Long a quiet farming area founded by Dutch settlers, Harlem began to gain its urban character in the 1870s, when the elevated railroad improved accessibility from downtown. Wealthier New Yorkers escaping from the congested central city built ornate brownstones and mansions. During the 1910s, the real estate market collapsed, and landlords filled the new buildings by renting to blacks from downtown and newly arrived from the south. This was the beginning of Harlem's
Renaissance. Many famous African-American writers, poets, musicians, academics grew up in or moved to Harlem. During prohibition, Harlem became the center of the city's nightlife.
Harlem began to decline in the 1960s. Race riots, common in many American cities at the time, spurred over 100,000 residents to flee to the suburbs. Landlords abandoned buildings that no longer produced profits. The government bought up about two-thirds of the buildings in Harlem, many of them vacant. Banks "red-lined" Harlem, blocking home mortgage and improvement loans. Harlem continued its downward spiral in the 1980s, when the crack epidemic hit hard.
Commercial establishments on 125th Street, located in Harlem's Empowerment Zone (2003)
In the face of this adversity, community organizers, politicians, and planners began working to turn Harlem around. Churches created non-profit development corporations to revitalize the community and build low-income housing, aided by government loans. By the 1990s, outsiders were beginning to take another look at Harlem. Middle-class New Yorkers, many of them black, who were priced out of much of the rest of Manhattan, began snapping up the inexpensive, grand old buildings in Harlem. Rents and home prices continue to skyrocket today. Ironically, the lack of investments in Harlem during much of the 20th century meant that few of the beautiful old buildings had been replaced by less-charming modern buildings.
Today, many say Harlem is going through a Second Renaissance. The crime rate is down significantly. Harlem is now an obligatory stop for many tour buses, and upscale travel and lifestyle magazines increasingly include Harlem as one of the hip, up-and-coming neighborhoods to see in New York City. Former President Clinton set up office in Harlem. Many residents and business owners are happy to see Harlem on the upswing, but they are deeply concerned about the impact of rising costs on the poor and working class of Harlem. Longtime residents often cannot afford to stay in Harlem when they need to move to different or larger apartments. Stories of illegal eviction threats abound.
Critics say that developers, politicians, and local planners are catering to those who don't need assistance by subsidizing construction of new moderate-income and market-rate housing. Urban revitalization policies have indeed changed since the 1960s when the federal government built large enclaves of subsidized, low-income housing projects. Today, the government often seeks to encourage mixed-income neighborhoods. And since the average per capita income in Manhattan (in 1999) is about three times that of Harlem, what the government considers "affordable" housing for many New Yorkers is, in any case, out of reach for many longtime Harlem residents.
With the Gold Rush and transportation advances (San Francisco's Municipal Railway, otherwise known as Muni, began carrying passengers in 1851), more residents and businesses came to the area, as the core of San Francisco grew outward. By 1890 the Mission was largely built up and the street and land-use patterns that still exist today were formed.
Following San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and fire, large numbers of San Franciscans moved into the Mission from more damaged parts of the city. The Mission became home to a large number of working-class Irish and Italian families, and the neighborhood reached new heights of prosperity. Many of the Mission's historic theaters, including the Majestic and the Grant, were built during this time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, another influx of immigrants came to the Mission, this time primarily from Central and South America. The Latino community flourished, with its center along Mission Street, for several decades. Around this time, many long-time Mission families moved to the suburbs using World War II GI and Federal Housing Authority loans to subsidize their moves.
The Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, was built in 1782 and survived the famous 1906 earthquake. It is the oldest building in San Francisco.
Disinvestment in the Mission began to take its toll, and by the late 1960s, the Mission District was marked by a high crime rate relative to the rest of San Francisco. The Mission suffered from gang activity, prostitution and an aging housing stock. Despite the crime, the Mission's Latino community continued to grow through the 1970s and 1980s, served by a large network of immigrant services, community organizations, and local businesses. A community of artists also began to develop in the Mission, attracted by cheap studio and warehouse space in the neighborhood's northeast section.
