Gentrification and Displacement Within Inner-City Neighborhoods: Does it Cause Integration?

My Independent Study, Gentrification of Inner-City Neighborhoods, and its ultimate effects of displacement involves an indepth look at a phenomena that has been a subject of much positive and negative literature. At first, gentrification was seen as a positive phenomena for a city to experience. That is true when one looks at who a gentrifier is, (higher income, white, middle to upper class, and educated), and what he or she does, which is to move into a center city area experiencing somekind of deterioration and revitalize or upgrade that particular unit and area. Along with the positive effects, I point out that there are also some negative effects that are caused by gentrification too. I present this problem of displacement in the same manner as with the gentrification issue. Here I try to identify who are typically the displacees, whether it be minority blacks, women, or single headed households, and how they get displaced, forced physically or mentally. Once I have established an understanding of the cause/gentrification and the effect/displacement, I then present my theory of whether or not gentrification causes integration where it occurs. The three types of neighborhoods I selected to test this are: all black, all white, integrated. The next step in my I.S. was to research and analyze empirical literature that pertained to certain sections of my theory. I selected literature on: extent of gentrification, who the gentrifiers are and who the displacees are. I also analyzed one article on the issue of black to white succession as an indicator of gentrification. My Methodology chapter involved gathering data on six selected cities. I chose four indicators of gentrification and used these indicators to distinguish gentrified tracts within the six cities. Once I established my gentrified tracts and the previous authors\u27 gentrified tracts, I was able to test my hypothesis on whether gentrification caused integration. My conclusion relates my findings to my hypothesis and also involves a critical evaluation of this phenomena