Race and Perceptions of Redevelopment in the ‘District of Gentrification’

• In Event: Neighborhoods, Gentrification, and Political Power

Abstract

Theoretically and empirically, urban redevelopment – the intentional transformation of urban land parcels and structures on them for purposes of economic growth and prosperity – is an enduring topic of local politics scholarship. This is because urban redevelopment processes and products are consequential for the municipal polis in terms of representation, revenue, and responsiveness, among other matters (e.g., displacement and contention). In examining public perceptions of the good and bad of urban redevelopment, local politics scholars generally draw on and are informed by ethnographies and case studies that reveal how some people feel about dimensions and outcomes of urban redevelopment, especially gentrification. Those sources of information identify the feelings of those who experience urban redevelopment, such as incumbent residents or new residents in gentrifying and gentrified spaces. But such sources offer limited insights about the beliefs, preferences, and values of purposive and other non-random samples of residents whose cities undergo or underwent urban redevelopment. They cannot permit drawing general conclusions and findings about public support for or opposition against urban redevelopment generally. In response, our paper examines urban redevelopment of Washington, D.C.. It is a city that has experienced dramatic degrees of urban redevelopment. Its urban redevelopment ranges from public investment in sporting stadiums to altered ordinances regulating building-height restrictions to reducing public ownership of affordable housing (e.g., public housing demolition). It provides a useful context for examining perceptions and attitudes of resident regarding the winners and loser of redevelopment, particularly in a city long storied for its depth and breadth of Black municipal empowerment. We employ individual-level data from two surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015 of random samples of D.C. residents, and couple it with aggregate ward-level data from the D.C. city government, the American Community Survey, and 2010 Census. Among our findings from D.C. is strong evidence that any notion that Black residents, especially long-term Black residents, are necessarily averse to urban redevelopment is faulty. That is, even when urban redevelopment contributes to gentrification and varieties of social and political displacements, many long-term Black residents of Washington D.C. positively evaluate urban redevelopment, and sometimes much more positively than non-Black residents of D.C.. Such findings invite revisiting theoretical considerations of the intersection of race, class, and neighborhood in cities undergoing urban redevelopment and how the intersection may influence future electoral and governing coalitions, as well as political representation in and responsiveness from municipal government.

Authors

• Michael Leo Owens, Emory University

• Nyron N. Crawford, Princeton University

• Andrea Benjamin, University of Oklahoma

• Arica N Schuett, Emory University