Assessing the role of gentrification in shaping spatiotemporal determinants of food access

Abstract

Gentrification is a contemporary mechanism of structural racism consisting of mutually reinforcing systems of housing, food, and work. This makes it difficult for minoritized communities to access resources, contributing to a system of food apartheid characterized by racialized disparities in food access. Gentrification can reinforce these disparities by: 1) displacing low-income households to areas far from affordable food retail, and 2) introducing greater density of unaffordable food retail in gentrifying areas. Despite evidence that neighborhood access to food matters for food security and health, there is a dearth of literature that examines the impact of gentrification on the neighborhood food environment, and less so how low-income households spend time traveling to access food in these food environments. This dissertation explored the role of gentrification in shaping spatiotemporal determinants of food access by employing a multi-methods design. Aim 1 found that while time spent commuting, procuring food, and preparing food have largely increased from 2003 to 2019 across most income groups, there were persistent racialized disparities within each income level. Aim 2, which focused on policymaker and stakeholder perspectives of gentrification's multifaceted impacts on neighborhood environments in Seattle, WA, found that food was not a policy priority in developing anti-displacement tools. Aim 3, an exploratory quantitative analysis, found that within Seattle, WA, neighborhoods that were higher-income and exclusive (not able to be gentrified), had less geographic access to all types of food retailers, including retailers likely to sell unhealthier food products. Moving forward, this dissertation will inform longitudinal and quasi-experimental analyses of gentrification's role in shaping neighborhood food environments and community food systems.