Laura Kiesel Speaks on Eco-Genrification at a Livable California teleconference on 11 5 22
We reached out to Ms. Kiesel after reading her Salon article, Why “greening” cities can make gentrification worse — and often doesn’t help the environment either” (https://www.salon.com/2022/02/26/eco-gentrification/)
Laura Kiesel is a Boston freelance writer and editor.
Her Bio on SpeakerHub reads in part: “As an independent journalist and writer, my articles, essays and op-eds have appeared in many well-renowned outlets, including The Atlantic, The Guardian, Politico, Salon, the Washington Post, Vice, Vox, Ozy, Al-Jazeera America, the New Daily News and others. I have written about everything from the impacts of climate change on agriculture (and vice versa), to rising income inequality between the classes, to living with chronic pain and disease. Having grown up in the 1980s and 90s as the daughter of a drug addict, I am also keenly aware of the effects of the opioid epidemic on children and have spoken on that many times. While my Bachelor’s degree is in English and journalism, I attained a graduate degree in environmental science and policy.”
Video Presentation:
Presentation Slides (Downloadable):
Eco-gentrification_Kiesel (1)Laura subsequently provided a great bibliography of resources related to the topic covered in her article and subjects discussed (below):
On the High Line in NYC and Eco-gentrification:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204619314574
Tree equity scoring for different cities:
https://treeequityscore.org/
This article I referenced in today’s discussion on equity in accessing tree cover/greenspaces:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32045427/
UC Berkeley Study on urban density and emissions:
This is a really great (long) paper that goes into the issues I discussed about so-called sustainability arguments for pushing for housing density but how it leads to displacement, focusing on gentrification trends in Seattle:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2427.12740
This is the article I referenced that indicates high rises are not as sustainable as low and mid rises:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-021-00034-w
Another article on low rise v. high rise:
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-high-rise-energy-intensive-low-rise.html
Issues with net zero buildings:
https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/problem-net-zero-buildings-and-case-net-zero-neighborhoods
Study on job opportunities car ownership among low income renters/Sect 8 voucher holders:
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/driving-opportunity-understanding-links-among-transportation-access-residential-outcomes-and-economic-opportunity-housing-voucher-recipients
Transportation barriers to healthcare access:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265215/
Here’s also a good article in the Atlantic about how our substandard public transit system impacts low income and disabled people:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/stranded-how-americas-failing-public-transportation-increases-inequality/393419/
This article on AMIs in Boston and how many even earmarked as “affordable” in market rate developments are at AMIs too high for many Bostonians:
https://www.affordableboston.org/real-boston-incomes
On the effects of rent control reducing displacement among BIPOC renters:
https://ggwash.org/view/76900/rent-control-rental-housing-displacement-dc-policy-center
Here are some resources on density:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2018035pap.pdf
This study found (via modeling projections) that even if you increased overall housing stock by 20% in the Boston metro area you’d only get price savings of just .5% and that would be experienced mostly by the upper income distribution, with little-to-no tangible benefits to the lower income distribution.
UC-Berkeley’s Anti-Displacement Study:
https://communityinnovation.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/housing_production_filtering_and_displacement_untangling_the_relationships.pdf
As noted by this study: “…both market-rate and subsidized housing reduce displacement at the regional level, yet subsidized housing has over double the impact of market-rate units. After evaluating the impact of market rate and subsidized housing built in the 1990s on displacement occurring in the 2000s, to ensure that we are examining before and after relationships, we find that market-rate development has an insignificant effect on displacement….”
MIT study on upzoning in Chicago:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1078087418824672?journalCode=uarb
Here is an article offering an easy-to-read synopsis of the MIT study:
And in case people are interested, here is some of my other housing-related articles/op-eds and interviews:
Specific to Section 8 vouchers:
Housing and Disability: https://rootedinrights.org/affordable-housing-for-disabled-people-should-be-a-right-not-a-luxury/
Arlington-focused: https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/arlington-advocate/2021/04/07/opinion-arlington-needs-more-genuinely-affordable-housing-now/7069775002/
Interviews:
With Class Action (a nonprofit focusing on classism):
With my town’s news channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM49XtIDm44
Impacts of parking bans:
https://www.yourarlington.com/easyblog/entry/29-town-parking/2513-parking-081918.html
And this is the Housing Justice and Equity panel I planned and hosted back in 2021: