The shape of neighborhoods to come: Examining patterns of gentrification and holistic neighborhood change in Los Angeles County, 1980–2010

The present study examines holistic neighborhood change in Los Angeles County across three decades between 1980 and 2010. Using Census tract data, we conduct a latent class analysis to identify classes of neighborhood change for each decade according to housing dynamics, age structure, racial-ethnic composition and churning, and socioeconomic characteristics, and describe latent classes indicative of gentrification. Further, we assess the degree to which tracts experience sustained or repeated gentrification over the 30 year period. In line with more recent conceptualizations of gentrification as a broad urban process, we find that gentrification occurs in a wide range of neighborhoods, and manifests itself differently according to shifts in population characteristics, with many tracts experiencing more than one successive period of gentrification over the 30 year period.

GIScience and Neighborhood Change: Toward and Understanding of Processes of Change

Processes of neighborhood change are the result of the unfolding of events and decisions by multiple actors operating at varying spatial and temporal scales, enabled and constrained upon an unequal urban landscape. The contributions of GIScience towards understanding these processes has evolved from the simple mapping of static, cross-sectional maps towards an embrace of novel data and methods that enable longitudinal trajectories to be extracted and neighborhood futures to be predicted. In this article, I review these advancements and chart a course forward that considers a future research agenda that is critically cognizant of the potentials and perils of new data sources and method, is representative of the full spectrum of processes operating both visibly and invisibly that give rise to observed neighborhood outcomes, and considers their varying spatial and temporal scales.

“We Roll our Sleeves up and get to Work!”: Portraits of Collective Action and Neighborhood Change in Atlanta's West End

Collective action is one strategy urban neighborhood residents use to address community issues. However, collective action dynamics in rapidly changing urban neighborhoods are not well understood. This study used photovoice to examine perspectives on collective action and neighborhood change among residents of an urban neighborhood experiencing redevelopment in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Residents indicated that place attachment motivated and reinforced participation in collective action efforts to address neighborhood issues and to reconstruct narratives that challenged place stigmatization. Findings suggest that residents have heterogeneous perspectives about neighborhood change and local development, and simultaneously balance desires for neighborhood improvement with concerns about displacement, gentrification, and equitable development.

Analyzing the relationship between major public investments and neighborhood change in Atlanta

As many of our residents can attest to personally, Atlanta’s population growth, from about 420,000 residents in 2010 to over 500,000 residents today, has been accompanied by demographic neighborhood change. In the Neighborhood Change Report released by the City in February 2021, we explore how major public investment and design goals are related to changes in where low-income and non-low-income residents live in the city.

Analyzing the relationship between major public investments and neighborhood change in Atlanta

As many of our residents can attest to personally, Atlanta’s population growth, from about 420,000 residents in 2010 to over 500,000 residents today, has been accompanied by demographic neighborhood change. In the Neighborhood Change Report released by the City in February 2021, we explore how major public investment and design goals are related to changes in where low-income and non-low-income residents live in the city.

Green Housing or Green Gentrification?

Research on green-certified buildings has often been focused on the benefits of green standards, such as energy efficiency, smart growth, resource conservation, and health protection. Recent studies suggest the adoption of a reductionist sustainability planning language can turn green-certified houses into luxury goods, attracting White, prime-age, college-educated households with some pro-environmental attitudes who replace existing long-term, lower-income residents in core urban areas. While many factors may work together in driving neighborhood change and gentrification in cities, the question this study aims to address is to what extent the supply of green-certified units can affect neighborhood change and gentrification? We use Central Virginia’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) housing market transactions data and the U.S. Census Bureau’s socioeconomic data to present the differential effect of new construction of market-rate, green-certified units in a natural experiment using difference-in-differences estimates. We find that neighborhoods that include new, green-certified units have experienced a statistically significant increase in population, supporting new construction and positively affecting house prices. We also detect some negative effects on minorities and minority owners, but these effects have not yet reached statistical significance. This study finds strong evidence of green housing providing the conditions that make areas ripe for gentrification, but more studies should follow up to better measure and generalize this finding.