The stubborn myths of rent and gentrification

The law of supply and demand also applies to housing

Gentrification.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Gearstd/iStock, jessicahyde/iStock, Microvone/iStock)

My neighborhood has many murals, the latest of which is painted on the side of a BBQ joint rumored to be slated for demolition and replacement, probably by a four-story, mixed-use building with retail on the bottom and apartments on top. You know the type. Most of the mural is text, and it reads: "Development without displacement."

Given the mood, politics, and history of the area — half a century ago, the flourishing black neighborhood a couple blocks south was gashed down the middle by federal highway construction — I'm certain the mural should be read as a demand and that its location is an act of defiance. New construction here is by default approached through the standard narrative of gentrification: Adding market-rate housing is expected to drive up housing costs throughout the neighborhood, pricing longtime residents out of their homes.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.