Is gentrification inevitable?

"For all the attention paid to gentrification, the process has not lifted the urban poor out of poverty and has only lessened the concentration of poverty in a select very few urban neighborhoods." This statement is part of the conclusion the team at Next City reached in 2019.

The word gentrification is only 60 years old. Coined by Ruth Glass, gentrification describes the change of people, land, and marketplace in a defined space. Next City does a great job showing the timeline and evolution of gentrification to explain what is happening in places across the United States.

So what is Gentrification?

The short is the "gentry" (flush in cash) displace working-class (barely getting by) people in a neighborhood district. 

I was so intrigued by the word. Disillusioned by the desire to see neighborhood redevelopment but results that were less than inclusive, I devoted my entire master's of urban planning thesis (2006) to it. What I learned then still grips me today with my work to become a better place developer.

There's a cycle of growth for all neighborhoods, cities, and city-regions. They rise. But then, some form of capital changes them. Social capital might not want to be so inclusive or integrated. Produced capital starts to favor large-scale building projects instead of small-scale stuff. Financial capital follows the "gentry" rather than figuring out how to flow in multiple directions and create thriving marketplaces everywhere.

Gentrification is not inevitable. It happens when we restrict our thinking and networks. Creating vibrant, economically inclusive, and sustainable places is possible. It only happens when you and I show up as place developers - to be builders rather than consumers of place. It changes the equation. Financial capital starts flowing because you decided to be a place developer and show there is a market that has yet to make it to someone else's excel spreadsheet.