Berlin: #Cooperatives, a Model for Creative and #AffordableHousing. Against #gentrification. @sarahvangelder @YesMagazine
YES! Magazine: In Berlin, a Model for Creative and Affordable Housing
Cities with vibrant arts, music, and social scenes are being hit hard by gentrification. But Berlin’s “co-housing culture” shows that a city’s future doesn’t have to go that way. …
But this isn’t the only future a hip city can have, and Berlin is a case in point. Anarchists for years have been squatting in abandoned buildings and on open land. Cooperatives and a variety of other shared living arrangements offer affordable options. Social movements have emerged to protect these approaches and to counter displacement of poor and middle-class residents. While on a speaking tour of Germany, I visited Spreefeld, a housing cooperative built in downtown Berlin. …
Berlin’s creative culture is under tremendous pressure as real estate speculators from around the globe buy up apartment buildings. But a culture of resistance and grassroots revitalization is putting a brake on gentrification, helping to protect the residents’ right to their city.“