IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

We interrogate the interrelations of race and gentrification in two Chicago neighborhoods of historical significance to Mexican and Puerto Rican residents, Pilsen and Humboldt Park, respectively. The notion that material improvement drives up rents and taxes is often rendered in racially neutral terms: affluent people may invest in previously devalued places, and perhaps they happen to be predominantly white – due to previous histories of racial exclusion. But we found that material improvement does not directly lead to increased property values, particularly when practiced by people of color. Inversely, we demonstrate through this study that the mere arrival of white newcomers leads to surges in property value with or without upgrading of homes and new construction. The higher property values that result become equity and future capital for those buyers, but we should understand it as an “investment” of whiteness that pays racial dividends. We bridge the gap between qualitative and quantitative research by mapping the everyday life of racial change that is felt and known by residents of color in Chicago. For each neighborhood we provide GIS mapping of thirty years of property parcel data and Census block data on race, compared with a parcel level visual scan of material conditions in the built environment to reveal that, value assigned to whiteness irrespective of material improvement runs counter to standard explanations of gentrification but closely align with a model of racial capitalism.