WRT to gentrification and MM. Here’s the Wikipedia’s definition of gentrification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentrification. So, based on this, I would say it’s a yes and no, depend on how important the classification of urban is to you WRT the word gentrification. MM fits some of the description of gentrification. It’s demographics is changing from blue collar low-to-mid middle class to more white collar mid-to-high middle class working in Mira Mesa. There’s a new master planned community that’s going into MM in the next 5-10 years that will add 33% more population to MM. The master planned community will be a mix between condo, mixed used, retail and commercial. So, you’ll see a more urban like feel where everything is walkable and people living above shops. So, in short, what MM is experience is similar to what you would describe an urban area going through gentrification. However, since MM is technically a suburb, it can’t be called gentrification… or can it?
It also depend on what you would consider urban vs suburbs as well. I’ve seen many definitions, so I’m not sure what is the official definition. I’ve seen some that say if you have a density of 3000+ people/sq mile, then you’re urban. While others would only consider downtown type of density to be urban. Mira Mesa today is about 4500 people/sq mile. In 10-15 years, after the Stonecreek master plan completes, that number would be at least 6k people/sq mile. I’ve also seen upzoning request from a couple of apartment complex (and was approved). The builder didn’t follow through due to the housing crash, but I assume once the housing market is buzzing again, you’ll see these apartments gets torn down and more dense apartment comes up. The zoning now is there.
