In my opinion The Landlord shows general neighborhood change because it is essentially about a stranger moving into an already established community. Even though the racial tensions don’t make the adjustment any easier, I would say that a period of awkwardness and displacement happens whenever a new family moves into a neighborhood, no matter how welcoming (or not) the neighbors are. Of course, it also doesn’t help your case when you’re the only white guy in the building, and you just happen to be becoming the new landlord.
As for the film being a narrative on gentrification, I would say that it tries to show the feelings of displacement experienced by those being gentrified. The one scene that sticks out in my mind as showing the negative impact of gentrification is at the very end when Elgar is in the school and each child says in turn “I’m black and I’m beautiful”. It was sad to me that the teacher even needed to encourage them to say that, and I felt that it showed how gentrification can cause the people being gentrified to feel as though they’re not “good enough” and need to undergo some sort of change in order to be fit for society.
Gentrification is such a tricky thing for me to form an opinion on—for example, Times Square has gotten so much safer as a result of gentrification, but what about the people who were forced out as a result? It’s just one of those issues that makes my head hurt! This is why I think Elgar embodies the “spirit” of gentrification, because he’s such a polarizing character. On one hand he continually opposes his family’s racism and eventually reconciles with Lanie, but on the other he treats Lanie terribly when he breaks the news of Fanny’s pregnancy to her and at one point doesn’t care if Fanny puts the baby up for adoption. Oh Elgar—what a sad, strange little man you are! 
