Theories of Gentrification

The process of gentrification has begun to affect the majority of large and moderately sized urban areas, including Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, gentrification is changing the demographic in Atlanta. Historically, time has demonstrated that when middle class families and yuppies move into urban communities, too often existing communities are displaced, due to high unaffordable housing. Gentrification results in the rich getting wealthier and the poor getting poorer. Gentrification has not only displaced long time senior residents, but has also shaped urban communities. To say that a neighborhood has gentrified conjures up images of yuppie pioneers buying up fabulous old houses and then renovating them for thousands of dollars. After business, such as star bucks and the food emporium then follow behind these urban pioneers. But for people who are living there, often people of color, gentrification equals dislocation. In Urban Visionary, Jane Jacob states, “Community leaders, sometimes refers to this process as hood snatching.”
The term "gentrification" was coined in 1964, by British sociologist Ruth Glass. She used the word to refer to what was then taking place in a part of London called Islington neighborhood. Islington originated as an affluent place, but had become a rough, working-class area. In the 1960s, it experienced gentrification. The London papers reported that a working class family sold it’s Islington house for £750,000 while it was actually worth £1.5 million. The word "gentrification" first appeared in the New York Times in 1972 in reference to London. Gentrification has since spread to London, and is evident in many cities in America. As many urban areas continue to attract newcomers and refurbish old buildings, creative citizens who have been living in urban areas are being driven out to make way for rich and middle class people.
The word gentrification brings different images to mind for different people. The term gentrification means a process in which low cost, deteriorated neighborhoods experience urban restoration and an increase in property values along with a flood of wealthier residents, who displace the neighborhoods original inhabitants.