ABSTRACT
Long overdue clean-up of polluting industry and other neighborhood improvements in West Dallas, along with its ideal central location directly across the river from the economic center of downtown Dallas have led to conditions ripe for gentrification. Most visible in these investments to date is the construction of the monumental Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, opened in 2012 and touted as a catalyst for economic investment in the West Dallas area as well as a mechanism to “foster unity across the North and South divide in the city.” While the bridge, and subsequent luxury dining, retail and housing developments in West Dallas have served to attract visitors from the North of the city and elsewhere, the promises of unity and economic benefit of these amenities are not reaching longtime residents of West Dallas, who instead face pressures of rapidly changing real estate prices and the looming threats of disruption of their formerly isolated cultural enclaves. Furthermore, environmental hazards that have long contributed to poor health among residents remain and may be made worse by the relocation of existing heavy industry to parts of the neighborhood not yet undergoing gentrification.
Keywords
the urban development pattern of the city and neighborhood: fast recent growing; no spatial boundaries to growth; lack of public infrastructure in historically marginalized areas; commercial redevelopments
the urban greening of the city and/or neighborhood: new mega-park; green resilient infrastructure; new iconic bridge
the inequalities at stake: continued exposure to contamination; green gentrification; luxury redevelopment; transportation infrastructure and new connections to downtown; lack of equity policies
