Why Is There Always a Winner and a Loser?: a Place-Based Study of Gentrification and Housing Resiliency for Reconnectrondo Anna Dolde Macalester College
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Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College Geography Honors Projects Geography Department 4-25-2018 Why Is There Always A Winner and a Loser?: A Place-Based Study of Gentrification and Housing Resiliency for ReConnectRondo Anna Dolde Macalester College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/geography_honors Part of the Geography Commons Recommended Citation Dolde, Anna, "Why Is There Always A Winner and a Loser?: A Place-Based Study of Gentrification and Housing Resiliency for ReConnectRondo" (2018). Geography Honors Projects. 58. https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/geography_honors/58 This Honors Project - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Geography Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geography Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact scholarpub@macalester.edu. Why Is There Always A Winner and a Loser?: A Place-Based Study of Gentrification and Housing Resiliency for ReConnectRondo (RCR) Anna Dolde Advisor: Professor Daniel Trudeau Macalester Geography Department Submitted April 25th, 2018 Why Is There Always a Winner and a Loser?: A Place-Based Study of Gentrification and Housing Resiliency for ReConnectRondo (RCR) Anna Dolde Housing Research Assistant A ReConnectRondo (RCR) Publication Macalester Class of 2018 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….…… 5 Greetings from the Author………………………………………………….…….……….... 5 Concepts and Approaches to Promoting Justice In Place-Based Research……………………………………………………………....…………... 6 Context for Study……………………………………………………………………..……...…. 10 Historical Context of Rondo Community…………………………..….…..……. 10 Background of ReConnectRondo and RLB Project……………..……... 14 RCR, the Rondo Land Bridge, and Concepts of Justice……………… 15 SECTION 1: REVIEW OF GENTRIFICATION LITERATURE Academic Perspectives on Gentrification…….….…………………… 21 Introduction: What Academic Literature Can Tell Us…………..….… 21 Defining Gentrification……………………………………………………………………. 21 Gentrification vs. Revitalization……………..……………………..…...….. 22 Gentrification as a Community Experience………..………..….. 26 How Gentrification Works…………………..…………………………………...……. 28 Capitalism and Urban Politics…………………………..………...……..…. 28 Debate Around Gentrification and Displacement…….…. 32 Introduction to Place-Based Approach of Gentrification and Affordable Housing………………………………………………..…….………….. 36 Review of National Anti-Gentrification Policies.……..…………. 38 2 Affordable Housing Strategies ……………………….… …...…………….… 38 Mitigating Residential Instability Strategies………………....… …… 50 Land Control and Community Development Strategies….… 53 Business and Community Amenity Retention Strategies.... 55 Review of Anti-Gentrifying Affordable Housing Models 57 The Community Land Trust (CLT) Model………………………… .….... 57 Limited/No Equity Cooperatives ………………………………..… …...…... 60 Mutual Limited Equity Cooperatives………………..… ……….…..…… 62 Cohousing and Communal Living………………..… ………………....... 63 SECTION 2: PLACE-BASED CONSIDERATIONS FOR RCR ANTI-GENTRIFICATION AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING STRATEGY Introduction to Place-Based Methodology……………………….… 66 Saint Paul Anti-Gentrification and Affordable Housing.. 67 CURA Gentrification Study ………………….…….…………………………………….. 67 Policymaker Findings: Gentrification and Affordable Housing 70 Perspectives on Gentrification and Housing in Rondo.... 73 What Can A Place-Based Study Look Like in Rondo? ………..…….. 73 Survey Data ………………………..……..…………………..…………………………..…………… 73 March 15th Community Meeting ………………………..………..……...……..…… 82 3 ULI Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) Recommendations …..….….. 89 Conclusion: Considerations for Future Place-Based Study in Rondo……………………………………...………………….…………..……………. 85 Organizational Strategies for Anti-Gentrification and Affordable Housing Advocacy in Rondo……………………………………..……………………… 92 Considerations for Future Place-Based Study of Rondo Gentrification/Housing……………………………………………………………………….. 99 Acknowledgements………………………….……………………………………..……... 101 Sources………………………….………………………………………………………...……..……... 