Waterfront revitalization is often evaluated through physical upgrading, improved amenities, and investment attractiveness, while the distribution of people's capacity to use and sustain their relationship with space receives less attention. This article examines the politics of space production in the transformation of Losari Beach and the Center Point of Indonesia, tests indications of gentrification and displacement, and evaluates the right to the city. The study adopts a critical qualitative case-study design covering 2000-2026. Evidence combines documented semi-structured interviews, spatial-planning and project documents, official statistics, previous studies, institutional records, and traceable news reports. The analysis integrates the production of space, rent-gap theory, new-build gentrification, displacement, thematic analysis, and an evidence-strength audit. The findings show that conceived space, organized around world-city aspirations, business-district functions, investment, and order, does not fully correspond with spatial practices and lived experiences. Visitors retain physical access and recreational benefits, but their visual and cultural relationship with the sea has changed. Street vendors experience regulatory-economic displacement through relocation, reduced footfall, surveillance, and the required mobility of trading equipment. Capital reinvestment, functional change, state intervention, and displacement pressures support a conclusion of partial new-build gentrification. The rent gap, however, cannot be calculated because longitudinal series on assessed land values, market transactions, and rents are unavailable. The article advances capacity to stay as a concept that distinguishes formal openness from the substantive ability to maintain livelihoods, place meanings, and influence decisions. A just waterfront requires protected access, livelihood continuity, meaningful participation, and a more equitable distribution of development benefits.
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