KYW Newsradio, April 1st, 2019: Gentrification and displacement: Study shows where Philly measures up nationally
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new study takes a look at gentrification and cultural displacement and lists Philadelphia as the nation’s fourth most rapidly gentrifying city.
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition authored the study, which identified more than 1,000 neighborhoods in 935 cities and towns where gentrification occurred between 2000 and 2013.
“When we lose residents and small businesses that are really important to the neighborhood, it changes the character of the community,” said Beth McConnell, the policy director of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations.
McConnell wrote an essay, “Learning from our mistakes: Anti-displacement strategies in Philadelphia,” to accompany the study, which lists Philadelphia as one of the seven cities that accounted for half of the nation’s gentrification and impacted more than 135,000 people, mostly lower income African-Americans and Hispanics.
“I think some people were surprised,” McConnell said. “Philadelphia lost more than 23,000 affordable units over a 14-year period alone, and that trend is continuing.”
According to the study, Philadelphia is third on the list of cities facing high numbers of African-American displacement — with a loss of nearly a quarter of Black residents in some neighborhoods between 1990 and 2010, while increasing white residents by nearly 20 percent during that time period.
A section of South Philadelphia — from South Street to Washington, Broad to the Schuylkill River — is one example where 5,000 white residents moved in and 1,800 blacks moved out.
