The 5 Phases of Gentrification -- When can it be stopped?

[hifiguy]

47. Agreed.

Northeast Minneapolis was slowly decaying in the 1990s as the Finnish, Swedish, Czech and Polish grandpas and grandmas who raised their boomer kids (who moved to the burbs) began dying off, became snowbirds or went into seniors housing.

Gay guys, especially gay couples, were the "pioneers" who started buying and renovating the old houses - as opposed to tearing them down - and the neighborhood was transformed over the course of a decade. The big commercial developers were largely kept out, to the best of my knowledge, and the neighborhood has very much retained its cool and funky character while going upscale, in terms of the housing stock. Nobody was hustling the old folks out or trying to swindle them when they sold out.

That was a textbook story of what you very rightly call "organic gentrification", gt.