Roxbury

In a new study, Boston was ranked the third-most gentrified city in the U.S.

The study shows that 21.3 percent of Boston's neighborhoods were gentrified between 2013-2017.

July 9, 2020

1 minute to read

Boston has been ranked the third-most gentrified city in the nation, according to a study published last month by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

The NRC identified 954 neighborhoods around the country with “indications of gentrification,” and found that most of these neighborhoods came from only 20 cities. San Francisco was ranked the most intensely gentrified city, followed by Denver, Boston, Miami and New Orleans.

The study shows that 21.3 percent of Boston’s neighborhoods were gentrified between 2013-2017.

In an interactive map of the Boston metro area, Roxbury has multiple “opportunity zones”, which are areas in the “most dire need of investments.” They typically have greater economic inequality, more Black residents, and lower median household income, home values, and college educational levels. Roxbury’s opportunity zones are specifically near Roxbury Crossing and Ruggles.

In a 2019 study, the NRC reported that “Roxbury is particularly vulnerable to gentrification since some 81 percent of its residents are renters rather than homeowners.”

A screenshot of the interactive map, which zones where the neighborhoods that have been gentrified, and where opportunity zones remain in Boston.

Other opportunity zones can be found in Jamaica Plain and South Boston. Meanwhile, a majority of the city’s neighborhoods have already been gentrified, which will likely affect cultural displacement.

Neighborhoods in the South End, Jamaica Plain, and Dorchester have seen the largest declines in people of color, which the NRC states is most likely a result of an “influx of young white professionals that parallels the gentrification and displacement of communities of color.”

The entire report can be found here.