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The Task Force on Neighborhoods in Transition deliberately avoided using a common term for the problem gentrification in the group name. That decision, Vice Mayor Steve Kay said, reflected an effort to balance sometimes competing ideas: maintaining the character of neighborhoods and allowing for positive development. It s about people who ve lived in a neighborhood, who are part of the community and have liked living there and appreciate living there. It s a low-income area and they start to get forced out, Kay said Tuesday. It s not about making improvements. It s about who gets negatively impacted by that.
And those groups are often overlooked minority populations. To identify sections of town most at risk, the task force created 16 maps tracking things like income, racial demographics, home prices, and occupancy rates. But the group also went directly to those affected. Councilman James Brown said that meant starting some difficult conversations.