Tensions of gentrification lead a U.S. city to dialogue

[flashl]

A few places are still described as frontiers, where pioneers move because prices are relatively reasonable, the location is convenient and, they say, they "want the diversity."
...

Yet one person's frontier, it turns out, is often another's front porch. It has been true across the United States: gentrification, which increases housing prices and tension, sometimes has racial overtones and can seem like a dirty word. Now Portland is encouraging black and white residents to talk about it, but even here in Sincere City, the conversation has been difficult.

"I've been really upset by what I perceive to be Portland's blind spot in its progressivism," said Khaela Maricich, 33, a local artist and musician from Seattle. "They think they live in the best city in the country, but it's all about saving the environment and things like that. It's not really about social issues. It's upper-middle-class progressivism, really."
...

The goal of the city-sponsored project is to have white people better understand the effect gentrification can have on the city's longtime black and other-minority neighborhoods.

Once armed with a broader perspective, said Judith Mowry, the project's leader, whites should "make the commitment that the harm stops with us." That might mean that whites appeal to the city to help black businesses or complain to companies that put fliers on the doors of black property owners encouraging them to sell.

IHT

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

1. Gentrification is recognized as a socioeconomic issue..

So let's put in some safeguards to protect less-affluent residents: short-term restrictions on rent increases, rent subsidies, tenant union rights, and the like, to prevent class-based displacement.