To be clear, there are hundreds of towns in the USA that are doing the opposite of gentrifying.
Go visit Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Go visit Danville, Virginia.
Go visit Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Go visit Harrison, Arkansas.
Go visit Atlanta, Georgia. *
There are hundreds of towns that have lost all the industrial and agricultural jobs they once had, and the people have sunk into deep poverty. Many of these areas now face an epidemic of meth, which seems to be how people in these regions deal with the hopelessness they feel, now that the jobs are gone.
*I mention, Atlanta, which is a large region. There are, of course, many areas of Atlanta that are gentrifying, but if you travel around the city at all, you also find huge neighborhoods that have sunk deeper into desperation. I am old enough that I can remember how affluent Atlanta was in the 90s, and I can remember how crime-ridden New York City used to be. The reversal of fortune is really remarkable. Nowadays I feel safe on New York subways, even late at night, whereas I no longer feel safe on Atlanta rail lines, even during the day (depending on the line).
Atlanta native here, I want to support this view. I'm very happy to have moved to Silicon Beach (Santa Monica) because I finally know what it feels like to not want a concealed firearm on me all the time. From a statistical point of view, the YoY murder and assault stats in Atlanta are running about twice what they were last year. From a personal point of view, after almost 3 years in the LA area I don't have a constellation of stories from my social group involving violent crime. It seemed like everyone I knew in Atlanta had a story about violent crime impacting their life, no matter how tony their address was.
Don't get me started on the meth. I love how my "gentrified" friends out here swear up and down how Breaking Bad is such a wonderful show, yet I cannot even attempt to watch an episode because I've seen too much of that up close.
I lived in the Collier Hills area for 6 years and violent crime never impacted my life. Having only ever ridden the Red/Gold lines of MARTA and mostly during day, I only ever felt unsafe when people with obvious mental issues were yelling on the train - although I never saw violence. Parts of Atlanta are perfectly safe, and parts of Atlanta are a sad depressed economic wasteland.
I love Atlanta, but let's be real: the northwest side of town is getting better but it is hardly "perfectly safe". People have been held up at gunpoint on 10th Street where I walked daily, literally across the road from Georgia Tech, in the middle of the day. My old house in Home Park -- about a mile from Collier Hills? -- was broken into in broad daylight. A house three lots down the street was raided by police because some criminal organization was being run out of it. At an apartment complex I lived at in the same area (10th and Northside), the apartment next door to me and a bunch of others were broken into. In the parking garage at that same apartment complex, a Georgia Tech student was shot in the chest during a random crime and very nearly killed. These are just the incidences that I remember and that I have a fairly close connection to, as a counter to your own, more fortunate anecdote.
Echoing Kelsey's sentiment, I also grew up in Atlanta, lived in Home Park, and while I wouldn't say that I felt unsafe while I lived there, I now live in an actually safe place. It's unbelievably different. People actual walk around. I see women walking alone. I don't see sketchy people, I don't have to lock my doors (my house in Home Park actually had two deadbolted doors before you could get inside). The red line prior to five points is well known to be the safest line, but people still harass you on it. I don't know when you lived in Atlanta, and I was only taking Marta the last three or four years that I lived there, but it's definitely not good/safe public transit.
After being called a "Harry Potter looking mother fucker", "white ass sumbitch", "saltine fuck" etc. on MARTA, I can tell you that no, it's unpleasant. Most of the people I know who told me not to take MARTA were middle-upper class African American people.
You live near Five Points and don't feel unsafe? Are you inside the Georgia State bubble, or on the courthouse side? I've been followed a number of times after coming out of Five Points MARTA. I've had four people follow me and call me a "Harry Potter looking motherfucker" who only left when I passed a cop. I mean I got used to the city and knew what to do/where not to go, but the paths I had to take and where not to go were usually only a block of difference.
And Five Points used to actually just have gangs hanging out on the sidewalk before they cracked down two years ago. I've been threatened, but never attacked, on MARTA, but I'm a big guy (6' 5" and 210 pounds while I was taking MARTA), and nearly all of my female friends had a "a couple of people tried to block my exit and stop me from getting to my car" stories. My fiancee had two guys wait outside of the station exit gates saying "Here, kitty kitty" at night -- and that was at Sandy Springs MARTA. The east/west line is way worse.
I've never felt unsafe on MARTA rail. But Five Points? When I worked at 101 Marietta, every one of my MARTA-ing co-workers had a story of working late and getting mugged on the way to the train.
Atlanta is far better now than it was in the 90s. You may be remembering the 90s "Olympics Version" of intown Atlanta that most people from the Atlanta Suburbs saw.
I have been here since the 70s and it's striking to see how much better Atlanta is today than it was in the 90s. I also suspect you live out in the suburbs and not in Atlanta?
There are definitely areas of the burbs that have declined sharply in the last decade (ie: Gwinnett Mall area). I honestly think this is suburban downtrend will continue as the city prospers and people move intown to avoid the 75/85 parking lot system.
Agreed on Atlanta, I live here, I love my city but theres parts of it where gentrification has been attempted and failed hard. East Atlanta feels like little more than a place for robberies, rapes, and murders to happen.
I've been to Danville, just long enough to look around but not long enough to mingle. What I remember most is the beautiful old residential neighborhoods with big, lovely old houses that natives considered "expensive" and "overpriced" at, oh, $120K. I remember the big old brick tobacco buildings downtown. The place seemed to be crying out for gentrification - those buildings looked just like the places that startups love to inhabit. But being a small town with no notable tech industry or universities in the immediate area, it's hard to imagine it becoming a success story like Durham appeared to have.
"Atlanta" in-town is pretty cleanly segregated with black and white. I'm not sure I agree that it is doing "the opposite of gentrifying".
in-town white neighborhoods (most north of I-20) have seen massive increases in property values in the last three years or so, probably causing "gentrification" as more whites move into border neighborhoods like grant park, old 4th ward, and reanoldstown
suburban atlanta (the vast majority of "atlanta") has also seen steady property value increases, at least in the northers suburbs. (roswell/alpharetta)
Go visit Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Go visit Danville, Virginia.
Go visit Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Go visit Harrison, Arkansas.
Go visit Atlanta, Georgia. *
There are hundreds of towns that have lost all the industrial and agricultural jobs they once had, and the people have sunk into deep poverty. Many of these areas now face an epidemic of meth, which seems to be how people in these regions deal with the hopelessness they feel, now that the jobs are gone.
*I mention, Atlanta, which is a large region. There are, of course, many areas of Atlanta that are gentrifying, but if you travel around the city at all, you also find huge neighborhoods that have sunk deeper into desperation. I am old enough that I can remember how affluent Atlanta was in the 90s, and I can remember how crime-ridden New York City used to be. The reversal of fortune is really remarkable. Nowadays I feel safe on New York subways, even late at night, whereas I no longer feel safe on Atlanta rail lines, even during the day (depending on the line).