Gentrification Foresight: Surviving Gentrification in a Gentrifying Culture
Gentrification Foresight: Surviving Gentrification in a Gentrifying Culture
Reginald King | 2022
Abstract
The study of gentrification and its impact on low-income individuals, mainly minorities, families, and their communities, has become a topic of intense discussion in recent years as society weighs the advantages and disadvantages of this trend. Low-income communities are identified for their high minority rates, high vacancy rates, high crime rates, poverty, undervalued real estate, and many other issues. Having low-income communities experience revitalization with the introduction of investors, developers, and affluent potential residents eager to purchase abandoned houses and invest in rebuilding all aspects of the community is a benefit for the community and the city. And while these are positive benefits, the study also adds that these benefits come at the cost of displacing minority families, businesses, and even houses of worship because of the increases gentrification produces.
Gentrification has had adverse effects on Black businesses and churches, such as losing customers, members, revenue, relocation, and closure. This research revealed that many Black business owners and church leaders were ill-prepared for gentrification’s effect because they lacked the knowledge, strategies, and tools to make appropriate decisions. The study revealed that many minority leaders could formulate strategies to anticipate, plan, combat, and even embrace gentrification when exposed to the correct information. Exposure to the right tools and strategies gave Black business owners and church leaders a better opportunity to compete in their communities and remain relevant to the long-time and new residents.
When accurately anticipated through strategic foresight, leaders have utilized its tools to develop strategies to combat gentrification’s effects on their organizations. They have also been able to develop scenarios to discover possible outcomes that they should prepare for in the future. Through scenarios, business and church leaders developed several strategies and were better prepared when gentrification shifted environmental conditions. While strategic foresight tools do not grant a specific direction of where gentrification is going, it helps the leader anticipate its possible direction.