UDP collaborated with the Strong, Prosperous, and Resilient Communities Challenge (SPARCC) to assess local dynamics around gentrification, displacement, and exclusion in Chicago, in close collaboration with local partners. We hope that the resulting map of our neighborhood change typology will empower Chicago communities to better understand their trajectories and stabilize their resident population.
When UDP met with stakeholders in Chicago, they expressed concern about the uneven distribution of risks, resources, (dis)investment, and opportunity along racial lines in communities across the region. Local advocates for equitable development described Chicago’s predominantly Black neighborhoods on the Southside as experiencing systemic disinvestment and suffering the impacts of school closures and gun violence, in contrast with the predominantly white, amenity-rich neighborhoods in the northern part of the city. They also noted the role of “anchor institutions” like universities and hospitals, increasing property taxes, and green investments like the 606 and “El Paseo” rails-to-trails projects in furthering investment-driven displacement in Chicago.
The UDP research team is especially grateful to our research partners at the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies, regional partners at Elevated Chicago, and to all of the Chicago SPARCC affiliate organizations listed below.