Green Gentrification

Green Gentrification is a remarkable book. Gould and Lewis offer important insights for activists, policy-makers, and residents on one of the most central problems facing New York City today: how can cities go green without triggering gentrification? This book should be required reading for those interested in urban life today. Professor Julie Sze, Professor and Chair of American Studies at University of California, Davis In this path-breaking book, Gould and Lewis demonstrate that social inequality and injustice are not inevitable outcomes of urban sustainability projects. When community leaders demand that social equity becomes a core component of these plans, and public policy initiatives embrace that vision, Gould and Lewis find that urban greening can facilitate just sustainabilities. Green Gentrification offers some of the most persuasive arguments and evidence I am aware of that urban sustainability projects will succeed only when they take social justice and equity seriously. Professor David N. Pellow, Dehlsen Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project, University of California, Santa Barbara This book provides a much needed analysis of the challenges of urban sustainability and equity issues from the field of urban sociology. Their work is applicable to cities around the world, where efforts to clean-up toxic environments often create economic hardship for low-income and working poor urban residents. The reality that greening whitens socially diverse neighborhoods makes evident the persistent contradictions involved in how cities try to create just and livable places. These case studies offer historical accounts that provide insights into developing new strategies for equitable and ecologically vibrant places. Dr. Sarah Dooling, Assistant Professor, The University of Texas Green Gentrification makes an important contribution to this emerging field examining the social and racial impacts of urban greening, as it opens up the way for new studies measuring and unpacking the relationship between urban greening and socio-spatial inequality. Melissa Garcia-Lamarca, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability This book's strengths lie in its ability to move from big park issues of neighborhood change and community property beautification advocates to pocket parks and block-by-block seizure of low-rent ethnic industrial enclaves in North Brooklyn. The thread that runs throughout is the absence of a regulating force to equitably control development for long-term residents. By including strategies for action, Gould and Lewis put into practice the principles of public sociology. Each case provides a unique template for actor-developer-city arrangements in a development scenario that includes green gentrification. Jeffrey London, Hunter College, City University of New YorkCity & Community 16:3 September 2017