Green Cities Are for People, Not Profit

In the push to create dense, walkable, green cities, upzoning policies鈥攚hen devoid of affordability鈥攁re forcibly displacing communities of color. This practice is happening all over the United States, including my home city of Austin, Texas.

In 2023, Austin City Council Member introduced (HOME), a land development code change that allows three units on lots that were originally zoned for single-family dwellings. by the libertarian, Koch-funded Mercatus Institute, Pool claims that increasing supply will provide housing for middle-income families and resolve Austin鈥檚 housing crisis.

鈥淲hen I started on Council in January 2015, Austin was still a place for working families,鈥� Pool said during a December 2023 . 鈥淎fter all, the median home price was $238,000, and there were a lot of options in almost every neighborhood.鈥� Now, Pool claimed, the 鈥渕edian home price in Austin is $540,000鈥攚ell beyond the reach of a middle-income earner whose price point is limited to $350,000.鈥�

From Pool鈥檚 perspective, HOME is supposed to change that, making Austin, once again, a place for 鈥測oung people who came for college or for work and wanted to stay鈥� able to do so.

There was an immediate uproar: More than 40 grassroots organizations, including the NAACP, Austin Mutual Aid, PODER, VOCAL-TX, and Indigenous Movement Crew, led an organizing effort against HOME.

As Rich Heyman, Ph.D., a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, notes in a commissioned by the City鈥檚 Equity Office, upzoning policies lead to market-rate/luxury housing being built in working-class communities of color, where land is cheaper. Then, the increase in property taxes, demolition of existing affordable housing, and other displacement pressure eventually leads to those communities being pushed out.

鈥淓verybody knows that affordability is a big problem in Austin,鈥� Heyman told the after the December press conference. 鈥淎nd I think that everybody who was at the podium today has all the best intentions, but I think that they are mistaken about what the impact of this initiative is going to be.鈥�

Supporters of HOME and similar policies say they will transform Austin into a more modern, dense, walkable, and sustainable city, but who can afford this version of the city, and who is excluded from this vision?

False Solutions

across the U.S., with investors buying up properties to turn them into and renters often being stuck between large rent increases and the elusive dream of ownership.

In particular, as community member Cynthia Vasquez shares, for many urban Black and Brown communities, 鈥淭he homeowner鈥搕o鈥搑enter鈥搕o鈥揵eing unhoused pipeline is a lived reality. We are seeing developers make record profits as our communities suffer from displacement.鈥�

In Austin, these issues have deep roots: Like all major U.S. cities, Austin was deeply shaped by . In 1928, , a land development code, pushed Black American and Mexican American communities to East Austin. Since then, East Austin has experienced systemic disinvestment in infrastructure, housing, social services, and environmental protection, leading to land being relatively cheaper compared to central and west Austin.

When activists began kicking polluting industries out of in the late 鈥�90s and early 2000s, the tides turned. Suddenly, the area became a while West Austin became the , where development was limited in order to protect the water ecosystem. As a result of the increase in market-rate/luxury development, is now the fourth-most gentrified neighborhood in the U.S.

For example, the 700-acre award-winning Mueller community, located in central east Austin, is touted for its 鈥�,鈥� 鈥渢ransit-orientated,鈥� 鈥渘ew-urbanist鈥� design. Those residents, however, are whiter and wealthier than surrounding neighborhoods, and among the East Austin community, Mueller is known as just another example of a gentrifying project.

鈥淭he Mueller development plays a role in gentrification and the reproduction of social inequalities in Austin,鈥� writes sociologist in a 2019 study published in . A 2023 study published in documents a rise in racist experiences in East Austin as a result of the Mueller project.

These false solutions aren鈥檛 unique to Austin; other cities across the U.S. are also pushing for similar policies. Research based on and demonstrates how upzoning has led to . Council Member Mary Black shares that in Raleigh, North Carolina, upzoning has led to a surge in luxury housing. In 2021, rent in Raleigh spiked by 21%, once-thriving communities of color. 鈥淢y background is in climate and environmental advocacy, so I know the importance of building dense, walkable cities to act on the climate crisis […] but this means little if low-income communities of color that rely on public transportation are displaced,鈥� Black says.

Community Solutions

The term , first coined by professors Alessandro Rigolon and Tim Collin in a 2023 study, describes how projects that may seem to increase sustainability efforts, particularly introducing or renovating parks, can be drivers of gentrification and displacement, thus hurting low-income communities of color.

鈥淏y targeting neighborhoods that are already gentrifying, these projects may primarily benefit recently arriving affluent residents, developers, and other business interests,鈥� Collins said in a recent . 鈥淎t the same time, these projects may displace disadvantaged longtime residents, including lower-income renters, who are often [people of color] in cities like [Los Angeles] and Chicago. If these projects displace residents, then this approach ultimately won鈥檛 address the health and economic challenges faced in low-income urban communities.鈥�

Rigolon agreed, noting in the press release, 鈥淎 lot of research frames gentrification as an unintended consequence of a well-intended effort. We argue instead that in many cases, green gentrification is by design.鈥�

In the face of green gentrification, grassroots groups are promoting sustainable development that prioritizes affordability, inclusivity, and the preservation of cultural heritage.

, , , and other organizations have been developing solutions to the housing affordability crisis that center communities directly impacted, including protecting tenants and public processes, building deeply affordable housing at 30% and 50% median family income, investing in community development corporations, building community land trusts, and using overlays and historic districts to protect Black and Brown neighborhoods.

鈥淲e need community-led policies, intentional development of deeply affordable housing, and nonprofit housing models such as land trusts and community development corporations, which ,鈥� says Misael Ramos, president of the .

By treating housing as a human right instead of an opportunity to profit, we can prioritize the needs of vulnerable communities. In effect, planning and zoning processes must be driven by communities of color who are directly impacted by the affordability crisis and gentrification.

passed on Dec. 7, 2023, and Phase II, alongside other upzoning policies such as compatibility changes, passed in May 2024. It is history repeating itself: Wealthy, predominantly white investors are taking land from working- and middle-class communities of color. 鈥淚 feel tremendous pain in my heart walking on my ancestral and contemporary homelands and seeing displacement continue,鈥� says Chiara Do鈥檞al Sehi, a Karankawa artist and educator.

But it鈥檚 not too late; in Austin and across the U.S., we can build sustainable and affordable cities without displacing working-class communities of color. Our efforts will only be fruitful if we stop prioritizing investors鈥� and developers鈥� interests and begin listening to working-class communities of color.

Alexia Leclercq is an environmental justice organizer and scholar. She is the policy director at PODER and co-founder of Start:Empowerment. Alexia has written for Atmos, Teen Vogue, and more. She is a graduate of New York University and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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