Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In Pittsburgh, for example, wealthy "techie" and "eds/meds" non-Hispanic Caucasians have been displacing working-class non-Hispanic white renters from long-stable majority-white neighborhoods like Lawrenceville, Polish Hill, and Bloomfield for quite some time now, yet everyone just focuses on the poor African-Americans being displaced by wealthy non-Hispanic Caucasians in our rapidly-gentrifying East Liberty neighborhood.
South Side is another example from back in the 1990s. It was always overwhelmingly white, it just used to be white and poor. I think there are actually slightly more black people living in South Side Flats now after gentrification than there was when it was a rough-and-tumble working-class white neighborhood.
But yeah, gentrification of historically black neighborhoods has basically been limited to two parts of the city. One is parts of the lower North Side, where it's basically been going on at a very, very slow level continually since the early 1970s. The other is East Liberty, where it has been comparably rapid, but this is mostly due to the closure of a few large housing projects and the construction of new units at its southern fringe in/around Penn Circle. The more residential portions of East Liberty north of Penn Circle haven't really changed all that much demographically - although they have gotten much safer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
What you are also finding is that other ethnic groups/immigrants may come into highly/predominantly black neighborhoods and start buying property for investment and/or to set up a community. An example of this is on Buffalo’s East Side, where South Asians(I’m hearing that it is Bangladeshis) are buying properties and are using them for investment or are selling them to people of that community in some neighborhoods on that side of town. So, it may be happening, but it just may involve other groups of people.
I will say that it is another city to keep an eye on given the state investment and its proximity to Canada’s highest and most affluent population concentration.
Yeah, I've know this dynamic - where an Asian immigrant group takes over part of a poor black neighborhood - has happened in many cities, including Cleveland and Milwaukee. Asian immigrants - unlike white people - don't have a problem living around poor black people.
That said, this isn't happening in Pittsburgh really. Most of the Asians here are not direct immigrants, but either Asian-Americans or exchange students who come for the universities and stay for a short period of time. There are certain apartment complexes which are now majority-Asian near Oakland, but no true Asian neighborhoods.
Pittsburgh does have a small but notable Bhutanese (ethnic Nepali) population of resettled refugees now though. They initially settled in the working-class white neighborhood of Carrick, but seem to be moving to some nearby first-ring suburbs.
I think this is partially true. You still see a lot of gentrification in the Black neighborhoods in NYC, LA, Houston, Dallas, Oakland, etc. A lot of the times it's not rich white people that move in but actually rich black people that start the wave.
Awhile back I was looking at an income vs race map of LA, and I was really surprised to see how wealthy the black neighborhoods were. Basically if you look at the fringe between where there are remaining black neighborhoods vs. ones which have flipped over to Latino, as soon as they become black majority income climbs significantly. It seems like in LA the black people who have not been pushed out by rising housing costs tend to be overwhelmingly middle class.
Cities in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area come to mind due to having neighborhoods with a very urban built form and some have actually had population growth within city limits in recent years: http://www.city-data.com/forum/alban...ification.html
I am not doubting what you're writing but could you give some examples?
There's Ladera Heights/View Park/Baldwin Hills in LA. The 3rd and 4th Ward neighborhoods in Houston. Oak Cliff in Dallas. There's a few areas in NYC, particularly in Brooklyn but you can't forget about Harlem. Parts of East Oakland closer to Downtown.
You sound so confident with that statement. Look here, check out this article that was posted this week about a new high end luxury mix used project that nears construction downtown.
Now the article touches on a "untapped market" that haven't been served downtown as much, these are the same residents who live in those areas you mentioned. Many sane residents from the outskirts would downtown in a heartbeat.
You can skip right to comments at the bottom where there's people speaking of those who live in Germantown, Oakland and etc, that would move downtown for the urban experience if there was more luxury condos available.
Confident because I lived in the region, specifically Germantown, and earlier in east Memphis/Shady Grove area. I own a house in Germantown
Second, white flight is alive and well even now after the federally investigated "block busting scheme" aided and abetted by banks such as First TN, Bank of Bartlett, Union Planters (Regions), and NBC (Suntrust), and real estate firms such as Crye Leike, et al which facilitated the fear mongering/white flight from White Haven to Hickory Hill area, then to Cordova, now part of the City of Memphis.
I know of NO successful, higher income resident with a family residing in Germantown, Collierville, Eads, Arlington, Shady Grove, Olive Branch, S. Perkins, or even Oakland, that would trade their houses to live in "more luxury CONDOS" in or around the urban centre of Memphis TN, given its lack of amenities, shopping, good schools (schools are AWFUL in Memphis!), combined with the HIGH CRIME statistics of Memphis.
It ain't happening...it's NOT happening now "in a heartbeat". Memphis is a glaring history of suburban sprawl, and the evidence is pervasive, that is the continued trek EASTWARD and even into The State of Mississippi , south even of Piperton TN towards the MS line.
The "urban experience" is quite undesirable for most people than afford "luxury" housing in the Memphis MSA.
Even a few major employers moved out of the City....e.g. FedEX corporate offices, International Paper, Mueller Industries, First TN Capital and many others such as Carrier Corporation (Collierville).
Nope, reverse migration is not presently happening, not on the high end or middle class one bit.
Sure it does, image is just about everything. Who wants to live in an area that has an image of a ghetto? What businesses want to locate to a ghetto?l
If an area's image is that of high crime, who the hell is dumb enought to want to live there? YOU?
I dunno. I mean, DC turned around. Clearly it can be done.
Image alone almost never can do it though. An area needs a strong job market. Portland is the only example I can think of where a city's renaissance happened with a pretty ho-hum job market. And that was mostly because it was initially a cheap city where people could relocate without having a steady career. Just sort of taking random service-sector jobs, starting their own small businesses, or working remotely.
In general though, there are lots of cities which are wonderful places to live where growth is limited due to the lack of employment opportunities. See just about every medium-sized to small college town in the country. Once you graduate, if you don't get a university job, there's nothing there but bartending and working in coffee shops. And that gets old once you're in your 30s.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.