Can urban renewal policies reverse neighborhood ethnic dynamics?

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact on neighborhood population dynamics of a major urban renewal policy implemented in Catalonia (Spain) between 2004 and 2010. Some of the most deprived neighborhoods in the region received large investments in their public spaces and facilities with the aim of attracting natives and high income individuals and of reducing the concentration of poverty and immigration. The control group comprises rejected projects and projects accepted towards the end of the program that, due to a fall in public tax revenues, were never executed. The results suggest that the urban renewal projects had little (if any) effects on population dynamics, suggesting that substantial investment in deprived neighborhoods is insufficient to attract natives and/or high income households. Interestingly, the sole exception were the interventions made in Barcelona's historic districts, where the policy seems to have augmented ongoing processes of urban revival into its most deprived neighborhoods furthering processes of gentrification.

Impacts of a French Urban Renewal Program on Local Housing Markets

“…The pattern is similar for impacts on household income, employment or poverty rate (Van Beckhoven and Van Kempen, 2003;Collins and Shester, 2013;Guyon, 2017;González-Pampillón et al, 2019).…”

“…We interpret our results as evidence that, despite its non-signicant eect on housing prices, the program was successful, in some measure, in driving renovated neighborhoods up on the social ladder. By looking at ows through the lens of housing units transactions instead of stocks of population, our analysis complements Guyon (2016) and González-Pampillón et al (2019)'s studies of urban renewal impacts on poverty rates and population social composition. It allows indeed for a ner view on the social changes induced by urban renewal and exemplies the fact that the absence of a sizable aggregate impact on housing prices may hide some non negligible eects on the social prole of new homeowners, that could be a signal of further changes in these neighborhoods.…”

Is it really bridging the gap? Fiber internet's impact on housing values and homebuyer demographics

“…Rabindran & Timmins, 2011;González-Pampillón et al, 2020), though it may lead to greater urban-rural divisions. 16 We believe this divergence across the urban-rural divide can be explained by racial differences in internet usage, availability, and access.…”

“…Widespread internet availability decreased voter turnout by crowding out political information conveyed on TV (Falck et al, 2014) and is partially blamed for the growing economic and infrastructure divide between urban and rural areas in the United States (Glass & Stefanova, 2010; Prieger, 2003; Whitacre & Mills, 2007). Public investment in high‐speed internet may also unintentionally lead to income or racial gentrification, similar to the cleanup of a superfund site (Gamper‐Rabindran & Timmins, 2011) or an urban renewal project (González‐Pampillón et al, 2020), as it is often accompanied with other public infrastructure projects that may induce sorting behavior (Tiebout, 1956). A rigorous empirical analysis on the extent to which fiber networks or even broadband networks have on the sociodemographic makeup of a community is absent from the literature, despite the importance of understanding who benefits from expanded internet access.…”

Commercial‐to‐residential land‐use conversion and residential recentralization in large cities

“…This recent residential recentralization is thought to be associated with a new neighbourhood housing cycle and neighbourhood externalities (Brueckner and Rosenthal 2009, Guerrieri et al 2013), people's greater desire to save commuting time and enjoy the non‐tradable amenities in central areas (McKinnish et al 2010, Lee and Lin 2018, Couture and Handbury 2020, Su 2022), changing labour market opportunities in different locations (Baum‐Snow and Hartley 2020) and urban renewal and environmental justice policies (Gamper‐Rabindran and Timmins 2011, González‐Pampillón et al 2020).…”