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Learn about climate migration.
It's Tuesday and the world is still on fire. For many of us, global warming has never felt so urgent as it does now. And as we think about how to save the future, we can't forget that millions already impacted by environmental disasters are still in need. Today, Jami introduces the concept of climate migration to the newsletter. She explains how the vulnerable communities on the frontlines of environmental crisis need to be at the center of our path forward.
Some of you received incorrect key takeaways in yesterday's article on tax inequity. My mistake.You can find them updated on our archives.
Thank you for all your support! If you enjoy this newsletter, consider giving one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.
– Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Support people and organizations fighting for climate justice, not just against climate change. Check out Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (@gcclp) and your local members of the Climate Justice Alliance (@cjaourpower).
Hold corporations--and the governmental bodies that enable them-- accountable for their actions. Companies benefit when we only focus on our individual actions (recycling, shopping, etc.) instead of corporate culpability.
Investigate the politicians on your ballot. What are their positions on the Green New Deal? On immigration? On social justice? These issues all affect climate migration.
Read more about international climate migration and American climate migration in ProPublica.
GET EDUCATED
By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)
The wildfires blazing across the West Coast have brought climate migration back to the forefront of many American’s minds. This year, almost 8000 fires have burned over 3.6 million acres of land in California alone (Cal Fire), and many residents are wondering whether they can stay (CNN). Whether they should stay. Or whether they should pick up and move away from their families and communities, joining the ever-growing climate migration across the globe.
Climate migration refers to the movement of people due to climate change-induced environmental stressors, including heat, drought, and natural disasters. This is already happening globally; in 2018 alone, 17.2 million people were recorded as internally displaced (within their own countries) by environmental disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre). But according to researchers, almost 162 million Americans will experience a “decline in their environment, namely, more heat and less water” within their lifetimes (NY Times). Another study predicts that 1 in 12 Americans in the South will have to move within 45 years due to environmental factors (Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists). While such migration will eventually affect everyone on earth, it matters to anti-racism work because of what communities are most affected. Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, developing countries, and low-income and underserved populations (NAACP).
“It is important to acknowledge that those impacted the most by the climate crisis are victims to decades and centuries of norms, values, regulations, behaviors, and policies that have made it this way today,” wrote Chanté Harris in a previous newsletter on climate change. Hurricane Katrina is an excellent and terrible example. In the New Orleans area alone, 272,000 Black people were displaced, comprising 73% of the parish’s total displaced population (Congressional Research Service). Across the Gulf South, a lack of affordable housing has made it impossible for many former residents to return to the area.
In 2015, a decade after the disaster, there was only one-third as many public housing apartments in New Orleans as before the disaster, while housing costs in general New Orleans rose 40% (AmnestyUSA). The same year, a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR showed that white residents and Black residents had had very different experiences after the crisis. 70% of white residents were able to return to their homes within a year, while less than half of Black residents were able to. Additionally, around half of both the Black and low-income populations did not believe recovery efforts had helped them. In contrast, about two-thirds of both the white and high-income populations thought that recovery efforts had helped them. (Kaiser Family Foundation). Read more about how climate migration will reshape America in New York Times Magazine.
After such disasters, people— especially people of color and those below the poverty line—have to pick between two terrible choices: to remain in their homes and communities (places that will likely be struck by disaster again, with governments that choose not to prioritize their recovery), or to leave. Internationally the situation is even more dire. In India, 600 million people are already facing a water crisis, whether because of drought or degradation of water quality (National Geographic). Each year, runoff declines and water becomes scarcer (Climate Institute). Such events are leading to mass climate migration across the globe at the same time as nationalistic immigration policies rise in the West (ProPublica). Here, yet again, the climate crisis goes head-to-head with America’s racist, xenophobic laws. Read ProPublica’s report and model of climate migration across international borders.
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Our cities and our communities are not prepared. In fact, our economic system and our social systems are only prepared to make profit off of people who migrate. This will cause rounds of climate gentrification, and it will also penalize the movement of people, usually through exploited labor and usually through criminalization.
Colette Pichon Battle, founder of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, an organization that “advances structural shifts toward ecological equity and climate justice in Gulf South communities of color.” Watch the rest of her TED Talk here.
Climate migration shows the necessity of climate justice, a movement that focuses specifically on addressing racial and socioeconomic inequities and transitioning away from our current toxic, exploitative economy. (Later, we’ll do a deeper dive into climate justice, but for now, check out the Just Transition Framework for Change from the Climate Justice Alliance.)
