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Gentrification

Trump Terror, Complicit Local Leadership: The Assault Against Southeast D.C.

April 10, 2025 Oliver Robinson, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
On March 27, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the “Safe and Beautiful” federal task force for Washington, DC. Framed as a public safety and beautification campaign, the initiative is led by his Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen Miller—a figure known for his hardline white nationalist policies. Under the guise of civic improvement, this task force seeks to further entrench surveillance, policing, and state control over DC’s most marginalized communities, particularly Black working-class residents in the Southeast neighborhood.

A People’s History Of San Francisco’s Most Notorious Neighborhood

April 1, 2025 Steve Early, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Few San Francisco neighborhoods have had more ups and downs than the 33-block area still called “The Tenderloin”—a name which derives from the late 19th century police practice of shaking down local restaurants and butcher shops by taking their best cuts of beef in lieu of cash bribes. At various periods in its storied past, the Tenderloin has been home to famous brothels, Prohibition-era speakeasies, San Francisco’s first gay bars, well-known hotels and jazz clubs, film companies and recording studies, and professional boxing gyms. 

Entrepreneur’s Eviction Leads To Community Model For The World

March 5, 2025 Ilana Preuss, Next City. , , , , ,
Kiyomi Rollins can smell the coffee even before she walks through the door at The Ke’nekt Cooperative in Atlanta’s Westview neighborhood. Sunshine fills the space with energy; every seat is full. She smiles at the neighborhood aunties sitting next to the entrepreneurs from Atlanta University Center and the community resident teaching a small group about social media content creation for neighborhood startups. She watches as a middle-schooler from down the street fundraises for his school trip and each person around the table helps out however they can.

To Save Chinatown, Philly Struggle Beats Back The Billionaires

January 14, 2025 Betsey Piette, Workers World. , , , , ,
Philadelphia - The Save Chinatown Coalition, representing over 245 organizations, and the overwhelming 70% of Philadelphians polled in 2024 who opposed plans by the 76ers basketball team to build an arena in Center City, has cause to celebrate. The Philadelphia Inquirer leaked the news Jan. 12 that an agreement was reached for the team to remain in the stadium district in South Philadelphia. According to posts on X, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Comcast Spectacor President Brian Roberts talked the Sixers into staying in the current location. After a two-year struggle to stop it their planned 76 Place in Chinatown is off the table.

Philadelphia Arena: ‘$50 Million, $100 Million, The Whole Thing Is A Sellout!’

December 18, 2024 Joe Piette, Workers World. , , , ,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - For over two years, a growing movement has fought to stop the proposed construction of 76 Place, a basketball arena in Philadelphia that would threaten the existence of Chinatown, the last community of color in Center City. It’s the people against the billionaires. A poll of city residents revealed 70% disapproval of the arena at that location. The struggle is also against the billionaires’ government. There’s the federal government, where billionaires get what they want no matter which party is in office.

Despite Fierce Opposition, City Council Introduces Billionaires’ Arena Bill

November 2, 2024 Joe Piette, Workers' World. , , ,
Which side are you on? That’s the question being asked of 17 Philadelphia City Council members over the next few weeks. On one side are several billionaires proposing a $1.55 billion 76ers basketball arena next to the Chinatown community in Center City.

East Los Angeles Community Victory! Extera Charter Project Stopped!

November 1, 2024 Carlos Montes, Fight Back! News!. , , , ,
Los Angeles, CA – On October 29, East Los Angeles (ELA) residents, led by the community group Centro CSO, scored a major win against a proposed charter school in their neighborhood. Centro CSO members and residents spoke at a meeting of the LA County Board of Supervisors to oppose Extera Charter School’s plan to build a new facility on Gage and Eastman Avenues. Angelina Chavez, a community member voiced her concerns, stating, “This project will bring constant traffic, noise, and pollution to our quiet street.” At the meeting, Extera representatives brought over 60 parents, mostly mothers in Extera T-shirts, to voice support.

West Harlem Pushes Back Against Columbia’s Latest Campus Expansion

October 20, 2024 Eric Santomauro-Stenzel, The Indypendent. , , , ,
Columbia University, New York City’s largest landlord, is facing increased community resistance to its ongoing Manhattanville campus expansion, located between W. 125th and 134th Streets. Since Columbia won a lengthy legal battle in 2010, the campus has grown to include residential, artistic, science, business and gathering spaces. While most of the Manhattanville campus has already been constructed, Columbia plans to further develop over the next two decades. One of the university’s most recent acquisitions, 2.5 acres of land along the Hudson River, is yet to be redeveloped, and community members want to see it serve them.

