With whatever money she could scrape together, Gin began to buy apartment buildings in marginal neighborhoods and renovate them.

Restaurants are frequently urban pioneers, the first new businesses to put down roots in marginal neighborhoods.

"If the market goes down," he noted, "properties in a marginal neighborhood will suffer first."

Within each district, the city identified marginal neighborhoods that were in danger of sliding into decay.

"What the arts have done consistently is to go into marginal neighborhoods, where the rent is low," she said.

And he resented the practice of redlining, banks' refusal to lend in marginal neighborhoods.

That's for a largish one-bedroom in a marginal neighborhood.

You should avoid marginal neighborhoods, poorly lit streets, and unfamiliar areas of the city, especially at night.

She reasoned that you could multiply your fun by buying more for less in a marginal neighborhood.

So she'd tried, moving across town to this place, near the university; a marginal neighborhood surrounded by bad blocks on three sides.