102 4 Introduction Greetings from the Writer Hello my name is Anna Dolde, and I am a housing research assistant with ReConnectRondo (RCR), an organization which is thinking through the possibility of implementing a land bridge in the Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul, MN. I am a student at Macalester College, studying geography and urban studies, and I started working with ReConnectRondo in the summer of 2017 as part of a research grant. I have continued to work with the organization since that time. I have also worked with the Rondo Community Land Trust since the spring of 2017. This study arose as a way to use my time and energy as a student to uplift the goal of the RCR organization to make well-informed, conscientious decisions regarding the Rondo Land Bridge project (which will be explained shortly). My experiences working with ReConnectRondo, and the resulting conversations I had with community folks, both provided the context to deem this research relevant. During different interactions and events where I discussed housing with community members, many voiced their deep concerns related to housing needs and gentrification. They voiced nervousness about the idea of limited community ownership over the project, and that without extensive community input, the project would not address the needs of the community- both in terms of housing built for the land bridge and in terms of protecting community folks from gentrification linked to the land bridge. With the repeated concerns voiced by different community members, the need for a place-based study of Rondo housing needs and gentrification presented itself as not only a helpful tool, but as a necessity to engaging holistically and authentically with community concerns and aspirations. I once met with Mr. Anderson, the Board Chair of RCR, to discuss what this project could look like, and he said the quote in the title which has stuck with me: Why is there always a winner and a loser? Why can’t we build a development 5 for the Rondo community and have it actually support the existing community rather than outsiders? As a result of these questions and others from Rondo community, this research comes from an ambition to promote justice as part of local planning decisions related to gentrification and housing development, as well as through academic research. My two research questions are as follows: ● How can a land bridge project uplift the aspirations of Rondo while ensuring that this community can remain in place to reap the benefits? ● How can I promote justice through researching and compiling place-based knowledge for ReConnectRondo? The overarching goal of this project was to promote justice through uplifting community ambitions for a prosperous future for the neighborhood. Although not fully comprehensive or representative of all experiences, I hope that the following report can at least serve as a resource for conversation and debate. And I hope that it achieves its goal of promoting justice for a community that deserves deep respect and recognition. If you have any comments or questions about the report, you can email me at anna@reconnectrondo.org and I would be more than happy to respond via email or to meet in person to talk with you about the report. Thank you and take care, Anna Concepts and Approaches for Promoting Justice in Place-Based Research The current study comes from an ambition to promote and pursue more just realities as part of local planning decisions, with a particular emphasis on gentrification and housing development. By including academic and policy research as well as community input, the goal of the study is to think more comprehensively about housing and anti-gentrification options that best fit the Rondo community context. However, the work presented here does not make definitive recommendations. Instead, I hope that the study can spark further debate and conversations about the future direction of RCR gentrification and housing work. The research compiled below will be 6 inherently limited and not fully applicable to the Rondo neighborhood, but can hopefully serve as a way to think through many of the options for promoting housing resiliency in the neighborhood. The research questions outlined from the last section frames the analysis, and can be distilled into one question here: what are the ways to promote justice through study of gentrification and through personal academic research? To address this question, the first step was to recognize how justice can be defined in many varied ways, and to therefore conceptualize justice as related to the Rondo Land Bridge, ReConnectRondo, and to myself as a researcher. Using specific concepts of justice, the research illuminates how the extensive academic literature and policies on gentrification/housing align with the major ambition of ReConnectRondo: to promote justice as part of local planning and decision-making (see Figure 1). The idea of justice that I use to think about the Rondo Land Bridge is the concept of “the right to the city”, a term used in academic literature to describe urban democracy and use of public space. Although this term has been defined many different ways, the “right to the city” in this case refers to the idea that all should be allowed to participate and actively shape the dynamics of the city, with a particular