IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v39y2021i5p955-971.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exposing the legal and bureaucratic underpinnings of gentrification: Municipal property transfers through alley closures in Washington, DC

Author

Listed:
  • Rebecca Summer

Abstract

Scholars acknowledge that property ownership is fundamental to gentrification and that the privatization of public property can exacerbate market-based speculation on urban land. However, few have closely examined how the transfer of municipal property occurs. This article examines the political, legal, and bureaucratic preconditions for the acquisition of municipal land, which underpins gentrification. Drawing on the example of municipal alley closures in Washington, D.C. during the 1970s, this article traces how private developers acquired public land in downtown neighborhoods like the West End. It also traces how residents tried to oppose this acquisition of public property. In following West End residents’ failed attempts to retain control over the use and value of land in their neighborhood, this article exposes the legal and bureaucratic barriers that ordinary urban citizens face in interrupting the processes that contribute to gentrification.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebecca Summer, 2021. "Exposing the legal and bureaucratic underpinnings of gentrification: Municipal property transfers through alley closures in Washington, DC," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(5), pages 955-971, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:955-971
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654420970952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654420970952
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654420970952?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. André Sorensen, 2018. "Institutions and Urban Space: Land, Infrastructure, and Governance in the Production of Urban Property," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 21-38, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. André Sorensen & Anna-Katharina Brenner, 2021. "Cities, Urban Property Systems, and Sustainability Transitions: Contested Processes of Institutional Change and the Regulation of Urban Property Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Yiru Jia & Nicky Morrison & Franziska Sielker, 2023. "Delivering common property in Chinese contractual communities: Law, power and practice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(16), pages 3272-3293, December.
    3. Roberta Fontan Pereira Galvão & Andrea Yuri Flores Urushima & Shoichiro Hara & Wil De Jong, 2020. "Analysis of Land Transition Features and Mechanisms in Peripheral Areas of Kyoto (1950–1960)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Donald Leffers & Gerda R Wekerle, 2020. "Land developers as institutional and postpolitical actors: Sites of power in land use policy and planning," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 318-336, March.
    5. Dani Broitman, 2020. "The Game of Developers and Planners: Ecosystem Services as a (Hidden) Regulation through Planning Delay Times," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-14, July.
    6. Nate Kauffman & Kristina Hill, 2021. "Climate Change, Adaptation Planning and Institutional Integration: A Literature Review and Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-28, September.
    7. Petr Klusáček & Stanislav Martinát & Klára Charvátová & Josef Navrátil, 2022. "Transforming the Use of Agricultural Premises under Urbanization Pressures: A Story from a Second-Tier Post-Socialist City," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Xu, Nannan, 2019. "What gave rise to China’s land finance?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:955-971. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.