We zeroed in on four cities whose experience told different parts of the story: DC, New Orleans, Denver + LA. In each, areas that had been majority POC saw the white population increase by more than 9 percentage points between 2010 and 2020, leading to significant changes. (2/8)

In Southwest DC, along the waterfront, @TaraBahrampour chronicled how years of unceasing development + luxury high rises remade a community where longtime mostly Black residents say they feel like they're being left behind by the city they call home. (3/8)

In New Orleans, a place whose very culture is tied to the Black experience, I went to Tremé — the oldest African American neighborhood in the city (and, perhaps, the nation) to show how displacement of Black residents can threaten cultural erasure. (4/8)

In Denver, whose rich Latino history shaped social + political movements, the white population is growing 6x faster than its Hispanic population. By some estimates, Denver has seen more displacement of its Latino community than any other big US city. (5/8)

In Los Angeles, the community that make up its traditional Chinatown is suffering. @TaraBahrampour traveled to a shopping center where longtime vendors say the neighborhood around them has transformed: White residents now outnumber Asian ones. (6/8)

Tho the reasons for gentrification can vary by community — in New Orleans, environmental causes are part of the equation, in Denver, new industries have drawn more affluent workers — the consequences are starkly similar: Physical displacement, alienation & cultural erasure. (7/8)

Our story today is a window into these shifts, into what it means for people to watch their homes transform and feel an implicit message in that transformation: that these changes are not for them. I hope you'll spend some time with it today. (8/8)