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Gentrification is affecting many Black communities across the United States. Atlanta is one of those cites that has been affected by the plague of developers buying property and rising cost.

Ahmad Cheers told The Guardian, he knew the neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Atlanta was changing when he noticed a group of bikers, mostly white riding through the area at night.

“It just really surprised me,” said Cheers, 28. “When I came to Atlanta in 2008, to be honest you couldn’t really pay white people to come over here.”

The predominately Black neighborhood in the working-class southern section of Atlanta. Now the area, which as many urban cities were devastated by the 2008 mortgage crisis when they saw vacancy rates up to 50%, now experiencing an economic turnaround. There are advertisements “We buy houses” hang on almost every utility pole and tree, posted by home flippers looking to make a quick buck as prices swell.

Sohna Harzeez a Pittsburgh resident told the news outlet, she remembers a home down the street from where she lives was sold recently and painted the relisted for $100,000 more than before.

With Pittsburgh cheap prices from homes and attractive location, the demographics of people its attracting are younger, wealthier and usually white. Thus, causing concerns that longtime residents will be pushed out of the neighborhood by higher rents, property taxes and a potential cultural shift in the community.

“It’s scary to see who is going to be priced out of places that they’ve grown up in, and the places that they’ve lived and remained in for so long,” said Cheers.

The definition of gentrification according to Merriam-Webster, “the process of repairing and rebuilding homes and businesses in a deteriorating area (such as an urban neighborhood) accompanied by an influx of middle-class or affluent people and that often results in the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.”

The dictionary definition of gentrification does differ from the one in the urban dictionary that states, “when “urban renewal” of lower class neighborhoods with condos attracts yuppie tenants, driving up rents and driving out long time, lower income residents. It often begins with influxes of local artists looking for a cheap place to live, giving the neighborhood a bohemian flair. This hip reputation attracts yuppies who want to live in such an atmosphere, driving out the lower income artists and lower income residents, often ethnic/racial minorities, changing the social character of the neighborhood.”

This epidemic is affecting cities around the world, but housing advocates believe there’s something unsettling about racial dynamics in Atlanta, a city affectionately known as “Black mecca.”

Atlanta is fifth among U.S. cities experiencing the most gentrification with more than 46 % of its census tracts currently gentrifying according to an analysis by Governing magazine. According to the city, median rents are up 28% since 2000, compared with just 9% nationwide over the same time-span. A 2018 report by Hotpads discovered rent in Atlanta was rising three times faster than the national median. Ranking third nationwide for evictions with over 400 cases being processed a month.

The proportion of white people in Atlanta’s population grew faster between 2000 and 2006 than in any other U.S. city according to the Brookings Institution demographer William Frey. Although there has been a steady flow of Black people moving to Atlanta they’ve mostly settled in suburbs to the north of the city. Therefore, leaving the city center disproportionately attracting white Americans.

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