Gentrification and Racial Transition in Cincinnati, 2000–2016

Abstract

Gentrification, the upgrading of formerly disinvested neighborhoods in a city through in-migration of population with higher median household incomes and educational levels, was first noted in large cities in the U.S., but has since diffused to smaller cities. One of those smaller cities is Cincinnati and is the focus of this article. One major question surrounding gentrification, regardless of where it occurs, is its possible displacement of lower-income individuals (mainly minorities). Displacement in this article is indirectly measured by documenting census tracts that experienced at least a 5.0 percent decline in the percentage of the tract that was African-American between 2000–10 and 2010–16. Logistic regression was then used to determine if tracts in Cincinnati undergoing gentrification during 2000–10 and 2010–16 experienced displacement of African-American population. Over the short-term (2000–10) there was no significant relationship between gentrification and displacement. However, tracts that gentrified between 2000 and 2010 were more likely to experience displacement between 2010 and 2016 at the 0.05 level suggesting that displacement occurs later in the gentrification process. It is suggested that the Great Recession adversely affected the ability of minorities to enter or remain in neighborhoods undergoing revitalization and may have contributed to displacement.