Paradise?
Conversations about breweries and gentrification often criticize the breweries and their customers without giving greater recognition to why the businesses establish themselves in certain areas. It’s more of a function of land use regulations called “zoning” and less of a greedy ploy by racist yeast wranglers.
A recent post by Jen Blair (Under the Jenfluence) titled “Gentrification is Sparkling Colonialism: They paved paradise and only made fruited sours” addresses the role breweries play in gentrification. And while the post is well-intended and ultimately offers an array of positive things that can be done, the way it mixes breweries with boutiques and other gentrifying land uses may oversimplify the dynamics of how breweries enter these neighborhoods.
In most communities around the country, breweries are confined to fringe areas where land use laws allow them to operate. Industrial and manufacturing uses are often isolated from the rest of our communities to protect residents from a variety of potentially harmful impacts. You know, bad smells, loud noises, pollution, etc.
And who has historically lived adjacent to these noxious areas? That’s right, low-income people of color. This of course is not happenstance and is a product of institutional racism.
The Evolution of Industrial Land
As industry in the US declined in the last half-century, many industrial areas have been “targeted” for redevelopment. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Something does need to happen to these properties. In addition to being eyesores, at best, they often have unchecked contamination seeping into the surrounding communities.
That doesn’t mean the solution is luxury residential towers, yoga studios, and high-end boutiques, but these areas do need reinvestment.
While it’s true that breweries have been part of some redevelopment initiatives that may also include coffee shops and natural wine bars, as Jen points out, unlike the other uses, breweries have always occupied industrial spaces. It’s not fair to lump them together with the other businesses.
True, the nature of modern breweries, with their cornhole games, sip and paint events, and stroller debates, is much different than it was in past generations. Whereas breweries were once gigantic factories not open to the community, they are now much smaller operations with a public-facing element. They now lure outsiders into previously marginalized communities and that has proven to be harmful in many instances.
Perpetrator or Victim?
The irony is that breweries themselves are often victims of these redevelopment efforts.
To allow for legal redevelopment of former industrial lands, many communities eliminate industrial zoning to allow for pricey apartments and fancy coffee shops. This further restricts opportunities for breweries, making industrial land more competitive for the businesses that remain.
Even when breweries are allowed to remain, rising land values in revitalized neighborhoods can price them out – especially if they rent their space. After all, land zoned for a luxury high-rise is exponentially more valuable than that for a one-story haze factory. So, the breweries become victims of the neighborhood’s success.
That so-called “success” often spills over into adjacent neighborhoods, and I assume that’s the ‘paradise’ referenced in Jen’s subtitle. And I think it’s important to make that distinction of the land that is redeveloped. An abandoned truck depot repurposed as a brewery is different than a block of rowhouses razed for an Orange Theory below a tower of multimillion-dollar condos.
And whereas many other businesses have opportunities to locate elsewhere in the city where the zoning is permissive for them, breweries remain confined to industrial zones.
What can be done?
We need to advocate for policies that preserve affordable space for beer production and provide incentives for taprooms to be located in neighborhoods that are not at risk of being caught in the cycle of gentrification (unless, of course, the business is from people of that community). We also need to allow for small-scale brewing in areas where it has traditionally been prohibited—where it can properly be accommodated.
Beyond that, breweries should partner with local groups, activists, artists, etc., and hire locals to the extent feasible. They should offer their space for community meetings and events. They should also support local businesses in whatever ways they can, including allowing pop-up markets in their taprooms with local vendors. Finally, beer should be used to strengthen communities, not tear them apart.