Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Many post-industrial cities have large proportions of vacant and derelict land (VDL), which have numerous deleterious environmental and health impacts on the proximate populations. VDL can be put to beneficial use for the communities, such as urban agriculture, passive/active recreation spaces, farmers’ markets, natural areas connecting with existing open space networks, or urban forestry phyto-remediation. Typically, VDL is located predominantly in poorer neighborhoods, presenting a disproportionate environmental and health risk to more vulnerable populations - risks that could be mitigated/reduced by constructive re-use. Conversely, re-use of VDL also poses significant risks to these communities, due to the potential for displacing poor people and marginalized groups through gentrification, which often follows community greening efforts and stimulates developer- or government-instituted green infrastructure projects and other large-scale development, potentially detrimental to the existing community. Communities may counter this trend by transforming VDL into informal greenspaces, benefitting the current community but not necessarily attracting gentrification. Therefore, VDL stays provisional and transitional, retaining some marginal qualities and not appearing totally “domesticated,” whilst still being partially under the control of the neighborhood residents. This is termed “just green enough” interventions. This study is designed to begin addressing these issues: Does this strategy improve communities and prevent the often pernicious impacts of gentrification? Or do cities engaged in extensive greening projects become inequitable due to the seemingly inevitable dislocation and further marginalization of the displaced populations? Are “green” cities inherently more unjust?