{"id":28224,"date":"2024-01-26T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=28224"},"modified":"2024-02-01T14:31:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T22:31:27","slug":"a-rising-tide-lifts-many-boats-climate-gentrification-and-you","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/a-rising-tide-lifts-many-boats-climate-gentrification-and-you\/","title":{"rendered":"“A Rising Tide Lifts Many Boats”: Climate Gentrification and You"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jen Rose<\/b><\/p>\n

For the longest time, wealthy retirees migrated to the beaches\u2014of, say, sunny Florida. Now with the reality of rising sea levels, higher ground is a more desirable destination. But what happens to those who have lived for generations on higher ground, or to those from vulnerable coastal areas who can’t afford to move?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Liberty Square, Miami: Ground Zero for Climate Gentrification<\/span><\/h3>\n

Located to the immediate west of Miami\u2019s Design District is Liberty Square in the Liberty City neighborhood, the first housing project in the Southeastern United States that became a cultural hub during a renaissance in the 1960s Civil Rights era, when the neighborhood regularly welcomed leaders like Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Liberty City copes with climate gentrification, in which lower-socioeconomic communities are displaced from housing by the wealthy as they seek “climate safer” land. Eager developers respond to sea level rise by planning to build on the neighborhood’s higher ground, which attracts the higher-income crowd seeking safety from the risks of building on Miami\u2019s vulnerable coastline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Communities like Liberty City and nearby Little Haiti\u2014home to the largest Haitian population in the U.S.\u2014give us early warnings of what\u2019s to come. It also makes sense that those hit earliest by sea level rise are among the earliest to adapt to the future. They have been experiencing these impacts for some time, and are well versed in the crucial connection between climate change and climate displacement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This gentrification dynamic is forcing residents of <\/span>Liberty City, Little Haiti and eventually nearly more than half Miami-Dade County residents<\/span><\/a> to decide whether to defend their right to stay in their homes, or to move away and expect little in the way of local government aid or municipal support.<\/span> Razing Liberty Square<\/span><\/i><\/a> explores all of this with compassion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Joshua

At the Liberty Square Housing Project, from the film “Razing Liberty Square”<\/p><\/div>\n

“<\/span><\/i>The Seas Are Rising but So Are the People”<\/span><\/h3>\n

Civil rights activist\/community organizer Valencia Gunder is known as \u201ca modern-day [community organizer] Fannie Lou Hamer.\u201d With an extensive background in disaster response\u2014Gunder founded the Community Emergency Outreach Center that assisted over 23,000 residents after Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017\u2014she works on community self-sufficiency in the face of gentrification. <\/span><\/p>\n

On a panel captivatingly called \u201cThe Seas Are Rising but So Are the People,” Gunder noted that when you grow up where she did in South Florida, “climate change <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> resiliency are <\/span>always<\/span><\/i> a part of the conversation.” As noted in this panel, these communities\u2014historically excluded from emergency planning measures\u2014are now less inclined to trust a \u201ctop-down\u201d scenario in which a team of scientists and government aid airdrops into the situation. Instead, they look to themselves for help.<\/span><\/p>\n