Summer 1979, Vol 4, No 1

Abstract: Displacement of blacks and other poor people from the central areas of many American cities is a fact of the 1970s. Stimulated by legislation and economic factors, young whites are returning to the cities as the black middle class move to the suburbs and the black poor are displaced from their inner-city homes. Examples are cited from Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, and San Francisco. The city has become more attractive as increasing transportation costs, expensive suburban housing (of dubious quality), cultural opportunities, and changes in life style bring the white middle class back and the subsequent rising rents, condomania, increasing market values, and real estate taxes drive the poor out.