A Tour of Houston's Rapidly Gentrifying Neighborhoods

As the results of the 2020 Census begin to tell stories about the current state of U.S. cities, Monique Welch walks us through some of the Houston neighborhoods seeing the most dramatic demographic changes. "Recent Census data released earlier this month reveals how drastically the demographics of some of these neighborhoods have changed between 2010 and 2020."

Among these neighborhoods is Third Ward, the center of Houston's Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. There, "the Black population has dropped from 71 percent in 2010 to 45 percent today." This is in large part attributed to the "arrival of Highway 288, which razed many Black-owned homes."

Fifth Ward, the home of Houston's blues and jazz scene, has seen the loss of historic Black clubs and music venues as property values rise and new residents and businesses move in. Acres Homes, in a semi-rural area of North Houston, has seen an increase in Latino residents. Second Ward, meanwhile, saw its Latino population drop by around 25 percent between 2010 and 2020.

The article also mentions Clayton Homes, a Houston Housing Authority project that faces the threat of demolition "if current plans for the redevelopment of Interstate 45 proceed as planned." Other residents and businesses, such as Armando Lichtenberger, Jr. and his Grammy-winning band La Mafia, will also have their property seized and face displacement if the I-45 plans go through.