Focused Inquiry Outline Paper

1. How is gentrification still getting by today?- I want to get to the bottom and figure out why gentrification is still finding its ways around the world and communities.

- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/magazine/when-gentrification-isnt-about-housing.html

· They were being “invaded by the middle classes — upper and lower.” These newcomers were buying up the “shabby, modest mews and cottages” and turning them into “elegant, expensive residences.” (Staley, Willy 6)

· “Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district,” Glass writes, “it goes on rapidly until all or most of the working-class occupiers are displaced, and the whole social character of the district is changed.” (Staley, Willy 6)

· Shafrir points out that it’s “not new for people to be living in R.V.s or mobile homes; it’s just that there’s a new vocabulary to gentrify living in a small space.” (Staley, Willy 3)

- https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/01/the-gentrification-myth-its-rare-and-not-as-bad-for-the-poor-as-people-think.html

· Fourteen years ago, Maureen Kennedy and Paul Leonard of the Brookings Institution wrote that gentrification “is a politically loaded concept that generally has not been useful in resolving growth and community change debates because its meaning is unclear.” (Buntin, John 5)

· “The most plausible interpretation,” the authors concluded, “may be the simplest: As neighborhoods gentrify, they also improve in many ways that may be as appreciated by their disadvantaged residents as by their more affluent ones.” (Buntin, John 9)

· “There is strong evidence that when neighborhood disadvantage declines, the economic fortunes of black youth improve, and improve rather substantially.” (Buntin, John 11)

A. I will use these sources to answer my question by finding out the results of how gentrification is still carried out today although it has been banned til this day.

0. Why has redlining and gentrification become so normalized although it is bad?- I want to know why redlining and gentrification hasn’t already been put away for good since it’s been around so long and its bad even tho it has some good aspects.

- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/28/redlining-was-banned-50-years-

· In the 1930s, government surveyors graded neighborhoods in 239 cities, color-coding them green for “best,” blue for “still desirable,” yellow for “definitely declining” and red for “hazardous.” (Jan, Tracy 5)

· “Anyone who was not northern-European white was considered to be a detraction from the value of the area,” said Bruce Mitchell, a senior researcher at the NCRC and one of the study’s authors.  (Jan, Tracy 6)

· “I think most people believe the problem is not with the rules but with the people. Most middle-class whites in America don’t have empirical observations of what happens in underserved neighborhoods or understand the historical treatment of poor and minority communities.”  (Jan, Tracy 7 )

- https://www.lib.niu.edu/1979/ii790704.html

· The lofty goal enunciated by Congress in 1949 of a "decent home and suitable living environment for every American family" still eludes many Illinois residents as well as other Americans. ((Collins, John N. 2)

· "refusal to lend in a particular area solely because of the age of the homes or the income level in a neighborhood may be discriminatory in effect since minority group persons are more likely to purchase used housing and to live in low-income neighborhoods. The racial composition of the neighborhood where the loan is to be made is always an improper underwriting consideration." (Collins, John N. 15)

· Congress states in the preamble to the act that it "finds that some depository institutions have sometimes contributed to the decline of certain geographical areas by their failure pursuant to their chartering responsibilities to provide adequate home financing to qualified applicants on reasonable terms and conditions." (Collins, John N. 18)

A. I will use these sources to help me come to the conclusion of why and the how of redlining and gentrification have become normalized.