Gentrification, Integration or Displacement?

Seattle U's own Henry W. McGee offers his perspective on changes in the Central District: read it here. The article is from a few years ago, but McGee's take offers valuable history and some snazzy statistics.

In 1990, there were three times as many African Americans than whites in the CD. By 2000, whites outnumbered African Americans. McGee also observes that households making more than $50,000 dramatically increased during this time.

He cites this data to argue that while the color of the CD is changing, the shifts are more about class than race. Increasingly, urban areas such as the CD are becoming home to the very well-off and the very poor. We are in the midst of a middle class decline.

Yet, race is still intimately involved in real estate. Despite the anti-discrimination housing legislation that Washington State passed in 1977, African Americans are still 2.56 times more likely to to be denied a mortgage than their white peers in Seattle. They are also more likely to pay higher rates for loans.

Which begs the question: are African Americans getting "priced out" of the CD because of discriminatory practices? Or is that many simply can't afford to live in the neighborhood and have chosen to live elsewhere?

-Kirsten