomefromcanadia2783 well it's the law in my town. We go to zoning hearings and point out we're zoned for single family only and we want it to remain that way and they vote for us. That's the law. That's what zoning laws are.
A Walmart there would absolutely ruin the look more over the community.
Zoning is only part of the problem. I think the main reason Kensington is so popular is because it is walkable and charmingly human. The key is to build the neighborhood for people-pedestrians, NOT CARS! Notice the streets of Kensington are NARROW STREETS, reducing the flow of car traffic so PEDESTRIANS RULE THE STREET -- Also the buildings, while not great, have some human charm, i.e. architectural features and quirks. And lots of doorways, windows, lack of uniform facade.
Ikr I gasped when that was mentioned, what a horror
Thank you community land trusts for maintaining our eclectic neighborhood s.
I've always seen gentrification as a sort of unfortunate inevitability. Thanks for changing my mind and giving me hope!
what is bad about making an area nicer?
@@JunjiItoDougWalker By "nicer" did you mean worse?
@@rampantmutt9119 [citation needed], nooo not trendy stores that generate wealth and foot traffic ohh nooo im literally going insaaaaane where will the bums inject themselves with fentanyl nowww???
@@rampantmutt9119 I lived in Toronto in the 2010s. Kensington Market is a shithole, and this video is just propaganda.
@@JunjiItoDougWalker it's not about making it nicer it's just rich people buying up all the land and wasting half of it
Raccoon petting zoo also seems good for fighting gentrification all on its own.
No, the rich have kids too. As long as we have uncontrolled capitalism this is what you get. When you set up something to protect things, corruption takes it for their friends.
Bunch of raccoon coffee shops in South Korea, that work?
Looking forward to your role on the BC Housing Board! You're the one that can change things for the better in Vancouver!
THIS IS AN AMAZING VIDEO!
Thank you!
I had no idea community land trusts existed, thank you for talking about it
Congratulations Uytae on your appointment to the BC Housing board 🙂
Yeah, now they can abuse their power to allow foreigners to set up their criminal rings with impunity.
I've been obsessed with Community Land Trusts and Hosuing Co-ops for the past year, this video was the clearest explainer of how they work I've seen so far!
What do you mean that you've been obsessed with land trusts? Why?
@@AngryAndNegativeHistoryProject no one actually said that, go back to english 101
okk im obsessed with them now too! I live in a co-op and am totally here for community-owned communities!!
So you love HOA's. Interesting most people absolutely hate HOAS.
@@idkitsmeithink YOu only love it because you did not invest anything and only take. It was not your blood sweat and tears being taken.
I have such great memories of this place as a child. The coolest little gadgets I'd ever seen in my life, colorful atmosphere and some of the best food I've had the privilege of eating.
I bought a live crab and didn't tell my parents, my mom FREAKED out when she found out... it makes me sad this wonderful place is changing that way.
Keep corporations out of places like this. Their greed knows no bounds
this is so cool! i’m in real estate and didn’t even know about community land trusts and how they work. great video! great production value! new subscriber!
i know the racoon petting zoo is a joke but we really need to invest in native plants to support local wildlife more in our increasingly paved urban areas. and that includes the raccoons 😄
Racoon petting zoo? That sounds like Mount Royal !
Raccoons don't need help. They live well near people. But there should be more wild spaces for large fauna, birds and bugs
do we
Your videos consistently give me hope for the future of our cities! Especially love that there are tangible actions we can take to support this particular work.
With each one I feel more and more glad I don't live in one. They are uplifting in a different way. It feels as though human dignity and agency are sacrificed with greater population density. It is an exercise in inhumane humiliation and dependency. "The Industrial Revolution and its Consequences" etc.
What is hopeful about this? This neighborhood is still being rapidly gentrified. Housing prices are beyond the means of most ppl, only the rich can afford to live here. Wake tf up
Never new about community land trust. This was a great summation and a great video.
I had no idea community land trusts were a thing! Thanks for this video, it was really neat.
