plural noun
people of high social class, especially in the past:
a member of the landed gentry (= those who own a lot of land)
gentrify
verb [T often passive] DISAPPROVING
to change a place from being a poor area to a richer one, by people of a higher social class moving to live there:
The area where I grew up has been all modernized and gentrified, and has lost all its old character.
gentrification
noun [U]
when an area is gentrified
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
A Rising Tide of Gentrification Rocks Dutch Houseboats
Houseboats on Princes Canal in Amsterdam, once a low-cost alternative to living on land, have gone upscale in recent years. More Photos >
AMSTERDAM, Aug. 8 — On a recent Saturday during the confusion of this watery city’s annual Gay Pride Parade along the majestic Princes Canal, a beach umbrella was knocked into the water from the foredeck of Jackie Wijnakker’s houseboat, so she dove into the water to fetch it, unsuccessfully. It was only the second time in 17 years that she had jumped into the canal, and she cannot recall what she was trying to retrieve the first time. At any rate, she said with a laugh, “I’m too old to be diving into canals.”
She told the tale as a testament to how clean the water is, despite its murky, khaki color. “The canals are flushed regularly,” said Ron Van Heukelom, a neighbor who lives on dry land and has never ventured into the canal.
The flushing is necessary because, while most of Amsterdam’s 2,800 houseboats have running water, electricity and gas heat, few are connected to sewerage systems and continue to spill their waste into the canals.
The houseboats’ lack of toilet training is their dirty little secret, one that sits uncomfortably with a new generation of wealthier, more demanding owners who are leading a gentrification of the houseboat scene. In the process, they are displacing the less affluent boat people, many of whom are relics of the 1960s and 1970s era of flower power now struggling to pay the upkeep on their boats.
flower power noun [U]
the ideas and beliefs of some young people in the 1960s and 1970s who opposed war and encouraged people to love each other
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
“The water is cleaner than it looks,” said Monique J. M. Jacobs, an official of the city agency responsible for water and the boats. The canals, she explained, are flushed by opening and closing locks about twice a week, and in summer more often. “Small fish are coming back, and also birds that feed off the fish,” she said. “In the old days it was awful. It stank in summer.”
The city wants to go further. It plans to install sewage pipes along the canals for the boats to hook into. This poses a threat to boat people like Ms. Wijnakker, who will have to pay about $28,000 to link up to the new system. The threat is not imminent; boat owners will have until 2017 to hook up.
Houseboats were traditionally the refuge of people without the means to live on dry land. After World War II, working-class families took to the water when housing on land was unavailable, and old canal barges were cheap, as the Dutch renewed their fleet.
“It’s difficult to find a good house on land,” said Pom Dupré, who has lived for 20 years on a 65-foot boat, the Nova Cura, along the canal. “And of course, this is a fine neighborhood,” she added, glancing at the stately 17th-century homes along the canal, many of them law offices or professional services.
There are drawbacks, she admits. Every four years the boat has to be hauled to a dry dock to have its hull checked for canal-worthiness. The family must find a place to stay, or live on the boat in the wharf; water pipes, which are exposed to the air between boat and canal wall, often freeze in the winter.
(worthy (SUITABLE)
adjective
worthy of sth suitable for, or characteristic of something:
He threw a party worthy of a millionaire and attracted a glittering crowd of beautiful people.
-worthy
suffix
1 suitable or deserving to receive a particular thing:
trustworthy
creditworthy
newsworthy
2 describes a boat, aircraft or vehicle which is suitable to be used safely in a particular substance or surroundings:
seaworthy
roadworthy
worthiness
noun [U]
suitability:
She persuaded the board of her worthiness to run the company.
certificate of airworthiness 適航證書
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
To make ends meet, or simply to enjoy onboard company, some boat owners have transformed their boats into bed-and-breakfasts. Ms. Wijnakker began taking in guests three years ago and now does a busy trade in summer.
Two years ago, Luc Couvée, 51, a graphic artist, and his wife, Laura Tollenaar, bought a canal freighter on the canal, then added two showers and two bedrooms to take in paying guests. “I’m a very boat-minded person,” Mr. Couvée said. “And it’s cheaper than an apartment, though not by much.”
The couple paid about $420,000 for the boat, which they renamed Vreiheid, or freedom. An apartment in the neighborhood would have cost about $700,000. They have solved the sewage problem, installing the necessary plumbing and a cesspool that can be emptied regularly. When the city’s plumbing is in place, they will be ready.
cesspitnoun [C]
1 (ALSO cesspool) a large underground hole or container which is used for collecting and storing excrement, urine and dirty water
2 DISAPPROVING a situation that causes disgust
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
The popularity of houseboats reflects a general awakening in Amsterdam to the beauty of water. “Up to the 1970s and ’80s, Amsterdam’s water was forgotten,” said Maarten Kloos, an architect who runs Arcam, an independent foundation that promotes architecture. “Now, not only houseboats, floating has gained currency.”
currency (ACCEPTANCE)
noun [U]
the state of being commonly known or accepted, or of being used in many places:
His ideas enjoyed wide currency during the last century.
Many informal expressions are gaining currency in serious newspapers.
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
Indeed, the architecture of some new apartment buildings near the center of Amsterdam suggests huge houseboats. “Talking about water is now the topic,” Mr. Kloos said. “People used to say, ‘With the beauty of our 17th-century canals, why can’t we get rid of those boats?’ ” he said. “Now, like all of Amsterdam, the boats are more and more bourgeois.”
Mr. Kloos might have been thinking of a squat, sleek houseboat on the River Amstel that suggests Mies van der Rohe more than Peter Stuyvesant. Five years ago, Steven Westerop, a personnel executive, left his home in Leiden, a short train ride from Amsterdam, to buy a dilapidated boat on the Amstel from an elderly German who came to Holland during the flower power days. With an architect’s help, Mr. Westerop, 46, designed and built a split-level home on a hull that was essentially a reinforced concrete shoebox.
“There are many kinds of boats I didn’t like,” he said. “I wanted people to say, ‘O.K.!’ Maybe even a little over the top.”
over the top (ABBREVIATION OTT) UK INFORMAL
too extreme and not suitable, or demanding too much attention or effort, especially in an uncontrolled way:
I thought the decorations were way (= very) over the top.
The speech was a bit OTT.
I think he realised he'd gone over the top with the seating arrangements.
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
“It’s now a yuppie market,” he said. “You need a good job, otherwise you can’t afford it.” The old boat people, like his German, are selling, he said, and all of the houseboats on both sides of his have changed owners in the past five years.
“Sometimes, though, I still feel like a Gypsy,” he went on. “But I have a big mortgage.”
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