Dear Gentrification List Members: A colleague, Sharon Zukin, forwarded the 
visual images discussion by B.J. Goodchild sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000  to 
me and thought I might like to comment. For introduction purposes I am Jerome 
Krase, Ph.D., Murray Koppelman Professor, and Chair of Sociology at Brooklyn 
College of the City University of New York. I am currently a member of the 
Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological 
Association, the International Visual Sociology Association as well as 
several other groups related to issues of urban life and culture. I have been 
doing visual studies and activism of one sort or another on/in urban 
neighborhoods for just about three decades now.
B.J. had said:
"The gentrification website looks promising. What strikes me is how the 
development of a new form of communication- the website- raises new issues. A 
website is well-suited to the presentation of visual material. The 
juxtaposition of photographs and social analysis in the new gentrification 
website raises, in turn, some important issues about the role of visual 
signifiers. I do not think that the gentrification website
places too much emphasis on the signifiers of gentrification, as Rowland 
suggests. Rather, l would argue in favour of a more systematic analysis of 
those signifiers. We live in a culture in which visual images- photographs, 
the television, films, the activities of advertising industry- are at least 
as important as the written or spoken word in moulding definitions of what is 
desirable and undesirable. 
Arguably the leading theorist of visual factors in relation to the 
residential environment is Rapoport, for example The Meaning of the Built 
Environment, 1982, Sage. Rapoport goes into detail about the visual cues that 
influence judgements of desirability and undesirability. Rapoport also 
bundles all the details into a broader thesis that images of suburbia have 
defined the ideal residential environment in the English speaking world. I 
would want to know whether the experience of gentrification indicates the 
acceptance of a wider range of cultural definitions of the ideal environment? 
If so, can this shift be traced at a purely cultural level through the 
changing views expressed in popular publications, films and so forth?
The interpretation of visual cues is also influenced by the sounds present in 
or absent from a place. I would guess that gentrification is more common in 
quiet streets and that the urban poor increasingly live alongside more 
heavilly trafficked streets that are noisy and polluted. However, I do not 
know whether there are any empirical studies of such tendencies."
My response was: I have been involved in one way or another with pro and 
anti-gentrification community activities and sociological research in NYC for 
three decades. I might suggest as to Rapoport's  ".. broader thesis that 
images of suburbia have defined the ideal residential environment in the 
English speaking world." and the question of  " ... whether the experience of 
gentrification indicates the acceptance of a wider range of cultural 
definitions of the ideal environment?" that there is more than one 
residential "cultural ideal" even in the English speaking world. (I have 
photographed gentrification in non-english-speaking sites as well.) For us 
here in American perhaps, the quaint cottage, impressive manor house, and 
chic brownstone might be variant home ideals of Anglo (American)- Urbanism 
and Anti-Urbanism. We should also note the influence of created and/or 
marketable "styles" of urban living which are attractive for residential 
market segments. As to busy or quiet streets, I don't think that busyness is 
the issue as much as what the busyness is about. The gentrified areas in NYC 
are very busy, even busier than most low-income areas. As to the "pollution" 
issue, I also think that at least here in NYC we also would be confounded by 
whether the problem is "known," and by whom it is known. For example, I 
recently visited the trendy-in-process neighborhood of Williamsburgh, 
Brooklyn  for dinner and a photo excursion and took note of a "Super Fund" 
(Pollution) warning sign in the back yard of a Health Food Store staffed by a 
young woman with orange hair. I would be happy to share at some point my 
photos and writings on the subject. I have a web site article at 
academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/soc/semiotics/ or www.brooklynsoc.org which might 
give some indication of my approach to both the visual and the vernacular 
urban landscape. All the best, Jerry Krase


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