There Goes the ’Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up.

The ghetto, the inner city, the 'hood — these terms have been applied as monikers for black neighborhoods and conjure up images of places that are off-limits to outsiders, places to be avoided after sundown, and paragons of pathology. Portrayed as isolated pockets of deviance and despair, these neighborhoods have captured the imagination of journalists and social scientists who have chronicled the challenges and risks of living in such neighborhoods. 
But what happens when commerce, the middle class — globalization, if you will — comes to these forlorn neighborhoods? When whites who were a rare sighting are suddenly neighbors? We are accustomed to focusing on the social pathologies, government neglect, and the causes of the inner city's inexorable decline. We thus know how people feel about the crime, the lack of opportunity, and feelings of being left behind or looked over. But we know less about how people feel when the fortunes of their neighborhoods brighten. How do people feel when gentrification comes to the 'hood?

Source: Freeman, L. (2006). There Goes the ’Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up . Philadelphia: Temple University Press