The Road to Gentrification is paved with Good Intentions Presented by Rick Rybeck, Just Economics LLC
Federal, state, and local governments want to uplift low-income communities. For example, improving access to education, employment and shopping could be very helpful. But if transportation improvements are well-planned and well-executed, the result is rising land prices and rents. Rising land prices make it difficult to create affordable development near infrastructure. As a result, some developers will build luxury housing and retail near new or improved transportation facilities and services displace the intended beneficiaries, enriching landowners – most of whom weren’t very poor in the first place. Even policy improvements like reduced transit fares or increases in the minimum wage could result in higher rents. Some communities, fearing this result, will refuse to make needed improvements in low-income neighborhoods. In this environment, it seems that the road to gentrification is paved with good intentions.
What can each level of government do to ensure that the benefits of public programs and transportation facilities go to the intended beneficiaries and not to landowners? How can there be improvements to the transportation network that does not impact a person’s ability to remain in their neighborhood.
A 2017 TRB Annual Meeting Workshop that puts timely planning problems in front of willing teams of analysts to come up with solutions