Gentrification in TV S South Park

South Park's SodoSopa

The animated series South Park on Comedy Central often features controversial and taboo subject matter on its show in its attempt to satirize contemporary social trends. In episode three of season 19, the show satirized the class issue of gentrification, by depicting South Park's poor neighborhood undergoing a re-vitalization process in order to become "Sodosopa" -- a typical gentrified neighborhood like so many across the U.S. which were previously impoverished neighborhoods. The inequality that results in the show is illustrated by Kenny's family being priced out of the neighborhood where they live so that wealthier clientele can come in to enjoy the fine dining experiences offered by the Sodosopa project. The poor families are displaced from where they have lived and the rest of the community shows no real care or concern for the plight of the poor, as they are happy to embrace the new lifestyle upgrades that are being offered them by the new, hip and happening location in a part of town that was formerly never visited or thought of by them. In fact, the entire purpose of the revitalizing of the poor part of town is so that the city can attract new business and re-brand its image. It is, in other words, a business plan that puts profits before people.

To make the social class inequalities all the more apparent, the gentrification project takes place around Kenny's family's house. Thus, whereas before Kenny could look out his bedroom window to see an abandoned lot next door, now he looks out and sees the smiling faces of upper class diners enjoying their dinner on the outdoor patio of the latest upscale restaurant while trendy music plays from the loudspeakers overhead. Kenny and his family are not allowed to mingle and mix with the clientele of the upscale restaurants. They serve only as backdrop for these upper class citizens, who resemble aristocrats on safari, entering into the wilds of the "jungle" all the while protected from harm (contamination/danger) by the elitist surroundings, balconies and booths from which they enjoy the view of the rundown and "urban" city life.

It is, in other words, a voyeuristic approach to the urban setting that divorces the reality of urban life from the experience. The upper class citizens from the suburbs descend on the newly gentrified block because it is new, novel and caters to their tastes; the fact that the enter into a formerly dangerous part of town adds to the appeal -- it is exotic and unlike anything else they have experienced before. Yet, having this experience comes at a price: just like the hunting of the rhino comes at the price of the possibility of extermination, the issue of gentrification comes at the price of displacement: Kenny and his family are further marginalized from society by the fact that they are not even recognized as real persons, as citizens or as humans who matter and should have a vote in a free, democratic society. The issue here is that business trumps everything, and fine dining in an "urban" setting is good for business -- for the time being.

Later in the season, the same newly gentrified neighborhood is shown returned to squalor. The novelty has worn off. The newly built lofts have not been kept up and there is no more demand among the upper class. They are now dealing with their own economic dilemmas that do not allow to be able to splurge on the same experiences they enjoyed at the height of Sodosopa's popularity in episode 3. The show indicates that economic cycles have booms and busts and that no class is fully immune from these -- even the upper middle class that took so much pleasure in the gentrified urban block at the beginning.

Kenny is forced to go get a job to help his family survive in the new economic times -- and the only place hiring children is the local Chinese restaurant that unfortunately is no longer doing business, because the new upscale shopping district Sodosopa has taken it all. As David, McBride et al. (2008) point out, "the way people eat is an unconscious reflection of the way people live" (p. 2) -- and as South Park points out, the upper middle class, living high on credit, wants to eat like the upper class -- partake of fine dining experiences and forget the old, fast food haunts it enjoyed prior to its fast flowing easy credit, propping the new class's habits. Glickman (2000) observes that just as fast food once rose to prominence in America, so too is the spread of gentrification in urban areas -- it is part of a new post-recession boom, designed to bring a new class of people into urban areas, so that businesses can stand better chances of recruiting talent to the area.