Development Without Gentrification

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• What municipal planners, community leaders, and other professionals can do to protect Latino neighborhoods from displacement caused by gentrification using the tools they have at their disposal
• Strategies, policies, and plans to enhance, preserve, and protect neighborhoods through a participatory-planning process
• How to identify innovative approaches to supporting development that mitigates gentrification-based displacement such as public-private partnerships and repurposing publicly owned buildings

MORE SESSION DETAILS

In cities across the country — including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brownsville (Texas) — Latino communities are undergoing gentrification. Gentrification is oftentimes driven by policies focused on smart growth, infill, transit-oriented development, and densification as well as other planning approaches intended to encourage rehabilitation, walkability, and more livable neighborhoods. These redevelopment tools often result in increased property values but at the expense of the subsequent involuntary displacement of low-income residents and businesses. Some of the nation’s most prominent cases of gentrification will be highlighted, including East Los Angeles, Humboldt Park in Chicago, and West Brownsville in Texas. This panel explores what municipal planners can do to help community leaders and residents encourage development that also protects Latino neighborhoods from displacement, using the tools at their disposal and addressing the need to create development without displacement. The panel will discuss innovative zoning and land-use policies that reflect, enhance, and protect the needs of Latino communities. An extended question-and-answer period will explore approaches such as grassroots planning, public-private partnerships, and repurposing publicly owned buildings.