What does “gentrification” mean and what are “gentrified” neighboorhoods in modern day united states?
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Gentrification is a process by which poorer areas/neighbourhoods become middle-class areas/neighbourhoods but, crucially, *by swapping the poorer people who live there for middle-class people*. No one does it deliberately; the middle-class people are being forced from where they really want to live just as much as the poorer people are.
The process goes like this:
* Middle-class people live in “nice” neighbourhoods, poorer people live in “not-so-nice” neighbourhoods
* Property/rent prices in the “nice” areas increase faster than wages. Eventually middle-class people can’t afford to live there, and start looking to cheaper (i.e. “not-so-nice”) places
* When the middle-class people have arrived in the “not-so-nice” area in sufficient numbers, their presence starts to push up property/rent prices (due to the extra demand), as well as the price range of local businesses (due to the extra spending power of the new residents)
* As local prices increase (property / rent / local business), the poorer people who lived there originally are either forced out themselves (through rent increases) or are generationally forced out, as young people trying to get on the property ladder find that they can’t afford to live in the same area as their parents
* Eventually the poorer people have, bit by bit, left the area almost entirely. Gentrification has taken place.
* [Bonus round] Repeat.
The process is perfectly understandable in how it works, but what I find interesting is why it happens at all? For gentrification to happen there must a root cause, a huge increase in price of the most affluent areas that kicks off this chain reaction.
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