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Businesses Are Victims of Gentrification, Too

View of the architectural heritage of Harlem. Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658 it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873 on March 28, 2012 in New York City, NY, USA. Patrimoine architectural de Harlem. Harlem est un quartier du borough de Manhattan, dans la ville de New York,qui, depuis les annees 1920 a été un grand centre residentiel, culturel et d'affaires Afro-Americain.28 Mars 2012, New York, Etats-Unis. Photo by Marie Psaila/ABACAUSA.COMNo Use WORLD RIGHTS.
Editor's note:

This article originally appeared on Bloomberg CityLab

Before the pandemic, small businesses in gentrifying neighborhoods in U.S. cities like Oakland, Miami and Washington, D.C., faced many of the same pressures as residents. Black and Latinx businesses were at particularly high risk of displacement and closure, as their traditional clientele were pushed out of the neighborhood, and residents with different tastes and preferences moved in, along with large chain stores with which small businesses had to compete.

Then Covid-19 hit. And despite speculation to the contrary, the pandemic did not stop gentrification. While the housing market stalled in the early months of the pandemic, by summer 2020, it returned with a vengeance in many already-gentrifying neighborhoods. In fact, the pandemic could be priming some cities for a new and harsher wave than they saw pre-Covid, as federal and local moratoriums on residential and commercial evictions end. And while residential gentrification has been a frequent topic of dinner table, community and policy conversations, commercial gentrification — the force that leads to the displacement of small businesses — has not.

Read the full article here: Small Businesses Are Victims of Gentrification, Too – Bloomberg

 

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