I wish you had covered the potential NIMBY angle it seems like a land trust could potentially end up tangled in like you had in your video about Chinatown. Still though, you make the best urbanist videos by far, thank you for the work you put in
He did! In the video he explained the governance structure. Through its diversity they are able to focus on the communities needs. Removing it from the system which prioritizes profit, and placing it in one which prioritizes community.
The other component to consider is that these may still have too much outsider influence and money, and that these are a way for bigger businesses to secretly bar competitors as they maneuver behind the scenes.
I volunteer with KMCLT, when they mentioned there was a video coming out with Tapestry, I had no idea it was a collaboration with About Here! Great work as always, Uytae :)
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Let's not forget that gentrification is a symptom of the housing crisis, and there's a fine line between stopping gentrification and contributing to the housing crisis.
how so? i have a sense but if you have a link or something id appreciate it
Gentrification is not a symptom, it’s the cause of it.
The new apartments being built are intentionally expensive to attract wealthy individuals. It’s corporate greed.
The “housing shortage” is really a shortage of homes that are not luxury units reserved for yuppies. There have been successful de gentrification projects in certain cities where rent prices dropped significantly after the luxury apartments and yuppies were removed.
@@simaleejiraata I don't know of any convenient summaries of the information. Basically, low income neighbourhoods tend to be the most affordable in a city. When there is not enough affordable housing to go around, prices increase and low income people get priced out. If instead there was enough affordable housing to go around, prices would stay relatively flat and low income people could afford to stay.
I think that’s an oversimplification or maybe your causal pathway for this is wonky. The video spends the first few minutes making that case that interesting neighborhoods with restaurants, cafes, shops, and things to do are made popular by the less wealthy residents who were willing to live and run businesses there. The area starts off undesirable and becomes something interesting. Gentrification then happens when developers want to cash in on this now-popular but old neighborhood. Too much of this development makes once-affordable neighborhoods gradually unaffordable, especially when these neighborhoods might have once been some of the most neglected places in a city. This might just be generations-long cycles of popularity and development, but something about what’s happening doesn’t seem sustainable especially when the nation’s income growth isn’t keeping up with rental prices.
Idk if gentrification is a symptom of the housing crisis itself, or more so that the housing crisis and gentrification are both symptoms of the same cause, if that makes sense? Sure they are related but the housing crisis isn’t the cause of gentrification, they are just both consequences of systemic colonialism, possibly? I’m very open to other peoples thoughts 😊
Edit: I also think that calling gentrification a “symptom” kinda diminishes the harm it causes
Thank you for making this
Terrific video, excellent narration and pacing.
I really do love the thought of these communities coming together to keep their communities together. Literally they are the reason why these places are trending, viral or popular, so when some rich scum bag/group come around thinking that they should come buy property to make a quick buck it’s just saddening. Like you literally have no spot in this community and don’t know anything about it, compared to the people that actually lived, and worked there. So I really do love that communities are finding a way to save their communities from destruction, whether it’s slow, or if they can’t fully save the whole community, just being able to save a little bit is better than it become obsolete.
That's why you should avoid Starbucks and Walmart?
@@AngryAndNegativeHistoryProjectStarbucks and Walmart dont fit in some communities
San Francisco did this in the Tenderloin in the seventies, and as solutions to gentrification go, it worked, and it’s also preventing the Tenderloin from making a comeback.
Back then, converting the SRO hotels to boutique properties, or tearing them down to build bigger commercial hotels as the area is adjacent to Union Square, was the problem. The SRO hotels (today the largest concentration of such housing units in the US) were affordable to the poor and immigrant population, and flexible, allowing rents paid by the day, week, or month. So, non profits bought up much of the area’s residential hotels and apartment buildings to maintain them as affordable housing.
