Urban redevelopment without displacement : investigating the gentrification of the Fountain Square neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana

Abstract

Urban redevelopment, revitalization, renewal and gentrification are all terms used to define reinvestment and middle class invasion into once abandoned, and disinvested communities. While many of these terms mostly highlight the positive transformation that is brought by this reinvestment and reinvasion, the term gentrification also highlights the accompanying negative changes that are brought onto some of these communities’ low-income residents. Gentrification is defined as the economic transformation of low-income disinvested communities into middle and high-income communities resulting in the displacement of low-income residents (Lees, Slater, and Wyly, 2010). After more than three decades of disinvestment, the Indianapolis neighborhood of Fountain Square is currently experiencing a sudden flow of reinvestment and redevelopment, placing many of its low-income residents at risk for displacement. Can lowincome disinvested communities, such as Fountain Square, experience redevelopment that does not result in the displacement of low-income residents? If yes, how? This paper investigates the possibility and means to redevelop disinvested communities, such as the Fountain Square neighborhood, without causing displacement of low-income residents.