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The creative class gets political: Gentrifier politics in small city America

ABSTRACT Gentrification is one among many issues in small cities that urban research has yet to adequately address. As many large cities are becoming unaffordable for even the middle class, some of these residents with assets are leaving them and bypassing suburbs for smaller cities, becoming gentrifiers in these places. However, we know very little about the perspectives and actions of such gentrifiers in their new urban environment. This study analyzes how middle-class gentrifiers to Newburgh, a small city north of New York City, make sense of its physical and political landscape for the purpose of development. Their narratives frame the city as a place with great “opportunity” to develop, criticize existing policies and political leaders, and cast themselves as the actors who should be spearheading these efforts. This article contributes to the urban literature by examining the factors behind how small-city gentrifiers uniquely conceptualize, take advantage of, and challenge existing conditions for development.