ABSTRACT
A major thrust of Mayor Vincent Schoemehl's housing policy during his tenure from 1980 to 1992 was a gentrification strategy—"the physical renovation and social-class upgrading of inner-city neighborhoods". City and citizen efforts in this area included encouragement of household-led gentrification by urban resettlers in select neighborhoods with historic structures. Housing that was either abandoned or occupied by lower-income residents was condemned to allow developers to rehabilitate entire neighborhoods. As a general rule, cities and people living in them benefit from the presence of stable households. An increase in relatively high-income households tends to aid the community, both economically and psychologically. The focus group participants were asked to discuss market trends in different parts of the city, including the characteristics of buyers and sellers, perceived barriers to prospective buyers in the city, and recommendations for future housing policy. Housing development policies of the 1980s had produced clearly identifiable city neighborhoods that had been targeted for focused residential development.
