Study: Denver Is Second-Most Gentrified City In America (2024)

FAQs

Study: Denver Is Second-Most Gentrified City In America? ›

According to the study, 27% of Denver's eligible neighborhoods gentrified between 2013 and 2017. San Francisco took the title of most intensely gentrified city in America, followed by Denver, Boston, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, and New Orleans.

The soaring home values and increasing rent prices that Denver experienced over the last decade has facilitated a pattern of neighborhoods being gentrified and residents being displaced.

San Francisco was the most intensely gentrified city in America from 2013 to 2017, a new study found. It was followed by Denver, Boston, Miami and New Orleans. They had the largest share of their vulnerable neighborhoods that gentrified during that time period.

Gentrification, like any significant change in a region, carries both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, gentrification can help enhance property values and attract new businesses and employment opportunities to a community. However, gentrification can also cause significant negative consequences.

Gentrification is making it harder for some people to stay in their neighborhoods. One solution: community land trusts, which buy up properties and then keep the homes there affordable. AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: As urban neighborhoods gentrify, it can be hard for people to keep up with rising rents.

The loss of cultural identity is a frequent hazard in gentrified neighborhoods. People who have lived in their communities for generations often foster strong relationships with the residents and harbor deep affinities for the neighborhoods.

Colorado residents have stated that 24% of their income goes towards rent, making Denver one of the top ten most expensive cities in the U.S. In addition to this lofty statistic, Denver is also the second most gentrified city in the country.

Causes of Gentrification

Some literature suggests that it is caused by social and cultural factors such as family structure, rapid job growth, lack of housing, traffic congestion, and public-sector policies (Kennedy, 2001). Gentrification can occur on a small or large scale.

However, gentrification can also have negative impacts, such as the displacement of long-term residents, the loss of affordable housing, and the erasure of cultural identity.

Gentrification can be advantageous because it may reduce the crime rate in an area, create new business and housing opportunities, stabilize a local economy that was previously disinvested, and encourage further development and economic growth.

Who is to blame for gentrification? ›

The gentrification process is typically the result of increasing attraction to an area by people with higher incomes spilling over from neighboring cities, towns, or neighborhoods.

Two recent studies show that, on average, disadvantaged residents living in gentrifying neighborhoods end up in neighborhoods with poverty rates 2–3 percentage points lower than their counterparts living in persistently low-income neighborhoods, suggesting that they could see some long-run benefits.

The causes of homelessness also vary significantly; however, gentrification has been identified as one of the major catalysts leading to homelessness.

As for alternatives, Lees points out that Community Land Trusts and community ownership are strong counters to the narrative that gentrification is inevitable. “Gentrification is sold to us as a false choice urbanism – a choice between growth, or decline and decay.

Those developers will construct over-priced apartments, luring more affluent individuals into historical communities of color. Longtime, less affluent residents will then be forced out due to gentrification and displacement -- they won't be able to pay rising, sky-high rents.

San Francisco-Oakland tops list of most gentrified cities in the United States, study shows. A new study claims San Francisco and Oakland are the most "intensely gentrified" cities in the United States.

Gentrification in Denver began with the passage of the National Housing Act of 1934. Before then, the term “urban renewal” was nonexistent.

However, over the course of the gentrification of the area, which began as early as the 1920s and continues into the present day, many Black-owned business and housing centers have been closed by white property owners and reconstructed.

Diverse Economy

The Mile High City is on an economic high, with a number of diverse industries buoying the job market and providing plenty of opportunities to its nearly 3 millions residents in the greater metro area.