The “Gentrification Myth” Myth
"Bring on the hipsters," proclaims the headline in this week's Economist. "Gentrification is good for the poor."
The 172-year-old British magazine, not known as a cultural trend-setter, didn't exactly pull this concept out of a vacuum. It's been in vogue for some time, argued most effectively in a recent Slate piece by John Buntin titled "The Myth of Gentrification." Gentrification, the idea goes, doesn't actually displace poor people; in fact, it often helps them.
The notion is tempting to reporters for a number of reasons. It's counter-intuitive. It aligns neatly with an increasingly popular form of neoliberal urbanism that says the key to creating better, more affordable cities is to do away with zoning limits, parking minimums, and other regulations and simply let the cities grow. And it absolves us of guilt: We, the youngish reporters of America's major cities, are by and large the gentrifiers, as opposed to the displaced.
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I have included the two map images included in Aaron Wiener's post for your reference.
Bloomingdale appears to migrate from peach in 2000 to green in 2010.
Demographic map of DC from 2000
Demographic map of DC from 2010
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