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Another take on gentrification
An article in USA today refers to recent work by Lance Freeman of Columbia University, on a recent US national study of gentrification. His conclusion apparently was that "gentrification drives comparatively few low-income residents from their homes. Although some are forced to move by rising costs, there isn't much more displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods than in non-gentrifying ones... A poor resident's chances of being forced to move out of a gentrifying neighborhood are only 0.5% greater than in a non-gentrifying one."
There's a slightly more challenging article here which quotes the researcher as noting that "most people do not realize how often low-income residents of non-gentrifying neighborhoods relocate."
What's going on, I suspect, is that some simplistic received views about gentrification are getting a bit of examination and refinement, which is fine; but I also suspect that we won't be satisfied with a discourse that overlooks issues of disempowerment in the processes of neighbourhood change. My last posting on gentrification is here.
Posted by Kevin Harris on May 3, 2005 at 08:58 PM | Permalink
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A free service for people to look up neighborhoods, crime stats, even traffic accidents. I saw it on Inman news yesterday and thought it was a cool way to look up real estate information - for free.
Posted by: Sharon at 19 Jul 2005 18:48:55