Issues like climate change can feel insurmountable for us individuals to deal with. We don’t always know what to do in response. And indeed, many well-meaning initiatives (like banning plastic straws) can shift the focus onto individual culpability instead of corporate accountability, while having their own unintended side effects (NPR). But what I do know is: there is power in community action. We cannot rely on our government or on a top-down plan of action. Look at the member list at Climate Justice Alliance for organizations in your area. Support them—by volunteering your time, money, or social media feed. And when you think or talk about climate change or climate migration, make sure you remember the ways that racism impacts the climate crisis.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Because of climate change, many areas are becoming uninhabitable for humans. The shifting environment is leading to climate migration across the globe.
In 2018 alone, at least 17.2 million people were displaced by environmental disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).
Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, developing countries, and low-income and underserved populations (NAACP).
RELATED ISSUES
7/25/2020 | Study Hall! How to be a better ally, petitions, and plastics.
7/24/2020 | Reduce your plastic consumption.
7/12/2020 | Learn how air pollution exacerbates COVID-19.
7/5/2020 | Support the Navajo Nation through COVID-19.
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Protect your community from the harm of gentrification.
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Today marks the start of Going Home, a three-part series that analyzes the systemic racism that influences the cities and communities that we call home. Today outlines the impact of gentrification on lower-income communities and communities of color.
Because of the web of practices and policies that enforce systemic racism, we’ll be referencing and expanding upon topics we’ve already discussed. We’ll link to specific articles in our archives frequently. Know that this is a resource for you – please search for your question there before reaching out! I added a search bar. We're on Issue #47, so there's lots to read!
We're seeking submissions from readers on several topics – review and respond here. And if you haven't already, consider supporting this work with a one-time or monthly contribution. You can give via our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or give $5/month on Patreon.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
If you live in a gentrified / gentrifying community:
1. Find a local organization near you advocating for housing justice and take action by signing up to volunteer, donate, or support an event.
2. Review these maps of displacement of Black populations in major cities across the U.S.
GET EDUCATED
What's Gentrification?
The term “gentrification” was first coined in the 1960s by British sociologist Ruth Glass to describe the displacement of the working-class residents of London neighborhoods by middle-class newcomers (NCRC).
People tend to center gentrification as an interpersonal issue, focusing on how white millennials with higher income and education levels tend to move to “edgier,” and often non-white, neighborhoods for cheaper rent and more culture. But it’s more systemic than that (and yes, non-white people can contribute to gentrification). Gentrification is market-driven by real estate developers and businesses that follow economic opportunities and encourage wealthier communities to move (NCRC). It’s also fueled politically; realizing the economic benefit of gentrification, state, and local governments shifted their investments to follow suit – moving funds away from public housing and into tax credits and revitalization to make these areas more attractive (Curbed). Altogether, gentrification is a confluence of various factors, which leads to the same result: neighborhoods experience a net loss of low-income residents, housing costs rise, and overall, non-white residents are replaced by higher-income white gentrifiers (NCRC).
It’s important to remember that gentrification is profit-driven, not community-driven. Although many may cite the benefits of concentrated investment in redeveloping urban communities, we have to remember that those benefits aren’t equally distributed. And the most marginalized, vulnerable communities often pay the price.
How Gentrification Fuels Displacement
A major component of that is displacement, or, how people are forced out of neighborhoods, because of the impact of gentrification. As mentioned earlier, some of this displacement is a natural response to rising living costs as neighborhoods transform. And some people, of course, choose to stay – despite the difficulties. But a darker, more violent side of displacement has been reported for decades in gentrifying cities across America. Incentivized by the new financial opportunities, landlords have done whatever it takes to get tenants out of their buildings, from threatening them, intentionally creating unsafe living conditions, and even committing arson.
Consider the Hoboken arson wave. Back in the 1960s, the city of Hoboken, NJ was a small and poor community. With just 45,000 residents, Hoboken had the second-highest rate of welfare recipients in the state and a 12% unemployment rate. As New York City swiftly gentrified in the 1970s – fueled by the growth of the financial sector on Wall Street – the close proximity of Hoboken attracted these Ivy League graduate, wealthy young professionals (Washington Post).
Between 1978 and 1983, nearly 500 fires ripped through tenements and rooming houses throughout the city. The blazes killed 55 people and displaced nearly 8,000 people, the majority of them identifying as Puerto Rican. Most never returned to the city (Journal of American History). Nearly every fire, investigators determined, had been the result of arson, but no one was charged. It was difficult to determine that a landlord was guilty of conspiracy to start a fire in their own building without proof, and at the time, the evidence of economic gain wasn’t enough (Washington Post).
“In 1980, Olga Ramos, who owned a tenement at 12th and Washington streets, asked the city’s rent-control board for a $50-per-month rent increase, roughly four times the allowed annual cap. After Ramos’s request was denied, she told tenants that she “she would get them out, even if she had to burn down the building.” In the predawn hours of Oct. 24, 1981, a fire swept through the property. Eleven people, including all the members of one family, were killed” (Washington Post).
