What Happens to Community Bonds When a Neighborhood Gentrifies

A lot has changed over the last decade in Philadelphia’s Graduate Hospital neighborhood. Named after a long-closed medical facility, this residential area of modest brick rowhomes south of affluent Rittenhouse Square has been experiencing dramatic gentrification. Industrial landmarks like the Frankford Chocolate Factory and Marine Corps Depot are being demolished or converted into housing for newcomers. The working-class black population has shrunk and affordable housing units have disappeared; home prices are now $500,000. Last year, residents—old and new—grappled with the neighborhood’s new identity, hoping to rename the area after the African American icons who once lived there.

When a neighborhood gentrifies, existing residents may see positive effects—more affluent neighbors tend to bring safer streets and improved schools. But not everything changes for the better. Third-generation Graduate Hospital resident Rob Watson told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Inga Saffron that he lamented the lack of black friends his daughter had in school. “To him, the conversation about renaming the neighborhood feels like a useless exercise because it can’t restore the web of relationships he once enjoyed,” Saffron wrote.