This weeks #Urbanist Goodreads are all about gentrification

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This week is all about gentrification. We'll start with a look at the origin of the term and some major milestones in the development behind the idea that underpin how we understand what gentrification is. We will hear an argument that we spend too much time talking about gentrification when urban blight and poverty are still the norm for most American cities. Then an argument that gentrification is necessary and good for cities to face the challenges of the 21st century.

After that we'll take a look at two incredible long-form multimedia projects about two prominent gentrifying neighborhoods; Los Angeles' Highland Park neighborhood and the Mission in San Francisco. And, of course, we'll take a look at Brooklyn. We'll read a personal essay about signs of gentrification from a gentrifier and take a look at Google street view images that show how drastically the built environment of a neighborhood can change .

50 Years of Gentrification: A Timeline - Next City

The term 'gentrification' turned 50 in 2014. Here's a look at where it originated and some major developments in how the process of gentrification came to be understood.

American Cities Have Bigger Things to Worry About than Gentrification - Grist

"Only a very small share of neighborhoods that were impoverished have been pulled out of poverty by gentrification. Take a walk around the former working-class bastions of old industrial cities across the country, from Rochester, N.Y., to Birmingham, Ala., and you'll easily see that the telltale signs of poverty - abandoned and decaying houses, empty lots where houses burned down or were demolished - are far more widespread than wine bars and new condo buildings."

Gentrification and urbanization get a lot of attention, but most urban neighborhoods are poorer than they were in the 1970's. Grist parses a study from think-tank City Observatory to tell us why and suggests some policy solutions to help fight the consequences of concentrated poverty.

Obstacles to Gentle Gentrification - Holy Mountain

"Urban gentrification is particularly urgent in our metropolitan areas that are physically large, like Atlanta, Los Angeles and Phoenix; and those centered on older industrial cities like Cleveland and Detroit. But to some degree it's needed everywhere, even in smaller cities like Cedar Rapids. Just because we're neither as physically large nor as populous as Atlanta doesn't mean we can afford to keep spreading out. The keys to the future of Cedar Rapids lie in our core neighborhoods and our downtown, not with the super-suburb that will supposedly be created by the extension of Highway 100."

Coe Professor Bruce Nesmith argues that gentrification is a good thing, but that it must be done with an eye on minimizing displacement.

York and Fig - Marketplace

"What's going on in Highland Park is illustrative of the kinds of demographic and economic changes happening in cities nationwide.  People tend to have 'this obsessive focus on who is moving in and who is moving out,' says Elvin Wyly, a geographer at the University of British Columbia.  'It becomes a question of who are the gentrifiers? Are they nice people? Do they have good intentions? And that's not what matters.  Gentrifiers can be nice or not nice.  That's less important than the process.'"

Marketplace's Wealth and Poverty Desk takes a long term look at Highland Park in Los Angeles. We hear from long time residents, new residents, old businesses, new businesses and developers about the changes taking shape. A lot of the new residents are middle class people who have been priced out of other Los Angeles neighborhoods. What does it mean to be a gentrifier?

A Changing Mission - San Francisco Chronicle

"The Mission has at times been grazing lands, a frontier settlement, a home to Italian immigrants, a German neighborhood and an Irish one. It has been a place for immigrants to get their start - until now."

San Francisco's oldest neighborhood - it predates the creation of the United States of America - has been a place for new arrivals to this country for much of its modern history. Now it's not a new batch of immigrants pouring in, but tech workers and entrepreneurs, and they're moving in because they like the multicultural nature of the Mission.

A Story of Gentrification in Brooklyn - The New York Times

"Before purchasing a house in Brooklyn, I did not know the term “tree pit.” All I knew was that our house came with a small square plot of dirt out front, with a skinny, scraggly tree, and that it was up to me to maintain or ignore as I saw fit. At first I attended to it. I dug shovelfuls of dirt out of the pit. I weeded and plucked out the city detritus - rubber bands, candy bar wrappers and always more cigarette butts. Then I filled the hole with freshly purchased dirt and planted around the tree six low vinelike plants that the woman at the gardening store had said were good for ground cover. When I was done I admired my handiwork and immediately went inside to sterilize my hands.The ground cover lasted about three weeks. One day I arrived home to find it nearly all torn out. By a person who hated ground cover? By a dog? I would never know."

The ground cover lasted about three weeks. One day I arrived home to find it nearly all torn out. By a person who hated ground cover? By a dog? I would never know."

A tree gentrifies in Brooklyn.

[naviga:h4 class="headline hover-highlight entry-title"]Tracking Brooklyn's Rapid-Fire Gentrification With Google Street View - Gizmodo

"Open any issue of The New York Times, and you're all but guaranteed to hit a passing reference to the mecca of all things gentrified and hip: Brooklyn, New York. But the real testament to the borough's changing face lies not in trend pieces, but in the nearly unrecognizable streets and buildings themselves."

An astonishing look at just how quickly some Brooklyn neighborhoods have seen new development occur.