Gentrification: The process of renewal accompanying the influx of middle-class people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier, usually poorer residents.

The above definition accurately describes the transformation that occurred in the Boise neighborhood in the 1990s. Because discriminatory practices like redlining caused property values to plummet so far below what they should have been, when these practices subsided the neighborhood became attractive to companies and to middle-class individuals looking for good deals in real estate.

These new "gentry," or property owners, began to invest in their properties by paying for renovations and badly needed maintenance. As more properties in the neighborhood were renovated in this manner, all the houses and businesses increased in property value simply because of their proximity to the renovated properties.

Responding to the increased value of their properties, landlords either increased rents to an amount the former residents could not afford, or they decided to force tenants out so they could sell the properties. Longstanding homeowners of the community were also encouraged to sell their properties because of the high return they could receive. Either way, the end result was that the newcomers displaced many of the low-income members of the community, who had lived in the area their whole lives.

Like many neighborhoods in the nation, the matter of race complicates the gentrification process in the Boise neighborhood. Census data shows that while in 1990 the population of the neighborhood was 68% black and 26% white, in 2000 the percentages were evening out; 41% were black and 34% were white. The fact that the middle-class newcomers tend to be white and the displaced, low-income residents tend to be black, fosters racial tension within the neighborhood.