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Gentrification: A Functional Definition gentrification - The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people. This definition gives a simple idea of what gentrification means. Our understanding is that gentrification is a redevelopment of a lower class area aiming to transform it into a middle class area. With this transformation it often displaces current residents to migrate to other areas. What can cause this to happen? The need for economic development can definitely be one of the factors that contribute to gentrification. Successful economic development in any given neighborhood generates more demand for living space in that area. With an increase in demand comes an increase in property values, thus putting existing lower-class residents at a disadvantage (Kennedy 2002). Is this good or bad? Does it push the lower-class people out or does it give them more opportunity to become financially stable? This can definitely have a relation to our research in regards to youth. The Central District has many characteristics that show a process of gentrification. The impacts of these changes do not only affect the area economically, but socially as well. Lower income families with children face instability in community as well as financially putting them at a disadvantage. Other approaches of the ideas of gentrification have very interesting arguments. Butler and Robson (2001) say that the need for change in an area is due the movement of middle-class people. The demand to be closer to a central business district in a major metropolitan area often encourages development of adjacent areas that are undergoing decline. Lees (2000) focuses on a four-prong approach, which are the super-rich are ‘regentrifying’, Third World immigration, ‘race’, and livability. In the following literature review we will emphasize on these arguments as well as present other ideas that may have a relation to youth and gentrification.