Over the last ten years, California's high-tech boom, centered in the Silicon Valley, began to affect San Francisco and the Mission. Throughout the city, housing prices and commercial rents skyrocketed. The Mission's still relatively affordable housing became a magnet for a young, upwardly-mobile population attracted by the area's affordability, transit access (the neighborhood has two BART stops and is well-served by MUNI buses), proximity to Downtown, and an increasingly hip nightlife scene. High-end restaurants and clubs began to price out local serving businesses and non-profits supporting the neighborhood's immigrant population. Reports indicate that between 1997 and 1999, commercial rents increased 41 percent, compared to 15 percent in the city as a whole.
Many long-time Latino tenants were evicted as new housing developments raised property values, and landlords looked to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Mission by raising rents. The Mission's immigrant population was particularly vulnerable to displacement and other gentrification pressures. A large number of recent immigrants were renters, and less familiar with tenant rights due to language or other cultural barriers.
In addition, live-work "loft" developments began to sprout up, a relatively cheap building type marketed to young urban homebuyers. Live-work development angered many long-time Mission residents, because, in addition to driving up housing costs, live-work developments are exempt from many residential regulations, including affordable housing requirements and public school fees. In addition, many Mission activists argued that live-work developments were illegally inhabited by businesses, particularly high-tech companies looking for affordable commercial space. The late 1990s saw a number of protests by the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC), a loosely organized group of Mission residents, business owners, and activists, against new live-work developments and high-tech companies moving into the Mission.
However, by 2002, the gentrification pressure began to dissipate. As Nancy Charraga, a Latina storeowner explained, "it was as if someone pulled the plug." The dot-com boom imploded, and commercial rents and housing prices began to stabilize. Vacant storefronts now litter some of the Mission's main retail corridors, and vacancy rates are rising.
The long-term effects of the dot-com boom still need to be assessed, although recent Census data reveals that the Mission's Latino population decreased only slightly, less than one percent, between 1990 and 2000. The informational maps in this section provide a preliminary look at the social and demographic changes that took place in the Mission from 1990 to 2000.
The Olde Towne East district is a part of the Near East neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. The district is adjacent to downtown Columbus and is one of the City's most historic communities — many of the buildings date back to the late 19th century. After the Civil War, the population of Columbus began to grow relatively rapidly, and the Near East neighborhood became one of the first residential communities. The primary transportation modes of the time were horse and buggy; historic carriage houses and stables are still found in the neighborhood.
Like many other cities, including San Francisco, the form of Columbus shifted with the advent of the streetcar system in the late 19th century. Downtown Columbus began to grow outwardly, and the Near East neighborhood, with its larger land parcels, became one of the city's wealthier communities.
By the end of World War I, Near East was home to a well established, though economically diverse, community. The area near Hamilton Park and Long Street developed into a wealthy African-American neighborhood, characterized by large Victorian-style homes often made of brick. Another portion of the Near East, known as the Blackberry Patch, was home to a poorer African-American community. Despite these differences in class, the Near East neighborhood was relatively stable, until the next World War.
Olde Towne East in the 1940s. Stills from Super-8 footage. Filmed by Eugene Brown. Courtesy of the Brown Family Archive.
In 1941, one of the United States' first public housing projects, Poindexter Village, was built in the Near East. Following World War II, a slow migration of the Near East's wealthier residents from the central city to more suburban neighborhoods began, facilitated by the introduction of the automobile. By 1950, much of the more expensive housing stock in the neighborhood began to show signs of deterioration, and many of the larger homes were subdivided into apartments or used as rooming houses. Income levels in the Near East began to decrease.
In 1960, the Federal Highway Administration began to subsidize highway construction. New freeways were built in and around Columbus, linking more and more suburbs to the central city. In addition to further encouraging the migration of the Near East's longtime residents and families to the suburbs, a new freeway literally cut the Near East neighborhood in half, taking vast amounts of housing stock with it. Many families were forced to relocate. Money and people continued to leave the neighborhood, and by the late 1960s the Near East was marked by increasing crime and falling property values. The period was marked by extreme social strife, and many portions of the Near East fell victim to arson and vandalism. Another exodus of businesses and residents took place.
