Waiting for Bobos: Displacement and Impeded Gentrification in a Midwestern City

Abstract

The degree to which lower‐income residents are displaced by the process of gentrification has been the subject of considerable debate. Displacement is generally framed as a possible, and potentially remediable, outcome of gentrification. This portrayal of the link between gentrification and displacement is problematic, though, because gentrification can proceed without substantial displacement, while displacement frequently occurs in the absence of gentrification. In this article, I use a historical case study to examine the link between displacement and gentrification. Drawing on archival research and media accounts of redevelopment over the course of 50 years in Wichita, Kansas, I demonstrate how a displacement‐first strategy has characterized all attempts to transform the city's “skid row” into the hub of a gentrified downtown core, and I describe how, despite widespread displacement, the gentrification of downtown Wichita has been largely unsuccessful. I discuss the implications of these findings for sociological theories of gentrification and displacement.

Policing Gentrification: Stops and Low–Level Arrests during Demographic Change and Real Estate Reinvestment

“…The city government of Wichita, Kansas, has been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to rebrand the city's Skid Row neighborhood as “Old Town” for over 50 years. During times of intense redevelopment, they have directed the police to aggressively enforce loitering and public drinking laws there with the hope of permanently displacing the area's homeless residents (Billingham ). Similar development‐directed policing projects have been detailed in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Charlotte (Beckett and Herbert ; Moore and Poethig ; Stuart ).…”

Centering Small Cities for Urban Sociology in the 21st Century

“…Many small cities lack public housing infrastructure, so the displacement of tenants benefitting from such subsidized housing programs as Section 8 may be both less visible and more prevalent. It is also unclear if the role of actors in local government and real estate will be the same in small cities (Billingham 2017) as it has been documented in large ones (Hackworth and Smith 2001; He 2007; Smith 1996). In short, we need to know more about how the process of gentrification plays out in smaller city contexts, not only because lessons learned in large cities do not always apply, but because the urban experience in smaller cities holds the potential to expand our theoretical toolbox for understanding gentrification.…”

“…Interurban movement, therefore, may be more prominent than intraurban movement of people that has been the case in "classical" accounts of gentrification. Displacement, one of the hotly contested consequences of gentrification, may work in different ways in smaller cities compared to their larger brethren (Billingham 2017), as may resistance to gentrification (Brown-Saracino 2009;Ocejo 2014). Many small cities lack public housing infrastructure, so the displacement of tenants benefitting from such subsidized housing programs as Section 8 may be both less visible and more prevalent.…”

The Perceptions of Private and Suburban Public Schools among Middle Class Urban Parents: Evidence from Albany, New York<br /> &nbsp;

“…Researchers have begun to examine these types of families and their motivations for remaining in city centers and city public schools (Billingham, 2017;Billingham & Kimelberg, 2013;Cucchiara, 2013a;Cucchiara & Horvat, 2014;Posey, 2012;Posey-Maddox et al, 2014;Reay et al, 2011;Stillman, 2012). These parents typically see themselves as liberal urbanites who value diversity and "real world" school experiences and settings for their children.…”