Retreat Backlash: An Anatomy of Privilege, Participation, and Mistrust During Sea Level Rise Planning in California

• In Event: 30607 - Climate Change Unfolding: Power, Privilege and Diverse Experiences of Impacts and Responses

Abstract

While precarious households, renters, and the poor are often the most likely to be displaced by climate threats, there is a simultaneous process whereby more privileged communities stay rooted in place. In the case of coastal and riverine flooding, evidence has shown a cleavage: wealthier, generally white-majority neighborhoods staying in place with state support for adaptation tools such as seawalls and sand nourishment and poorer communities of color grappling with uneven systems of retreat. While research has shown how marginalized residents are excised from government-led adaptation planning, this paper investigates the politics of communities that choose not to plan, a choice that can strain public funding when disasters occur and increase public subsidies for expensive adaptations that disproportionately benefit a small subset of property owners. This study draws on semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation, and five years of public comments—geocoded to commenter's location and matched with flood risk exposure, home value, and beach distance—during sea level rise adaptation planning in Del Mar, a flood-threatened and relatively affluent community on the California coast that experienced significant backlash from residents during adaptation planning. Results suggest that commenters' baseline orientation was shaped primarily by their home value, amount of flood risk, and proximity to the coast. Looking further, I investigate the political character of commenters' participation, finding that a subset of influential participants engaged in partisan behavior and expressed deep mistrust toward city government—patterns not fully explained by home value or risk exposure. I argue that diffusion of information and idea-sharing within local homeowner networks better explains the rise in institutional mistrust and local polarization. These findings advance theories on the politics of climate adaptation backlash—politics that affect who retreats and when and have feedback effects for local, state, and federal policy in ways that shape long-term climate governance.

Author

• Andrew Malmuth, University of California-Los Angeles