often undertaken by a hybrid of municipal entities
and private companies, sometimes accompanied by
grassroots community groups, such as block clubs.
Controversies It is important to note that at the
same time that gentrification projects were under-
taken across the United States, President Ronald
Reagan decreased federal housing assistance by more
than 75 percent from 1982 to 1988. This further ex-
acerbated social shifts and the need to address these
shifts. Reagan encouraged a system of reliance on
private interests for everything from housing and
community development to education.
Gentrification projects have come under much
criticism and created controversy. Conflicts that sur-
faced beginning in the 1980’s tend to center on class
and often on race and ethnicity. A large concern is its
potential displacement of vulnerable populations—
much like the urban renewal efforts of the preceding
decades. Often, nonwhite neighborhoods changed
demographically as a result of gentrification.
Some studies argued that gentrification encour-
aged crime, as increasingly wealthy neighborhoods
were ringed by poverty-stricken neighborhoods.
Rental properties, as a pattern, tend to rise in value,
and thus price, often dramatically. Traditional rent-
ers are therefore put under pressure. Low-income
individuals and families are pushed out of their
homes as they increasingly find that they cannot af-
ford them.
Impact Gentrification efforts in the 1980’s were a
response to various social concerns and economic
realities. Gentrified neighborhoods often reflected
changing lifestyles and larger social changes, such as
a shift away from the nuclear family, higher numbers
of single adults living together, single adults living
on their own, same-sex couples, and women enter-
ing the workforce.
Further Reading
Brenner, Neil, and Nikolas Theodore.Spaces of
Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America
and Western Europe. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002.
Analyzes the role of “neoliberalism” (a term also
used interchangeably with “globalization”) in con-
temporary processes of urban restructuring plans.
Keating, W. Dennis, and Norman Krumholz, eds.Re-
building Urban Neighborhoods: Achievements, Oppor-
tunities, and Limits.Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage
Publications, 1999. Examines the efforts and
achievements of community organizations and
individuals in rebuilding many of America’s poor-
est and most crime-ridden urban neighborhoods.
Kolson, Kenneth L.Big Plans: The Allure and Folly of
Urban Design.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press, 2001. A critique of many urban restruc-
turing plans, citing examples of communities that
lose sight of their inhabitants in such plans.
Miller, Zane L., and Edward Bruce Tucker.Changing
Plans for America’s Inner Cities: Cincinnati’s Over-the-
Rhine and Twentieth-Centur y Urbanism.Columbus:
Ohio State University Press, 1998. A historiogra-
phy of Cincinnati’s inner-city neighborhood. Dis-
cusses the various schemes that it has undergone:
comprehensive planning, zoning, slum clearance,
redevelopment, and neighborhood conservation
and rehabilitation.
Taylor, Monique M. “Gentrification in Harlem: Com-
munity, Culture, and the Urban Redevelopment
of the Black Ghetto.” InRace and Ethnic Politics.
Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1994. Examines the
politics of gentrification efforts in Harlem and the
perceptions of the redevelopers as outsiders.
Von Hoffman, Alexander.House by House, Block
by Block: The Rebirth of America’s Urban Neighbor-
hoods.New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Through interviews, an examination of how
neighborhood groups and local organizations re-
vitalize neighborhoods in five cities: New York,
Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.
Alison StankrauffSee also African Americans; Architecture; Busi-
ness and the economy in Canada; Business and the
economy in the United States; Crime; Demograph-
ics of Canada; Demographics of the United States;
Racial discrimination; Reaganomics; Yuppies.Gere, Richard
Identification American actor
Born August 31, 1949; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In the 1980’s, Gere became a rare combination of respected
actor, humanitarian activist, and sex symbol.
Richard Gere was the second of five children born to
Homer Gere, an insurance salesman, and Doris Tif-
fany Gere, a homemaker. He graduated in 1967
from North Syracuse Central High School, where he410 Gere, Richard The Eighties in America