Gentrification Outcome

For John, BLUF:  A new study suggests that iffolks are willing to invest in your neighborhood, and you stick around, you could benefit.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Gentrification for Social Justice?

Here is the sub-headline:

A new Federal Reserve report casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that neighborhood improvement hurts poor urban residents.

From City Journal, by Reporter Kay S. Hymowitz, 23 July 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

For many on the Left, gentrification remains a dirty word, synonymous—or at least closely associated—with racism, oligarchic developers, neoliberalism, and even genocide.  Fortunately, not all gentrification-watchers are so dystopic.  Less excitable observers harbor reasonable concerns about poor residents forced to resettle in blighted areas, unscrupulous landlords, and the disruption of familiar neighborhoods.

A just-released working paper from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve could shake up the conversation.  Several previous studies have already cast doubt on the conventional wisdom that gentrification causes widespread displacement of poor, longtime residents. “The Effects of Gentrification on Well Being and Opportunity of Original Resident Adults and Their Children” goes further by recasting gentrification as a potential force for income integration and social mobility.

Here is a specific:

Most strikingly, gentrification increases the probability that children of less educated homeowners will attend and graduate college.

This has to be a good thing.  No one else is running forward with an alternative solution.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff