Urban Renewal and Planned Cities

The sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term "gentrification" in 1964, describing how working-class neighborhoods of London, such as Islington, were being taken over by middle-class newcomers who renovated older housing and, in the process, displaced the original residents through rising rents and property values. The pattern she described has since become a defining feature of urban change in cities worldwide, from Williamsburg in Brooklyn to Notting Hill in London, as disinvested inner-city neighborhoods attract new capital, retail, and residents, often altering a neighborhood's character within a decade or two while pushing out longtime lower-income households.