The past few decades, major urban centers and increasingly wealthy suburbia have been undergoing significant transformations in a time of unprecedented affluence and technological developments. This process has only sped up in the course of the twenty-first century, with rising urban regeneration and property owners taking advantage of the insatiable demand for housing from the beneficiaries of the technological boom. As a result of this newly emerging urban model, the negative impacts upon local communities, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and ethnic minorities, have been substantial. Much as in recent years global communities across the world have been involved with campaigns pertaining to the protection of the environment or the avoidance of war, Silicon Valley and capital cities are now fiercely involved with their own local battles to preserve their local communities and avoid inter-community schisms. This report will first substantiate the current shifts in housing prices and population movements in London and Tokyo, as core examples of today’s large urban centers. This will enable an understanding of how population displacement is occurring and what segment of society is suffering as a result. With this background in mind, the focus will shift to the US, in which the area facing the most challenges as a result of gentrification is arguably San Francisco and the surrounding Silicon Valley area. In addition to recognizing the undoubted positive benefits of gentrification, this report will outline the way in which certain residents are increasingly suffering and notably how their political voices and sense of worth in a democratic environment are becoming diminished. Specifically, the schism among populations of local communities and the creation of conflicts between local residents and the government and/or private companies remain some of the most challenging obstacles for the future.