"a series of new studies are now showing that gentrifying neighborhoods may be a boon to longtime residents as well — and that those residents may not be moving out after all...
"To my surprise," Freeman says, "it seemed to suggest that people in neighborhoods classified as gentrifying were moving less frequently."
Freeman's work found that low-income residents were no more likely to move out of their homes when a neighborhood gentrifies than when it doesn't...
That squares with a recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
"We're finding that the financial health of original residents in gentrifying neighborhoods seems to be increasing, as compared to original residents in nongentrifying, low-priced neighborhoods," says Daniel Hartley, a research economist with the bank."
So, the social/cultural harms might remain - the way that a neighborhood is disrupted and neighborhood institutions might be coopted or replaced, etc... But it's *really good* to know that gentrification doesn't always make people homeless and might benefit original residents. I wish that there were some interviews with residents of these neighborhoods, to know what the actual experience is.
Related: Longer Salon one
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