But…
Housing isn’t the only issue here. Drug abuse, mental health issues, addiction, and a host of other problems interfere with people’s ability to stay housed. Those non-profits opened up services to deal with those issues. Thing is, those services aren’t generally walk-in/no appointment. Yet they’re run out of the sidewalk level storefronts of those buildings, the glass either being frosted over or removed and the storefront covered up. As anyone familiar with urban planning websites knows, a blank window in an urban setting in this context is a “gap tooth” and the more empty windows, the worse the image of the block that is afflicted with them. In the Tenderloin, on some blocks, more than t half the otherwise available storefronts are closed in this manner, whole block faces missing their teeth.
It’s not the services that are the problem, nor that the services aren’t needed. The Problem is that the services are being offered from store fronts that should be open to commercial occupation and the services should either be relocated to refurbished basements, or up into apartments in the building.
The Tenderloin has a reputation for crime, it’s very name harkens back to an era of police corruption nearly unimaginable today. But it’s comeback is thwarted in many instances because there are too many spaces that can’t be rented to commercial businesses because they’re being misused by social service nonprofits, and this means the area can’t create the street buzz necessary to draw more decent people into an area too associated with crime.
Say what you will about the police, a lot of what makes a city feel safe isn’t cop oriented, but “eyes on the street” and the activity afforded by small shops, something that’s gone wrong in the Tenderloin when the intentions were so very right, at the start.
Yes, and that is why I believe that the free market should take care of gentrification. Gentrification turns underfunded parts into vibrant areas.
@@sm3675 It's interesting because a lot of people I've met who grew up in now gentrified areas do agree with the sentiment of, "at least the area is nice now. back then it was dangerous and dirty." the problem is that there are hardly any people who grew up there that still live there. I think that is the gentrification problem we're trying to solve.
@@botanrice8340Something that doesn't get talked about much is how transient low income individuals and families can be relative to wealthier ones. I grew up poor and moved almost a dozen times. I never lived in a gentrifying area. Resident turnover is often high anyway. It's only when new residents are wealthier that it is really talked about as gentrification. I'm not saying it shouldn't be talked about, but it is more complicated than most of the discussion around it, in my opinion.
@@botanrice8340doesnt that mean the people who previously lived there the reason for the crime?
There is no such thing as a free market. That Invisible Hand you so strongly believe in has been culturally sanitized for modern times: In the Original Adam Smith, it was “the invisible hand of God”. We can shape the market as we direct change. A free market is generally interpreted as a market that benefits only a small percentage at the top. America was richest when we taxed those folks heavily and paid the working classes well.
Great video, like you said, my mind is also changing on some topics like this. 👍🏼
Fascinating! An example of people acquiring power for a good cause.
This is the first time I've ever heard of a community land trust. Apparently I was born yesterday (happy belated birthday to me!!) 🥳
When I visited Canada in 2019 from the UK, Kensington Market was a breath of life from my sister and nieces' manicured and mothballed suburban living in Pickering and Ajax. It was familiar to this south east Londoner and like so many areas of London and beyond. I applaud the communities efforts to keep the barbarians at bay.
Lol. Many barbarians have no idea they are- barbarians. The very definition of a barbarian.
Yesss it kinda reminds me of camden market!
@@idkitsmeithinkcamden, which is also being overrun by gentrification..
amazing thanks for raising awareness on this
fantastic video. I enjoyed learning a little bit more about urban planning/ CLTs here
Just make more Kesington Markets.
The point this market is anything unusual is really strange and the main issue.
You'd think it would be easy but car brain rules the day in most minds.
@@sachamm Even in activist minds! They can't imagine that there are economic reasons why these neighborhoods become attractive and outsiders start moving in. Instead it must be evil racist gentrifiers out to destroy the character of minority communities and drive out the locals. They always fail to ask, fail to explain, why exactly increased land values are bad for locals.
Every time I watch a video by Uytae, I feel hopeful about the future of our communities
My hometown Troy, NY (aka “the Brooklyn of upstate”) is going through this. Thanks for the insight!
Awesome! This sounds practical and hopefully these Land trusts work
Our boy Uytae in Toronto! Would love to see more videos in other Canadian cities!
