Baltimore Fishbowl, March 19th, 2019: Study: Baltimore has seen one of the highest rates of gentrification in the U.S.
From 2000 to 2013, Baltimore experienced the fifth highest rate of gentrification in the United States, ranking behind bustling cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, according to a new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), a nonprofit that tries to steer investment into underserved communities.
Baltimore joins those four cities and San Diego and Chicago in accounting for half the gentrification to occur nationwide in that time frame.
Using U.S. Census figures and economic data, the NCRC determined 171 of Baltimore’s 679 census tracts were eligible for gentrification, defined as having home values in the bottom 40 percent of the city in 2000. Of those, 38 tracts–or 22 percent–experienced gentrification, which researchers defined as areas that rank in the 60th percentile of increases in median home value and the number of residents with college degrees.
In these places, five tracts saw displacement of African-American residents, with an average loss of 673 black residents and an average increase of 110 white residents, 235 Hispanic residents and 22 Asian residents. That rate of African-American displacement ranks ninth in the country.
An interactive map made by the NCRC shows these areas are in neighborhoods like Station North and Greenmount West in Central Baltimore, and a string of Census tracts just north of Patterson Park that includes McElderry Park, Patterson Place and CARE.
