That green gentrification has recently emerged as a concern in the brownfield redevelopment community does not mean that the process itself is new. “I think we can look back knowing what we know now…and we could say yes [green gentrification is happening and has happened with these projects],” said Economic Development Specialist Rick Howden. But for a long time, these projects have focused on the public good of cleaning brownfield sites up and making them healthier for people, he explained.

Green gentrification is the process by which environmental investments increase an area’s property values, rent burdens, and perceived desirability — all of which amplify displacement pressures. In doing so, green investments are tangled up in the same system of wealth inequality, ownership concentration, and housing that characterizes urban spaces around the country. During a chronic and increasingly severe affordable housing crisis, these pressures are even more acute. The effect of green gentrification is to once again deny low-income, indigenous, and communities of color access to the high quality green spaces that form the backbone infrastructure for living dignified and healthy lives. Addressing green gentrification does not diminish the importance of green amenities as worthy investments. Rather, it merely expands the realm of considerations that these investments must take into account so that they can do the justice work we say we want them to do.