While global urban development increasingly takes on the mantle of
sustainability and "green urbanism," both the ecological and equity
impacts of these developments are often overlooked. One result is what
has been called environmental gentrification, a process in which
environmental improvements lead to increased property values and the
displacement of long-term residents. The specter of environmental
gentrification is now at the forefront of urban debates about how to
accomplish environmental improvements without massive displacement.
In this context, the editors of this volume identified a strategy called
"just green enough" based on field work in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, that
uncouples environmental cleanup from high-end residential and commercial
development. A "just green enough" strategy focuses explicitly on social
justice and environmental goals as defined by local communities, those
people who have been most negatively affected by environmental
disamenities, with the goal of keeping them in place to enjoy any
environmental improvements. It is not about short-changing communities,
but about challenging the veneer of green that accompanies many projects
with questionable ecological and social justice impacts, and looking for
alternative, sometimes surprising, forms of greening such as creating
green spaces and ecological regeneration within protected industrial
zones.
Just Green Enough is a theoretically rigorous, practical, global, and
accessible volume exploring, through varied case studies, the
complexities of environmental improvement in an era of gentrification as
global urban policy. It is ideal for use as a textbook at both
undergraduate and graduate levels in urban planning, urban studies,
urban geography, and sustainability programs.
