Article
Gentrification, Displacement, and the Role of Public Investment
Journal of Planning Literature 2018, Vol. 33(1) 31-44 ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0885412217716439 journals.sagepub.com/home/jpl
Miriam Zuk1, Ariel H. Bierbaum2, Karen Chapple1, Karolina Gorska3 and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris4
Abstract Scholarly interest in the relationship between public investments and residential displacement dates back to the 1970s and the aftermath of displacement related to urban renewal. A new wave of scholarship examines the relationship of gentrification and displacement to public investment in transit infrastructure. Scholarship has generally conflated gentrification and displacement; however, this review argues for a clearer analytical distinction between the two. Although the displacement discussion in the United States began with the role of the public sector and now has returned to the same focus, it will be necessary to overcome methodological shortcomings to arrive at more definitive conclusions about the relationship. Keywords gentrification, displacement, neighborhood change, transportation, demographic analysis, gender/race/ethnicity, real estate, infrastructure and capital facilities In the United States, the ever-changing economies, demographics, and physical forms of metropolitan areas have fostered opportunity for some and hardship for others. These differential experiences “land” in place and specifically in neighborhoods. Scholars have devoted volumes to analyzing neighborhood decline, subsequent revitalization, and gentrification as a result of government, market, and individual interventions. Today, with increasing attention to millennial and baby boomer migration to central city neighborhoods, popular and scholarly conversations about gentrification have returned to the fore. The definitions and impacts of gentrification have been debated for at least fifty years. Central to these debates are the differential impacts on incumbent and new residents and questions of who bears the burden and who reaps the benefits of change. Consistently, activists, residents, and community groups identify displacement as a pressing concern. Anxieties about residential, cultural, and job displacement reflect the lived experiences of neighborhood change and the social memory of displacements past. These changes stem not just from individual action and market forces but also government intervention. The public sector makes investments to stimulate and respond to renewed interest in urban living; these investments put government at risk of becoming an agent of gentrification and displacement. However, the extent to which public investments catalyze residential displacement is not well-defined or quantified in the social science research. In this article, we review the body of research on residential displacement related to gentrification and public investment. Public investment encompasses a wide array of direct activities (e.g., urban redevelopment, open space revitalization, and construction of infrastructure) and indirect policy actions (e.g.,
land assembly, subsidies, and zoning). In this article, we narrow the focus to investments in transportation infrastructure, specifically rail transit. In recent years, public spending in transit has grown, while other public spending has stagnated.1 By tracing attempts to define and measure residential displacement, we highlight significant methodological limitations including data availability and the timing of displacement, which potentially mask the impacts of public investments on communities. Given renewed public investment in the urban core, and in particular the great popularity of transit-oriented development as a municipal smart growth strategy, the time is ripe to review the concepts and literature to inform policy and practice surrounding gentrification, residential displacement, and the role of public transportation investments. This literature review brings together extensive bodies of scholarship that have sought to examine these issues. First, we review definitions and approaches to studying gentrification and residential displacement. We argue that residential displacement is often a key characteristic of gentrification, yet is also analytically distinct. Second, we examine the range of studies that have tried to measure the magnitude of gentrification and residential
1
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA University of Maryland, College Park, Georgia, USA 3 Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Los Angeles, CA, USA 4 University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 2
Corresponding Author: Miriam Zuk, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Email: mzuk@berkeley.edu