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I think one of the biggest problems for cities like Detroit and Memphis is their deeply entrenched negative stereotypes. Oklahoma City has the same problem and at this point, I doubt it will ever experience more than slow growth. Cities like Austin, Nashville, Columbus, and Charlotte on the other hand never had that negative image ingrained into America's psyche and people were more likely to want to move and do business there. It makes a lot of difference in my opinion.
There was a study recently that showed that despite the myth that gentrification is about rich white people pushing out poor people of color, it doesn't really happen that way usually. Generally speaking gentrifiers preferentially seek out working-class white neighborhoods to gentrify, and then Latino neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is more than 40% black, it's pretty unlikely to gentrify.
There are a few major cities of course where black neighborhoods have gentrified - like DC and Atlanta. However in the case of those cities it happened in large part because there were so few non-black poor neighborhoods to go around, so there was nowhere else to go. Even in Detroit this isn't really what's happening, because the "gentrification" has been focused on areas like Midtown which had been mostly emptied of population already.
There was a study recently that showed that despite the myth that gentrification is about rich white people pushing out poor people of color, it doesn't really happen that way usually. Generally speaking gentrifiers preferentially seek out working-class white neighborhoods to gentrify, and then Latino neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is more than 40% black, it's pretty unlikely to gentrify.
There are a few major cities of course where black neighborhoods have gentrified - like DC and Atlanta. However in the case of those cities it happened in large part because there were so few non-black poor neighborhoods to go around, so there was nowhere else to go. Even in Detroit this isn't really what's happening, because the "gentrification" has been focused on areas like Midtown which had been mostly emptied of population already.
Those inland northerns cities have some clear advantages, yes -- underused capacity at airports and road systems, legacy symphony halls, schools, and hospitals, often strong universities, etc. You have a lot of existing rail corridors.
But meanwhile many of those same facilities are falling behind. A hospital wing or road that hasn't had a major upgrade in a few decades might need a major upgrade today. A city full of fading infrastructure isn't necessarily easier than one that lacks some infrastructure entirely. It takes long periods of prosperity and a civic-minded public to keep this stuff up to date. How many schools haven't been fully renovated in the past 30 years, or 90? How many libraries, fire stations, or college lecture halls? Do they function up to current standards, and is the charm starting to be overtaken by fading conditions and expensive operating costs?
Not to be vague, but it honestly depends on the city. St. Louis, based on its percentage of population decline, should be a city suffering from every single category that you listed, but it's not. Its major concerns that I'm aware of would be awful K-12 public schools and roads that seem to be eternally in need of repair and or eternally under construction.
Its major cultural institutions have primarily gone through large scale renovation projects and or have outright expanded in the last decade or so thanks in large part to the city/county tax to help fund such institutions and a list of wealthy benefactors such as the Taylor Family (Enterprise car rentals). WashU and SLU have had the funds to renovate their own campuses and also expand into dilapidated neighborhoods, helping to bring them back to life. I know that some hospitals have closed, but others have also opened or expanded their presence during the same presence, all while Barnes remains one of the top hospitals in the country.
Now don't get me wrong, as the city is in desperate need of more people and more money to help fix the rest, but I just wanted to point out that some struggling cities have found ways to sidestep many pressing concerns when it comes to their legacy amenities in order to keep them up to date.
There was a study recently that showed that despite the myth that gentrification is about rich white people pushing out poor people of color, it doesn't really happen that way usually. Generally speaking gentrifiers preferentially seek out working-class white neighborhoods to gentrify, and then Latino neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is more than 40% black, it's pretty unlikely to gentrify.
There are a few major cities of course where black neighborhoods have gentrified - like DC and Atlanta. However in the case of those cities it happened in large part because there were so few non-black poor neighborhoods to go around, so there was nowhere else to go. Even in Detroit this isn't really what's happening, because the "gentrification" has been focused on areas like Midtown which had been mostly emptied of population already.
