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Mapping gentrification and displacement pressure: An exploration of four distinct methodologies
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Mapping gentrification and displacement pressure: An exploration of four distinct methodologies

Benjamin Preis, Aarthi Janakiraman, Alex Bob and Justin Steil
Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland), v 58(2), pp 405-424
01 Feb 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020903011
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

Environmental Sciences & Ecology Environmental Studies Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Social Sciences Urban Studies
As housing costs continue to increase across many cities in North America and Europe, local governments face pressure to understand how housing's rising cost is changing neighbourhoods and to ensure that everyone can access a home they can afford. To confront displacement concerns, cities are adapting models developed within academia to identify neighbourhoods that may be susceptible to gentrification and displacement. We compare four gentrification and displacement risk models developed by and for the US cities of Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and apply all four methodologies to one city, Boston. We identify the geographic areas of agreement and disagreement among the methods. The comparison reveals striking differences between the models, both in inputs and outputs. Of the 18 variables considered among the four models, only two variables appear in all four models. In the resulting maps, the four methods identified between 25 and 119 of the 180 Boston census tracts as at risk of gentrification and displacement, or as currently gentrifying. There are only seven tracts that all four models agreed were either gentrifying or at risk of gentrification and displacement. The findings indicate a need for cities to consider critically the assumptions of the models that are included in urban policy documents, as indicators and thresholds have major impacts on how neighbourhoods in the liminal space of gentrification and displacement are characterised. This novel comparison of United States local government analyses of gentrification provides insight as modelling moves from theory to practice.

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58 citations in Web of Science
56 citations in Scopus

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#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

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Web of Science research areas
Environmental Studies
Urban Studies
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