UC Irvine

While neighborhood upgrading has transformed into a widespread and globalized process, debates about it have long been heated, especially on its definitions and its consequences. Often times, the dialogue about neighborhood upgrading is either gentrified or not gentrified, either displaced or not displaced, and either beneficial or harmful. However, this sort of dichotomic understanding of neighborhood upgrading has neglected the complexity of the process and assumed a universal understanding of the term “gentrification”, while no consensus has been reached so far on a precise definition of it. The main aim of this dissertation is therefore to understand the nuances among different types of neighborhood upgrading and the multi-dimensional impacts of such processes on different stakeholders.

This dissertation research discusses neighborhood changes primarily in three different aspects: the various forms of neighborhood upgrading, impacts of neighborhood upgrading on local residents, and the association between neighborhood upgrading and business dynamics. Each of the three aspect is investigated in a separate study.

This dissertation debunks some of the standard stereotyped understanding of neighborhood upgrading. The results of this dissertation present that some degree of neighborhood upgrading can occur without massive racial changes, and potential “gentrifiers” may not be limited to one particular race/ethnicity. Instead of being solely harmful to businesses, neighborhood upgrading can bring more opportunities to some business sectors. Through exploring the neighborhood change patterns in Los Angeles and other large cities in the US during the 2000s, this dissertation draws a more comprehensive picture for scholars, policy makers and urban planners to better understand the process.