Green Gentrification Case Study

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Pages: 3

The issue that we will be exploring is the concept of “green gentrification” along the Los Angeles River. Green gentrification, according to the Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, refers to “processes started by the implementation of an environmental planning agenda related to green spaces that lead to the exclusion and displacement of politically disenfranchised residents”. Jon Christensen, a Los Angeles citizen, is concerned about whether or not the city can achieve an “equitable and just greening.” In one of his pieces, he poses many questions about what harm this revitalization could cause for the lower-income families. In this piece, he writes that “while green spaces and parks yield important benefits …show more content…
One reason that the city may want to choose to put up all of these shops, ultimately causing gentrification, would be to increase revenue for the city, which would bring in more money via taxes, potentially boosting the economy for more than just one reason. The economy would be boosted, due to the fact that more money would be circulating around with all of the spending at these stores and shops, but more affluent people would be drawn to areas like this, ultimately bringing in more money to the area. Christensen goes on to write about the same issues in another article, writing about how the issue of gentrification would come about. In this separate article, he writes, “therefore we should be wary of new parks, because they could lead to rising property values, higher rents, and displacement, people being forced out of neighborhoods where they have long lived, such as Atwater Village, Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Mount Washington, Northeast Los Angeles, Frogtown, Elysian Valley, Lincoln Heights, Solano Canyon, Chinatown, and Dogtown—park-poor communities that advocated for green space in the first place.” Beyond the issue of gentrification, putting all of these attractions in the area would not allow people the room needed to enjoy the