By the 1970s, some portions of the Near East were relatively intact while other huge sections were desolate and derelict. The neighborhood continued to be primarily African-American and — in sharp contrast to its glory days in the 1920s — the Near East had become one of Columbus's poorest neighborhoods. Federal government programs, such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), provided revitalization money for single-family homes, and Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization (NCR) areas were formed on a number of retail corridors, including Main Street and Long Street. These programs allowed a small amount of reinvestment in the Near East, but the neighborhood continued to struggle.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, 85% of the Near East population was African-American, and the neighborhood's average household income was well below the City's as a whole. In addition, the vast majority of Near East residents were renters; in 1990, only 30 percent of the Near East housing was owner occupied, making many residents particularly susceptible to displacement.
By the mid 1990s, the population of the Near East began to shift. What had been a predominantly African-American community neighborhood for years, and a neighborhood that had been losing its middle-class residents for decades, had for the first time an influx of new residents — primarily white, gay men. The new community was attracted by the large, though dilapidated, historic homes and affordable housing prices. In addition, the Near East neighborhood was very close to downtown Columbus, and well served by public transit. Slowly, the new residents began restoring the deteriorated homes, stitching together a neighborhood more reminiscent of the Near East in the 1920s.
Around this time, a group of residents began pursuing formal historic districts within the Near East, including what is now known as the "Olde Towne East" district. Others strongly opposed designating the area as historic, over fears the reinvestment would cause property values to soar, resulting in the displacement of poor residents, particularly renters. The city eventually adopted a number of historic preservation codes that created stricter controls on changes and additions to property.
As "Flag Wars" depicts, the current struggle of the Near East is epitomized by the Olde Town East district: poorer African-American residents are fighting to hold on to their homes in the face of stricter zoning controls and increasing property values. Gay white homeowners see the rundown homes as "fixer uppers" and work hard to restore historic buildings. Crime in the Near East is beginning to decrease. Two traditionally marginalized groups are now competing for the same increasingly valuable real estate in one Columbus neighborhood.
The informational maps in this section provide a glimpse of the demographic changes currently taking place in the Olde Towne East district, although the true impact of the changes will continue to be played out over future years.
Introduction
Explore three tales of gentrification at your own pace. These three clickable maps feature interviews with residents, pictures of landmarks, U.S. Census data and historical information about each neighborhood in an effort to interactively illustrate ten years of change (1990 - 2000). Each map is prefaced by an introduction offering a brief history of the neighborhood. Read over the background information or click on "launch map" to go directly into the feature.
West Harlem, NY
Renaissance. Many famous African-American writers, poets, musicians, academics grew up in or moved to Harlem. During prohibition, Harlem became the center of the city's nightlife.
Harlem began to decline in the 1960s. Race riots, common in many American cities at the time, spurred over 100,000 residents to flee to the suburbs. Landlords abandoned buildings that no longer produced profits. The government bought up about two-thirds of the buildings in Harlem, many of them vacant. Banks "red-lined" Harlem, blocking home mortgage and improvement loans. Harlem continued its downward spiral in the 1980s, when the crack epidemic hit hard.
In the face of this adversity, community organizers, politicians, and planners began working to turn Harlem around. Churches created non-profit development corporations to revitalize the community and build low-income housing, aided by government loans. By the 1990s, outsiders were beginning to take another look at Harlem. Middle-class New Yorkers, many of them black, who were priced out of much of the rest of Manhattan, began snapping up the inexpensive, grand old buildings in Harlem. Rents and home prices continue to skyrocket today. Ironically, the lack of investments in Harlem during much of the 20th century meant that few of the beautiful old buildings had been replaced by less-charming modern buildings.
Today, many say Harlem is going through a Second Renaissance. The crime rate is down significantly. Harlem is now an obligatory stop for many tour buses, and upscale travel and lifestyle magazines increasingly include Harlem as one of the hip, up-and-coming neighborhoods to see in New York City. Former President Clinton set up office in Harlem. Many residents and business owners are happy to see Harlem on the upswing, but they are deeply concerned about the impact of rising costs on the poor and working class of Harlem. Longtime residents often cannot afford to stay in Harlem when they need to move to different or larger apartments. Stories of illegal eviction threats abound.
