Dissertation: Rezoning New York: Class and Racial Inequalities in the Struggle for Space
Although zoning changes are a critical instrument to address housing affordability concerns, its role in reproducing socioeconomic and racial inequalities is under-explored. I fill this gap by comparing the participatory rezoning process in two New York City neighborhoods—where citizen participation is mandated but non-binding— between 2014 and 2021. My cases are a low-income, majority-Black and Latino neighborhood in Brooklyn, and two adjacent, affluent, majority-white neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan.
Through a combination of archival research, ethnographic observations of virtual public hearings, and in-depth interviews, I analyze how these two very different communities formed coalitions and mobilized resources to navigate technical and political constraints of how participation is implemented. Furthermore, I study how city officials framed their proposals to respond to each neighborhood’s socioeconomic composition in the context of a chronic, citywide housing crisis and rampant gentrification. Ultimately, I examine the strategies supporters and opponents used to advance their positions and how socioeconomic and ethnoracial power relations shape rezoning proposals, processes, and decision-making. By focusing on political struggles, this research changes the frame for discussing rezoning from outcomes to process.
For this research, I have received support from the Russell Sage Foundation Dissertation Research Grant.
Prior research
In my previous work, I analyzed how local governments in Lima, Peru, implemented participatory mechanisms that atomized civic participation and limited the public discussion of common urban issues. Previously, I studied how real estate dynamics intensify patterns of socio-spatial segregation. My second book (co-authored) analyzes the social and physical conditions of labor, education, and consumption nodes in metropolitan Lima. My first book (co-authored) analyzes the relationship between criminal markets and national borders in Peru. I have also studied and published academic papers on topics related to public spaces, metropolitan governance, citizen participation, intermediate cities, and national borders.