gentrification

DEALING WITH NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGE:A PRIMER ON GENTRIFICATION AND POLICY CHOICESI. INTRODUCTIONGentrification, the process of neighborhood change that results in the replacement of lowerincome residents with higher income ones, has changed the character of hundreds of urbanneighborhoods in America over the last 50 years. Gentrification occurs in periodic waves: from thefederally sponsored urban renewal efforts in the ‘50s and ‘60s, to the so-called “back-to-the-city”movement of the late ‘70s and early 1980s. A number of U.S. cities, whose populations andeconomies appear to have bottomed out and are on the rebound, are experiencing another wave ofgentrification today.Clearly much in the urban landscape has changed since the late 1970s and early 1980s.The nation has experienced unprecedented economic prosperity, though income inequality haswidened and left the poor concentrated disproportionately in the urban core. Job growthpredominates in suburban areas rather than the cities’ cores. Cities now play a new role inmetropolitan economies, as the hub of information services, arts and entertainment, rather than asindustrial centers. Metropolitan areas have become ever more sprawling, sparking efforts to createmore sustainable development patterns in many metropolitan regions. And a new corps of mayorshas made attracting middle- and upper-income residents back to their cities a leading priority, torevitalize the tax base of their communities, the viability of their neighborhoods and the vibrancy oftheir downtowns.If not an explicit intention of cities’ redevelopment efforts, gentrification can be a byproduct,particularly in cities with little vacant land or few unoccupied buildings. For all the benefits it canbring, gentrification can impose great financial and social costs on the very families and businessowners who are least able to afford them. If development is to be equitable, if revitalization is tohave the essential support of those living in neighborhoods targeted for assistance, if the outcomesof these investments are to benefit more than those moving into the city, decisionmakers in thepublic and private sectors must anticipate these potentially harmful effects and take effective andtimely steps to mitigate them now, and into the future.A number of cities now experience gentrification in its many stages and intensities.However, it is important to point out that gentrification is not occurring across the country. Rather, ittends to happen in cities with tight housing markets and in a select number of neighborhoods. Manycities are still starved for new residents and revenues. The movement of new middle-class residentsinto U.S. cities is a small counter-trend; the dominant trend, by far, is movement away from centralcities and towards the suburban periphery. And, as this paper points out, where gentrification is anissue, it plays out differently in different cities.In the supercharged economy of the San Francisco Bay Area, gentrification createsnoticeable changes in neighborhood character in a matter of months. Rapid gentrification is1