One of the first studies questioning the process of gentrification -- at least in terms of spatial displacement -- was by Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor. His 2001 paper, “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor?” (only available through Project Muse) studied changing neighborhoods in Boston and actually found that living in a gentrifying neighborhood made it less likely for a poor resident to move. Recent work by Columbia University urban planner Lance Freeman, in his 2005 paper “Displacement or Succession? Residential Mobility in Gentrifying Neighborhoods”, found the same result in New York and in other cities, in a national study, published in Urban Affairs Review (again, paid access only). Here are press releases, interviews, and a student paper article about his work. Freeman, with his colleague Frank Braconi, also builds on an earlier study by the non-profit Citizens Housing and Planning Council. The earlier study used the New York City Housing Vacancy Survey to survey movers on their reasons for moving, and again found no evidence of increased displacement of low-income tenants during the real estate boom of the 1990s.
There is of course, always a frenzy over real estate prices in New York, and to some extent, everyone feels priced out of New York. However, the last couple of weeks takes the prize: real estate is on the cover of the New Yorker, New York magazine, and in the New York Times. Gotham Gazette publishes a useful summary here.
Finally, a lot of discussion about gentrification is really about perceptions of spatial, urban, and community change. 2blowhards.com had a terrific posting about the origins of the term “gentrification” last fall, here, stimulating a really good set of comments and replies. Douglas Massey, a Princeton sociologist, has comments for both Vigdor and his critics, also in Project Muse here.
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