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Gentrification or Health-promoting Resource? Long-term Residents' Perceptions and Use of the Atlanta BeltLine

2021-01-27 , Matic, Zorana

Investments in green infrastructure such as multi-use urban greenways are made with the goal to improve the residents' health by creating space for physical activity, recreation, and social interactions, providing opportunities for active transportation, and increasing exposure to nature's healing effects. Despite the host of benefits, regreening initiatives in lower-income neighborhoods can also catalyze 'green' or 'environmental' gentrification. There is growing empirical evidence that gentrification affects the residents' health and well-being, both positively and adversely. The previous scholarship mostly focused on greenway users and has mainly adopted quantitative methods (such as observation and intercept surveys) to measure green infrastructure use, activity patterns, and users' satisfaction. However, the research on the incumbent residents living adjacent to a newly developed greenway is limited. It is still not fully understood whether incumbent residents have a positive perception of newly installed greenways, the extent to which they take advantage of these new resources, and whether the new greenways mostly attract new and habitually active residents. This research seeks to fill this gap by exploring the interrelationships between green infrastructure, green gentrification, and long-term residents' health and healthy behaviors in Atlanta, which that has recently invested into and developed a number of green infrastructure projects. This dissertation has two studies. Capitalizing on free and readily available U.S. census data, the first study proposes a replicable quantitative approach for developing a composite socioeconomic index as a tool for identifying and measuring gentrification. In the second study, this research closely looks at two historically African American neighborhoods in the early stages of gentrification and adjacent to the new BeltLine recreational trail. By interviewing long-term residents, this research seeks to develop a deeper understanding of green gentrification from their vantage point and to examine their responses to new greenway and opportunities for adopting health-promoting behaviors. The quantitative analysis indicated that nearly half of eligible census tracts in Atlanta are gentrifying, while two-thirds will soon be in various stages of gentrification. The census tracts within one-half mile of the BeltLine proposed path are gentrifying at a slightly faster pace. The Atlanta's gentrification patterns echo the previous findings on the proximity of the BeltLine and growing gentrification pressures in the trail-adjacent neighborhoods. Additionally, the results suggest the association between gentrification and residents' better self-rated health. The analysis found a consistent pattern of decreasing rates of residents who report low physical activity and poor self-rated health (both mental and physical) with increasing levels of gentrification. The interviews revealed much more nuanced responses to the trail construction and green gentrification. Most interviewees perceived and used the new trail as a health-promoting resource; while it enabled the habitual exercisers to maintain active lifestyles, it prompted some new trail users to be physically active. However, concerns regarding gentrification and feeling that new amenities cater to the 'gentrifiers' and not the existing community, in some cases acted as barriers to trail usage and regular physical activity. The findings suggest that perceptions of social environment entwine inextricably with perceptions of the physical environment and the extent to which groups or individuals take advantage of health-promoting resources. This study has important implications for future research and design of effective greening infrastructure to increase trail usage among long-term residents, particularly those who are not habitually active.

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Educating The Edge City: Anchoring a Mixed Use Neighborhood with a College Campus

2010 , Farr, Robert

A variety of uses are stronger when integrated together than apart. By integrating a community college into a mixed-use redevelopment of a strip mall, I am resolving two distinct problems: fragmentation in edge cities and the town-gown isolation of conventional campus planning. I propose that the design of a hybrid mixed-use public space and college quad condenses this dual problem into a singular social space. This will allow for a variety of people with different backgrounds and experiences to interact within a dynamic environment elevating both the college and the community.

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What is leftover: The residual space

2019-05-01 , Rickles, Carley Jaclyn

By considering the existing value of undesinged space in the city, the residual space, alternative perspectives on field research, analysis, and the representation thereof were examined and offered. The urban design research process was reformatted applying a multi-tiered, dialectical approach to research with the scrutinized examination of an artist. Prior to analyzing and reflecting upon findings, empirical evidence relied on photography, video, writing, and drawing, allowing for the aesthetics and unseen factors to be revisited at a later time. Through the act of composing empirical findings with ecological and socio-cultural data and histories a deeper understanding of the importance of the residual space was uncovered and expressed dialogically.

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From Strip Mall to Small Town: The Incremental Redevelopment of a Parking Lot

2010 , Buck, Alysha

My research indicates that the most vibrant historic plazas exhibit Evolution of Place, Civility, and Tophophilia, yet these qualities seem to be absent from many of Atlanta’s public spaces. By looking to the Medieval City as a model for urbanization, designers can emphasize pedestrian activity, sensory awareness, and incrementalism in the redevelopment of transit-adjacent greyfields.

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How modest, incremental site-driven interventions differ in their impact on slum upgrading from iconic projects

2015-05-20 , Rodas, Mario Rene

Urban informal settlements have increased dramatically over the last decades throughout major cities in developing countries. Post war industrialization, increased economic opportunities and social freedoms continue to drive urban-to-rural migration despite of the challenging living conditions in this context. As an example of this phenomenon, approximately 20% of Rio de Janeiro’s six million inhabitants live in the city’s favelas (shanty towns) or other types of informal settlements. Despite physical proximity, rigid class segregation maintains strong physical and social boundaries between the formal and informal city. On the one hand favela residents suffer from a marked social stigma mainly due to the violence and crime associated with local or exterior drug traffic wars in their communities - suggesting the need for top-down "solutions." On the other hand, some scholars are increasingly celebrating the entrepreneurialism of the slums' informal economies and self–organized communal structures, suggesting that successful improvements must be incremental and community-driven. This thesis asks how modest, incremental site-driven interventions differ in their impact on slum upgrading from top down iconic projects. The thesis identifies current strategies of slum upgrading through analysis of both theoretical proposals by scholars and contemporary built projects. The thesis proposes that a hybrid blend of these strategies will address multiple audiences and goals and better guide practitioners on how to intervene and design within these types of spaces. The multiple goals focus on the provision of social integration, self-organization and economic opportunities which will result in bettering the quality of life of the people who live in these communities. This hybrid combination of community networked strategies and iconic gestures is tested and applied in a design proposal for the Complexo da Maré favela compound in Rio de Janeiro.

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