This study examines the population and housing shifts in a sample of gentrifying neighborhoods within Washington, D.C. between 1970 and 1980. These neighborhoods are purposively selected as cases of residential areas which vary from the patterns of black growth, racial segregation, and filtering proposed in ecological and filtering theories. Two operational criteria are used in identifying the neighborhoods studied: (a) the Taeubers' measures of displacement; (b) decade increases in administrative and professional populations. The findings are interpreted with reference to the theories on urbanization and racial change and the models of gentrification. There are two sources of data used in this study. The principal data set comes from the 1970 and 1980 censuses by census tracts. The second data set is derived from public municipal real property records for the same years. Based on the census data, gentrifying trends are examined endogenously in the targeted neighborhoods and in comparison with other racially changing neighborhoods. The examination of individual housing units, within two samples of rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, illustrates accompanying movements of l and values, improvement values, and social control variables. The study's findings confirm existing models which depict gentrifying neighborhoods as characterized by: (1) the conversion of low-cost renter housing into higher income properties; (2) heightened rates of residential turnover and property value increases; (3) the replacement of displaced black populations by white middle class populations. Although the population movements of incoming middle classes are found to be distinctively rapid in gentrifying neighborhoods, conversions of renter to owner housing are found to be broad trends generalizable to other racially changing neighborhoods. While market factors are predominant in accounting for these patterns, the force of gentrification is additionally explained by the presence of social controls such as rent control and urban renewal. The disconfirmed finding on the movements of displaced black populations to nearby neighborhoods is suggestive of "leapfrogging" rather than radial patterns. Speculations, suggestions for further research, and policy implications are extended.
Ph.D.
Urban planning
University of Michigan
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160617/1/8512536.pdf