Major and Classification
Urban Planning and Development
Faculty Mentors
- Professor Martin Krieger
Department
- Planning and Development
McNair Project
“The Gentrification of Boyle Heights”
This research paper seeks to understand how the local state uses the redevelopment process to gentrify low-income Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Gentrification is commonly known to displace low-income residents, and replace them with higher-income residents by increasing the cost of housing. Redevelopment can also accomplish this. It is argued here that the eventual displacement of low-income residents is already visible in who the local state includes in the formulation of the redevelopment plan. I illustrate this point by examining the process by which the Adelante Plan was formulated – a plan aimed at redeveloping the Boyle Heights area, a low-income Latino district east of downtown Los Angeles. By conducting interviews with CRA & MTA representatives, local architects, council members, residents, and community organizers and by using newspapers and other media on redevelopment, I plan to study the linkage between redevelopment and gentrification and whether redevelopment in Boyle Heights will facilitate the gentrification process of this inner-city neighborhood.