Well-heeled young professionals have been choosing city life over the backyards and two-car garages of the suburbs for decades, and their demand for space in urban centers has brought not only chic boutiques and coffee shops, but a housing shortage and an astronomical rise in rents. And then there’s the question of who’s displaced: lower income people, immigrants and long-time residents who can no longer afford to stay in their neighborhoods.
In “Newcomers: Gentrification and Its Discontents,” on sale Nov. 8 from University of Chicago Press, journalist Matthew Schuerman explores the modern phenomenon of gentrification, and how the trend has made life better for some residents while pushing out others. Taking as case studies areas like Northwest Brooklyn, San Francisco’s Mission District and a former housing project site in Chicago, Schuerman dives into gentrification’s effects on housing, community resources and neighborhood character.
Matthew Schuerman is a senior editor at WNYC. He has written for the New York Observer, Fortune and Village Voice. “Newcomers” is his first book.