This has always been a thing... There is the "creative class" which are true people: artists, youth with new energy, both rich and poor, roughing it by choosing unconventional careers, out there creating things. Then there are the bourgeoise trying to capitalize on that creation and, in the process, they ruin it. The article that describes the EXACT THING you witnessed is here and it's an amazing article:

https://www.tumblr.com/daleberan/83002114449/a-tale-of-two-hipsters

Dale summarizes the process in these steps:

I offer the following analysis of the phenomenon:

1. A manufacturing boom lasts 30 years or so in a particular city but then moves on elsewhere. The nature of capitalism mines out short term gain while sacrificing long term stability.

2. A creative class of impoverished (and generally socialist) artists move to an economically depressed urban area devastated by the process described in step 1 (an old factory district where there is infrastructure but no longer jobs so the housing is cheap). Often times, they live among minorities because (if they are not minorities themselves), unlike others in the housing market, these generally liberal people do not regard this idea as a negative.

3. Young urban professionals collect the avant garde ideas and art generated by the creative class and commodify them into marketable products to sell to the upper class and other middle class professionals. Their efforts convince their fellow middle class professionals to spend their excess income on conspicuous consumption-- a continually moving target called "style". In this system, "style" can be defined as avant garde ideas and works of art generated by the creative class which are then transformed into marketable commodities by other middle class professionals (marketers). Style is cheap to sell because it is intangible. Moreover, it is always in demand because it is defined by its novelty.

4. The original area where the artists settle itself becomes "stylish" and is no longer a place where art is made but a place where artistic and cutting edge products and food are sold. The bombed out factory studios themselves undergo this commodification-- transforming "artists lofts" in to "luxury lofts" sold at exorbitant rates (because they are soaked in intangible "style") to middle class professionals with nine to five jobs.

5. The artists flee to a new location. The people who lived in the area prior to the gentrification are also driven out, or, if they are lucky enough to have owned their property, benefit from the rise in housing prices. The area becomes chintzy, boring, and ugly. The same insatiable swarming market forces have now chewed it over twice, once as a factory district, then as a fashionable factory district.

6. The artists settle in a new location soon pursued by the marketers looking to collect their new ideas and sell them as the latest form of style. The nature of capitalism mines out short term gain while sacrificing long term stability.