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Abstract
This paper traces the relationships between downtown revitalization, housing markets, and a growing lesbian presence in the small city of Northampton, Massachusetts, located on the northern edge of the Springfield Metropolitan region. In Northampton, lately known as NoHo, a self-consciously “cosmopolitan” and urbane revitalized downtown has been created since the 1970s, drawing on a regional set of markets. The downtown also forms a core for lesbian businesses and services, and lesbians have contributed to cultural changes in the area. However, this group had little direct involvement in the booming commercial property market of the 1980s except as a market for rental space. Northampton's downtown residential neighborhoods also underwent cultural and demographic changes in the past decades, but these shifts were more complex than a simple economic upgrading. This paper lends support to studies finding diverse gentrification and revitalization processes.
