The Monday Roundup: NYC’s triumph, Honsinger’s finale, a promising close-calls map, and more

“When you’re measuring greenhouse emissions per person within a country, density is all but destiny”

USAnian cities with increased production of class A luxury apartments typically see net increases in GHG emissions due to displacement of people who use the least CO2e*. Given that Mr. Anderson is an employee of a real-estate-industry-funded firm that lobbies for development of class A housing, it’s no surprise that they would make these kinds of claims (without associated evidence or citation).

“The most likely result of neighborhood gentrification, even if the process is accompanied by modest increases in density, is very modest reductions, maintenance of, or even increases in the area’s household GHG emissions, depending on how many lower-income residents are displaced by high-income residents.4 So, from the perspective of GHG emissions, gentrification is a serious problem. The impact of gentrification on a city’s overall emissions level will, of course, depend on where new arrivals come from (i.e. from within or from outside the jurisdiction), and where those who are displaced move. In so far as densification paired with climate policy remains limited to parts of cites only, rather than the urban fabric as a whole, evidence strongly suggests that gentrification seriously undermines GHG reduction efforts. From this more holistic perspective, we note Jones and Kammen’s (2014) finding that the densest American cities with the lowest GHG emissions have the most sprawling, high emissions suburbs; in Freiburg, Germany, densification and gentrification of the city core has led to increased automobile commuting, and ensuing emissions, in the city’s suburbs (Mössner and Miller, 2016). In short, emissions may be shifting around an urban area, but those neighborhoods with increasing numbers of affluent residents are very likely experiencing an overall increase.”

Rice, J. L., Cohen, D. A., Long, J., & Jurjevich, J. R. (2019). Contradictions of the Climate-Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco-Gentrification and Housing Justice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12740

See also:
kleinmanenergy[dot]upenn[dot]edu/research/publications/follow-the-carbon-the-case-for-neighborhood-level-carbon-footprints/

*Forcing people who consume the least CO2e to the car-centric outer-urban areas outweighs the small GHG reduction associated with modest increases in density.