Reinvestment in Inner-City Historic Space: An Analysis of Gentrification in Knoxville, Tennessee

Gentrification is the movement of middle-class households back to the inner-city neighborhoods that they abandoned during the 1950s and 1960s. Most American cities with populations that exceed 100,000 have within them areas that are experiencing reinvestment and housing market revival. At the same time, urban renewal programs that were popular in the 1950s and 1960s have lost their support as responses to inner-city decline. Private citizens play a leading role in promoting gentrification. The term "managed gentrification" is used to describe the activities of inner-city neighborhood organizations in Knoxville, Tennessee. The organizations work closely with city planners to create the institutional and financial frameworks for private sector reinvestment in neighborhoods.

Managed gentrification has many aspects, and the behavior of the neighborhood organizations responsible for the gentrification areas is modeled. One important aspect of the work of the neighborhood organizations is the establishment of historic districts. These districts are clearly defined spaces in the inner-city where gentrification is promoted. Knoxville now has five historic districts offering more than 1,200 dwellings for restoration. This thesis focuses on measuring the level of reinvestment in three of these historic districts: Mechanicsville, Fourth and Gill, and Old North Knoxville. The data sets used to measure gentrification indicate some movement of middle-class households to the historic districts but the majority of dwellings are not restored. Also, the annual rates of restoration do not indicate large-scale restoration in the historic districts in the foreseeable future. The market for historic properties in Knoxville is oversupplied; too many dwellings are offered for restoration. The city does not have enough households with the income levels and the interest in gentrification to make historic district reinvestment successful.

This research also demonstrates that while models of gentrification are used as theoretical bases for planning for gentrification, the revival of the housing market that they predict has not occurred in Knoxville. The behavior of the market is better explained by the "chaos complexity" school of thought which argues that there is more to gentrification than reinvestment and return of the middle-class to the inner city. Gentrification in Knoxville is more a case of failure than of success.