The Romanian context is especially familiar with the third wave of gentrification, which is visible in Bucharest in the Old Center. Here, however, the focus will be on a less intricate phenomenon, but one which I feel is representative for what appears to be a future process of active coupling of the art scene to the interests of real estate capital: Train Delivery<\/i> and Rahova Delivery<\/i>. The two episodes of the Street Delivery<\/i> franchise are a potential testing sample for future gentrification attempts. Artists, by making use of their symbolic and social capital, as well as their ability to translate the cultural phenomena of underprivileged groups for the middle class, are the first who can indicate to investors and the said middle class that areas such as Gara de Nord or Rahova have a certain something which can be converted into capital with very little investment.<\/p>\n
The area around Gara de Nord \u2013 a heterogeneous neighborhood with complex social phenomena which produce (among other things) class oppression (poverty, trafficking, drug dealing, a large community of adult homeless persons etc.) \u2013 has been a space of social and political tensions typical for Bucharest in recent years. A relevant example would be the debates surrounding the resistance to the urban project Berzei-Buzesti, but the key element in this situation is proximity to Piata Victoriei, a political center (the Government building) as well as an economic one (several big banks are located there). The controversial Berzei-Buzesti project offers a great opportunity to demolish a couple of dozen houses associated with poverty and provincialism[2]<\/a> and \u201cclean up\u201d the area. Buzesti Street had previously been the most revealing expression of the social tensions in the neighborhood: office buildings at one end, with small houses and an international bus station around them, and Hala Matache, the heart of the neighborhood, at the other end. After the conversion, the street becomes the waiting room of the gentrification process and of the slow, but steady march of the office buildings towards Gara de Nord.<\/p>\n In this context, the Street Delivery<\/i> franchise expanded to other areas: the Train Delivery<\/i> festival, about \u201ccreative people reinventing Gara de Nord\u201d[3]<\/a>, a complex place where \u201cmany people began their love (or hate) affair with Bucharest\u201d. The symmetrical love and contempt objectify local phenomena, the festival excluding the local community completely. That is, unless we count out three events: a \u201cworkshop\u201d organized by local law enforcement[4]<\/a>, a workshop aimed at children, held by the social services and a discussion with the Group of Volunteer Architects pertaining to \u201cthe alternative solution to the Berzei-Buzesti highway\u201d \u2013 one of the leading manifestations of the discourse emphasizing heritage. The program also included events typical for the \u201ccreative class\u201d, such as handmade workshops , \u201ccreative\u201d merchandise or discussions\/presentations on heritage issues. The latter is an event which has the role of infusing the aesthetics of optimism and harmlessness into the three problematic events mentioned above. Their deeply political character is obscured by the bohemianism and avant-gardism of the others.<\/p>\n The workshop with law enforcement officers \u2013 about \u201chow to avoid pickpockets and be safe wherever you go\u201d \u2013 clearly outlines the position of the festival. The \u201cpickpockets\u201d are symbolic representations of the local population: a poor one, plagued by lawlessness. The middle-class, led by its \u201ccreative\u201d avant-garde, \u201cthe citizens\u201d, will learn how to guard their possessions once they venture into the area. [\u2026]<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Smith, Neil, \u201eGentrification generalized: from local anomaly to urban \u2018regeneration\u2019 as global urban strategy\u201d \u00een Fisher, M. S. and Downey, G., (ed.) Frontiers of capital: ethnographic reflections on the new economy<\/b>. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006, pp. 191\u2013208.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [2]<\/a> The population in this area, as in other urban spaces, has been brought over during the regimes of Dej and Ceausescu in order to socially and ethnically balance urban areas dominated by a middle-class ethos and ethnic diversity. Today, these groups of people have become useless in the logic of post-Fordist capitalism. One can make an analogy with Rosalynd Deutsche\u2019s observations on dislocated populations in New York\u2019s Lower East Side: \u201cImmigrants accepted into the country from the middle of the 19th<\/sup> century up to World War 1 belong to a dislocated, fluid workforce, which follows capital [\u2026]. The current inhabitants of the area do not have a corresponding role in today\u2019s economy.\u201d In Deutsche and Ryan, The Fine Art of Gentrification<\/b>, October<\/i> 31, 1984, p. 100.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [3]<\/a> The 2-day festival was the result of a partnership between an agent of social entrepreneurship (Carturesti Foundation), a state-owned company (The Romanian Railways), a multinational corporation (Sony) and a public entity which finances independent culture (AFCN). This combination is a textbook example of neoliberal hegemony on urban living. All the quotes come from the description of the event, available here https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/499291786811949\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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