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Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion
That's definitely what we're seeing in the denser parts of south city, although certain neighborhoods are also gaining population while gentrifying because empty lots were filled with apartment buildings and infill SFH.
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There are always various, and at times competing, forces at play with neighborhood change, and the different stages of it
In mostly intact lower middle/working class neighborhoods with higher percentages of first/second gen immigrant families (almost always with higher household sizes), the first wave of gentrification usually leads to a population loss (exactly what we saw in Avondale during the past decade, -3,000 people / -7.6%).
But my neighborhood of Lincoln Square, just a couple of miles up the street from Avondale, is in later stage gentrification and a lot of those household size decrease issues have mostly sorted themselves out by now, and while 2-flat deconversions are still rampant here, property values have increased to the point where so many of the empty and underused lots along the main streets have been, and continue to be, redeveloped into 10 - 50 unit midrises, which allowed my neighborhood to offset all of those deconversions and even modestly grow by about 1,000 people (+2.5%).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion
In many aspects it feels like St. Louis is following Chicago's model, but we're like a decade or so behind the curve.
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Let's hope!
The 4 community areas of greater downtown Chicago (Loop, Near North, Near West, Near South) gained nearly 60,000 people this past decade, for a combined population of ~245,000 people now!
If St . Louis could see even half that growth in its greater downtown area in this coming decade, it'd be a game changer for the city.