The New Republic has a fascinating story up on the supposed “demographic inversion” happening in America’s urban cores.  The piece starts — as many articles on the future of urbanism do — with a little allegory about Chicago. As a former denizen of that fair city (and a former newspaper reporter in the southern suburbs that are on the receiving end of much of the changing demographics), I have to say many of Alan Ehrenhalt’s observations ring perfectly true.

In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be “demographic inversion.” Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city–Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today. The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center–some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white–are those who can afford to do so.

Developments like this rarely occur in one city at a time, and indeed demographic inversion is taking place, albeit more slowly than in Chicago, in metropolitan areas throughout the country. The national press has paid very little attention to it. While we have been focusing on Baghdad and Kabul, our own cities have been changing right in front of us.

Ehrenhalt, the executive editor of Governing Magazine, wants to call this dramatic shift in urban-vs-suburban populations something other than gentrification. It seems to me that calling it “demographic inversion” could be seen as a nice linguistic trick to make the phenomenon seem natural and inevitable, without having to deal with all those icky reprecussions associated with gentrification.

That said, though, the piece offers a interesting glimpse into the emerging debate on the re-urbanization of America, particularly as housing values plummet, exurbs tumble under the weight of foreclosures and energy prices settle in the stratosphere.

Along those lines, it’s worth checking out the recent PolicyLink report on reviving smaller industrial cities, “To Be Strong Again.” The report highlights many best practices on how to equitably and fairly renew the promise of urban downtowns.

The nation’s capital is a bit of a microcosm for the changes we’re seeing in neighborhoods and communities across the country. A great NPR story this morning, “From Riots to Revival,” highlights the rebirth of DC’s U Street neighborhood in the 40 years since the MLK riots.

It is a story of the uneasy balance between revival and gentrification that echoes across the nation as American looks back on the progress and obstacles we see on the 40th Anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. U Street was once a center of middle-class African-American culture in DC, anchored by shops, theaters and thriving families. After the riots, though, U Street fell on very hard times. Now, condo towers and new development are threatening to displace longtime residents.

The nonprofit Cultural Tourism DC describes the neighborhood this way:

By the early 20th century, the area was the nerve center of the city’s black community, home to businesses and places of entertainment, and the major social institutions of black Washington. Until 1920, when Harlem surpassed it, it was the largest urban African American community in the nation. All the great entertainers played at its lively theaters and clubs. The old timers say that U Street was so grand that to go there, “you had to wear a tie.” Duke Ellington is one of many national figures to call this neighborhood home.

Today, with a new subway stop, a resurgence of nightclubs, and the renovation of many of its historic buildings underway, the neighborhood is seeing a renaissance.

A renaissance is in the eye of the beholder. For a nuanced view of what the new gentrification means for residents of U Street, check out this 2006 Washington Post story, “U Turn.”

And, just because this place has the best half-smokes and chocolate shakes in the city, here is a photo the Mayors of Washington and Seattle standing outside of beloved U Street landmark Ben’s Chili Bowl.