Portland Acres Intentional Gentrification Project

This may be a terrible idea. 

But maybe not. Let's set the stage for anyone unaware: Louisville's west end has many very intense, very severe problems. These take the form of extreme poverty, decrepit property, food deserts, underinvestment, high levels of violence, and more, affecting residents of all ages. This is in most part caused by racist policies of the past. 

The question is: how can these conditions be improved, without a boatload of money? We'll we've tried many things, and including other places the world where similar situations exist, just about everything has been tried, and no good solution has been found. Financially, gentrification is the solution, but it is a culture killer.

So, thinking about these two aspects of gentrification birthed an idea: Intentional Gentrification. The idea would be to build a 'rich' subdivision with grand houses, large yards, in the traditional anti-urban style, and intentionally gentrify a restricted area of the west end. Essentially, appeal to only rich people, get them to move in, and their monetary influence *should*(needs study) over time influence the lower income residents in the area as the residents of the new gentrified area depend less on services further away in more affluent areas and instead use local services, or if they don't exist, perhaps they may help fund the creation of them. 

The location chosen for this neighborhood is significant in the fact it is artificially constrained on 2 of its 3 sides, and would be restrained (protected - in the minds of the potential residents) on the other side by an 8ft brick wall, and the neighborhood would be gated for vehicles. The subdivision would consume approximately 120 houses and about 8 medium-sized commercial properties, one of which is desired and would need to be relocated nearby.

Now the land acquisition part of this intentional gentrification would need to be handled carefully, and the organizers would need to work closely to maintain a positive relationship with the current residents. For this I propose that three options should be offered to the current residents, which would need to be rehoused. Option 1: buy the house from the current owner for double its current taxable value (make sure they go and find a new place to live). Option 2: move the house to another lot if possible for the resident (if they like the physical house) and give a moderate sum for the hassle). Option 3: build a new house up to 110% the size as their current one for the current owner on another lot (no additional compensation). Using approximations in the preceding paragraph land acquisition would cost somewhere around $4,600,000 (($25,000*120=$3,000,000)+($200,000*8=$1,600,000)), due to the proposed market for these new grand houses, price doesn't really matter, as a price premium could likely be expected and perhaps desired.