gentrification

The creation of greater income mixing in neighborhoods, in the hopes of better outcomes forfamilies and high-quality jobs for workers, is a fundamental tenet of much of urban policy today.Both with HOPE VI and with relaxed income targeting for public housing overall, public housing isattempting to mix non-poor residents into public housing developments and nearby areas.Gentrification has not eliminated income and racial diversity in any of the neighborhoods weexamined in our case studies. In each gentrifying neighborhood we visited, newer higher incomeresidents live in the same neighborhood—if not the same block—as those who have lived there foryears. The challenge is how to ensure that mixing families of differing incomes results in the benefitsthe research suggests it should. Clearly, the effective provision of social services support isimportant, but creating and conserving social capital also appears to be significant.4. Changing Street Flavor and Cultural FabricThriving communities need thriving commercial districts, and thriving commercial districtsneed thriving communities. In our case studies, many of the distressed communities encompassedanemic commercial districts before the onset of gentrification. An influx of higher income residentshas a number of potential effects on the street life of a neighborhood. New residents and theirpurchasing power create potential customers for existing businesses. They stimulate thedevelopment of new businesses which might better serve both their own and perhaps theneighborhood’s broader needs. In turn, increased competition for space and the market may lead tohigher rents for businesses and service providers in the neighborhood. The presence of newcompetition may drive small, locally owned but marginally profitable businesses out of themarketplace.Two examples provide some sense of how these dynamics can play out differently:• A recent New York Times article describes the situation of Errol Joseph, a longtime drycleaner located in south Harlem. His commercial strip serves a community long beset bycrime and drugs, but now the new home of a thriving West African community and a broadmix of incomes and races.At Joe Pep Dry Cleaners on 116 th Street, where West Africans take their ceremonialrobes before Friday services at the mosque, the owners are jubilant. Four years ago,they closed for the summer. “We just weren’t making it,” [Joseph] said, sitting at asewing machine with a tape measure around his neck. “Now, we’re doing fine.” 41• A contrasting story emerges from the Mission District in San Francisco. Under greatpressure are the same Latino groceries and religious stores that give the neighborhoodcharacter and attract twenty-something newcomers. The owners of El Herradero Restaurantface a 63 percent increase in rent after 12 years in business, while the Los JarritosRestaurant and Mi Rancho Market were displaced as the buildings’ owner put them up for41 Rozhon, Tracie, “Grit and Glory in South Harlem,” New York Times, Thursday, March 16, 2000, p. B1.20