I think this would be a genuinely useful thing in the nearest major city to me, it could revive and protect buildings sometimes 300 years old
This is such a well done video!
i did a project in 9th grade about CLT's -- its so cool to hear about them in action!
Congrats on your appointment to the Vancouver housing board!
I'd be concerned with land trusts turning into urban HOAs, but overall they are better than having no protections on your neighborhood
thankfully that's what the purpose of the tripartite model seems to address, being that they purposefully have a voter body split in a way to avoid a narrow focus on property value. there's also how a land trust is arguably incentivised to lower land values at first, as it allows them to more easily afford purchasing lots. (them being ngos also help prevent corruption into a HOA too)
@@wyselnYeah if property values rise a ton they kinda have to stop buying. If they have buy to buy it at an inflated price but don't increase rent then where does the money come from to pay back the loans? Maybe a portion of the community will care to help and you can trade buildings to have the most impact.
@@wyselnYeah, NGO's don't become corrupted...
@invention64:
THAT'S my concern about Detroit - the Land Bank here has too much control over how, when, where and who maintains the property that you bought from them.
This was an informative and entertaining video. Thanks!
Kensington Market is a culturally significant neighbourhood like Jackson Heights in Queens, NYC. I live in Las Vegas, the biggest city in NV. In the city, there's a culturally significant neigbourhood that's home to most of the rocky desert city's casinos dubbed the Strip. Epcot's World Showcase is treated like a culturally significant neighbourhood due to its pavilions where guests travel the world in one land.
This is a NIMBY dream.
For the people complaining that community trusts do not build new housing at 4:17 it says they plan to build affordable housing if they can buy the parking lot. [Edit I missed the "not"]
Why are people complaining about housing getting built? Isn't North America in a major housing crisis?
@@MOInatsu Sorry, my post missed an import "NOT" it should have said "people complaining that community trusts do not build new housing"
Gratitude for sharing
Great video! I think hearing from some members of the community, especially those involved in the CLT, would have been very effective
One thing to keep in mind about old buildings like this area - they weren't necessarily built well. There's the belief that old buildings must have always been built better, but that's not always the truth. Housing was tossed up when needed without the same type of inspections. Electricity and plumbing were added to these types of buildings - and may need to be entirely redone. That's expensive. They may be lead paint and asbestos. My grandparent's home in Ohio built in 1905 was bulldozed with the entire neighborhood which was almost entirely rentals for minority and immigrants and got a lot of push back that these homes could be used for the poor or homeless. My uncle estimated it would take over 200k to have redone my grandparent's home since it needed to be taken down to the studs and entirely redone. That wasn't feasible. So, the entire neighborhood was bulldozed and replaced with some crappy blocky condos. My dad and his siblings don't blame gentrification - but the reality that those weren't homes that could last for 150 years. To maintain those types of buildings, it takes far more money than it would cost to bulldoze them and build something new. These land trusts are going to have to maintain these buildings, and that is going to get expensive. That's not just making things look better - it's for safety. There were several fires in homes near my grandparent's. Everyone in that neighborhood had to replace the wiring and most of the property owners couldn't afford it. And there's nothing that makes a neighborhood look more bleak than burned out buildings sitting vacant.
So… it’s an HOA that has investment powers. 🤨
Thank you. Powerful.
honestly this video blew my mind. so interesting!
I still don’t understand how we give out these affordable units in a fair way?
If rent there is affordable (so like 50% cheaper than normal) there would be a ton of demand, and obviously a ton of people wanting to live there, how do we decide who gets to?
seems like either first come first serve, or you get into potentially sticky situations where the group picks and chooses based on who they decide is a better fit, which seems like a ticket to disaster the moment someone claims they were discriminated against.
And if the former, nobody will be able to get in ever because the demand will be high and the cost artificially low. But then you have to decide if you want to allow new construction of apartments, and i can see this very quickly becoming a nimby issue of "oh no we dont want an unsightly apartment building in this area"
at which point congrats, you defeated gentrification, but just created an HOA
That's what this communist garbage is about. Me and my cool friends get to decide if you're hip enough to live here, and everyone else can get fucked.
