Expectant (or failed?) gentrification in the Concha y Toro quarter, district of Santiago, Chile.

Abstract

This paper compares the residential and business transformations in the Concha y Toro quarter, revealing a traditional but discontinuous gentrification process dominated by the arrival of foreign pioneers and natives who rehabilitate abandoned or dilapidated old buildings. It is suggested that gentrification only affects certain properties, and not the quarter as a whole. The process is dominated by the arrival of better land payers, both business capitals and new residents, who nonetheless are unable to consolidate a gentrified quarter project mainly due to inadequate support by the local government. The latter suggests that gentrification is not a phenomenon unique to the quarter, as it holds a dialogue and disputes space with the dilapidation and slumification of other buildings.