Home › News ›

Diversity, Gentrification Collide

Posted by: Chris Steins
Thanks to: Governing.com
5 August 2003 - 7:00am

Market forces are verwhelming good intentions in Decatur, where minority residents are being priced out of the rapidly gentrifying city east of Atlanta.

"Keeping the city's diversity was a major goal in a 10-year strategic plan approved in July 2000, to be accomplished with more tax breaks for the elderly, construction of affordable homes and apartments, even marketing campaigns to attract racial and ethnic minorities to town... But city officials' best efforts don't appear to be enough. Residents say trends revealed in the last census -- showing Decatur's population becoming richer, whiter and younger -- are continuing."

Full Story: Decatur's dilemma
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 3, 2003
»
Bookmark and Share
“
The goals of densification, infill, and containment may be generally appropriate for U.S. cities, but not for cities in the developing world where average urban population densities are over four times higher than in the U.S.
”