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This list gives the fastest gentrifying areas in the US, by zip code, between 2000 and 2010. The catch is that their definition of gentrifying means the zip codes witht he greatest increase in the share of white people, which I don't neccessarily think is the best measure. (I would have looked at changes in household income rather than race as a proxy for gentrification--but I didn't do the study)
They say that No. 1 is merely a PO box, so it doesn't truly count. But I was surprised that any smaller cities -- Chattanooga, Roanoke, or Oklahoma City -- made the list at all, sicne its so easy for the middle class to just leave for nice areas close by, unlike in big cities that are more built up.
That being said, the zips in NYC ring true. Vast swaths of Brooklyn (Ft. GReene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Williamsburg) have "become paler and more expensive since 2000.
Does it ring true for the other cities on the list, the ones I'm not intimately familiar with?
This list gives the fastest gentrifying areas in the US, by zip code, between 2000 and 2010. The catch is that their definition of gentrifying means the zip codes witht he greatest increase in the share of white people, which I don't neccessarily think is the best measure. (I would have looked at changes in household income rather than race as a proxy for gentrification--but I didn't do the study)
They say that No. 1 is merely a PO box, so it doesn't truly count. But I was surprised that any smaller cities -- Chattanooga, Roanoke, or Oklahoma City -- made the list at all, sicne its so easy for the middle class to just leave for nice areas close by, unlike in big cities that are more built up.
That being said, the zips in NYC ring true. Vast swaths of Brooklyn (Ft. GReene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Williamsburg) have "become paler and more expensive since 2000.
Does it ring true for the other cities on the list, the ones I'm not intimately familiar with?
I read this article last night - even those that did the study admit that calculating the increase in white people is not the most scientific evidence.... Despite that it sounds like their finding are pretty accurate, maybe not actually the fastest gentrifying neighborhoods, but definitely some neighborhoods that have seen their fair share of gentrification.
I believe the smaller cities zips are mostly the downtown areas, I read a comment that said the Philly zip is Northern Liberties.
I am sort of surprised that neither SF or LA had a single zip on this list (and surprised SD is the lone representative of the state).
I read this article last night - even those that did the study admit that calculating the increase in white people is not the most scientific evidence.... Despite that it sounds like their finding are pretty accurate, maybe not actually the fastest gentrifying neighborhoods, but definitely some neighborhoods that have seen their fair share of gentrification.
I believe the smaller cities zips are mostly the downtown areas, I read a comment that said the Philly zip is Northern Liberties.
I am sort of surprised that neither SF or LA had a single zip on this list (and surprised SD is the lone representative of the state).
19123 in Philly is No Libs/Fishtown
Not sure if the criteria is correct but would say that area has seen a pretty dramatic demographic shift in the last ten years
According to this article that area of Philly has seen a 57% increase in income among the residents of the area. Actually to me G-Ho (referenced as Southwest Center City and outside of the borders of Center City to the Southwest, the opposite corner of No Libs) saw a 61% increase over the same time period in income and a 65% increase in young adults in the area (maybe a better indicator as is those 20-39). I imagine there are examples all over the US. Also the area around Temple in North Philly showed a 71% increase in young adults in the same time period but most is due to college enrollment and people actually living there, this area of North Philly is expected to add 20K young adults over 20 years so not sure if the college add really shows the gentrification as much as an actual on and around campus population.
Lots of those are just downtown areas. The one in Chicago is the heart of the Loop, and a very small area. In that case you could have had a building with a few black people in it and then had one highrise condo building in it inhabited by mostly white people and the stats change drastically. Overall though there just aren't many people there to begin with, and I'd hardly say the heart of the Loop has gentrified THAT much in the past 10 years. Tons of areas in the city have done so to a greater degree.
That study seems to assume that gentrificiation only occurs when white people with money move into a neighborhood and black people move out... Gentrification isn't racially specific. There's poor/working class mainly white areas that have been gentrified when white people or Asians with more money move in as well. In Portland you've had areas that were 90% working class white that were gentrified by transplants over the last twenty years--however gentrification only became a real news story in the area when it hit the working class black neighborhoods in N/NE Portland. You could have an old Irish or Polish or Italian neighborhood where gentrification moves out the original populace. It could be a Hispanic or Asian neighborhood that becomes too expensive for the original community.
Likewise you have upper-class blacks moving into Harlem in the last decade to open more upscale businesses or buy property that has additionally helped gentrify the area. Although people like to assume that gentrification is when young white hipsters and yuppies move into an area and blacks move out--that's not the sole example of gentrification. Sometimes it's a light industrial area that is seen more profitable as being an expensive residential area--there's plenty of now trendy "warehouse districts" around cities in the US. Anywhere you have cheap or more affordable real estate that's suddenly seen a possibly desirable location by outsiders with money, you can have gentrification, and it's not even limited to urban areas. You can find villages in the Rocky Mountains that have ended up gentrified.
The neighborhoods they listed in the article were probably all examples of gentrification, but it's a rather limited approach.
What a silly premise. Gentrification is based on income, not race. Many lower income white people are displaced when a neighborhood gets gentrified also. I wonder what the authors would say about my old n'hood in Miami, which was predominately non-Hispanic white 20 years ago but is 90% Hispanic today? And those Hispanics have relatively higher incomes than my family and our neighbors had back in the day.
Also, 55101 on the list is downtown St Paul. Twenty years ago, there were few downtown residents of any race or income, and the ones who were lived in the homeless shelters, halfway houses, group homes and "missions". Since then, many new condos and apartments have been constructed downtown on old industrial sites, re-claimed river bottom land, and in re-purpsoed warehouses. Virtually residents of these all are middle/upper income. In the Twin Cities, the vast majority of all middle/upper income people are white.
I see your point, but in this case I think their chosen measure is still a relatively good proxy for gentrification. I don't think this is a case of poor blacks/Hispanics being displaced by even poorer whites.
I see your point, but in this case I think their chosen measure is still a relatively good proxy for gentrification. I don't think this is a case of poor blacks/Hispanics being displaced by even poorer whites.
No, but there are plenty of places where working-class white neighborhoods are being gentrified - such as my current residence of Pittsburgh. I'd also think most gentrification happening in Portland falls into this area, given Portland only really had one black neighborhood to begin with.
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