Critics say that developers, politicians, and local planners are catering to those who don't need assistance by subsidizing construction of new moderate-income and market-rate housing. Urban revitalization policies have indeed changed since the 1960s when the federal government built large enclaves of subsidized, low-income housing projects. Today, the government often seeks to encourage mixed-income neighborhoods. And since the average per capita income in Manhattan (in 1999) is about three times that of Harlem, what the government considers "affordable" housing for many New Yorkers is, in any case, out of reach for many longtime Harlem residents.
Diana Marsh is a graphic designer and urban planner who divides her time between the Bay Area and New
York City.
San Francisco, CA
Mission San Francisco de Asís, popularly known as Mission Dolores, was founded in 1776 and moved to its current location on 16th and Dolores Streets in 1783. The founding of the Mission by Father Palou, a Spanish priest, marked the first time a population was displaced from the Mission. Before the Spanish arrived, Costanoan Indians inhabited the area, just one of about 62 tribes that pre-existed Mexican and Spanish rule. Records indicate that between 1833 and 1841, the Native American population in the Mission decreased from 400 to only 50. Through 1849, Mexican and Spanish ranches around Mission Dolores comprised the Mission district.
Following San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and fire, large numbers of San Franciscans moved into the Mission from more damaged parts of the city. The Mission became home to a large number of working-class Irish and Italian families, and the neighborhood reached new heights of prosperity. Many of the Mission's historic theaters, including the Majestic and the Grant, were built during this time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, another influx of immigrants came to the Mission, this time primarily from Central and South America. The Latino community flourished, with its center along Mission Street, for several decades. Around this time, many long-time Mission families moved to the suburbs using World War II GI and Federal Housing Authority loans to subsidize their moves.
The Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, was built in 1782 and survived the famous 1906 earthquake. It is the oldest building in San Francisco.
Disinvestment in the Mission began to take its toll, and by the late 1960s, the Mission District was marked by a high crime rate relative to the rest of San Francisco. The Mission suffered from gang activity, prostitution and an aging housing stock. Despite the crime, the Mission's Latino community continued to grow through the 1970s and 1980s, served by a large network of immigrant services, community organizations, and local businesses. A community of artists also began to develop in the Mission, attracted by cheap studio and warehouse space in the neighborhood's northeast section.
Over the last ten years, California's high-tech boom, centered in the Silicon Valley, began to affect San Francisco and the Mission. Throughout the city, housing prices and commercial rents skyrocketed. The Mission's still relatively affordable housing became a magnet for a young, upwardly-mobile population attracted by the area's affordability, transit access (the neighborhood has two BART stops and is well-served by MUNI buses), proximity to Downtown, and an increasingly hip nightlife scene. High-end restaurants and clubs began to price out local serving businesses and non-profits supporting the neighborhood's immigrant population. Reports indicate that between 1997 and 1999, commercial rents increased 41 percent, compared to 15 percent in the city as a whole.
Many long-time Latino tenants were evicted as new housing developments raised property values, and landlords looked to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Mission by raising rents. The Mission's immigrant population was particularly vulnerable to displacement and other gentrification pressures. A large number of recent immigrants were renters, and less familiar with tenant rights due to language or other cultural barriers.
In addition, live-work "loft" developments began to sprout up, a relatively cheap building type marketed to young urban homebuyers. Live-work development angered many long-time Mission residents, because, in addition to driving up housing costs, live-work developments are exempt from many residential regulations, including affordable housing requirements and public school fees. In addition, many Mission activists argued that live-work developments were illegally inhabited by businesses, particularly high-tech companies looking for affordable commercial space. The late 1990s saw a number of protests by the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC), a loosely organized group of Mission residents, business owners, and activists, against new live-work developments and high-tech companies moving into the Mission.
However, by 2002, the gentrification pressure began to dissipate. As Nancy Charraga, a Latina storeowner explained, "it was as if someone pulled the plug." The dot-com boom imploded, and commercial rents and housing prices began to stabilize. Vacant storefronts now litter some of the Mission's main retail corridors, and vacancy rates are rising.
The long-term effects of the dot-com boom still need to be assessed, although recent Census data reveals that the Mission's Latino population decreased only slightly, less than one percent, between 1990 and 2000. The informational maps in this section provide a preliminary look at the social and demographic changes that took place in the Mission from 1990 to 2000.
