Gentrification

Sunset Park, Brooklyn

Councilmember Nixes Rezoning Request for Massive Brooklyn Redevelopment Project

Gentrification and displacement concerns won the day over a plan to rezone a former industrial area in Sunset Park, Brooklyn for new retail, offices, hotels and restaurants.

August 11, 2020 - The Real Deal

Project Connect, Capital Metro

Property Tax Could Fund $7 Billion Transit Plan in Austin, Displacement Mitigation Included

A $7 billion transit investment plan for Austin would include $300 million toward preventing displacement of communities in neighborhoods located near planned transit investments.

August 4, 2020 - KUT

San Francisco, California

S.F. Rezoning Plan Paused for Equity Analysis

A plan to rezone parcels around the busy intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, called the Hub, will undergo an analysis of the potential impacts of the plan on marginalized communities.

July 27, 2020 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Atlanta, Georgia

Mapping the Displacement Risk of Opportunity Zones

An Atlanta case study.

July 20, 2020 - Next City

Cincinnati, Ohio

Past Civil Unrest Sets the Table for Today's Gentrification

The story is similar in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Cincinnati, and Boston: scenes of widespread destruction—the fires, looting, and property damage of civil unrest—sow the seeds for redevelopment and gentrification.

July 15, 2020 - The New York Times

Choice Neighborhoods

Lawyers Connect Breonna Taylor's Murder to Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in Louisville

The lawyers for Breonna Taylor accuse police in Louisville of acting on behalf of a redevelopment plan led by the city with funding support from the federal government.

July 14, 2020 - Louisville Courier Journal

Columbia University Athletics

A New Generation of Community-Led Planning in New York

With a benchmark success in demanding rights for the community during an ongoing rezoning process in Inwood, a neighborhood in Manhattan, a new generation of community-led resistance to top-down planning is coalescing in New York City.

July 13, 2020 - Yes!

Seattle Victorian

Limited Housing Supply Correlated with Higher Rates of Gentrification

For insights into the gentrification of U.S. urban areas, researchers studied high-income buyers of housing in lower-income neighborhoods. To slow gentrification, the housing supply must be boosted, say the researchers.

June 28, 2020 - Urban Institute

Miami, Florida

11 Years Later: Miami 21 Zoning Code Ready for an Update

Miami 21 was approved in 2009 and heralded as a sign of a new era in zoning. Since then, Miami 21 has been both credited and blamed for the city's transformation.

June 22, 2020 - Miami Herald

Gentrification

Disaster Gentrification and COVID-19

Disaster gentrification is a widely documented phenomenon, like in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The coronavirus and the resulting economic downturn could have similar consequences.

April 13, 2020 - Crosscut

Townhouses

Gentrification Architecture—It’s Baffling

Critics say the design of homes that come with gentrification is too often uninspired, incompatible, and downright ugly.

March 16, 2020 - The Texas Observer

Minneapolis Minnesota

Minneapolis Riverfront Project Raises Issues of Equity

The Upper Harbor Terminal project is set to transform an area north of downtown, but residents are concerned about the long-term impacts and outcomes.

March 10, 2020 - Minnesota Public Radio

Curbing House Flippers in Brooklyn

A new cease-and-desist zone, meant to control the activities of house flippers, is under consideration in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York, as well as state laws that would increase the real estate transfer tax.

March 3, 2020 - The City

South Los Angeles Market-Rate Housing Development

Developer Sues L.A. After Area Planning Commissioners Reject Multi-Family Project

A development controversy also now an expanding legal controversy, after a local planning commission rejected a controversial development proposal allowed by zoning.

February 24, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

New York Harbor

Recent Studies Dig Into the Affordability Effects of Housing Developments

Several recent studies add fuel to the fire of whether market-rate housing helps affordability or drives low-income people from their neighborhoods.

February 18, 2020 - The New York Times

Atlanta

The Winners and Losers of Atlanta’s Transformation

The city has reinvented itself in many ways, but its residents are not reaping those benefits equally.

February 9, 2020 - Atlanta

Williamsburg Brooklyn

Opinion: N.Y.C. Neighborhood Rezoning Displaces Vulnerable Residents

Rezoning has resulted in the loss of affordable housing in areas like the South Bronx, and any proposals need to consider the long-term racial equity impacts, according to a recent report by Churches United for Fair Housing.

February 5, 2020 - City Limits

Los Angeles, California

The Newest Tool in the Affordable Housing Toolbox: Eminent Domain

Los Angeles has taken a rare step in anti-eviction action, considering the use of eminent domain to protect tenants of an apartment building in a gentrifying part of the city.

February 4, 2020 - Los Angeles Magazine

Berline, Germany

Berlin Caps Rents as Anti-Gentrification Measure

The capital city, known for its artists and party scene, is aiming to reduce gentrification by capping rent prices for a period of five years.

February 3, 2020 - The New York Times

Brooklyn

Opinion: Wealthy Residents Are Opposing Brooklyn Development to Protect Their Own Interests

Residents are arguing that a Williamsburg development would negatively affect the neighborhood. But it’s a grassroots effort to protect the status quo in a neighborhood where gentrification benefited them.

January 30, 2020 - New York Post

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.