January 1, 2022
“Vulnerable populations—many of whom have already been exposed to hazardous conditions in their neighborhoods—now stand to benefit least from greening initiatives. [emphasis mine]. The tragic irony here is that improvement of . . . neighborhoods through green infrastructure may cause . . . vulnerable populations to lose their neighborhoods altogether.” (Anguelovski, Connolly, Pearsall et al., 2019)
When environmentally sensitive people hear of city officials, planners, and humanitarians taking steps to secure a greener future, it is tempting to assume that such steps are uniformly positive – to envision cities with more trees, dedicated bike-paths, little to no flooding, strengthened coastlines and riverbanks, permeable hard-scaping, garden roofs, and solar-powered buildings. But are there instances in which green infrastructure plans in urban communities further gentrification?
That is the question posed by the authors of an intriguing opinion piece entitled, “Why Green ‘Climate Gentrification’ Threatens Poor and Vulnerable Populations.” I found this article particularly striking, because it taught me that urban gentrification can be bolstered not only by climate change itself, but also at times, by efforts to combat it.
The opinion piece was co-written by several social scientists from the United States and Europe who specialize in environmental justice. They explain how “resilient” infrastructure projects (which afford protections against the symptoms of climate change, such as flooding and rising sea levels in cities like Boston) can negatively affect people of color, immigrants, and low-income communities and make them more likely to be victims of displacement due to a reduction in affordable housing in the areas targeted for greening initiatives. This piece is not meant to discourage the development of green infrastructure projects; rather, it argues that in order for these projects to be carried out in a way that benefits all city residents, issues of elitism and displacement must be taken into sincere consideration.
Isabelle Anguelovski, James J. T. Connolly, Hamil Pearsall, Galia Shokry, Melissa Checker, Juliana Maantay, Kenneth Gould, Tammy Lewis, Andrew Maroko, J. Timmons Roberts (2019). Opinion: Why green “climate gentrification” threatens poor and vulnerable populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (52) 26139-26143; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1920490117.