Baltimore has endless rows of empty buildings. Over 30,000 last I remember. But except for the homeless, housing is not a problem in Baltimore; houses sell for

Baltimore has endless rows of empty buildings. Over 30,000 last I remember. But except for the homeless, housing is not a problem in Baltimore; houses sell for as low as $10K, $20K, $30K. Nobody is buying them (or at least at a very slow trickle). Yet we still have various activist groups talking about the problem of gentrification. One interesting thing to note is how racially divided the city is. There are five or six majority white neighborhoods in the city, surrounded by majority black and latino neighborhoods. Those majority white neighborhoods expand a little bit every year - sometimes just becoming more dense, but sometimes the boundaries expand. When that happens it creates a sort of new market - new stores with higher prices, homes converted to apartments with higher than average rent. At the same time, it also pushes out traditional "black culture" businesses - babershops and hair/nail salons, liquor stores, takeout food, dingy bars. These businesses are the social gathering places for black people in the city, and when they disappear, so does the presence of black people in daily life. There are other issues that come up too, like strained tensions over an increase in (arguably hostile) police activity around majority-white populations. Even as new businesses come into the neighborhood, you don't see an increase in jobs for people who already lived there. It's easy to see how the people moving in are not there to help the impoverished existing residents. And it is true that rents do gradually increase. But at the same time, crime does reduce, and more money is invested in the local community. I haven't seen anyone pushed out of their home due to rising rents around Baltimore, mainly because we have so many god damn empty homes. But could it happen in a crowded neighborhood? If they are renting, abso-fucking-lutely; rents have been raising in neighborhoods around here for years, with one landlord turning the building over to another and raising the price. The question isn't whether this happens, but what happens to the people once they have to move out. Where do they go? Do they have to start at a new school, find a new job? Are they now far away from their families, some of whom they might be supporting, like the elderly or people who need stay at home child care? And can they even afford to move, if their home was multi-generational and they don't have the funds to buy a new one? These are the questions the article doesn't address.