Team
Niharika Shekhawat, Shailee Shah

The repercussions of subway stations go way beyond ease and connectivity. Although subways are an effective means of mitigating certain problems commonly found in urban areas, such as heavy traffic, noise pollution, air pollution; subway stations also attract housing development, growth of businesses, employment - in turn affecting population growth in the neighborhood. The increase in accessibility is capitalized by increase in land value and rent, making way for neighborhood gentrification around the subway stations.

The hypothesis is evident in many areas of New York City, the construction of the subway station transformed Longacre Square into Times Square, Wall Street station into center of global finance and Coney Island into an amusement park for the masses. These places economically boomed after getting access to transit lines, but in recent times many areas of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx with new subway lines have seen an influx of people with higher household income and education qualification with the means to pay higher rent, displacing long term low income residents.

The expansion of the subway system and land development present intriguing questions as to whether gentrification led the growth of the subway or if subway expansion was a precursor to gentrification. The research described in this report explores development in close proximity to the subway stations in Brooklyn and analysis the neighborhood change over time.

“One might expect the change in neighborhood accessibility and aesthetics as well as the provision of quality housing and commercial amenities to attract middle and upper class residents (initiating the gentrification process).” The attraction of upper class population to a low income neighborhood and the subsequent socioeconomic changes within the neighborhood, form the center of this research.

We created a measure to weigh the factors of gentrification.
        Gentrification = (Income x 2) + (Rent x 2) + (Education x 1) + (Opportunity zone x 1.5)

Our approach to answer the research question is measuring variables of change over time. We will assess each block to measure indicators of gentrification to observe simultaneous increase/decrease to ascertain gentrification between 2013-2015 and 2013-2017 in proximity of the subway station. We investigate the hypothesis of subway station induced gentrification in Brooklyn, New York. We consider that an increase in socioeconomic indicators, such as income, educational attainment, and housing rental values in the neighborhoods close to subway station locations and line, overlaid with Federal opportunity zone capture the essence of gentrification.

Is transportation hub a factor of gentrification in the neighborhood? Are streets closer to the station more likely to gentrify/experience higher intensity gentrification? What is the spatial extent of the spread? Subway stations are a factor of gentrification in the neighborhood. Streets closer to the station more likely to gentrify/experience higher intensity gentrification. The effect of gentrification reduces with distance from the subway station.