Project Director Willow Lung-Amam in CityLab: “Businesses Are Victims of Gentrification, Too”
SBAN Project Director Dr. Willow Lung-Amam published an article in Bloomberg CityLab about how the Covid-19 crisis has compounded problems for small businesses in gentrifying neighborhoods, particularly businesses owned by immigrants and people of color.
“Despite speculation to the contrary, the pandemic did not stop gentrification,” she writes. “In fact, the pandemic could be priming some cities for a new and harsher wave than they saw pre-Covid, as federal and local moratoriums on residential and commercial evictions end. And while residential gentrification has been a frequent topic of dinner table, community and policy conversations, commercial gentrification — the force that leads to the displacement of small businesses — has not.”
“Small businesses are not widely viewed as critical to a community’s life and livelihood in ways that justify public policy interventions,” Lung-Amam writes.