This is brilliant!
Great video! Kensington businesses are going to need to support these community bonds more than anyone else. It's great to have a space for creatives, but it's a fine line between preserving "culture" and being "stuck" in era where changes need to happen. Financing change is challenging and a donation model to be isn't the best approach. Selling unique foods, crafts, music sufficient to persevere your lifestyle will. Kensington community board members should strategize on how to earn profits to maintain their "voice".
**current** members of community. This system fails to consider potential / future members of the community, who's voices are not, can not, be heard.
I don't really see how these are anything other than Nimby groups that collectively rather than individually own the properties.
Like, there's ~4000 people living in Kensington Market today. Given the rapidly rising rents it seems reasonable to imagine that more than 4000 people want to live in the neighbourhood.
If all of the land was owned by a collective what would happen? Would the current 4k population be preserved in perpetuity at drastically below market rates, meaning no one would ever leave, even as they aged out of of cultural milue that makes the neighbourhood what it is?
Would this not eventually result in a population of 4000 elderly people living in effectively rent controlled apartments that only become available when someone passes away ... and which is then doled out directly by the collective (likely to friends and family)? This outcome is identical to any classic nimby group.
I can see short term how this better than some developer building weed themed airbnbs, but I do not see how this system proposes to to "solve gentrification" over the long term.
It will soon become an autocracy and they will decide who gets to move in, based solely off of information they gather from tiktok.
I'm curious how they avoid the pitfalls of Homeowner's Associations. It is hard to pay into something that in theory should be advocating for their own community. This feels like the same thing as a commercial level and with fewer representatives for the people that live within it.
HOAs only goal is to protect home values and "neighborhood character", so it's purpose is already based on self interest. Like the vid said, Land Trusts have different goals. The leadership make up also ensures people that live in the community, live in the trust owned properties, & experts all have a similar goal in mind. Whether it's for more affordability, climate aware, density, or nature preservation they're generally like minded individuals
HAs are shaped by their by laws and governece structures. Because they are typically made by housing developers and feature very top down decision makingl they tend to be made to maximise property prices and ran by small time autocrats. They don't HAVE to be though.
I think they're similar in the sense that they're nonprofits set up by residents, but there goals are different - the HOA wants to keep property values high while the Land Trust wants to preserve the character of the community. Likewise, the land trust would own the land while the residents own the houses, while under a HOA, the resident owns both. The land trust would therefore get the better say in holding back development if the houses are sold
That's the funny thing, they won't avoid the pitfalls. They're just reinventing the concept of a democratically elected municipal government, or the elected boards of a public corporation. If the existing structures don't work, why would their new copy work? The problem is the governance structure, and the Community Land Trust has a similar structure with only theoretical differences which will not hold. In practice you're gonna get all the problems of selfish bad-faith actors worming their way into the system and extracting value out for themselves. Before long, the body of residents will then be electing "the lesser evil" boards for their CLTs where every candidate is problematic because the system has the exact same incentives as a city government or a corporate governance structure. People are incentivized to lie about how they represent their constituents, and the better liars get elected and rewarded with the ability to leech value for themselves. Honest actors get out-competed by the less honest actors as a fundamental problem of the system.
@@Savings_and_Grift_Plan I can see this leading to nightmares. Now you own a house but lose control of the ground it sits on.
Really excited to see where this idea takes our neighbors
I live in the UK and every town/city I visit has exactly the same mega corporation shops - I'd kill for something like this here, it's so depressing. If anyone knows of any community land trusts in the UK please let me know!
This solution sounds like it preserves, more than builds new, housing. It still only serves those people already part of the trust. We need more housings built.
Please tell me how the inital plan mentioned in the video of building an weed-themed Air BnB is building more housing. You're correct, but you are pointing fingers at the wrong people.
