Green Gentrification ─ Urban sustainability and the struggle for environmental justice

This book looks at the social consequences of urban sustainability initiatives, that is, "greening." Through a comparative examination of four cases of greening in Brooklyn, New York, it demonstrates that the outcomes of such initiatives, while often positive for environmental sustainability, tend to be socially unsustainable. Although greening is intended to improve the environmental conditions in neighbourhoods, it has the simultaneous consequence of pushing out lower income and minority residents and attracting wealthier in-migrants. Simply put, "greening whitens".

By examining four cases of greening within a single city, the book is able to hold a number of variables constant in order to isolate the specific environmental justice impacts of urban environmental amenity creation/restoration. It argues that inequality and injustice are not inevitable outcomes. Early public policy interventions aimed at neighbourhood stabilization can create more just sustainability outcomes. It highlights some of the negative social consequences of movements to "green" the city, and suggests policy choices that can be used to address them.

The theoretical scope of the analysis is global. It is widely recognized that cities are leading the way in responding to the global ecological crisis. The book applies the lens developed by a deep analysis of urban greening to urban greening initiatives globally. It offers a comparison of Brooklyn’s initiatives with those of other global cities across the planet. It makes explicit comparisons with urban greening initiatives in other U.S. cities (including Oakland, California and Chicago, Illinois), Latin America (including Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador and Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba, Brazil), as well as in Europe (including Barcelona, Spain and Rome, Italy).

This is a timely and original book for all those researching and studying environmental justice, urban planning, environmental sociology as well as urban environmental activists, city planners and policy makers interested in issues of urban greening and gentrification.

Kenneth A. Gould is Director of the Urban Sustainability Program and professor of Sociology at the City University of New York/Brooklyn College and Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center in Sociology and Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Tammy L. Lewis is former Director of the Urban Sustainability Program and professor of Sociology at the City University of New York/Brooklyn College and Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center in Sociology and Earth and Environmental Sciences.