zoning + land use
Walk-to-a-Park for Older Adults Making a Neighborhood Illegal
housing
Salem, MA Medford, MA
transit planning
QBNR Route Profiles QBNR GAR Inserts New Queens Bus Map Toronto Bike-to-School

about  


Making a Neighborhood Illegal

Zoning, NIMBYism, and Housing Justice in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
MIT Master in City Planning thesis



2022


As the national housing crisis pushes low-income tenants out of urban cores, the local land-use politics of the peripheral neighborhoods they move to have taken on growing importance. Part historical narrative and part zoning analysis, this project traces the zoning evolution of Bensonhurst, a large residential neighborhood in New York City’s outer ring that is now caught between the land-use demands of longtime homeowners and the housing needs of lower-income immigrant tenants.

While previous scholarship has examined neighborhood change and demographic tension, few studies have followed these dynamics through the zoning code itself. By analyzing how Bensonhurst residents shaped zoning policy, and how zoning in turn shaped the community, this project reveals the reciprocal relationship between local politics and the built environment. At the heart of Bensonhurst’s zoning debates lie two interrelated tensions: between homevoters and newcomers, and between homevoters and planners. The first reflects the racial, ethnic, economic, and spatial anxieties surrounding neighborhood change. The second expresses residents’ ability to approve or resist city-led initiatives and assert local control. Together, these forces have defined Bensonhurst’s planning trajectory and political identity.

Understanding how policymakers can navigate these entrenched dynamics to expand affordable housing in what is already one of the densest and most transit-accessible areas in the country is an essential step toward addressing the housing crisis and its impact on the nation’s most marginalized renters.

Thesis uploaded here: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/144836.

Tools: GIS, Illustrator


Themes
(1) Detethering of transit and land use


(2) Increased complexity

(3) Exclusionary land use