In recent years, the Old Fourth Ward district has grown and changed exponentially and has experienced the effects of gentrification, which is considered to be the process by which deteriorating urban neighborhoods are revived and renewed by an increase in residents to create higher property values and a displacement of lower-income families. The expansion of Old Fourth Ward in recent years has included the construction of a myriad of parks, restaurants, and homes, which has caused a significant increase in property value within and around the district.

Because of Old Fourth Ward’s consistent restorations and additions, gentrification has become a real problem in Atlanta. According to Atlanta Gentrification Maps and Data published in Governing the States and Localities (2016), gentrification in Atlanta has increased by a significant amount. From 1990-2000, tracts in the Census that experienced a rate of gentrification at 16.7%. Since 2000, that rate has increased to an alarming 46.2%.

In recent years, 2011 to be exact, Historic Fourth Ward Park has increased these effects immensely. The park covers 17 acres of land, and it’s surrounded by infrastructure, housing, businesses, and more.

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Historic Fourth Ward Park (click for source)

People began noticing the effects of the gentrification of Old Fourth Ward and Atlanta in the 1980s. Josh Green (March 1, 2016) notes a personal experience of a resident in the 1980s in “How Gentrification Really Changes a Neighborhood.” Many political activists and leaders would address the notion that gentrification was changing Atlanta, and in a way, dismissing the District’s history due to pushing lower-income families out of the area. Panelist Randy Gue, curator of Modern Political and Historical Collections at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript Archives, said, ‘”We’re living in an extraordinary moment… We’re seeing a complete redoing of the housing stock in the city of Atlanta” (Green, 2016)’.

There is no question that the process of gentrification is by some means affecting the population of the District. With the constant growing and expansion of the built environment, living expenses are most likely continuously increasing.