Yup, and if you think about Kensington Market, it serves way way more people than those who already live there. So who is this benefiting really. Local Torontonians already view Kensington as a very gentrified tourist trap. Honestly it could be better with more density
I mean the point isn’t to fix the housing crisis, only to stop gentification. And in the short term it does more to lower costs to residents than building housing, because redeveloping a property can mean taking away a number of units for a period of time. Sure over time it will help once construction is completed but keeping rents low now so that we don’t displace people that live here now should also be taken into consideration.
If you want your community land trust to add more housing, you can. It has been discussed in Harlem and going for approval. It is about not pushing out the people that already live there, especially historically POC, to make way for trends. These people’s homes aren’t trends.
If we really want to fight for more housing, we have to fight for better zoning laws. There’s no getting around it.
The video mentioned that they are trying to buy a parking lot and put new housing on it.
Brilliant video man - thanks
Agreed
Oh my one trip to Toronto I stumbled into this neighbourhood. I absolutely loved it, and wish that something like it could exist in every city in Canada.
It's one type of solution. However, we need all types of housing. Market Rate, Affordable, Social, Temp, Public and more. #YIMBY
Remember that people that ever places need to pay taxes and bills, so free stuff isn't actually free to someone else.
Absolutely, we need a full range of housing available, price and size.
It's just too bad people don't think they are part of a community when faced with giving up things or paying taxes, and not directly benefitting. It's almost like the benefits of living with other human beings and community services come at a cost.
this feels like HOA with extra steps
This is amazing to learn about, and in my area too.
Kensington was definitely welcoming. It has been a fun place to visit and stay. The issue is that after Covid things completely changed
That unicycle recovery at 12:28 😂👏
This is way more convoluted than rehashing zoning laws to allow and even demand mixed use.
Interesting video, thank you!
I have very good memories of Kensington Market back from my university days.
That's was where me and my friends used to hang out and chill. It was amazing in the summer where all these festivals and music performances were happening on the streets.
It's been more than a decade now since I've visited the place. Good times.
That's fine and dandy for the people who live there now, but this won't actually do anything to make more housing available to alleviate shortages. What are other people supposed to do? Anti-gentrification measures are basically a giant middle finger to anyone outside the existing community, and to younger people who can't find housing.
I don't entirely disagree, but the big problem with gentrification in my city is that the stuff they're building doesn't help those younger people either, in fact in many cases it entails tearing down decent middle class housing to build towers full of million dollar condos that end up as investment properties, AirBnBs, or glorified hotel rooms for rich people who only spend a month or two a year in them. There's a big blind spot on both ends of the spectrum - the community/urban planning advocates and the developers - that leaves middle income people out in the cold.
Well ideally if a community needed more affordable housing, they would vote to build more. The whole point of the land trust is that renters and other members in the community have a say as well. Traditionally property owners hold all the power and are against developments that might decrease their property values, but with other members of a community voting, they wouldn’t want to price themselves out and would vote in favor of building more affordable housing, community centers, keeping affordable stores.
The proper venue for these decisions should be governments at the city or provincial/state levels. CLTs are just another form of private entity that can be captured and misused like any other. I'd even say they're potentially more dangerous since they have better PR and can easily receive government support. @@darkchurchhill
Gentrification isn't affordable to young people either. The only people that gentrification tends to benefit are older people well established in their careers. With the land trust, the neighborhood can decide together that the need to build a low-rise, non-market rate apartment building that the community can afford.
New residents can move in, but it would be a big middle finger to the people currently there if investors come in, build a mid-rise, at market-rate apartment that raises property taxes too much.
Start demanding your lawmakers prevent investment ownership of homes
We need more of this in Toronto
Thabks for this information!
Your videos on housing make the left nimbys and the yimbys angry. That's how you know you've done it right! Keep making great videos on solutions to thorny problems.