Unsurprisingly, this story isn’t unique to Hoboken. Intentional fires were documented throughout Boston’s gentrifying Back Bay neighborhood, downtown Indianapolis, and Chicago during the same time period, each responding to each city’s gentrification (Process History). And a recent spate of arson in the Mission District of San Francisco re-ignited this conversation (GQ) although motivations seem unclear (SFist). Similar stories of landlord sabotage emerged from Brooklyn in the mid-2010s (Gothamist).
Impact of Gentrification
Regardless of how or why, displacement forces lower-income families to move, either further to the fringes of their existing community, or to another community that is worse off, which exacerbates the burdens of poverty that these families are already experiencing. You can read two studies that analyze these trends in Philadephia via U.S. Housing and Urban Development and Science Direct. The individuals impacted experience the stress and anxiety of relocation, the loss of existing community support systems, and are often burdened with longer commutes – or changing jobs altogether (CJJC). Moving constantly often negatively impacts a lower-income family’s ability to accumulate wealth (American Progress). And systemically, displacement fuels racial and economic segregation that creates increased health risks, disparities in educational funding and opportunities, and other inequalities. Read more about inequities of public school funding in an earlier Anti-Racism Daily newsletter.
Criminalization often increases in gentrifying neighborhoods, as perceptions of what safety and public order change with the new residents. Theories believe that activity that was previously considered normal becomes suspicious, and newcomers—many of whom are white—are more inclined to get law enforcement involved (The Atlantic). This, along with the typical increase of bars and nightlife in gentrifying neighborhoods often leads to more police interactions with the community, and increases the likelihood of a negative interaction between law enforcement and people of color. Beyond that, gentrifying neighborhoods leads to gentrified criminal justice systems, which can accelerate more white people in leadership as, for example, cops or jurors (The Atlantic). Related: Read how 311 calls define gentrifying neighborhoods (NYMag).
Lawyers representing Breonna Taylor's family cite this type of criminalization as why police officers broke down her door executing a nighttime, no-knock warrant, and shot her 8 times. According to the lawsuit, police were using information about drug activity to vacate homes on Elliott Avenue for a "high dollar" real estate development, including new homes, a café, and an amphitheater (CNN). A "primary roadblock" to this project was the home of an ex-boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, who was allegedly linked to criminal activity. The home on Elliott Avenue was about 10 miles away from Taylor's house, but police raided it anyway, allegedly encouraged to speed things along and help get the project completed to fruition (Blavity).
A spokesperson for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer refuted the allegations.
“Fifty years from now, I think there's a strong and frightening possibility that after long waves of investment and disinvestment, you'll have large swaths of the city where the rich are hunkered down, and large parts of the map where poor people can't afford to live and nobody else wants to live there”.
Sharon Zukin, author of Naked City and professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, for Curbed
Our Responsibility
The transformation of urban spaces is inevitable, and many communities are eager to redevelop their community to create more health and economic opportunity. But gentrification doesn’t have to be this way. We must adopt new models that center those most vulnerable when considering redeveloping an existing community. For starters, communities need to center the voices of the existing population to create more participatory policies, advocate for their needs against landlords, and have them as part of the design process (CJJC).
And in some cases, gentrification has been found to actually benefit the existing community – but many of those individuals are already homeowners, a path that hasn’t equitably been provided to residents in urban communities for generations (we’ll talk about this topic in full at another time, but you can get started with this article from American Progress). So states and governments can offer property tax caps or breaks for existing long-term residents (referred to as “homestead exemptions”) so they can keep their own, or provide renters with the opportunity and financing to purchase their units. Similar initiatives can be extended to local businesses to ensure they can survive, perhaps even thrive, in a new environment (Washington Post).
The impact of COVID-19 will have interesting implications on real estate development, particularly in once gentrifying neighborhoods (NYTimes). Now more than ever, if you live in a gentrifying community, and especially if you identify as white and have the power and privilege, it’s critical that you get involved. Throughout history, community organizers have rallied for their wellbeing through protests and petitions – consider how Amazon canceled its plans for an NYC headquarters after pushback from the community (The Verge).
We need to recognize how our own implicit biases may contribute to how gentrification is so damaging to communities of color, and, if you're living in a gentrifying neighborhood, you can absolutely ensure that we're uplifting and respecting the local community and its businesses as much as possible. But, as Colin Kinniburgh in this piece for The New Republic says succinctly, "if conscious policy decisions got us into this mess, then conscious policy decisions can get us out". Do your part in ensuring your city represents everyone in your community.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Gentrification is driven by market, political and social opportunities discovered in lower-income communities
Although gentrification can provide positive benefits to communities, those benefits are not equally distributed, and lower-income communities of color often experience harm
Gentrification can contribute to displacement, which disempowers lower-income communities
It is up to us to rally at all levels to create more equitable community redevelopment
Related Issues
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza