real estate developers: Living and working in such a central area has a lot of merits, yet it also has its drawbacks. The major problem is the intense level of commercialisation and threat of forced eviction. The tourism industry and real estate developers are extremely interested in buying and converting residential buildings and local businesses into hotels or short-term rentals. For exactly this reason I was evicted from my previous house, which is not far from where I live now, two years ago and I can see the encroachment of the tourism related spaces upon my existing neighbourhood. Huge construction trucks passing through residential streets in Istanbul. All photographs: Yasar Adanali, according to The Guardian. Istanbul is the city of transformation and contradiction. As an urbanist, I am trying to keep record and make sense of this transformation and am especially interested in its winners and losers. At the moment we live in a giant construction site, where skyscrapers, mega projects and urban renewal projects are taking place all around. There is a gold rush to real-estate development. Just to give an example, the founders of one of the most successful local IT firms sold their shares to eBay and joined the highly profitable real-estate development sector and I live in the historical Beyo lu District of Istanbul, the centre of my poly-centred megacity. In any given day, 2 million visitors pass within one kilometre of my home. Taksim Square and Gezi Park are approximately 700m from my front door. My office, from where I work on urbanism-related projects, is also within walking distance of my home. Most of my neighbours are relatively poor internal and external migrants. They have been enjoying low rents and employment opportunities nearby for many years. However, the widening rent gap and gentrification process has put them under threat of eviction.
(news.financializer.com). As
reported in the news.
Tagged under Yasar Adanali, Istanbul topics.