December 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 38

GREENING

The field of parks and recreation
has come to recognize that when
large parks are built in low-income
neighborhoods, they might be contributing to, starting or accelerating
gentrification, a process involving
the influx of new, wealthier and,
often, white residents. Research
shows that the threat of green
gentrification is real in many U.S.
cities. Because parks make lowincome neighborhoods more desirable, they contribute to increasing
housing prices and can lead to the
displacement of longtime residents
for whom many park equity efforts
are designed and funded to serve.

Unintended Consequences
Gentrification, displacement and
equitable community development
have become the talk of major park
conferences.

Starting early, before developers
and investors recognize the
potential of park projects to
increase surrounding property
values, is considered best
for success.
We are engaged in an ongoing study to identify and classify
what we call " parks-related antidisplacement
strategies "
or
PRADS. Through a nationwide
search, we identified 27 large
park development projects in lowincome, gentrification-susceptible
neighborhoods in 19 cities. We reviewed policy documents and media accounts and conducted interviews with project stakeholders.
The good news is that stakeholders in about half of the projects
we surveyed, including many park
advocates and local community
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Parks & Recreation

organizations, are proposing and
actually implementing PRADS.
The bad news is that the other half
of the projects have not taken concrete actions yet.
We found 13 park projects in
12 cities that are employing substantive efforts to limit green gentrification. Based on these efforts,
we identified 26 types of PRADS
that have been implemented or
proposed in those 13 park projects,
with an average of seven PRADS
deployed per project. In most of
these projects, it is too early to evaluate the effectiveness of PRADS in
limiting displacement, but significant efforts are underway to curb
green gentrification.
In surveying these efforts, we
found that:
* A variety of strategies are being
deployed around park projects
across the country. Different
strategies are likely more applicable and effective, depending
on whether the local real estate
market is hot, warm or cool and
on state policies.
* Starting early, before developers and investors recognize the
potential of park projects to
increase surrounding property
values, is considered best for
success.
* Community engagement is crucial for implementing PRADS,
especially in the early stages of
park development projects. Indeed, the impetus for much of
this work around the country has
arisen from community-based
organizations.
* Projects in which equityoriented efforts are more deliberate tend to use multidisciplinary
approaches, integrating affordable housing, job training and
creation, and support for small
businesses.

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* Some projects include efforts to
influence system-wide changes
in public policies (for example,
ongoing park funding measures
that require anti-displacement
strategies) alongside projectspecific efforts (such as nonprofits building affordable housing
units near new parks).
* Efforts to address the threat of
green gentrification directly and
implement PRADS are leading
many park advocates to participate in broader initiatives to address displacement, whether it is
triggered by parks or not, and to
conceive of parks as just one crucial part of equitable community
development.

Analysis of Parks-Related
Anti-Displacement
Strategies
In our survey, we found 26 distinct
types of PRADS that have been
proposed or implemented in 13
park projects in 12 cities. Some of
these strategies are designed to limit green gentrification in neighborhoods near specific park projects,
and thus, have a more direct nexus
to parks, while others are citywide
policies and initiatives that also
benefit other parts of the cities. We
classified the 26 strategies into six
broad categories that describe three
types of actors who benefit from
PRADS - renters, current and
prospective homeowners, and businesses and workers - and three
types of actors who play a central
role in implementing PRADS -
private-sector developers, nonprofits and public housing organizations, and park funding agencies.
Of course, these strategies are
also relevant for park agencies and
park advocates, but to address the
challenges of green gentrification,
park agencies and advocates must

December 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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