The connection between economic diversity and urban renewal
Urban areas have a tendency to build upon themselves. Perhaps as long as cities have existed, they have been in the process of being ‘renewed.’ In modern urban America, the issue of renewal is intricately intertwined with the concept of gentrification, whereby the demographics of a neighborhood shift to favor wealthier individuals. For example, removing public housing and increasing property taxes can force poorer individuals out of their neighborhoods. Fears of enabling this trend often slow attempts at neighborhood revitalization. But experience shows that gentrification must be differentiated from increased economic diversity. Indeed, in order for urban areas to truly improve, mixed-income neighborhoods must be encouraged as part of efforts to improve public housing and education.
Combating Gentrification
Neighborhoods can be improved while preventing the negative effects of gentrification through a variety of local and federal mechanisms. For example, Jennifer Vey, fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, explained to the HPR how “local laws often help mitigate taxes for homeowners [by creating] caps on how much property taxes can increase.” Homeowners thus are not threatened by positive neighborhood developments, and may even see their property values increase while their taxes hold constant. According to Vey, “improvements are not gentrification [and] research shows that existing residents like improvements to their neighborhoods. We want to see a situation where neighborhoods improve, which sometimes includes increased real estate prices, [but we] must make sure that neighborhoods do not become unaffordable.” Vey also noted that the real problem with gentrification exists “for renters where rent can increase and then some renters are squeezed out.”
Mixing It Up
A certain level of controlled gentrification, however, can increase economic diversity. Economic diversity matters because mixed-income neighborhoods thrive in the United States, especially when compared to impoverished neighborhoods. If most residents in a certain neighborhood are impoverished, schools begin to fail, crime increases, and flight to other neighborhoods takes place. The Brookings Institution’s 2005 study of the successes and failures of the HOPE VI program — a federal program designed to create mixed-income housing in place of high-density public housing projects — cites the neighborhood of Centennial Place in Atlanta as one example of a failed urban zone redeemed by a mixed-income approach. The neighborhood had formerly contained concentrated poverty in large and outdated housing projects accompanied by high crime rates, failing schools, and little to no services or investment (Turbov and Piper, 23). It offered a textbook example of how, according to Vey, “Our old way of public housing does not work very well. Concentrating poor people in large buildings or certain neighborhoods does not have a good outcome, as it leads to poor schools and markets [that are] not perceived to be good for goods and services.”
Urban rejuvenation thus often requires changes to public and low-income housing in order to create mixed-income neighborhoods. As Centennial Place, for example, became more economically diverse and home to more mixed-income housing, crime rates and unemployment fell, the school improved, and the neighborhood became an attractive place to live. Dr. Edward Blakely, who leads the post-Katrina recovery effort in New Orleans, agrees that creating mixed-income housing is important for rejuvenation. He told the HPR, “the best thing is to not have public housing [and] instead, use those resources to create high quality living environments that are mixed along economic and racial lines.” In fact, creating racially and economically mixed communities is an integral part of the New Orleans recovery effort. Blakely notes that the city has made a concerted effort to “mix low-income housing into different neighborhoods” by, for example, requiring economic diversity provisions in any plans to rebuild using government money.
The Result
Revitalization of urban areas through the creation of mixed-income communities improves many aspects of these neighborhoods. Education is one such aspect; as neighborhoods see greater diversity in income levels of residents, schools become higher-quality. Yet this improvement does not happen automatically; instead, according to Vey, “it takes innovating to improve educational opportunities for existing residents and make neighborhoods more attractive to incomers.” In order for urban areas to truly improve, as in the case of Centennial Place in Atlanta and in neighborhoods in New Orleans, economic diversity must increase and must accompany attempts to improve education and public housing. Only then can modern urban revitalization programs truly succeed.