Space, Time, and Public Health: Findings on Gentrification, Lead Poisoning, and Youth Violence in New York

• In Event: Place, Political Economy, & Environmental Injustice: Studies in Green Criminology

Abstract

Using mixed-methods (GIS analysis, spatial regression models, walking ethnographies, semi-structured open-ended interviews), my dissertation explores gentrification’s distribution across NYC. Specifically, I consider the relationship between childhood lead poisoning and youth violence rates across neighborhoods in the city, and what explains variations (if any) in these rates across different gentrified and ungentrified neighborhoods. My findings to date challenge the claims of so-called “pragmatic” public health researchers and municipal policymakers that gentrification could facilitate the reduction or elimination of lead poisoning and street crime. After confirming prior research on the existence of lead hotspots, my quantitative analysis revealed no correlation between gentrification and youth violence, and it also found one outlier neighborhood (i.e., Greenpoint) that challenged the predictions of the existing gentrification-health literature. Namely, I found that Greenpoint is both highly gentrified and has high lead poisoning rates. Using a mobile ethnography and walking interviews with Greenpoint residents, my qualitative analysis seeks to untangle this conundrum. Although unfinished, my initial findings suggest that gentrification may exacerbate existing issues with lead poisoning – potentially producing lower lead poisoning rates in marginalized intra-city regions, yet predominantly benefiting incoming gentrifiers and displacing long-term residents into more disadvantaged areas.

Author

• Paul Oder, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice / The Graduate Center