ABSTRACT
The notion that gentrification represents some sort of urban renaissance or revival is widespread, particularly in the United States (Gruen 1964, Alpern 1979, Sumka 1979, DeVito 1980, Demarest 1981). This perspective would imply some kind of prior secular decline and now a reversal of established trends. That is really the meaning of renaissance and it was the explicit symbolism behind the naming of Detroit's Ford-inspired Renaissance Center; the spiritual renewal after the fall. The popularity of the renaissance/revival theme lies in its inherent optimism and the belief that squalor is being expunged and the city is being reclaimed for the respectable classes. As such it is a sharply partisan view of contemporary urban change and one which negates the real history of urban development and change. There was no such simple fall and there is no such simple rebirth.
