Mobility for Whom? Transit Equity in the Unaffordable City By Rachel Gayle McKane Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology August 7th, 2020 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: David J. Hess, Ph.D. David N. Pellow, Ph.D. Jonathan Gilligan, Ph.D. Joshua Murray, Ph.D. Patrick Greiner, Ph.D. DEDICATION In loving memory of my mother, Gayle Lee Rowles McKane – your love and spirt was with me every step of the way. To my father, Joseph Alexander McKane - tá mo chroí istigh ionat. Is tusa mo chara is fearr. To my comrades fighting for their right to emplacement across the South, in Appalachia, and in Northern Ireland - thank you for showing me that another world is possible when we return the power to the people. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank the excellent nurses, doctors, and surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who helped manage my healthcare while I wrote this dissertation. Dr. Shari Green, you fought for specialists to take me seriously and without you I would not have had the two surgeries that drastically improved my quality of life. Dr. Melissa Kauffman and Dr. Amanda Yunker, thank you for performing those surgeries and treating me with respect and kindness. To my dissertation committee, I would not have made it to this point if it were not for you. Dr. David Hess, I honestly have never had an educator believe in me or fight for me in the way that you have these last six years. You taught me that I was just as smart and capable as any other graduate student when I was uncertain of my abilities. Words cannot express the gratitude I have for the opportunities that you have afforded me. I have grown tremendously as a scholar under your guidance and it is honor to continue working with you in the coming year and hopefully for years to come. Dr. Jonathan Gilligan, I am fortunate to have been guided by you throughout my graduate career. I admire that you never waiver when fighting against injustices in the academy. I cherish our conversations on inequity, local politics, and classism. You always made me feel like I belonged at Vanderbilt and could learn anything and everything about coding in R and statistics. Dr. David Pellow, thank you for writing the book that inspired me to study environmental justice in the first place. I appreciate your kindness and approachability as well as your questions that make me think deeply about building power in the quest for environmental justice. Thank you for our wonderful conversations at ASA and your stellar Netflix recommendations. Dr. Joshua Murray, thank you for always answering my panicked statistics questions and for letting me complain in your office for the last 5 years. You have always helped me frame my work to emphasize its importance and for that I am forever grateful. Dr. Patrick Greiner, I have learned so much from you in the brief time I have known you. Thank for you dedicating so much time to helping me develop the ideas in this dissertation and for reminding me to believe in myself. I am forever grateful for my partner, Molly Richard. I could not have asked for a better person in my corner. You motivated me to finish this during the pandemic and held my hand through the frustration and tears. I cherish our long pandemic walks and the world we have created away from the madness. I would like to thank my cat, Bailey, for providing me with some much needed comic relief while I was writing this. I am also grateful for my older two sisters, Kathleen McKane and Sara Hall for always supporting me, even in my darkest times. I must also extend my deepest gratitude to Megan Robinson, who has inspired me since day one of graduate school. I am also deeply appreciative to other graduate students in Vanderbilt Sociology who have taught me so much over the years: Dr. Stacey Houston, Dr. Anna Jacobs, Dr. Peter Viehler, Ashley Kim, Lacee Satcher, Megan Jordan, and Kaelee Belletto. Thank you to Anne Barnett, my favorite adventure partner and wonderful post-op caretaker, for challenging me to think critically about building power on a local level. Thank you to Lizzie Rice, my Appalachian sister. Thank you to Marie Campbell, for reminding me that cultivating our relationship with nature teaches us to be resilient and adaptive. Finally, thank you to all the sociologists who have shaped me in some way throughout my graduate career: Dr. Dan Cornfield, Dr. Larry Isaac, Dr. Andre Christie-Mizell, Dr. Holly McCammon, Dr. George Becker, and Dr. Julius McGee. And thank you to all the professors of other disciplines who have also helped me along the way: Dr. Craig Philip, Dr. Janey Camp, and Dr. Brenton Kinkel. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... vii Chapter I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................. 3 BACKGROUND AND THEORY ....................................................................................................... 6 CONTRIBUTION ............................................................................................................................. 21 URBAN AREA SELECTION ........................................................................................................... 22 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................. 24 II. (Un)affordable Housing and Spatial (Im)mobility ................................................................. 33 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 33 BACKGROUND AND THEORY ..................................................................................................... 37 DATA AND MEASURES ................................................................................................................ 45 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................................... 49 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 66 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 68 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................. 71 III. Light Rail Transit, Gentrification, and Racial Banishment in the Inner-City ........................ 81 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 81 BACKGROUND AND THEORY ..................................................................................................... 85 DATA AND MEASURES ................................................................................................................ 99 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................. 119 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 120 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................ 123 IV. Losing Mobility: The Inversion of Urban Segregation and Racialized Transit Accessibility ............................................................................................................................................... 133 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 133 BACKGROUND AND THEORY ................................................................................................... 135 DATA AND MEASURES .............................................................................................................. 143 RESULTS ....................................................................................................................................... 147 iv DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................. 161 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 164 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................ 165 V. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................