Student: Thea Crowley
Graduation date: May 2020
Type: Area of Interest (minor)
Date approved: November 2017
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Summary
From the late 1800s to the mid 1900s, the upper Midwest particularly around the Great Lakes was an area of prosperity. The Midwest was seen as a representation of the characteristics that Americans should possess (High 2003). This region was monumental hub of industry. After the 1960s, America’s Heartland began to experience deindustrialization. This led to population decline, economic decline, and urban decay. Now, major urban spaces like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo are have high levels of poverty and extreme blight. The citizens that still reside in the broken heartland are required to ask “what happens now?”
As the Rust Belt moves forward, there must be redevelopment. This redevelopment comes with a lot of potential. In the city of Detroit, there is “at least 20 square miles of abandoned land” (Bird 2016). This abandoned land already features many projects including over 1,400 community garden and urban farming programs. However, planning for shrinking cities involves a lot of foresight and the woes of the Rust Belt cannot be mitigated through community gardens alone. This being said, a major question that goes with this is “What is the role of the state when it comes to urban revitalization?” The revitalization of these regions can be seen as problematic for the potential of gentrification and exploitation of the populations that already reside in the regions. For example, “City governments and the media downplay displacement in order to encourage new investment and develop attractions for tourists and residents” (Darity 2008). This idea is important to further study.
White flight in urban spaces during the initial decline of the rust belt has paved the way for many environmental injustices. It is common for the communities that lack the mobility to leave these urban spaces to be made up of minorities and people of low income backgrounds. Hazards like exposure to brownfields, air, water, and soil pollution from years of industrial work. It takes critical thought and understanding of the institutions and the role of the state and the way it helps social justice movements, and how they can hinder social justice (Kurtz 2009). There are also hazards that are associated with the high level of abandoned homes in the major cities of the Rust Belt. These issues of environmental injustice often show the exploitation that people of color and people of low socioeconomic status face in urban spaces. There is an article titled, “What Kind of Local and Regional Development and for Whom?” by Andy Pike , Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & John Tomaney. There are different styles of development and it is important to see how equity and growth are viewed in relation to a specific local space. For example, “The holistic approach sees development as necessarily broader than just the economy and encourages wider and more rounded conceptions of wellbeing and quality of life” (Pick, Rodrígues-Pose, and Tomaney 2007).
The value of redeveloping these urban spaces is monumental. Through this redevelopment there is a potential provide a model for development in post industrial society. Some people believe that the model should be rooted in plans that “green” the dilapidated cities. This includes plans for greening infrastructure as well as empowering the communities that exist by inviting them to take part in the strategic planning of space (Schilling and Logan 2008). Through strategic planning, the rust belt could both increase the quality of life for residents by mitigating health and environmental hazards as well as promoting efficient and ecologically-friendly development patterns. Life in cities involves many forces; for example, economics, politics, culture, and ecological processes.
This concentration paves the way for study involving development, urban spaces, and environmental justice. By situating in the Rust Belt, I hope to understand the connections between government and communities when revitalization is the goal for development. In areas where minority groups and low-income groups have been impacted disproportionately to other groups there is a sense that injustices should be both recognized and rectified. I would like to study how urban revitalization can empower the people within a city as well as elevate economic prosperity and protect ecological processes.
Questions
Descriptive
- What is the connection between urban renewal and gentrification?
- How does the state assist in the redevelopment of urban spaces?
- What is the history of the Rust Belt?
Explanatory
- Why do some groups experience disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards than other groups?
- What is the narrative around the Rust Belt and environmental injustice?
Evaluative
- How should communities connect with the state to promote growth?
- Is there value in eco-gentrification both positive and negative?
- Who benefits from urban revitalization and should it be for more people?
Instrumental
- How can historic examples of environmental injustice be addressed before redevelopment in urban spaces?
- What policies offer the best outcomes from revitalization in the Rust Belt?
- What limits should be put on potentially exploitative gentrification practices?
References
Bird, Winifred. 2016. “Hard-Pressed Rust Belt Cities Go Green to Aid Urban Revival.” Yale E360. May 31, 2016. http://e360.yale.edu/features/greening_rust_belt_cities_detroit_gary_indiana.
Darity, William. 2008. “Gale Virtual Reference Library – Document – Gentrification.”http://go.galegroup.com.watzekpx.lclark.edu/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=lacc_main&v=2.1&it&id=GALE%7CCX3045300917&asid=bc52f343c9d71aa4f791d9968887ad78#.
High, Steven. 2003. Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984. University of Toronto Press.
Kurtz, Hilda E. 2009. “Acknowledging the Racial State: An Agenda for Environmental Justice Research.”Antipode 41 (4): 684–704. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00694.x.
Pike, Andy, Andres Rodriguez-Pose, and John Tomaney. 2007. “What Kind of Local and Regional Development and for Whom?” Regional Studies 41 (9): 1253–69.
Schilling, Joseph, and Jonathan Logan. 2008. “Greening the Rust Belt: A Green Infrastructure Model for Right Sizing America’s Shrinking Cities.” Journal of the American Planning Association 74 (4):451–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360802354956.