We Built This City: An Analysis On The Environmental Impacts Of Gentrification

Issues of sustainability and environmentalism are becoming increasingly problematic in urban planning and city structures. These issues are being amplified through the process of gentrification. This paper aims to investigate and determine the environmental impacts of gentrification on urban districts. Gentrification is the action by which the character or a poor urban area is changed by an influx of wealthier residents, improved building structures, and new businesses. Gentrification is increasingly problematic because this rapid transformation displaces the current inhabitants who can no longer afford to live in their own neighborhood. While the societal implications are clear, there is little existing work on the environmental implications of this process. Therefore, the main research question of this paper is: what are the environmental impacts of gentrification?

The goal of this honors thesis is to understand, analyze, and discuss gentrification, in terms of both environmental and social justice. To understand the potential environmental impacts associated with gentrification, this study leverages an energy optimization model that predicts patterns and changes in gentrified districts. The thesis specifically looks at energy supply, energy demand, carbon emissions, and changes in building mix in gentrified districts and compares this analysis to districts that have not been gentrified. This paper also analyzes the greater repercussions and history of gentrification to make these findings more inclusive and holistic. Hopefully these conclusions will allow us to better understand the impacts of gentrification and offer solutions to make this process more sustainable and less harmful to the lower-income communities being driven out of their homes.