Gentrification Along Atlanta's Beltline

Class Project, Furman University 2020

Data Sourced from Beltline Initiatices ARCGIS repository

The Atlanta Beltline is a publicly funded ring style trail which provides pedestrian and bicycle traffic with a route circumnavigating the center of Atlanta. From an Atlanta residents perspective the sheer speed in which areas around the Beltline have developed and transformed has been mesmerizing. While largely unfinished and still under construction in many areas, property values and development along the corridor has skyrocketed. The eastside trail opened in 2012 following a planning period of 5 years. This section of the trail has been particularly littered with development investment, and unfortunately gentrification. This part of the trail goes through the neighborhoods of Piedmont Park, Inman Park and Old Fourth Ward. Notably, the massive mixed use development Ponce City Market falls within the eastside trail.

Data Sourced from Beltline Initiatices ARCGIS repository

Housing values and investment in the area surrounding the beltline is likely due to speculation that the area will become both a tourist and local hotspot in the coming years and decades. Immergluck 2009 argues that the stark increase in prices along the corridor is partly a result of an extended planning period whereby large amounts of hype sprung up as a result of lofty and exaggerated plans for construction. Notably this source was crafted three years prior to the opening of the eastside trail, we can see that even before opening the Beltline Initiative sent ripples through the property market.

The beltline initiative began its life as a well received collaborative planning based development project, initially it was thought that communities would have some say in both the design, layout, and impact of such a large development project. However, their input in the matter was soon overshadowed by huge investment opportunities as well as partners with heightened economic interests. The project was projected to yield “$20 billion of new economic development, 30,000 new jobs, and over 5000 new units of affordable housing spanning over a period of 25 years” today it has “generated a roughly 3:1 return on investment, with more than $1 billion in private redevelopment spurred by roughly $350 million of investment” (Roy 2015).

Data Sourced from opendata@arc's ARCGIS repository

Rigolon and Nemeth 2018 provide an interesting argument in that LGIP, otherwise known as large green infrastructure projects, often lead to an acceptance of gentrification, The authors argue that “Procedural Justice” occurs whereby the ‘good’ of the project outweighs potential gentrification and social inequality. Additionally, they argue that the displacement of low income residents is a result of poor planning, rather than external factors. This can be applied to the Beltline’s case, whereby the environmental and particularly the economic benefits of the beltline outweighed the massive price hike in rents and property values. 

The eastside trail lies predominantly within Old Fourth Ward, this area historically has been a hotspot for section 8 affordable housing. On plot of undeveloped land in this area cost half a million dollars in 2015 however it sold for a mere 145,000 just two years prior (Camrud 2017). Immergluck and Balan 2017 states that real estate sale prices within one-eighth of a mile rose by fifteen percent annually over the four year period between 2011 and 2015.

Data Sourced from opendata@arc's ARCGIS repository

It is important to look at the implications of green infrastructure projects on racial equity. Atlanta is an extremely diverse city if looked at as a whole, however, neighborhoods are often segregated to an extent to a single racial group.Gregory and Hawthorne 2016 argues that government disinvestment acts a form of social control undoubtedly plays a significant role in creating and maintaining racial barriers to park, and/or greenspace utilization. The lack of governmental funding and in turn bureaucratic accountability along the beltline allows for private developers to create the park for certain demographics, these demographics unfortunately look to be skewed towards the affluent white community. 

Data Sourced from opendata@arc's ARCGIS repository

Affordable housing along the beltline was always promised in the planning stages, however this promise was never delivered. According to Oakley 2015 just “$5.3 million to affordable housing development compared to $127 million for parks and trails” additionally only 800 affordable housing units had sprung up in the area as opposed to the 5600 promised unts. From this we can speculate that this development may have had quite an impact on the flight of those below the poverty seen between 2000 and 2018,

Works Cited

Camrud, Natalie, "Race, Class, and Gentrification Along the Atlanta BeltLine" (2017). Scripps Senior Theses. 947.  https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/947 

Google. (n.d.). Map of Old Fourth Ward 2007. Retrieved from earth.google.com/web/.

Google. (n.d.). Map of Old Fourth Ward 2020. Retrieved from earth.google.com/web/.

Immergluck, D. (2009). Large Redevelopment Initiatives, Housing Values and Gentrification: The Case of the Atlanta Beltline. Urban Studies, 46(8), 1723–1745.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009105500 

 Immergluck D. , Balan T. (2017): Sustainable for whom? Green urban development, environmental gentrification, and the Atlanta Beltline, Urban Geography, DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2017.1360041 

Oakley, D. , Greenidge, G. (2017). The Contradictory Logics of Public-Private Place-making and Spatial Justice: The Case of Atlanta's Beltline: ECONOMIC AND GREEN SPACE DEVELOPMENT, GENTRIFICATION, DISPLACEMENT. City & Community. 16. 10.1111/cico.12264. 

Rigolon A. , Németh J , “We're not in the business of housing:” Environmental gentrification and the nonprofitization of green infrastructure projects, Cities,Volume 81,2018, Pages 71-80

Roberts-Gregory, F., & Hawthorne, T. L. (2016). Transforming green walls into green places: Black middle class boundary work, multidirectional miscommunication and greenspace accessibility in southwest Atlanta. Geoforum, 77, 17-27. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.09.016

Roy, Parama - Collaborative planning – A neoliberal strategy? A study of the Atlanta Belt Line 10.1016/j.cities.2014.11.010

11Alive. (2018, September 11). Here's a look a what is happening with houses on the Westside [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Bk0v1S0Gs&feature=youtu.be