Gentrification of Chicago
[3] There are some researchers who claim that the loss of affordable housing mainly impacts the poorer minority residents and causes them to have to move out of their neighborhoods which destabilizes their cultural communities.
[4] Factors associated with and used to measure gentrification in Chicago are changes in the number of residents with bachelor's degrees, median household income, racial composition, visual observations, and the presence of coffee shops.
[8] Some critics of anti-gentrification propose that gentrification is not major issue for low-income communities because it is a localized process that is rare and typically does not affect displacement rates.
[4] There is evidence in the research to support these critics claims that gentrification does harm nearby neighborhoods that were not gentrified because they miss out on investment opportunities.
[4] Hwang and Sampson's (2014) claimed in their study that positive effects of gentrification associated with urban renewal did not come to benefit poorer black minority neighborhoods because it led to more disinvestment.
[6] Because of the ethnographic trends associated with gentrification, for example one study found that communities that are 90% black are less likely to be gentrified, and these neighborhoods are unable to benefit from urban renewal or investment.
In Chicago, environmental gentrification includes not only the creation of green spaces but also the inter-mixing of low-, middle-, and upper-class residents into mixed-income housing and schooling structures.
[16] When cleaned and redeveloped, these fields can be used for housing, retail businesses, recreational areas or parks, or community buildings; thus, acquiring a No Further Remediation letter from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) is needed to begin the process.
Ren2010 was marketed to residents as an attempt to reform failing Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and replace them with selective-enrollment charters, most of which were or are privately owned.
Both initiatives led to the creation of new mixed-income communities and paved the way for residential or commercial developments in, and the subsequent gentrification of, affected neighborhoods.
These sentiments were echoed in the interviews with white residents, who frequently mentioned they were “scared” of the youth of color, and that, more specifically, their congregation in public spaces made them feel unsettled.
[19] This friction impacted the occurrence and prevalence of citizen-based policing, or the monitoring of a community done by residents who use the non-emergency, 3-1-1 line to report perceived problematic behavior to law enforcement.
[21] In Chicago, researchers have found several characteristics that were common among gentrified tracks such as the proximity to the city center, central business district, the ethnographic and racial composition, and the availability of older housing stock.
[1] Chaskin and Joseph's (2013) research provided another perspective on how residents perceive crime in that part of their perception is colored by behavior that is technically noncriminal, but deviates from their preferred social norms.
[23] Gentrification in Chicago can be traced back to at least the 1920s, when artists and other creatives moved into an area that became known as Old Town, part of the Near North Side and Lincoln Park neighborhoods.
[24] A community organization, the Lincoln Park Conservation Association, took the lead by attracting homeowners rather than renters and pushing to decrease residential density.
[24] The neighborhood's gentrification was encouraged in part by a city designation of Lincoln Park as a conservation district, spurring private investment and paving the way for urban renewal operations.
[3][10][8][27] Researchers characterize the gentrification in Chicago to have racial order undertones because of historic segregation practices against black, Hispanic, and other minority groups.
[12] According to Boyd (2008) gentrification has occurred due to city officials, incoming wealthier white and asian residents, and black elites who have not made it their primary concern to maintain the availability of affordable housing and instead focused on upgrading the neighborhood.
[10] However, Boyd (2008) states that their efforts to limit the influence of outside gentrifiers has had the undesired effects of increasing the rate of gentrification overall and disproportionally affecting lower income residents.
[3] According to a study published in 2016 between the years of 2000-2013 Pilsen has been experiencing gentrification as coffee shops, artisan bakeries, and upscale restaurants open up on or near 18th Street.
[32] The increase of traffic from tourist and changes in the demographic composition has worried some local residents, while recognizing that the neighborhood has benefited from the economic growth.
During this time, a number of luxury apartment hotels, movie palaces, and other entertainment venues were built, such as the Aragon Ballroom, the Riviera Theater, and the Uptown Theatre.
Today, Argyle Street is still home to Chicago's 'Little Vietnam' district, though the southeast Asian population has been steadily decreasing over the past decade.
As neighborhoods further south along the lakefront have become pricier, more and more higher income populations are starting to look to Uptown, with a number of SRO buildings and at least one hospital and an elementary school being converted into luxury apartments.
