Ecological Gentrification

What is ecological gentrification? Ecological gentrification, also commonly referred to as green or environmental gentrification, is the process of increasing green infrastructure in urban neighborhoods. Ecological gentrification originated from a large environmental movement to increase green infrastructure and sustainability efforts in urban cities. Green infrastructure plans can include planting trees to clean the air, planting large plots of grass to serve as multifunctional community space, or planting community gardens, as well as many others.

While that may sound appealing to many, the newly developed green spaces are accompanied by underlying consequences that are responsible for significant shifts in the demographics of community members. Access to green space is in high demand among renters and home buyers. Therefore, neighborhoods subjected to green renewal projects experience drastic increases in property value. Realtors, developers, and landlords monopolize off the newly added green spaces, increasing rent well past the amount most of their current tenants can afford. The desirable economic value and lack of policies protecting residents are responsible for shifts in the demographics of communities with access to green space1,2.

Ecological gentrification projects typically target communities that have experienced environmental degradation as a result of decades of exposure to pollutants (chemical, water, and air)3. Ecologically, these areas are classified by impervious surfaces, reduced biological diversity, poor air quality, and build-up of trash and pollutants. Demographically, the communities are composed of predominately low-income, Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color (BIPOC Communities).

Benefits from green infrastructure? Introducing green infrastructure to communities provides an abundance of benefits: physical health, ecological, economic, social, and psychological (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Health, ecological, economic, social, and psychological benefits of green infrastructure. Figure made on Keynote.

Shift from green infrastructure to ecological gentrification: Urban renewal projects target low-income housing projects resided in by mostly BIPOC communities. Members of the BIPOC community have a long history of facing environmental and physical hardships at the hands of politicians and urban developers, a concept known as environmental racism12. Racial and economic minorities have been overlooked since the creation of the first urban environmentalism movement in 1970. Once the urban renewal project is complete, the property value drastically increases, displacing previous residents13. These tenants, many of which are identifying members of the BIPOC Community, are then left with no other option, but to find alternative, cheaper housing with less access to green space. The economic stress of ecological gentrification impacts the mental health, social activity, and physical health of displaced individuals (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Physical, Economic, social, and psychological consequences of environmental gentrification. Figure made on Keynote.

How can we prevent ecological gentrification? In order to rewrite the wrongs of previous green infrastructure plans, we must account for the economic and social implications of each project16, 17. This can be accomplished by putting policies in place to protect residents and engaging with communities to design green spaces that work best for their neighborhoods.

Since the original development of urban sustainability efforts, the focus on improving the implementing more green space with the goal of restoring the land has become distorted due to economic benefits of urban renewal. Green infrastructure projects must be reformed to allow equal access to green spaces. The equity of communities can be preserved by incorporating community land trusts that provide tax relief to landlords that approve the plans to maintain rent prices after the green community spaces have been implemented7,22.

Next, urban developers should alter their plans to incorporate the needs of the residents23. This will be possible by engaging in dialogue with the residents about the current plans and the willingness to incorporate feedback into the final renewal project. Residents are more likely to care about the upkeep of the community spaces if they are included in the original planning and development of the space. This merger of equity, community and sustainability will promote a new era of green urban renewal24.

 

Literature referenced

  1. Hwang, J. (2016). “Gentrification without Segregation: Race and Renewal in a Diversifying City,” Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Princeton.
  2. Saign, A. (2021). Environmental Gentrification: Urban Sustainability and the Equity Deficit. Minnesota Undergraduate Research & Academic Journal, 4(4).
  3. Safransky, S. (2014). Greening the urban frontier: Race, property, and resettlement in Detroit. Geoforum, 56, 237-248.
  4. Jelks, N. T. O., Jennings, V., & Rigolon, A. (2021). Green gentrification and health: A scoping review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(3), 907.
  5. Braswell, T. H. (2018). Fresh food, new faces: community gardening as ecological gentrification in St. Louis, Missouri. Agriculture and Human Values, 35(4), 809-822.
  6. Jennings, V., Browning, M. H., and Rigolon, A. (2019). Urban Green Spaces: Public Health and Sustainability in the United States, Switzerland: Springer Briefs in Geography.
  7. Alcock, I., White, M. P., Wheeler, B. W., Fleming, L. E., & Depledge, M. H. (2014). Longitudinal effects on mental health of moving to greener and less green urban areas. Environmental science & technology, 48(2), 1247-1255.
  8. National Recreation and Park Association, (2017). “Planning for Equity in Parks with Green Infrastructure,” American Planning Association.
  9. Pearman, F. A. (2019). Gentrification and academic achievement: A review of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 89(1), 125-165.
  10. Bussell, R., Bliesner, J.,  and Pezzoli, J. (2017). “UC Pursues Rooted Research with a Nonprofit, Links the Many Benefits of Community Gardens,” California Agriculture, vol. 71, no. 3, pp. 139-147.
  11. American Rivers, Water Environment Federation, American Society of Landscape Architects, ECONorthwest. (2012). Banking on green: A look at how green infrastructure can save municipalities money and provide economic benefits community-wide.
  12. Checker, M. (2011). Wiped out by the “greenwave”: Environmental gentrification and the paradoxical politics of urban sustainability. City & Society, 23(2), 210-229.
  13. Bockarjova, M., Botzen, W. J. W., Van Schie, M. H., & Koetse, M. J. (2020). Property price effects of green interventions in cities: A meta-analysis and implications for gentrification. Environmental Science & Policy, 112, 293-304.
  14. Smith, G. S., Archibald, P., & Thorpe, R. J. (2022). Race and obesity disparities among adults living in gentrifying neighborhoods. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-7.
  15. Bhavsar, N. A., Kumar, M., & Richman, L. (2020). Defining gentrification for epidemiologic research: A systematic review. Plos one, 15(5), e0233361.
  16. Haase, D., Kabisch, S., Haase, A., Andersson, E., Banzhaf, E., Baró, F., … & Wolff, M. (2017). Greening cities–To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities. Habitat International, 64, 41-48.
  17. Maia, A. T. A., Calcagni, F., Connolly, J. J. T., Anguelovski, I., & Langemeyer, J. (2020). Hidden drivers of social injustice: uncovering unequal cultural ecosystem services behind green gentrification. Environmental Science & Policy, 112, 254-263.
  18. Sims, M., Kershaw, K. N., Breathett, K., Jackson, E. A., Lewis, L. M., Mujahid, M. S., … & American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. (2020). Importance of housing and cardiovascular health and well-being: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 13(8), e000089.
  19. Fussell, E., & Lowe, S. R. (2014). The impact of housing displacement on the mental health of low-income parents after Hurricane Katrina. Social Science & Medicine, 113, 137-144.
  20. Gibbons, J. (2019). Are gentrifying neighborhoods more stressful? A multilevel analysis of self-rated stress. SSM-population health, 7, 100358.
  21. Binet, A., Zayas del Rio, G., Arcaya, M., Roderigues, G., & Gavin, V. (2021). ‘It feels like money’s just flying out the window’: financial security, stress and health in gentrifying neighborhoods. Cities & Health, 1-16.
  22. National Recreation and Park Association , “Financing Green Infrastructure Projects,” American Planning Association , 2017.
  23. Rupprecht, C. D., & Byrne, J. A. (2017). Informal urban green space as anti-gentrification strategy. Just Green Enough: Urban Development and Environmental Gentrification; Routledge Equity, Justice and the Sustainable City.
  24. Agyeman, R. D. Bullard and B. Evans, “Exploring the Nexus: Bringing Together Sustainability,Environmental Justice and Equity,” Space & Policy, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 77-90, 2002.
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