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.