Growing An Urban Neighborhood, One Store At A Time @NPR @VibrantStreets

Growing An Urban Neighborhood, One Store At A Time @NPR @VibrantStreets http://t.co/M0TMkcVRxT
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From NPR — Gentrification May Actually Be Boon To Longtime Residents

Meredith Rizzo/NPR

Gentrification burst into the social consciousness on Aug. 6, 1988, with the Tompkins Square Park riot in New York City's East Village. Residents carried signs saying "Gentrification is class war." Police carried batons. The bloody battle that ensued left more than 100 people injured. The protesters' fury centered on the idea that the poor would be made homeless so the rich could live in their neighborhoods, destroying whatever character they may have had.

Lance Freeman, the director of the Urban Planning program at Columbia University, says that's what he believed was happening, too. He launched a study, first in Harlem and then nationally, calculating how many people were pushed out of their homes when wealthy people moved in. Read more: Gentrification May Actually Be Boon To Longtime Residents : NPR