Berkeley Planning Journal

One of the challenges in reviewing the work of a prominent author in any field is the tendency to review the author and not the book. This is especially true in the case of Lance Freeman's new book, There Goes the 'Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up, for Freeman holds a very important place in the recent debates about gentrification within the academy. On his own and together with Frank Braconi, Freeman was the author of two important studies in 2004 and 2005 which used quantitative statistical research to demonstrate the authors' claim that there is a tenuous relationship between gentrification and displacement (Freeman and Braconi 2004; Freeman 2005). This research, which garnered national attention (including front page coverage in USA Today), was celebrated by the right and excoriated by the left, and helped thrust Freeman into the spotlight.