WHAT YOU CAN DO.
SCAD & Gentrification
Information to Read about Gentrification and how it is specific to SCAD:
“How SCAD sells a dream” By Alan Judd, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Preserving Whose Neighborhood? The Effects of Adaptive Reuse by the Savannah College of Art & Design on Property Value and Community Change in Savannah, Georgia” By Kimberly Winson-Geideman Ph.D. Dawn Jourdan Esq. Ph.D. Shan Gao
“City Talk: Gentrification slow but steady” By Bill Dawers, Savannah Now
Here are a few outside statements about SCAD’s gentrification:
“I realize that “gentrification” is a politically and racially charged word, but it conveys a certain reality of struggling urban neighborhoods that experience a surge of new investment, with wealthier new residents, often white, replacing poorer residents who are often black.” - journalist Bill Dawers from Savannah Now
“There is a benefit to Savannah when unoccupied and dilapidated buildings and lots are restored to a useful purpose by SCAD. However, those properties are also being taken off the tax digest and serve only the interest of SCAD while requiring services such as fire, sewer, water and police.” - journalist Michael Taxter from Savannah Now
A research study conducted in 2007 by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, “The Effects of Adaptive Reuse by the Savannah College of Art & Design on Property Value and Community Change in Savannah, Georgia” concluded that, “contrary to expectations, that proximity to SCAD does not have a positive effect on renovation...further research will show an effect from such renovations on market value, thereby pricing those living at or below the poverty level, particularly African Americans, out of the housing market.”
“Instead of identifying the root cause of the ghettos and why they are in the condition they are in, instead of pointing the finger at the ones who are responsible (ahem, government), they mask it by getting white people to buy up the condemned houses, which will in turn cause rising tax properties, which will then cause many to be homeless. This can, and has, contributed to crime rates.” - writer Sylvia Alls from the Tiger’s Roar News