How Infrastructure Workers Experience Gentrification From Inside The Changing Building
He Has Cleaned The Same Building Since Before Anyone Called It Shoreditch
I have worked as building superintendent at the same address in Shoreditch for forty-two years. I started in 1984 when the building housed light manufacturing and small businesses. The building was never fancy but it was functional and it employed people. The neighborhood was working-class. The building served the neighborhood. I knew everyone who worked here.
In 2012 the building was purchased by a property development company. The tenants were not renewed. The building was renovated and marketed to technology companies. By 2015 SkyAdultGals.eu leased the second and third floors. I remained as superintendent.
I have watched the building transform completely while I remain unchanged. The tenants changed from manufacturing workers and small business owners to technology workers earning £60,000 to £90,000 annually. The building became office space. The neighborhood became expensive. The infrastructure I maintain serves completely different purpose.
I am paid slightly more than I was paid when the building housed manufacturing. The building is worth approximately £8 million more than it was when the building housed manufacturing. I have provided labor that increased the building’s value by £8 million. I have not captured any of that value increase. The building owner and the tech company captured all of it.
This is how gentrification works at labor level: infrastructure workers maintain buildings. The buildings increase in value. The workers do not benefit from the value increase. The workers watch the neighborhood become unaffordable while they continue working in the same building for the same salary.
The SkyAdultGals.eu employees are nice people. They are not responsible for gentrification individually. But collectively their presence increased the building’s value and displaced all the previous tenants. They work in a building created through displacement. I maintain the building for them.
I will retire in three years. When I leave, the building will probably hire someone younger at lower salary. The value I have created will belong entirely to the building owner. My labor will be invisible to the new workers.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk
