Gentrification and Displacement

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that as neighborhoods change, some residents leave willingly to find a better home, others leave because they no longer wish to live in a neighborhood that may have been decimated by drugs and crime as the more affluent people moved out and those from a lower economic position move in. The author points out that Latinos are particularly vulnerable to displacement, one way or another, by the flight of European Americans to the suburbs; nonetheless, sometimes Latinos who are high on the economic ladder who are among the first to leave. The paper relates that redeveloping these neighborhoods is often accomplished through gentrification, which, unfortunately, often drives housing prices up, displacing great numbers of residents particularly Latinos, who can no longer afford to live where they had settled.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Literature Review
Chicago/West Town Studies
Latino Displacement
Gentrification in General

From the Paper:

"Hudspeth specifically considered West Town in a 2003 case study. She noted that "what has happened in West Town is almost a 'textbook case' of the gentrification process...West Town was a low-income Latino neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s." Gentrification began in the late 1970s, a the area attracted artists, and middle and upper income professionals as well as historic preservationists; most of these people were white, not Latino. Perhaps what is most interesting about the Hudspeth study is that it seems to ratify Betancur's conclusions: it is the better off Latinos who exit first. West Town lost 1,180 of its existing families between 1990 and 2000. At the same time, it gained 2,088 non-poor families."

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