White Smoke

Gentrification is a term that describes economic and/or social transition in a neighborhood or localized area. Usually, gentrification involves the socioeconomic level of the neighborhood rapidly changing because of new interest in the area’s property by investors and realty development organizations. Groups like these buy up property at a low price and then work to “revitalize” the area with more expensive restaurants, shops, and housing than were there originally. Typically, people who are more socioeconomically secure move into the neighborhood, while those who lived there originally have trouble meeting the higher property assessments, rents, insurance, and other costs. 

Specific areas of large metropolitan cities like New York City and Chicago are associated with gentrification. In Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, businesses that long served the needs of “working class” residents—many of whom were “old timers” in the neighborhood—were forced out and replaced with upscale establishments geared toward more affluent, newer residents. Today, the neighborhood is home to many corporate businesses and upscale retail; this led to rising rents, pricing out legacy small business owners and residents alike (“From Bodegas to Boutiques: The Changing Face of Retailing Shows Gentrification’s Effects.” Center for New York City Affairs, 2 Oct. 2024). In Chicago, various neighborhoods have rapidly gentrified, forcing out people who can no longer afford to live there, an issue that disproportionately affects Black and Brown residents; for example, real estate developers frequently purchase multi-family apartment buildings and turn them into single-family dwellings that sell for over $1 million. In 2024, the Chicago City Council passed an anti-gentrification ordinance to protect housing in Northwest Side neighborhoods that are rapidly gentrifying (Parella-Aureli, Ariel and Melody Mercado. “Anti-Gentrification Ordinance To Protect Northwest Side Housing OK’d By City Council,” Block Club Chicago, 2 Dec. 2024). 

White Smoke connects to gentrification through the illicit doings of Mr. Sterling and the Sterling Foundation, a so-called city revitalization organization. The members of this group’s board of directors also have a hand in businesses that would profit from renovation and rebuilding such as construction and window companies. Marigold discovers that the Sterling Foundation has a goal to destroy Maplewood’s residences altogether in favor of much more expensive restaurants, shops, dwellings, and a light rail to other parts of the city. Their plan not only discounts the wishes of Maplewood’s current residents but also pushes the residents themselves, ironically, to help destroy property by using their fears and beliefs against them. Gentrification is a topic authors explore in nonfiction works like Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City (2024) by Richard E. Ocejo and fiction works such as Alyssa Cole’s When No One Is Watching (2020).