Gentrification – development consequence?

By: J. David Chapman/January 11, 2018

The University of Central Oklahoma Risk Management, Resilience, and Built Environment Policy Institute is studying Gentrification and Social Capital as it concerns real estate development.

We have focused our research in larger cities such as London and New York; however, the impact can be seen right here in Oklahoma City.

Gentrification is the process by which people of formerly modest means who were once criticized for abandoning urban blight are now castigated for returning to the city. Essentially, it is a change in economic conditions causing a shift in demographic makeup and a transformation of culture in the area.

There are two distinct views of gentrification. The first is that it is the displacement of the urban poor, pushing them aside to make way for the affluent. The second is that it is investment in an economically distressed neighborhood that hasn’t attracted any significant interest in reinvestment for decades. Our research consists of interviews of residents in the neighborhoods being redeveloped and developers who are performing the regeneration of the area, and comparing their perspectives on the issue.

The main concern in these communities is concentrated destitution due to a lack of private investment, made evident by upper- and middle-class flight to the suburbs, racial and socioeconomic segregation, and the loss of neighborhood retail and basic services. OKC leadership understands this phenomenon and understands the loss in social capital experienced when significant demographic change occurs in an area. While this must be managed and it is unclear that the return of affluent middle-class residents returning to these neighborhoods will do anything to improve the economic conditions of the poor, it is a certainty that a continued lack of socioeconomic diversity, and its associated concentrated poverty, will improve nothing and help no one in these areas.

Positively Paseo, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community housing development organization, or CHDO, works to revitalize neighborhoods such as the Paseo Historic District, Ten Penn, and Classen’s North Highland Parked neighborhoods. On the commercial side of development, The Pivot Project, a for-profit organization led by Jonathan Dodson, Ben Sellers, and David Wanzer, is making a similar contribution to the urban-fabric.

Both organizations are proving to be a vital solution to the problem of gentrification by emphasizing smart planning and thoughtful design, with a concern for the future of the neighborhood.

J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).