In The Shadow Of The Obama Center, Residents Fight Displacement

October 11, 2024 Fran Quigley, In These Times. , , , ,
When Barack Obama met with Chicago residents about his proposed presidential center in 2018, the former president downplayed the threat that gentrification might pose to their communities. “We’ve got such a long way to go in terms of economic development before you’re even going to start seeing the prospect of significant gentrification,” Obama said at a community forum where one attendee asked about the possibility of existing residents being pushed out. ​“Malia’s kids might have to worry about that.” But now, six years later, residents of Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood are fighting fears of displacement amidst looming real-estate speculation in the area surrounding the $830 million project, set to open in nearby Jackson Park in 2026.

Philadelphia: Billionaires’ Mayor Okays Arena

September 25, 2024 Betsey Piette, Workers World. , , , ,
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker came out strongly in support of billionaire developers on Sept. 18 when she announced that she will present a legislative package to the City Council for approval of a controversial plan by the 76ers basketball team to build an arena in Center City. The pre-recorded announcement, released to select media in a closed-door session, was strongly denounced by protesters with the Save Chinatown Coalition who were gathered outside City Hall. For over two years, thousands of demonstrators have protested the arena they say will do irreparable harm to the city’s historic 150-plus year-old Chinatown.

The People Versus The Billionaires

September 11, 2024 Betsey Piette, Workers' World. , , , , , ,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Several thousand people turned out for the Save Chinatown Coalition rally on Sept. 7 to protest the Philadelphia 76ers’ proposal to build a new $1.55 billion arena near Chinatown called “76 Place.” While the National Basketball Association team’s billionaire owners repeatedly say a new arena at 10th and Market streets would provide “economic opportunity for surrounding areas,” community residents, who have been fighting this proposal for over two years, argue that it would be an “existential threat” to this historic Philadelphia neighborhood. The impact studies commissioned by the city, released in late August, support the residents’ arguments.

Seattle Is Walking Back Its Promises On Community-Led Anti-Displacement

July 23, 2024 Quynh Pham, Ryan Curren and Ben Palmquist, Next City. , , , ,
When it launched a first-in-the-nation anti-displacement fund in 2016, Seattle established itself as a leader in racial equity. But a new attack on the City’s Equitable Development Initiative (EDI), part of a national backlash against government efforts to address systemic racism and inequality, threatens that progress. The EDI finances the construction of community cultural and commercial space developed by community-of-color organizations in Seattle, often co-located with affordable housing. As of March of this year, the fund had provided over $100 million in grants for 56 different community-led projects that are helping create an inclusive, multiracial city.

‘Keep Public Housing Public’: Texas Dispute Reflects National Tensions

July 10, 2024 Jared Brey, Governing. , , , ,
Even with low-cost housing harder than ever to find in most American cities, the stock of public housing is shrinking. The number of families living in public housing shrank 6.5 percent during a recent five-year period, according to the Urban Institute — not a huge decline, but a decline nonetheless. Several federal initiatives to redevelop public-housing towers with lower-density, mixed-income projects have helped improve the image of public housing from its nadir in the mid-to-late 20th century. But they have also changed the mission of public housing authorities. Once focused solely on building and maintaining public units for poor people, housing authorities now engage in a wide variety of housing-related activities, sometimes partnering with private developers to build apartments for people who make barely less than the median income.

In Chinatown, A Community Envisions Alternatives To Sixers Arena

February 6, 2024 Oscar Perry Abello, Next City. , , , ,
Joy. While it’s been a contentious 18 months of protests, marching, and debating about a proposed new basketball arena in Philadelphia’s Center City, for at least one Saturday morning, an urban planning and design discussion about the proposed arena location brought some joy to the conversation. At the Center for Architecture in Philly, just a few blocks from the site of the proposed arena, about a hundred people gathered on Jan. 27 to brainstorm alternative uses for the site. The public workshop was organized by the Save Chinatown Coalition, an alliance of 245 organizations from Chinatown and around the city who oppose the new arena because they fear its proximity to Chinatown will disrupt and displace the community.

Inside The Fight To Save Philly’s Chinatown From A New Arena

January 17, 2024 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Since the summer of 2022, the city of Philadelphia has seen a fierce battle over the home of their professional basketball team, the 76ers. Currently located at Wells Fargo Center on Philly’s south side, economic power players have been shopping around a proposal for a new 18,000 seat arena called 76 Place, which would move NBA games to the city’s bustling downtown core (known as Center City). With a billion-dollar price tag, 76 Place represents a partnership between team owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer and real estate mogul David Adelman, who have argued that the arena would create new jobs, raise tax revenue and revitalize a part of downtown that many see as full of untapped potential.
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