Gallery: Where Did All the Black Folks Go?!: Top Gentrified Cities #BlackOut

Gentrification, evil in all its ways, has been pushing people of color out of their own neighborhoods for a good minute now, all under the trope of redevelopment and improvements to hoods that don’t quite aesthetically fit the bill anymore. The ironic part, is that these “changes” only seem to benefit white, young families, moving back into the city who want to be closer to jobs. You know that long commute to the suburbs can be exhausting...they've decided. 

You may have seen the signs while riding through the city. You know, the yuppies with strollers walking along sidewalks that frame new organic juice and smoothie bars, boutiques, and coffee shops that the residents who’ve been here the longest can’t even afford to shop at.

With infrastructure changes and jobs that are attracting skilled-workers to historically Black, Latino, and immigrant communities, comes the catapulting of property taxes and home prices, leaving existing communities completely out of the equation.

This #BlackOut is void of any plan to help displaced communities from their homes. But, what’s new? White Flight brought people of color to the inner-cities in large numbers, but now we’re being forced out under this air of improvement and urban renewal, which sounds horrifically familiar.

 Where did all the Black people go? Here are some cities who have been getting the worst of gentrification’s intrusion.