May 26, 2026
Opinion: Millbrook's Downtown Is Changing Fast — Not Everyone Is Keeping Up
Columnist Ray Okafor argues that while Millbrook's downtown revival looks great on paper, the city needs to be honest about who's being left behind as rents climb and longtime businesses close.
MILLBROOK, June 3 — Walk down Clement Avenue on a Friday evening and it looks like a success story. New restaurants, a wine bar, that boutique fitness studio that seems to have a waitlist for its waitlist. The streetlamps the city installed last fall are genuinely nice. The murals are colorful. The foot traffic is real. I don't want to be the person who complains that a neighborhood is too lively — but I do want to be the person who asks: lively for whom, exactly?
The Numbers Behind the Glow
Over the past 18 months, eleven small businesses have closed on or within two blocks of Clement Avenue, according to records filed with the Millbrook Business License Office. Seven of those were minority-owned. Commercial rents in the district have climbed an average of 34 percent since 2021, per data compiled by the Millbrook Downtown Partnership — the same organization that cheerfully handed out 'Millbrook Is Open for Business' lawn signs last spring. I'm not saying development is inherently bad. I'm saying development without displacement guardrails is just gentrification with better signage.
The city has tools it hasn't used. A commercial rent stabilization pilot program was proposed by Council Member Patricia Vance back in February and has sat in committee ever since. A small-business bridge loan fund, approved in principle by the city council last November, still has no administrator and no active applications. Meanwhile, the Millbrook Redevelopment Authority is moving full speed ahead on the River District mixed-use project, which will add 400 residential units and approximately zero affordable commercial spaces. I'm rooting for this city. I just want the city to root for all of its people back.
