Responses to Fear of Green Gentrification: Theory-Based Recommendations and Practitioner Approaches in Phoenix and Durham

• In Event: Community-based and Practitioner Approaches to the Environment

Abstract

In many cities throughout the world, there is significant concern about gentrification and displacement, wherein neighborhoods are improved in ways that lead to rising housing costs that force out lower-income residents. One type of neighborhood improvement that is of rising concern is “green gentrification”—displacement that occurs due to cleaning and/or greening of neighborhoods such as remediating brownfields, adding greenspace, or adding climate-resilience features. Within the US context, this is particularly problematic if those who are forced out live in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities, especially those composed of racial and ethnic minority groups that have historically suffered from environmental injustice and who therefore may especially benefit from such neighborhood improvements if they are able to stay. 

Campbell, Eckerd & Kim (2024) have examined what clusters of variables may increase the likelihood that green gentrification leads to displacement of racial and ethnic minority groups and have suggested policy recommendations based on complexity-informed approaches. Of substantial interest is what policy responses city planners and community groups who are concerned about green gentrification consider as they clean and green in areas where green displacement is feared. 

In this study, we ask how city’s actual policies match (or don’t) the recommendations in Campbell, Eckerd & Kim (2024) by investigating specific cases of cleaning and greening in two very different cities. One study, based on interview results, considers how, 6 years ago, city administrators addressed these issues in the development of parks in the center of downtown Phoenix, an area that has since shown significant gentrification. Another considers the new Durham (North Carolina) BeltLine project, a multi-use recreational trail project that will run through a range of different types of neighborhoods and that has raised concern from lower-income minority groups. Community groups, specifically EJ groups, have raised concerns about the potential for gentrification that may arise once the project is completed, drawing on prominent examples of similar projects in Atlanta and New York, and the city has acknowledged these concerns and has specifically considered ways to ensure that the trail benefits “all of Durham.” 

In this research, we investigate how these projects are or are not consistent with the results from Campbell et al. (2024), and we explore how both community groups and governmental actors attempt to reconcile the complex interplay between environmental improvement and neighborhood change.

Author

• Heather E. Campbell, Claremont Graduate University
  Presenting Author