Landmarks for the Poor: Mitigating Displacement from Historic Preservation

Planners and neighborhood groups are justified in exercising caution when they consider historic preservation proposals for their communities. Evidence shows that the effects of historic preservation reinvestment are mixed. Historic preservation projects are responsible for converting many decrepit, yet architecturally significant buildings into appealing landmark structures. In many cases, these transformed buildings have inspired a revitalization of blighted areas. Saving an historic structure, however, can also have an adverse effect; namely, the displacement of low-income residents from their homes and businesses. In this article, author Daniel Ellison, director of Mordecai Square Historical Society in Raleigh, North Carolina, proposes a variety of legal and financial means of mitigating the adverse impacts of historic preservation. If implemented, the benefits and the costs of historic preservation may be brought into better balance