A decade ago, if someone were to walk down Main Street in Chattanooga’s Southside neighborhood, they wouldn’t see what they see today – a bustling commercial district with businesses, apartments and townhomes aligning either side of the street.
Ten years ago, Main Street would be described as what many developers and city planners call “blight.” In that so-called blight, however, people lived there, predominantly Black residents and low-income families.
But they don’t live there anymore. U.S. Census data show that in 2012, the ZIP code for Southside was 59% Black. The median household income was $19,375 a year.
By 2022, the makeup of the neighborhood was flipped on its head. By then, the neighborhood was 60% white. The annual income for the typical family was more than $70,000.
It’s a prime example of another term academics and activists alike use: gentrification, a phenomenon in recent decades where a wealthier – almost always white – class of people move into historically Black neighborhoods, areas that white city leaders have ignored and failed to invest in.