Gentrification Hits Prospect Park South, New Data Show

PROSPECT PARK SOUTH, BROOKLYN -- Gentrification has hit Prospect Park South, where housing prices have spiked, incomes stagnated and a community of black people have been displaced, new data show.

A new interactive map shows areas near Prospect Park's southern have seen significant gentrification while a swath of East Flatbush is primed for the economic shift to occur, according to National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit.

The study, using U.S. Census Bureau tract data to identify more than 1,000 gentrified neighborhoods across the country, found one region with significant displacement, five regions where housing prices have nearly doubled, and two where incomes stagnated or even dropped.

Census Tract 508.04, directly east of the Parade Ground, saw the number of black residents plummet from 4,809 in 2000 to 3,433 in 2010, data show. During the same time span, median home values spiked from $208, 896 to $374,600.

Census Tract 794 — bordered by Flatbush, Church, Rogers and Tilden avenues — was marked as "eligible for gentrification" as incomes dropped from $43,539 to $36,760, even though the number of people with bachelor's degrees jumped by about 10 percent.

A slim corner of Ditmas Park, west of Flatbush Avenue and south of Cortelyou Road, saw housing prices nearly triple to $632,100 in 2010 as annual salaries increased by less than $1,000, data show. In the same time period, the number of black residents dropped from about 3,300 to about 2,900.

Researchers noted just seven cities accounted for nearly half of the country’s gentrification overall, with about 135,000 people forced to leave their communities in 230 regions nationwide. They were New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Diego and Chicago, said Jason Richardson, the organization’s director of research and one of the study’s authors.

“The big investments that fuel gentrification and cultural displacement didn’t reach most of the nation’s poorest neighborhoods and rural areas,” Richardson said.

Here are the 10 cities where gentrification has been most intense:

1. Washington, D.C — 40 percent
2. San Diego, CA — 29 percent
3. New York, NY — 24 percent
4. Albuquerque, NM — 23 percent
5. Atlanta, GA — 22 percent
6. Baltimore, MD — 22 percent
7. Portland, OR — 20 percent
8. Pittsburgh, PA — 20 percent
9. Seattle, WA — 20 percent
10. Philadelphia, PA — 17 percent

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.