Thanks for Everything (Now Get Out)

Joseph Margulies ’82

For nearly three years starting in 2017, Margulies studied Olneyville, Rhode Island—a low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhood of Providence that’s in the midst of gentrification. “Junkyards have become parks, vacant lots have become affordable houses, crime is down, and the local public school is one of the most beloved in the city,” Margulies writes. “And as the neighborhood changed, outsiders began to take notice. In the last decade, Olneyville has become whiter, wealthier, and more unequal.” In this volume from Yale University Press, Margulies—a professor of practice in Arts and Sciences and the Law School—ponders the societal costs of gentrification, particularly on the residents who get squeezed out in the process. As the book’s subtitle asks: “Can we restore neighborhoods without destroying them?”

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