What's a "left nimby" lol
There are tons of them. Usually wealthy. They rent and rave for things that they don't want in their backyard, or don't want to do themselves. One example are the elite types who take private jets to a climate conference. They're all for low income housing, just not next door. Or the type who aren't super wealthy who constantly drawn on about how people are too greedy, and how business is bad, but then constantly want the government to dish out more and more money. They don't want the government to allow conditions for business to thrive, yet demand things that can only be paid for through taxes, which require businesses to be able to make lots of money.@@rickywinthrop
Airbnbs / ghost hotels are glorified tourist accomodations and, as such, should be subject to the same rules & regulations and taxes that apply to licensed hotels. Personally, I'd like to see Airbnbs taxed out of existence, because they deplete housing stock and deny long-term renters of a place to call home.
This is AWESOME!!!!!!!
Just subbed. Great content, great music 🎶
How does the “community” keep this from being wrecked by a weak board or developer worming their way in? I am thinking of a different but similar idea that was destroyed when MEC was gutting without the consent of the co-op members.
liquid democracy is one potential option
Seems like a great opportunity for sly developers to subvert. I know I would if I had the money. My experience with cooperative organizations has shown them to be highly susceptible to be taken over by dedicated interests. I think many of these community land trusts will ultimately end up the same way. Maybe not now, but in a decade or two you'll start seeing a lot of them being brought down, sliced up, and sold off. Someone's going to have a great pay day
I was one of those screwed over MEC members. One option I heard floated in the desperate attempts to save MEC was a rule requiring a membership vote that requires a true majority of all members (rather than a majority of those voting) to be approved.
Better government protections is another: turn the power of bureaucracy away from stifling zoning, towards making the process of destroying (or selling the property of...) a co-operative venture onerous enough to prevent it.
Select board members at random (probability sampling) rather than votes.
There is no institution that can survive by itself, people always need to be vigilant, and unfortunately that is very difficult to do.
Keyword other stakeholders, this isn’t the answer. Non-profits can be pretty corrupt and profitable.
I was lucky enough to live in Kensington for a couple years, it was wonderful.
man i`m so impressed by your jokes and montage! wow
I'm sure they all get along without any conflict or misunderstanding at all.
How is this not just NIMBYism?
NIMBYs are people who stop development at the expense of their surrounding communities. IE not putting up affordable housing in the area because it may "attract undesirables" and "ruin land value".
nice job editing the soundtrack!!
Informative video. It’s reminiscent of old Vice
The reason why Kensington Market is so great is because it was originally built by Toronto's Orthodox Jewish community.
Orthodox Jews do not drive or take transit on Shabbat, so the neighborhoods that they live in need to be walkable. They need a quorum of 10 men in order to form a minyan at shul, so living in a dense neighborhood with other Jews is a necessity. They need to have access to a kosher butcher & grocery store nearby to have access to kosher food, so Orthodox neighborhoods are brimming with small business activity like butchers, separate kosher certified meat/dairy restaurants, and grocery stores. Finally they need to have close access to a Mikvah bath made up of natural water in order to go through purity rituals, which don't exist in a lot of areas.
There's a reason why so many Jews live in dense urban areas like Kensington Market & Forest Hill Toronto, Crown heights Brooklyn NY, & Montreal's Mile End & Outremont neighborhoods.
I am Jewish and being an urbanist has always been a key part of my Jewish identity.
can see it helping BUT the neighbourhood / MOST "cool" neighbourhoods are the way they are due to MIXED cultures and a NEED to live near others of your community and that creates the market for one off ethnic stores that are focused on the NEEDS of the LOCAL communities and as extension become a "unique experience" for outside communities to experience
Thoughtful video and a I like that everyone seems to acknowledge that neighborhoods are supposed to change. But these tools are only necessary because there isn't a guarantee that there will be another Kensington Market somewhere else....because zoning won't allow it. I struggle to see a difference between ensuring a neighborhood is always "weird" and affordable, and a neighborhood that is always SFH. Frankly, this seems like a form of urban nimbyism.
Very very cool. Love content like this