Depending on where you live it isn't difficult to notice specific changes happening within your neighborhood. From trendy housing developments, boutique shops, and independent cafes gentrification affects more than a neighborhood's curb appeal. A buzzword many have become familiar with these shifts in housing and businesses have appeared as controversial hot topics in politics and urban planning. However, what exactly does gentrification mean? If gentrification is something seen by all, why is it that so few understand the variables and details that go into this process? 

For residents who have lived in older neighborhoods gentrification is understood as sever change and displacement. With the urban landscape continually changing all over the globe major cities are becoming denser and denser by the minute. Residents are being pushed out and forced to adjust to changes they're expected to understand. Thanks to the City Observatory, a website providing a data-driven analysis of cities and policies, they have created a guide which helps citizens understand the varying details of gentrification. 

Below are a few keywords outlining City Observatory's alphabet list of things people blame for causing gentrification. 

"Artists - Banks - Climate Change - Declining crime rates E - F - Galleries - H - I - Java (coffee) - Kids - L- M - N - O - Parks - Q - R - Smartphones - Tech firms - Urban renewal - V - Wholefoods - X - You - Zoning."

Cities are constantly transforming, and it's hard to prevent the constant flow of residents moving in and out of neighborhoods. Housing  Although change in neighborhoods happens faster in certain areas the issue at hand isn't to pretend a neighborhood should always remain the same. The challenge is to find ways for gentrification to create improvements and benefits for current and future neighborhood residents. The City Observatory explains, "to do that, we have to do more than complain about the symptoms of change, but instead look deeper to understand its causes, and fashion policies that will minimize its negative effects." Although, efforts to tackle gentrification are optimistic this topic seems to continuously elude many. Has gentrification merely become an ongoing blame-game?