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28 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 195 (1985)
Gentrification, Abandonment, and Displacement: Connections, Causes, and Policy Responses in New York City

handle is hein.journals/waucl28 and id is 203 raw text is: GENTRIFICATION, ABANDONMENT,
AND DISPLACEMENT: CONNECTIONS,
CAUSES, AND POLICY RESPONSES
IN NEW YORK CITY
PETER MARCUSE *
I. OVERVIEW
Abandonment and gentrification are polar opposites. Abandonment
results from demand declining to zero, gentrification from high and
increasing demand. Abandonment arises from a precipitous decline in
property values, gentrification from a rapid increase. -Yet, in New
York City and elsewhere the two processes are occurring simultane-
ously. How can gentrification and abandonment take place at the same
time, virtually side by side? This Article answers this question, and
focuses on the relationship of each process to the problem of
displacement.
The policy relevance of the question is clear. Existing policy is pre-
mised on three assumptions.1 First, abandonment is painful, but inevi-
table. Public policy cannot reverse it; at best it can confine
* Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University. B.S., Harvard, 1948; J.D.,
Yale Law School, 1952; M.A., Columbia University, 1963; M.U.S., Yale, 1968; Ph.D.,
University of California at Berkeley, 1972. Support for research used in the preparation
of this paper by the Community Service Society of New York is gratefully
acknowledged. It is, of course, in no way responsible for the opinions or conclusions
presented here.
1. HousE COMM. ON BUDGET, FINANCE, AND URBAN AFFAIRS, SUBCOMM. ON
THE CITY, 95TH CONG., lsT SEsS., How CITIES CAN GROW OLD GRACEFULLY
(Comm. Print 1977).

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