Open Collections

Quinton, Jessica

University of British Columbia

Urban greening (i.e., increasing vegetation or other sustainability initiatives) has been central to efforts to improve urban sustainability and livability. However, it has been linked to negative social impacts through green gentrification, in which greening results in neighbourhood ‘upgrading’ and the displacement/exclusion of vulnerable/marginalized residents. To date, green gentrification research has centred around the notion of greening causing gentrification, and it has infrequently considered how greening intersects with non-green factors during the gentrification process. This dissertation takes a critical approach to refine our understanding of the relationship(s) between urban greening and gentrification. It does so by using a systematic literature review, spatiotemporal analyses, interviews with urban greening planners/practitioners, and surveys with residents of greened and gentrified neighbourhoods to: i) identify gaps in existing green gentrification literature; ii) determine whether urban greening has been common in gentrifying areas, and if so, why; and iii) identify how and why urban greening becomes connected to gentrification in Canadian cities. I found that the green gentrification literature provides little empirical evidence that greening alone causes gentrification by attracting gentrifiers to move in, despite some researchers defining the process this way (Chapter 2). By surveying residents in gentrified neighbourhoods, I established that green features were one of several important factors motivating households to move into both urban and suburban neighbourhoods (Chapter 5). My spatiotemporal analyses indicated that across all gentrifying areas, greening occurred very commonly before, during, and/or after gentrification, suggesting greening has become a common feature of the process (Chapter 3). Further supporting this, my interviews with urban green planners/practitioners highlighted that much of the funding/space for new greening comes from requirements/incentives levied on new developments (Chapter 4). This results in much of this greening being located adjacent to developments targeted towards higher-income households. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that greening is not always causing gentrification, but the two processes frequently become intertwined in current approaches to urban greening and development in Canada. This upholds inequitable distributions of vegetation and patterns of uneven development. These findings indicate the need to centre equity and justice in planning and policy across entire urban systems.

Text

2024-06-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88511

Forestry

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/