Altering the Urban Frontier: Gentrification and Public Parks in New York City

• Main Author: Evers, Sarah E
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2013
• Subjects: Gentrification; Spatial Exclusion; Public Space; Parks; New York City; Place and Environment; Urban Studies and Planning
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/28; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=pitzer_theses

After decades of cuts to federal funding, cities were left with few resources for public services, particularly parks and open spaces. Current trends of massive gentrification in New York City are changing the housing market and other components of the private sector. In addition to altering socio-spatial dynamics in the housing and consumer markets, gentrification can alter public spaces as well. By comparing three New York City neighborhoods at different stages of gentrification, I analyzed socio-spatial dynamics, public and private funding, event programming, and ethnographically observed changes in the physical and social landscape of the park, and neighborhood, over time.