Gentrification, Racial Demographics, and Indicators of Community Conditions in Allegheny County.

Gentrification is a process of neighborhood change characterized by capital investment in historically disinvested neighborhoods and an influx of residents of higher socioeconomic status. While gentrification generates neighborhood improvements that benefit newcomers, it has been recognized as a public health issue characterized by inequities in housing, economic, and health opportunities for long-term residents, specifically low-income and Black populations, who are at high risk of physical and social displacement. Thus, this cross-sectional ecological study based in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, sought to (1) identify the relationships between gentrification status and three neighborhood-level indices representing housing conditions, socioeconomic conditions, and environmental conditions and (2) determine whether the rate of the Black population change from 2010 to 2020 modified these relationships. We used separate logistic regression models for three neighborhood-level indices to quantify the relationship between each index and gentrifying census tracts compared with census tracts that were eligible for gentrification but did not gentrify. Gentrifying census tracts were statistically associated with stronger housing markets (i.e., higher housing value) (OR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.57-0.77), lower levels of community need (OR = 0.42; 95% CI: 0.27-0.65), and lower levels of environmental burden (OR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.47-0.81) than nongentrifying census tracts were. Because higher index values indicate worse outcomes, these results suggest that gentrifying tracts had relatively better housing market conditions, lower community need, and reduced environmental burden compared to nongentrifying tracts. The rate of Black population change had a marginal interaction effect with each of the indices.