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.
DC. My friend bought a $600,000 row house a few years ago with crack dealers standing on the corners. That NE neighborhood has dropped from 90% black to about 60% black, and is still dropping fast. Most of the new arrivals are white, hispanic or Indian/Pakistani.
SW and SE DC are still heavily black, but there's tons of "black gentrification" that the media misses. The unemployed and low-wage black residents have been moving out to Maryland while middle class and professional class black residents are buying houses near metro stations. The new residents usually keep a low profile, wearing cheaper casual clothes around the neighborhood so they don't look "rich" by wearing suits home from work - it's a way of avoiding burglaries.
Have a lot of long-time residents been displaced, or are they able to enjoy the improvement in the neighborhood too?
For Harlem, I'd assume some have been displaced. But skimming streetviews, you can see a lot of new development. And from Bajan's video, plenty of housing was abandoned. The newcomers may have been able to filled with just new or rehabilitated housing. As to rising rents, most of the old population lived in rent-stabilized housing; there's a legal limit to how fast rents can be raised.
And transition is a change in the Hispanic population at the same time, an increase in Mexican and Dominicans and a decrease in the Puerto Rican population.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Milehigh
I lived on 112th st between 2nd avenue - which the north part of the street houses all of the projects from 1st ave to lennox ave. On the south side of 112th is totally (and I repeat totally) gentrified. They live in 600k+ homes and face the projects. In five more years, those project won't be there. I used to live in "Old Town" in Chicago in 2001. Cabrini Greens projects were nearby - not anymore. Gone and gone!
I'm not disagreeing gentrification hasn't happen. But that' doesn't mean the ghetto, marginalized population is gone. And I doubt the projects would be removed in the near future. Chicago's situation isn't the same as New York City, though I don't know the details of Chicago as well. I don't think anyone's seriously suggested removing New York projects. It would be difficult to replace housing removed.
D.C. and its not even close. This city went from chocolate city to being mixed with vanilla and butter pecan overnight.
As Colbert said:
Mayor Nagin is here from New Orleans, the chocolate city! Yeah, give it up. Mayor Nagin, I'd like to welcome you to Washington, D.C., the chocolate city with a marshmallow center and a graham cracker crust of corruption. It's a Mallomar, I guess, is what I'm describing, is a Mallomar. It’s a seasonal cookie.
For Harlem, I'd assume some have been displaced. But skimming streetviews, you can see a lot of new development. And from Bajan's video, plenty of housing was abandoned. The newcomers may have been able to filled with just new or rehabilitated housing. As to rising rents, most of the old population lived in rent-stabilized housing; there's a legal limit to how fast rents can be raised.
Yes. There was no shortage of abandoned brownstones in Harlem during the 1990s. There are still a number of abandoned brownstones in Harlem, which nearly all have values well north of $2 million (DMX had several woes with his Harlem brownstone, which eventually sold for $1.9 million back in 2006). When the demographics change (income wise), it's in large part because of brownstone renovations.
And as nei mentioned, there is quite a bit of development going on in Harlem. Harlem now has an Aloft Hotel, several new construction condos and apartments, and Columbia University is planning a massive expansion into Manhattanville.
Gentrification (also known as the "G Train") in Manhattan cannot be stopped.
What does gentrification mean? More expensive to live in now that before? Is it a good thing or bad thing to be more expensive or gentrified? If so how so?
DC has gentrified much more than Philadelphia. Around 2000, you could buy a rowhouse within 3-5 minutes walking distance of the Potomac Avenue Metro station for $40,000. My guess is that you'd pay a minimum of about $850,000 today to live in the same vicinity..
nah, not quite. you can find houses that high, but most of the renovated ones run for alot closer to 600k, and there's at least one unrenovated one for 450 on G between 16th and 17th.
For 850k minimum for a townhouse you have to go further west, and closer to East Cap.
D.C. and its not even close. This city went from chocolate city to being mixed with vanilla and butter pecan overnight.
I was in Hampden in baltimore the other day - what used to be solid "redneck" is now heavily hipster. How do you measure the change when the complexions do not change?
What does gentrification mean? More expensive to live in now that before? Is it a good thing or bad thing to be more expensive or gentrified? If so how so?
It's when a neighborhood goes from being poor to being middle-class due to an influx of new professional residents. Gentrifying areas often have lots of class tension between old residents and new ones, and it can spill over into schools and zoning battles. It's also used as a shorthand term for a black or hispanic neighborhood suddenly becoming much more white.
Sometimes the term is used when whites moving into a black neighborhood aren't even "affluent", like college students or artists. But I've never see the term "gentrification" applied to a poor white neighborhood that turns middle-class. There certainly are areas like that, but the media misses the story consistently.
I've also never seen the term applied to Asians moving into black neighborhoods, although that happens a lot too. And then there areas that used to be American blacks but have a huge influx of North African or Middle Eastern immigrants. That's happened in several spots in Michigan, Minnesota and DC. There's a large Ethiopean neighborhood in DC with great restaurants and stores.
I don't think it's either "good" or "bad", it just is what it is. Urban areas are often in flux, and so are rural areas that become suburbanized. It's infuriating when some old hog farmer gets sued by the McMansion development that popped up next to his family farm, though.
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.
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.
