Investment Without Displacement: Communities Gather to Discuss Gentrification at the Voorhees Center Symposium

On May 1 the Voorhees Center hosted Taking Control of Our Neighborhoods’ Future, a symposium to discuss the Center’s recently released report on gentrification and neighborhood change titled The Socioeconomic Change of Chicago’s Community Areas, also known as the Gentrification Index. Over 50 people from around Chicago — professionals, foundation officers, community activists, students and professors — participated. Many shared their personal and professional experiences of confronting neighborhood change, creating a space for individuals from all corners of the city to partner and develop collaborative solutions that address the impact gentrification can have on communities. A common concern is the real and potential displacement of lower income families from these neighborhoods and the seemingly lack of control over gentrification once it starts.

John Schlichtman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at DePaul University, delivered an insightful talk on gentrification beginning with Ruth Glass’s examination of London’s social conditions that supported the re-entry of the gentry in the 1960s. Schlichtman situates gentrification in the larger socio-economic restructuring that began with de-industrialization and suburbanization. Much of his presentation focused on the “re’s” and “de’s” of gentrification and emphasizing the connections between reinvestment and disinvestment, revitalization and devaluation, and many other push and pull forces that set the stage for and help solidify gentrification in particular communities. He demonstrated how gentrification is heavily tied to the creation over time of the rent gap, which he defines as “the difference between the potential value and the actual value under the current use.”

Schlichtman describes gentrification as a showcase for middle class life; his goal was to get us to take stock of how, if in any way, we are all involved in the process of gentrification which is ultimately tied to capitalism. Linking the middle class and gentrification provided an interesting backdrop to the findings in the Gentrification Index. The Gentrification Index examines neighborhood change across Chicago over a 40-year period, from 1970 to 2010, and uses 13 indicators to measure neighborhood growth or decline over time. With the addition of 2010 data, the Index shows growing inequality and polarization in Chicago, which has led to a hollowing out of the middle class and a greater number of neighborhoods suffering mild to serious decline.

What can we take away from the Index? There are neighborhoods that have gentrified over the 40-year period (primarily north side communities along the lakefront) and there are a handful of neighborhoods that are trending toward gentrification, with an increasing number of higher income residents concentrated in these neighborhoods. Yet, there are also a growing number of neighborhoods that have been in decline for decades and where poverty has increased, also with a growing number of residents concentrated in these neighborhoods. Janet Smith, Co-Director of the Voorhees Center, spoke to this “deepening divide” noting the growing rate of neighborhood polarization in Chicago.