Gentrification and Racial Transition in Cincinnati, 2000–2016

Abstract

Gentrification, the upgrading of formerly disinvested neighborhoods in a city through in-migration of population with higher median household incomes and educational levels, was first noted in large cities in the U.S., but has since diffused to smaller cities. One of those smaller cities is Cincinnati and is the focus of this article. One major question surrounding gentrification, regardless of where it occurs, is its possible displacement of lower-income individuals (mainly minorities). Displacement in this article is indirectly measured by documenting census tracts that experienced at least a 5.0 percent decline in the percentage of the tract that was African-American between 2000-10 and 2010-16. Logistic regression was then used to determine if tracts in Cincinnati undergoing gentrification during 2000-10 and 2010-16 experienced displacement of African-American population. Over the short-term (2000-10) there was no significant relationship between gentrification and displacement. However, tracts that gentrified between 2000 and 2010 were more likely to experience displacement between 2010 and 2016 at the 0.05 level suggesting that displacement occurs later in the gentrification process. It is suggested that the Great Recession adversely affected the ability of minorities to enter or remain in neighborhoods undergoing revitalization and may have contributed to displacement.

Gentrifying Atlanta: Investor Purchases of Rental Housing, Evictions, and the Displacement of Black Residents

“…This research investigates gentrification, financialization, and eviction in the Atlanta region, and finds a strong and significant relationship between investor purchases of multifamily residences, physical displacement as measured through evictions, declining numbers of Black households, and increasing numbers of White households in a neighborhood. These empirical findings are in line with findings by Sutton (2020) and Ravuri (2019) that early events have long-term effects on gentrification and racial transition, but emphasize the importance of rental apartments and landlord type in generating these sorts of events.…”

“…The existing research on gentrification and racial transition connects longer term change to private investment (Ravuri, 2019), and to events that lead to sudden shifts in racial composition (Sutton, 2020). Ravuri (2019) examines the association between gentrification and displacement of current residents. The author compares gentrifying census tracts in Cincinnati, Ohio, and finds that gentrifying areas with substantial private and public investment experienced displacement of the African American community.…”

The changing ethno-racial profile of ‘very walkable’ urban neighbourhoods in the US (2010–2020): Are minorities under-represented?

“…Although residential segregation along racial lines has persisted in many American cities into the early 21st century (Ellis et al, 2018; Wright et al, 2014), growing demand for historical central-city areas in close proximity to employment centres, transit and other amenities, has resulted in an influx of wealthier, and predominantly whiter, residents into central urban neighbourhoods, potentially catalysing the displacement of minority residents (Jackson, 2015; Ravuri, 2020; Richardson et al, 2019). Evidence suggests that this gentrification is more likely, and tends to occur more rapidly, however, in whiter and more diverse urban neighbourhoods, while those that have a high proportion of minorities ‘experience weaker trajectories of reinvestment and renewal’ (Hwang and Sampson, 2014: 747).…”