Kelley Kahn is an urban planner and writer living in Oakland, California.
Columbus, OH
Like many other cities, including San Francisco, the form of Columbus shifted with the advent of the streetcar system in the late 19th century. Downtown Columbus began to grow outwardly, and the Near East neighborhood, with its larger land parcels, became one of the city's wealthier communities.
By the end of World War I, Near East was home to a well established, though economically diverse, community. The area near Hamilton Park and Long Street developed into a wealthy African-American neighborhood, characterized by large Victorian-style homes often made of brick. Another portion of the Near East, known as the Blackberry Patch, was home to a poorer African-American community. Despite these differences in class, the Near East neighborhood was relatively stable, until the next World War.
Olde Towne East in the 1940s. Stills from Super-8 footage. Filmed by Eugene Brown. Courtesy of the Brown Family Archive.
In 1941, one of the United States' first public housing projects, Poindexter Village, was built in the Near East. Following World War II, a slow migration of the Near East's wealthier residents from the central city to more suburban neighborhoods began, facilitated by the introduction of the automobile. By 1950, much of the more expensive housing stock in the neighborhood began to show signs of deterioration, and many of the larger homes were subdivided into apartments or used as rooming houses. Income levels in the Near East began to decrease.
In 1960, the Federal Highway Administration began to subsidize highway construction. New freeways were built in and around Columbus, linking more and more suburbs to the central city. In addition to further encouraging the migration of the Near East's longtime residents and families to the suburbs, a new freeway literally cut the Near East neighborhood in half, taking vast amounts of housing stock with it. Many families were forced to relocate. Money and people continued to leave the neighborhood, and by the late 1960s the Near East was marked by increasing crime and falling property values. The period was marked by extreme social strife, and many portions of the Near East fell victim to arson and vandalism. Another exodus of businesses and residents took place.
By the 1970s, some portions of the Near East were relatively intact while other huge sections were desolate and derelict. The neighborhood continued to be primarily African-American and -- in sharp contrast to its glory days in the 1920s -- the Near East had become one of Columbus's poorest neighborhoods. Federal government programs, such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), provided revitalization money for single-family homes, and Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization (NCR) areas were formed on a number of retail corridors, including Main Street and Long Street. These programs allowed a small amount of reinvestment in the Near East, but the neighborhood continued to struggle.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, 85% of the Near East population was African-American, and the neighborhood's average household income was well below the City's as a whole. In addition, the vast majority of Near East residents were renters; in 1990, only 30 percent of the Near East housing was owner occupied, making many residents particularly susceptible to displacement.
By the mid 1990s, the population of the Near East began to shift. What had been a predominantly African-American community neighborhood for years, and a neighborhood that had been losing its middle-class residents for decades, had for the first time an influx of new residents -- primarily white, gay men. The new community was attracted by the large, though dilapidated, historic homes and affordable housing prices. In addition, the Near East neighborhood was very close to downtown Columbus, and well served by public transit. Slowly, the new residents began restoring the deteriorated homes, stitching together a neighborhood more reminiscent of the Near East in the 1920s.
Around this time, a group of residents began pursuing formal historic districts within the Near East, including what is now known as the "Olde Towne East" district. Others strongly opposed designating the area as historic, over fears the reinvestment would cause property values to soar, resulting in the displacement of poor residents, particularly renters. The city eventually adopted a number of historic preservation codes that created stricter controls on changes and additions to property.
As "Flag Wars" depicts, the current struggle of the Near East is epitomized by the Olde Town East district: poorer African-American residents are fighting to hold on to their homes in the face of stricter zoning controls and increasing property values. Gay white homeowners see the rundown homes as "fixer uppers" and work hard to restore historic buildings. Crime in the Near East is beginning to decrease. Two traditionally marginalized groups are now competing for the same increasingly valuable real estate in one Columbus neighborhood.
The informational maps in this section provide a glimpse of the demographic changes currently taking place in the Olde Towne East district, although the true impact of the changes will continue to be played out over future years.
Kelley Kahn is an urban planner and writer living in Oakland, California.