Over Priced or Under Water: Green Gentrification in Gentilly, New Orleans

environmental justice;climate justice;resilience planning;equitable climate adaptation;School for Environment and Sustainability

Reid, EloiseReames, Tony ;

University of Michigan

关键词: environmental justice;    climate justice;    resilience planning;    equitable climate adaptation;    School for Environment and Sustainability;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/148675/Reid_Eloise_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Environmental gentrification research has tracked how neighborhoods have changed over time inrelation to either the transformation of a former brownfield site or the addition to a newenvironmental amenity like a park or greenway (Becerra, 2013; Pearsall, 2010). Additionally, theliterature has built upon these findings to ask questions about the entire process of environmentalgentrification (Angluevoski, 2016; Checker, 2011) and employed qualitative methods alongsidea temporospatial analysis. This paper analyzes green gentrification in the Gentilly neighborhoodof New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans is threatened by a combination of high levels of air andwater pollution from years of environmental racism, rising sea levels from human-inducedclimate change, and sinking land from both human and geological forces. Green gentrification isthe process of displacement through rising home value and associated costs (such as increasedinsurance, tax rates, and rising mortgages) when the neighborhood receives environmental goodsand benefits that were not present formerly. Through closely examining the Gentilly ResilienceDistrict, a federally funded and city-implemented water management project in its beginningstages, this research has shown that the planning process has not been inclusive of the Gentillyresidents who will be directly affected or impacted by the twelve different green infrastructureprojects being implemented in Gentilly. According to the New Orleans City Government, thepurpose of the Gentilly Resilience District is to ;;reduce flood risk, slow land subsidence, andencourage neighborhood revitalization.” The city of New Orleans was awarded more than $141million through the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) to implement elements ofthe Gentilly Resilience District proposal. In the summer of 2018, while a majority of thefieldwork was being completed for the thesis, participant observation and stakeholder interviewswere conducted in order to understand how the voices of residents of Gentilly were or were notincluded in the planning of this new resilience district. Through examining the responses tosurvey and interview questions, this thesis also assesses whether or not consensual politics andprocedural justice of the planning of the Gentilly Resilience District will impact thegentrification of Gentilly.