Our article, Resilience Gentrification: Environmental Privilege in an Age of Coastal Climate Disasters, addresses post disaster recovery in Brooklyn and Barbuda and the comparison of the two. Climate disaster recovery worsens inequality Foreign development proceeded, focusing on eco-tourism, a ‘green’ path, but it did not incorporate the residents’ input. While they might have chosen a more ecological path, the choice was no longer theirs. The residents, who were to decide the future of the potential development, were evacuated to Antigua, and their collective voice was dispersed. Using ecological logic, again, we questioned the sense of foreign developers investing extensively in a location that was at increasing risk of climate-induced storms. In our roles as environmental sociologists, we are partnering with the Barbuda Council to help the island of 1,600 residents to create a sustainability plan broadly and specifically to determine to what extent they will lease public lands to foreign ecotourist developers.ĭuring this research in 2017, Hurricane Irma hit Barbuda and damaged or destroyed almost every building on the island. For examples, electrical systems were moved from basements to roofs, and higher walls were built to shield buildings from flooding.įast forward 10 years and we are working in the small, Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Buildings would be adapted so that future storms would be less harmful.

Using ecological logic, we surmised that this would halt, or at least slow, the planned development. The Gowanus Canal – a ‘ Superfund’ site which had formerly housed industrial sites and working-class residents –was being cleaned up for luxury condominium development and a sustainability themed grocery store (in this case a Whole Foods).ĭuring our research in 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit New York city and flooded the Gowanus neighborhood. The development along the Gowanus Canal was a case in point. We started researching the phenomenon more systematically and found a preponderance of green gentrification along waterfronts. We shared our observations with fellow social scientists and found that the concept of green gentrification resonated in other locations, too. We noticed the confluence between the greening and the gentrification, and we called it ‘green gentrification’.Īs we took students from our urban sustainability courses on field trips to sites like the Gowanus Canal and Brooklyn Bridge Park, we brought our sociological analysis, and specifically, an environmental justice lens to those sites, asking who gets these environmental ‘goods’? We didn’t plan to research green gentrification, and then resilience gentrification, we confronted it as part of our lived experience as environmental sociologists. Where urban greening was being implemented, an influx of ‘sustainability class’ residents – well-educated people with overt environmental values who wanted green amenities, like bike lanes and stores (such as Whole Foods) where they could shop for organic produce – were moving in. There was a new bike sharing program, composting in community gardens, and vast transformations of former industrial brownfields into parks.Īlongside this greening, we were also witness to gentrification: neighborhoods were shifting from ethnically diverse, working class, walk-to-work communities to wealthier, white-collar neighborhoods. Now they explain how recovery and rebuilding after climate disasters can exacerbate inequality.Īs environmentalists walking around Brooklyn in 2007, we were thrilled to see greening initiatives throughout the borough. Her work focuses on sustainability and alternatives to development, with a focus on Latin America. Tammy L Lewis is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College (CUNY) and professor at the CUNY Graduate Center in sociology and earth and environmental sciences.

His work focuses on the political economy of environment, technology and development. Kenneth A Gould is professor of sociology and dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Brooklyn College (CUNY), and professor of sociology, and earth and environmental sciences at CUNY Graduate Center.

Environmental study center brooklyn