Roxbury in Boston, Harlem in New York, Bronzeville in Chicago. All of them famously “black” neighborhoods that had fallen on hard times for decades but are undergoing renaissances now with houses being renovated and new stores opening up.

But then there’s the newer, richer and sometimes white residents: do they belong? Is it a good thing to change a neighborhood’s character as long as property values go up and streets get cleaned?

I was on NPR on Monday talking about gentrification. It’s another fallout from the housing boom: prices jumped so high that in many places that had been mostly black for what seems like forever, many black folk can no longer afford to be there. In Harlem, a black real estate agent is being blamed for handing the hood over to whites on a platters; in eight metro areas around the country, more whites are moving back into cities than moving out. 

Are there examples of gentrification where you live and do you agree or disagree with the idea that neighborhoods should be ‘preserved’ for blacks, whites or whoever was there first?