Distillations and Policy Recommendations

Having reviewed the work of other scholars and performed our own analyses, here we distill findings and make policy recommendations. (1) Gentrification and displacement are not inevitably linked, and both are processes that take time, and even if the processes cannot be thwarted, they probably can be impacted. (2) Gentrification may be more situational than some seem to suggest, and displacement does not always follow, so in some cases concerns with green gentrification displacement are likely overblown, so avoiding cleaning and greening due to these fears may halt beneficial environmental improvements to no benefit. (3) Nonetheless, reducing green gentrification to zero is unlikely, and some cities are at greater risk and should be attentive to the risk of widespread gentrification-induced displacement, and some residents are at risk of multiple displacement, which is a concentrated hardship. (4) We review policies to address displacement, and note that they should be considered as part of a blend of approaches to affect not just financial implications, but cultural and geographic ones as well. (5) We end with a reminder that the wicked problems of Complex Adaptive Systems cannot be solved, but they can be managed.