Journal
URBAN STUDIES
Volume 52, Issue 10, Pages 1753-1773Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0042098014539403
Keywords
back-to-the-city movement; gentrification; mixed-income neighbourhoods; political and cultural displacement
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Funding
- Institute for Society, Culture and Environment, USA
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While certain US cities are still depopulating, others have experienced a reversal of aggregate out-migration patterns. Some scholars, politicians and real estate boosters celebrate this urban population influx, as it will likely increase property values and municipal tax bases; however, we know little about the social costs associated with the back-to-the-city movement. This study investigates the consequences of the back-to-the-city movement through a four-year (2009-2012) ethnographic case study of the revitalisation of Washington, DC's Shaw/U Street neighbourhood. The redevelopment of this African-American neighbourhood is associated with the city's 5.2 percent population increase, which occurred between 2000 and 2010. While affordable housing efforts help to keep a portion of long-term, low-income residents in place, political and cultural displacement is occurring as upper-income newcomers flock into this neighbourhood. This article contributes to the urban literature by highlighting that population influx, and associated neighbourhood revitalisation, can have important social implications.
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