Hmm, fascinating. I can see the truth to that.
Many poor African American neighborhoods in inner cities remain just that--skipped over for redevelopment by developers unless they are in "prime" locations.
There was a study recently that showed that despite the myth that gentrification is about rich white people pushing out poor people of color, it doesn't really happen that way usually. Generally speaking gentrifiers preferentially seek out working-class white neighborhoods to gentrify, and then Latino neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is more than 40% black, it's pretty unlikely to gentrify.
There are a few major cities of course where black neighborhoods have gentrified - like DC and Atlanta. However in the case of those cities it happened in large part because there were so few non-black poor neighborhoods to go around, so there was nowhere else to go. Even in Detroit this isn't really what's happening, because the "gentrification" has been focused on areas like Midtown which had been mostly emptied of population already.
This is exactly correct.
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.
As a long-term working-class white renter in Polish Hill I've watched as the neighborhood has gone from working-class white to gradually more professional-/creative-class white over the past decade. Friends of mine who work in hospitality, retail, etc. have been displaced to less fashionable neighborhoods that include Troy Hill (also on the cusp of gentrifying) and Carrick (plagued by crime thanks to the city's unchecked opioid crisis). The liberal narrative though, is "rich whites displacing poor blacks = bad" while "rich whites displacing poor whites is fine because those poor whites should have used their privilege better to also be rich whites" (or at least that's what the mantra is among the wealthier urbane posters on the Pittsburgh sub-forum).
Probably getting overlooked for a number of reasons, mainly revolving around it being mainly known for tourism, but Orlando is undergoing MASSIVE downtown growth, and gentrification. Recently, sections of Parramore have been torn down to give way to what is now a massive entertainment complex, with the Amway and OCSC stadiums, as well as retail venues along the way, and now UCF is in the middle of building a huge downtown campus out that way, along with more shops, restaurants, etc.
Basically, downtown is literally tripling in physical size right this moment. And with that, a huge swath of historical "ghetto" is disappearing.
I totally agree with you about Orlando. I lived there for a short time and really enjoyed it. My wife and I live in the Charlotte area now and love it so much, we have no intentions on leaving. But if we were to to live anywhere else in the nation, it would be somewhere along the Orlando/Tampa/St. Petersburg corridor. So many who haven't lived in Orlando just don't understand what Orlando has to offer on many levels outside of tourism (even though we do love all of the theme parks, lol). If Orlando can keep its cost of living from going out of control in comparison to the inflation rate and local salaries and continue to diversify their economy even more, the area is going to soar even higher, IMO.
There was a study recently that showed that despite the myth that gentrification is about rich white people pushing out poor people of color, it doesn't really happen that way usually. Generally speaking gentrifiers preferentially seek out working-class white neighborhoods to gentrify, and then Latino neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is more than 40% black, it's pretty unlikely to gentrify.
There are a few major cities of course where black neighborhoods have gentrified - like DC and Atlanta. However in the case of those cities it happened in large part because there were so few non-black poor neighborhoods to go around, so there was nowhere else to go. Even in Detroit this isn't really what's happening, because the "gentrification" has been focused on areas like Midtown which had been mostly emptied of population already.
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.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 12-11-2018 at 05:19 AM..
There was a study recently that showed that despite the myth that gentrification is about rich white people pushing out poor people of color, it doesn't really happen that way usually. Generally speaking gentrifiers preferentially seek out working-class white neighborhoods to gentrify, and then Latino neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is more than 40% black, it's pretty unlikely to gentrify.
There are a few major cities of course where black neighborhoods have gentrified - like DC and Atlanta. However in the case of those cities it happened in large part because there were so few non-black poor neighborhoods to go around, so there was nowhere else to go. Even in Detroit this isn't really what's happening, because the "gentrification" has been focused on areas like Midtown which had been mostly emptied of population already.
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.
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.
I am not doubting what you're writing but could you give some examples?
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