Austin’s Smart Brownfields
Austin, Texas is continually voted one of the top places to live in the US, but this desirability brings its own set of problems, including housing shortages and gentrification. Like many cities across the country, link between modern-day gentrification and environmental contamination is deeply rooted in Austin’s history, as city policies from the 1920s and 30s relegated all industrial activity to the only areas where people of color were legally allowed to live.
In order to combat this long history of environmental injustice and make the city safe for all of its citizens, the Austin Brownfields Revitalization Office is working with Community Lattice to tap into existing technologies to transform their approach to brownfields redevelopment and evolve their program to reflect their booming tech economy. Together they have harnessed the power of big data to more effectively identify brownfield projects, collaborate with internal stakeholders, empower nonprofit developers, and engage with communities in new and innovative ways.
Displacement Threatens Austin Residents
Austin is gaining people and wealth
Austin, Texas is known as the Live Music Capital of the World or Silicon Hills to describe its culture of art and entertainment and its booming tech industry. Multiple sources have ranked it as one of the top places to live in the US, contributing it to city-wide population and income growth that is among the fastest in the country.
Growth isn’t uniform
As parts of the city experience plentiful opportunities, historically underserved neighborhoods have not been as fortunate. Areas near the center of the city show a decrease in population and an increase in income, indicating displacement of less wealthy residents and conversion of multi-family housing to single-family houses and/or buildings with fewer units.
Growth is causing displacement
The above historical data show that gentrification and displacement are already happening in Austin, and researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have reported that this trend is not likely to change without intervention. By combining several demographic factors – including renters, people of color, low-income households, child poverty, and lack of education – they find that residents of East Austin are the most vulnerable to displacement.
Combatting Displacement with Big Data and Brownfields
Environmental (in)Justice overlaps displacement
By using big data analysis techniques on the EPA’s EJSCREEN dataset, we have identified the census blocks that are in the 90th percentile (most affected 10% of Austin) for the reported Environmental Justice Indices. Unsurprisingly, the communities that are most vulnerable to gentrification are also those that have the largest EJ issues.
Quantifying Potential
By combining the locations of registered petroleum storage tanks and EPA facilities with parcel data from the City of Austin, we have identified 3146 potentially contaminated and/or underutilized sites in the most heavily impacted Environmental Justice areas across Austin. The Austin Brownfields Revitalization Office and Community Lattice are working with community leaders to identify redevelopment opportunities on these sites that will help to enable long-term residents to stay in their communities.