Contested Spaces: Intimate Segregation and Environmental Gentrification on Chicago's 606 Trail

Abstract

The 606, a greenway in Chicago, has been lauded as a transformative revitalization project that provides diverse benefits and connects communities. However, the greenway has become a source of conflict among Latinx residents who question the trail's value and influence on their communities. Using observations and interviews with users and residents, this study examined potential consequences of The 606, including intimate segregation, which occurs when individuals use social and physical barriers to stratify themselves in a shared environment, and impacts of environmental gentrification. Results revealed division along The 606 with Latinx users isolating themselves in western trail segments, citing feelings of exclusion, discrimination, and resistance to gentrification. Conversely, white users were found to avoid western trail segments due to fear and pervasive stereotypes. The study highlights the urban park paradox, where green space provides benefits to communities while simultaneously generating unintentional consequences that potentially reinforce segregation and social inequities.

Green Gentrification and Health: A Scoping Review

“…The majority of studies (11 of 15) focused solely or in part on cities in the U.S., whereas three studies included cities in Europe. Among studies of U.S. cities, five focused on two significant greenway projects that have fostered green gentrification: Chicago's 606 [25,35,36] and the Atlanta BeltLine [37,38]. Table 2 shows the 15 studies organized by greening intervention (columns) and health outcomes/pathways (rows).…”

“…Table 2 shows the 15 studies organized by greening intervention (columns) and health outcomes/pathways (rows). Overall, the most studied greening interventions were new greenways or parks (n = 9 [25,27,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41], whereas two focused on street greening [15,42] and three on environmental remediation, such as brownfield cleanup and redevelopment [27,42,43]. Two studies focused on more than one greening intervention, covering environmental remediation followed by either street greening [42] or the creation of new parks [27].…”

“…Two other health pathways include the loss of informal green spaces that were used to grow food [41] and change in air pollution due to freeway rerouting [42]. As for greening interventions, several studies (n = 6) examined more than one health outcome or pathway [25,35,36,38,40,45] (see Table 2). More details about greening interventions and health outcomes or pathways are reported in Table 1.…”

“…Findings on whether green space use/physical activity differed by demographic characteristics were mixed. Among the eight studies on green space use/physical activity (see Table 2), four examined differences based on race/ethnicity [25,35,37,45], and two others between neighborhoods at different stages of gentrification [38,40]. Findings on how green space use/physical activities varied by race/ethnicity were inconsistent, although more studies found that marginalized people used green space less than White people than studies finding the opposite.…”

“…But in an investigation of Chicago's 606 trail (Illinois), Latinos/as were more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to use the trail more frequently, to be motivated to do so for health reasons, and to have higher physical activity as a result [25]. And another study on the 606 showed that trail use was segregated by race/ethnicity [35]: Latino/a people gravitated around the western end of the trail (surrounded by majority-Latino/a areas), and White people were mostly using the eastern side of the trail (surrounded by majority-White neighborhoods). These findings about segregated use were also highlighted in Kraft et al's [25] work.…”