Race, Entrepreneurship, and Revitalization: How Local Governments Drive Up the Costs of Neighborhood Change

Race, Entrepreneurship, and Revitalization: How Local Governments Drive Up the Costs of Neighborhood Change

Presented by the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society

Gentrification-driven redevelopment has been shown to impact local small businesses by driving rises in rents, evictions, seizures of buildings through eminent domain, and increased competition for commercial space. While these conditions present challenges for many small business owners, they are likely to be particularly detrimental for vulnerable groups. Drawing on 89 in-depth interviews and 22 months of ethnographic observation with business owners in Detroit, Michigan, I examine whether the costs of contemporary redevelopment efforts are experienced the same across Black and white business owners. I find that, in addition to rising rents and an unstable consumer base, business owners in neighborhoods undergoing significant capital investment are often forced to navigate higher and more frequent fees associated with licenses, permits, and inspections. Compared to their white counterparts, Black business owners more often reported pre-existing financial constraints and that the recent rising costs exacerbated these constraints. In neighborhoods not undergoing redevelopment, Black business owners reported more stable rents, but they also described challenges contending with less desirable building conditions and deteriorating infrastructure that often led to additional costs. Moreover, they were more likely to be assessed blight tickets—issued for an array of “violations” related to property maintenance. My results suggest that gentrification-driven redevelopment has far-reaching impacts and has the potential to shape the fates of vulnerable business owners in neighborhoods undergoing reinvestment and those not undergoing reinvestment. Black business owners in both types of neighborhoods contend with additional costs that escalate their sense of precarity.