Gentrification in the U.S. in the 1980s

Changes in the population of urban districts resulting in the raising of rents and property values

Gentrification refers to changes in urban centers in terms of populations, demographics, character, and culture, a process that became prominent in the United States in the 1980s. It entails wealthier people moving into urban centers and changing the housing stock. The process is most often characterized by social, socioeconomic, and often racial tensions between original residents and those who have moved to these neighborhoods.

Background

Through the latter half of the twentieth century, the majority of American cities came to be characterized by such social characteristics as a polarization of a city’s various communities, racial tensions, urban decay, and a growing crime rate. In tandem with these social patterns, American cities saw trends that included depopulation, deterioration of central housing stock, and a migration of people and jobs out of central business districts.

Postwar America saw much social change. As soldiers returned home from the battlefront, America had a newfound wealth. Two major social shifts in postwar America directly affected future urban change: The first was America’s increasing dependence on the automobile, and the second was suburbanization.

Postwar America demanded more cars, oftentimes more than one vehicle per family—something theretofore unheard of. Further, white America was increasingly moving out of center cities and into new communities outside the boundaries of cities, creating suburbs. While there had indeed been suburbs previous to this time, they were not a norm. Thus America became at once more separated in living patterns along racial and ethnic lines and more separated along lines of accessibility to resources, with transportation being one point of access to these resources.

Suburban lifestyle and community structures were different in several ways from lifestyles and community structures that America had known previously. There was an increasing reliance not only on the automobile but also on a lifestyle that revolved around the convenience of the car. In part this included architecture and how new communities were planned. Suburbs saw the genesis of services that were all done from the convenience of the car, including eating, banking, watching movies, and dry-cleaning clothes.

This suburban lifestyle stood in stark contrast to the urban lifestyle, which in many core ways remained unchanged. Those living in city centers tended to still rely on public transportation or walking. They also tended to live in more densely packed habitations, such as in tenement buildings or apartment buildings, which differed from the increasing suburban norm of two people or a family living to one house with a yard and a garage for the car.

City governments and the federal government of the 1940s to the early 1970s responded to these tremendous changes by implementing various urban renewal programs. The federal government enacted the Housing Act of 1949, which began a process of wholesale demolition of urban neighborhoods that were deemed “slums.” Slum removal was also known under the popular moniker “urban renewal.” Slums were increasing in number and size: They were characterized by an increasing concentration of poor nonwhites and deterioration of this central-city housing stock.

The Housing Act of 1949 and urban renewal were accompanied by the growth of the interstate highway system. With Americans’ increasing reliance on the car, the federal government spent millions of dollars on the development of highway systems that cut through cities and traversed states, connecting America from coast to coast, from north to south. Most of the country’s interstate highway system was completed between 1960 and 1990.

The Gentrification Process

By the 1980s, American city centers had changed drastically from their prewar population density, demographics, and community structures. Many city centers suffered from decaying neighborhoods, eroded tax bases, increasing crime rates, and decreasing city services. The polarization of city and suburb along lines of race and class was often a constant across urban centers. City governments, community groups, and private companies struggled to grapple with these realities of urban America. One of the most common strategies for dealing with the situation became the gentrification of central-city neighborhoods. Numerous gentrification projects were undertaken during the decade, and much of urban America was reimagined.

Gentrification relies on changing the character of city centers and changing the use of land and properties. It also, by nature, includes shifts in urban populations within neighborhoods. These same neighborhoods often are adjacent to the financial heart of many cities, thus making them attractive for redevelopment.

One of the goals of gentrification projects is the revitalization of commercial and housing stock, thus increasing its value and resale price. In the process of gentrification, central business districts replace their declining manufacturing and retail sectors with all-new service sectors that usually cater to white-collar workers. Gentrification may be linked to urban renewal or urban revitalization projects that involve major commercial restoration of historic downtown neighborhoods and sites. These projects are often undertaken by a hybrid of municipal entities and private companies, sometimes accompanied by grassroots community groups such as block clubs. However, the process may also occur more organically, and gentrification is distinguished from the revitalization movement in its focus on the displacement of a certain demographic of residents. For example, low-income artists may be attracted to a poor neighborhood for its low rent; the area may then become known as a hotspot for the arts, drawing in both more creative industries as well as peripheral industries such as coffeehouses, which in turn attract wealthier urban residents interested in such a lifestyle. As the neighborhood becomes increasingly popular, property taxes and rents increase, forcing out original low-income residents. Continued demand may lead to significant remodeling of existing buildings or construction of new ones to fit the tastes of the new population.

Controversies

It is important to note that at the same time that gentrification projects gained hold across the United States, President Ronald Reagan decreased federal housing assistance by more than 75 percent from 1982 to 1988. This further exacerbated social shifts and the need to address these shifts. Reagan encouraged a system of reliance on private interests for everything from housing and community development to education.

Gentrification projects, whether planned or naturally occurring, have come under much criticism and created considerable controversy. Although the process may be seen as improving neighborhoods by some, it also carries social and economic consequences that may be opposed by other groups. Conflicts that surfaced beginning in the 1980s tend to center on class and often on race and ethnicity. A large concern is gentrification's potential displacement of vulnerable populations—much like the urban renewal efforts of the preceding decades. Often, nonwhite neighborhoods changed demographically as a result of gentrification.

Some studies argued that gentrification encouraged crime, as increasingly wealthy neighborhoods were ringed by poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Rental properties, as a pattern, tend to rise in value, and thus price, often dramatically. Traditional renters are therefore put under pressure. Low-income individuals and families are pushed out of their homes as they increasingly find that they cannot afford them. These hypotheses continue to be the subject of debate and intense research by sociologists, economists, and others.

Impact

Gentrification efforts in the 1980s were a response to various social concerns and economic realities. Gentrified neighborhoods often reflected changing lifestyles and larger social changes, such as a shift away from the nuclear family, higher numbers of single adults living together, single adults living on their own, same-sex couples, and women entering the workforce. The trend of gentrification set in motion another great shift in the makeup of US urban areas, as many cities experienced as least partial influxes of wealthier residents attracted to urban living. This demographic shift of the 1980s had immediate and long-lasting social, economic, racial, and political repercussions that would be analyzed for years to come. The complex issue of gentrification would go on to inform public policy from the national to the local level, social research, and individual experiences in subsequent decades in cities across the United States.

Bibliography

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Keating, W. Dennis, and Norman Krumholz, eds. Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods: Achievements, Opportunities, and Limits. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1999. Print.

Kolson, Kenneth L. Big Plans: The Allure and Folly of Urban Design. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U P, 2001. Print.

Miller, Zane L., and Edward Bruce Tucker. Changing Plans for America’s Inner Cities: Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine and Twentieth-Century Urbanism. Columbus: Ohio State U P, 1998. Print.

Taylor, Monique M. “Gentrification in Harlem: Community, Culture, and the Urban Redevelopment of the Black Ghetto.” In Race and Ethnic Politics. Greenwich: JAI, 1994. Print.

Von Hoffman, Alexander. House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America’s Urban Neighborhoods. New York: Oxford U P, 2003. Print.