[sigtau305]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

This new white flight from the suburbs is really just what was always called gentrification.

"White flight" (and "capital flight") has always referred to whites leaving the city and "fleeing" to the suburbs to get away from a number of social problems. This includes getting away from racially heterogenous neighborhoods in search of racially homogenous (all white with a "tipping piont" for nonwhites) neighborhoods. Euro-immigrants would move to the city core and live in ghettos (which are racially/ethnically homogenous neighoborhoods) until they were able to get enough social and cultural capital to move from the city, leaving behind minorities.

So, if people don't understand the issue with gentrification, they may want to read about the history of city planning (which includes the city core and the suburbs) and all of the social problems that are correlated.

My Urban Geography Professor had a discussion about this. Gentrification is a regularly most talked about topic at Cleveland State's College of Urban Affairs where i'm taking my classes at.