Gentrification is taking place in major cities all over the nation. The growing trend of young white professionals moving into the city from the suburbs began to be noticeable in the 1980s, and has grown into a major phenomenon.  Strong disinvestment in the inner city has made it easy for businesses to cash in on the growing trend, but the cost of the investment has led to the displacement of the low income unorganized and fractured communities, who are unable to fight for their land.

Rockwell Gardens public housing development, sits on the Westside of Chicago, as of 2004 it had only two inhabited high-rises, of and original eight, left and the number of residents was declining all the time. The area is a ghostly image of what it used to be.  Empty lots, where public high-rises once stood, now sit vacant despite the City’s promises of new homes and a better way of life. For many of the residents there is no sign of hope over the barren landscape as the development reaches its final year. By November 2005 the buildings that generations of families have lived in will have disappeared to make way for wealthy newcomers. One-third of the residents are being allowed to return to the area, but no longer will it be Rockwell Gardens but West End.