The editors of Town Planning Review have selected ‘Effects of gentrification and real-estate market escalation on gay neighbourhoods’ by Dr Daniel B. Hess as the Featured Article for Town Planning Review 90.3.

The paper will be free to access for a limited time here.

When asked to describe the paper and highlight its importance, the author stated the following:

This Viewpoint addresses transformations in gay neighbourhoods in recent years. It does so by addressing forces that have made gaybourhoods ‘less gay’ as LGBT+ residents have moved away from gay urban places and have been replaced by other groups. In fact, some people have even argued that gay neighborhoods are on the brink of disappearing altogether, as gay urban places gentrify and attract high-income residents while gay men, lesbian women, artists, and immigrants are pushed out and relocate elsewhere.

What are causes for these changes? This article weighs various explanations, including changes external to gaybourhoods (including changes in desires for segregating into neighbourhoods) and concludes that gentrification and the escalation of real estate markets has played a large role in dispersing LGBT+ residents throughout metropolitan space.

Quotation from Dr. Hess: I am interested in unpacking the reasons for significant changes I have seen in recent years in gay neighbourhoods. It is helpful for scholars to know why sexual minorities choose (or choose not) to co-locate in specific places and how to explain the dynamics of urban change for certain groups.