URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL ISSUES

The overall goal of this paper is to place the gentrification and reinvestment process in the context of broader metropolitan growth and change. In the first section, the gentrification and reinvestment processes are examined within the broader contexts of several general models of urban morphology. In general, these processes are viewed as normal responses of a residential area to changing economic and ecological forces in the city. In the second section, weaknesses in the literature on revitalization are identified and a research design to overcome these weaknesses is suggested. This research, if pursued, would overcome the myopia of previous research by placing revitalization in the context of overall change in the internal structure of the city.