A sandwich effect: Gentrification and Black residential displacement in the university-adjacent West Philadelphia Promise Zone

Abstract

This study examines the landscape of gentrification and Black residential displacement within the West Philadelphia Promise Zone (WPPZ). Our intergenerational community-driven participatory action research team conducted a comparative longitudinal spatial analysis between Census data from 2008 to 2012 and 2013 to 2017 investigating variables of both gentrification and displacement including changes in population, racial demographics, per capita income, and housing costs and value. Our findings demonstrate that targeted block groups within the WPPZ are exhibiting indicators of displacement; however, they are not progressing at the same rate. We found that Black residents are impacted by the neighborhood changes at the highest rates and are being displaced from the north and the south, being squeezed to the middle resulting in a racialized pattern of gentrification that we deem a sandwich effect. Recommendations to respond to the displacement of Black residents in the WPPZ and other university-adjacent urban communities are presented.