YOU CAN’T JUST LAND ON THE MOON AND HAVE A ROCK CLUB: A CASE STUDY OF RACIALIZATION, GENTRIFICATION AND PLACE REPUTATION IN FISHTOWN

Abstract

This dissertation explores processes of racialization, gentrification, and place reputation through a case study of Fishtown – a historically, white working-class neighborhood located along the Delaware River that generally falls within the 19125 ZIP code. Throughout the 20th century, Fishtown was an industrial hub for manufacturing. Reputationally, the neighborhood has been described as insular, racist, and hostile to outsiders, particularly toward Black folks. However, beginning in the early 2000s, Fishtown started seeing increases in median home values and the number of residents possessing at least a bachelor's degree. These changes partly came as a result of the city of Philadelphia’s tax abatement program that was designed to encourage development and spur growth. Fishtown stands as one of the bill’s biggest beneficiaries, receiving the fifth most abated properties of all neighborhoods in Philadelphia. In recent years, Fishtown has become a hub for nightlife and live music, which helps the neighborhood develop “new” reputations as “cool” and desirable. However, despite such changes in class status and the neighborhood’s reputation, Fishtown remains mostly white. Considering Fishtown’s status as a white, working-class neighborhood whose gentrifiers are also white, Fishtown presents itself as a deviant case in the gentrification literature, where cases of “white gentrification” remain understudied. In this dissertation I address the following question: how does racialization take place in a white neighborhood amidst the gentrification process? My study builds on Rucks-Ahidiana's (2021) application of Robinson’s (1983) framework of racial capitalism. Rucks-Ahidiana departs from class-based theories of gentrification to define gentrification as a racialized process of class change. In its application, this definition establishes that, while racial turnover is not necessary for gentrification, processes of racialization are. By using this framework, I find that racialization operates via three mechanisms in Fishtown’s gentrification process: 1) via gentrifiers' use of neighborhood associations, reorganizing the neighborhood’s geographic boundaries, and communicating “progressive” political ideologies to create a more socially desirable neighborhood of the future; 2) via reputational understanding of musical genre as a racialized process of organizing sound and constructing place, and 3) commercial gentrification via music venues. The empirical findings from this dissertation make several contributions to the gentrification literature. First, I identify how processes of racialization unfold in a white neighborhood amidst the gentrification process. Second, I specify the mechanisms social integrationist gentrifiers employ to create a more socially desirable neighborhood of the future. Third, I show how the racial politics of listening can be used to facilitate gentrification, and how corporate, chain-style music venues operate as powerful entities influencing neighborhoods and local music scenes. Theoretically, this dissertation highlights the importance of centering race and racialization in studies of gentrification and urban landscapes more broadly, as well as the importance of examining how places are racialized via their reputation. Policymaking for cities must work to restructure unequal social conditions so that racially biased ideologies cease to shape urban landscapes. This research utilizes qualitative data I collected in Fishtown between 2020 and 2022. The qualitative data include 29 in-depth interviews with neighborhood stakeholders, such as residents, music venue staff, musicians, DJs, business owners, and concertgoers, as well as participant observation and photography.