Edmonton Arena District, by BRB 28 March 2015, 12:15 pm
6° Celsius, Square 104

This image was taken inside an apartment complex (Square 104) that is adjacent to the nascent Edmonton Arena District (EAD), a purported “world-class destination” that seeks to attract Edmontonians and visitors “from around the world” to “live, work and play” (Edmonton Arena District). The development and construction of the EAD, already publicized as the future “hub and heart of Edmonton,” will introduce an arena, hotels, shopping centers, residences, commercial offices, and other major changes in the infrastructure of a significant part of the downtown core (Edmonton Arena District). But which bodies and objects are antithetical to the image of a space as a city’s “hub and heart,” and how are some bodies and not others repudiated in the discursive and geopolitical move to gentrify urban space? In my interpretation of select ideas forwarded by Michel Foucault, I assert that gentrification is a technique of power that is invested in architecture, that gentrification is a classist, racist, and colonial-settler means through which the freedom of some people (to live, work, and play) is made possible by the erasure of the other(s/ed). If, according to Foucault, “space is fundamental in any exercise of power” then gentrification (which, according to the scholar Katherine Burnett, often is packaged as “urban regeneration”) is about placing something or someone to a space by displacing others. This image is intended to help us visualize (and temporally immobilize) the industrial matter and machines that gentrification frequently marshals: The metal girders and cranes physically converge to take up space and to claim that space. The organic morphology of the carvings, however, exemplifies the tensions caused by the suggested force embodied in gentrification, which appears to engulf and overwhelm organic life forms in the production of ‘urban regeneration.’

Parkallen Community by EB
March 24, 9:00, -7° Celsius

On March 24th at 9:00 in the morning I decided to walk outside and take my photo for our group project that centres on gentrification. While it appeared to be a normal day, and relatively uneventful or routine once compared to the potential excitement found in other endeavours, it had much importance to me. The temperature outside was -7° Celsius. For some people this may be chilly, but for me on that day it had the sense of Winter drawing to an end. I chose to take a picture on the street where grew up. I also chose this familiar venue because it is seems so different from the one I remember from my childhood. While many great Edmonton buildings have drastically changed, I feel a very personal change here. The community I remember was always full of children, and the 1950's houses that lined the streets could only be differentiated by colour. As I grew and spent less and less time on these streets I hardly noticed the changes underway until this past winter.

When I grew up here, the community was mainly middle-class families with young children. Everyone was roughly within the boat, and you knew at least half the people living in the neighborhood, if not more. Today this is an area increasingly populated by wealthy young professionals and, as a result, many of the houses have doubled in price since when we first moved here. While there used to be block parties every second weekend and kids played in hockey rinks in each other backyard or could be found in the same venues using sprinklers to cool off in the summer, the streets are now filled with impersonal expensive cars and renovated or rebuilt houses. The empty field near us is now dominated by a professional office space and the nearby LRT station causes an artificial population surge in the neighborhood with people using the streets as a shortcut to work and public transit.

I placed the carving on our old van. For me, the van and its venue represents the old community, and the portrait recalls how the streets were formally lined with minivans driving kids to after school sports programs. These personal memories are now just that and not a reflection of the present since most houses here are recently renovated, and I couldn't name more than two neighbours, other than the colour of their winter jackets. As I pondered these changes Henri Lefebvre’s “Notes on the New Town” seemed most relevant for consideration. The New Town is akin to the changes within this new community, while these changes distort the original one that I knew and now remember. It may seem trivial to look at something as simple and seemingly banal as this neighborhood, but it is the most personal form of gentrification I have seen and experienced first hand.

124th Street (Calder Area) by TM
Date: April 6th, 2015 Time: 4pm
Temperature: 3 degrees Celsius

People are motivated by primarily selfish desires. When most people see a deal or an opportunity, they rarely stop to consider what opportunities led to this opportunity presenting itself to them, the structures of privilege that are naturally implicit in these opportunities, the other less privileged people that might not have the access to take such a deal, and other pervasive power structures. I live in a neighbourhood that has yet to be gentrified, but the early signs are becoming apparent. Local businesses are being driven out by more mainstream corporations, local gas stations are displaced big name oil company ones, and real estate prices are slowly climbing, pushing people who found haven in cheaper prices outwards to more dangerous places. For me, the carvings give the image of a boat or a ship carrying cargo, and this analogy visualizes itself as people searching for a new homes, projecting their desires for a new and better place to live and sailing away from their current surroundings. This applies both to those who wish to gentrify neighbourhoods, seeking rustic charm or simply lower rent, and those people who are driven out of their neighbourhoods by those willing to pay a higher rent then the current occupants. And again, local business that people rely are bought out or supplanted by corporations.

It is important to recognize that these neighbourhoods and communities have very specific balances of people and business that support and work with the chemistry of the community, giving them their own distinct aura. By large-scale gentrification, these communities can be overwhelmed by the white, cisgender, heteronormative gentrifiers who do not think about privilege or other types of marginalization and instead are only seeking to fulfill their own selfish desires.

Jackie Parker Park by SH

I took my photo at Jackie Parker Park on 50 Street. This photo was taken on Wednesday March 25, 2015 at 2:45pm. The park was still blanketed with snow, but the sun was out and the temperature was +6 degrees. This park includes a spray park for children, a lake, a walking trail, a climbing wall, and a playground — all of which back onto Mill Woods Golf Course.

Our group chose to focus our photos on the theme of gentrification. Jackie Parker Park is a prime example of gentrification in Edmonton as it was once a garbage dump and is now a beautiful park and golf course. It is frequented by families who come to enjoy the spray park in the summer, as well as many school field trips who bike on the trails, and skate on the lake in the winter. Once a location for discarded items, it is now a place where nature thrives and as a ‘hang out’ for Canada geese, who were present at the time this photo was taken, and weren’t too happy to see me.

Jackie Parker Park proves how a city can gentrify areas in an attempt to reinvent a city. Repurposing an area of land that was once a garbage dump, in a very culturally and economic diverse area of the city, encourages various forms of recreation, and creates a space for positive interaction between citizens. The theme of gentrification and city planning relate to our discussion of the case study of the city of Brasilia, and ties into the idea of space and planning as discussed by Michel Foucault.