Urban parks, displacement, and the strategies to prevent green gentrification
Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Green gentrification continues to be a wicked problem facing urban society. As more cities turn to urban greening projects to mitigate climate change effects, solutions to address green gentrification need to be studied in order to preserve and protect low-income and minority communities. For far too long, green space access has been largely limited to wealthier and whiter urban residents. To create truly sustainable cities and not green utopias for the elite, solutions for green gentrification need to be studied and put in place. This paper studies the effectiveness of parks-related anti-displacement strategies (PRADS) in a case study of the Chicago 606 and the New York City High Line. Both the 606 and the High Line were elevated freight rail lines that have been transformed into parks. PRADS were considered and implemented in the community surrounding the 606, whereas they were not in the community surrounding the High Line. Comparisons on the community demographic from the 2000 Decennial Census and the 2017-2021 American Community Survey were done in order to measure how much the 606 and the High Line communities’ demographics have changed since the development of the parks. The changes in community demographics were then compared to the overall changes in demographics in the cities both parks are located in (Chicago and New York City). The data showed that the communities surrounding both the 606 and High Line have seen increases in wealth, housing costs, and changes in the racial makeup outside of the normal increases seen city-wide in Chicago and New York City. This indicates that green gentrification is taking place in the communities surrounding both parks. It also suggests that PRADS has not maintained the community’s demographics in the Chicago 606 community, except for the community’s total population and Black population. This research does not assume that PRADS are not overall ineffective, but that the way the strategies were implemented in Chicago have been ineffective or have yet to take effect. This information can help other cities and researchers in their journey of trying to mitigate green gentrification.
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Keywords
Urban parks, Displacement, Green gentrification, Parks-related anti-displacement strategies, Community demographic