Right-of-way gentrification: Conflict, commodification and cosmopolitanism

Abstract

As gentrification processes accelerate in American cities, how do newcomers become solidly in-place while longtime residents become hopelessly out-of-place in neighbourhood public spaces? Bringing focus to the often-overlooked public right-of-way – streets, sidewalks and alleys – I examine social rhythms comprising this network of public spaces when used as an everyday infrastructure of transportation and socialisation or when configured for special events. Using the notion of symbolic economy to link the social production of public space with the municipal regulation of public space, this essay approaches gentrification from three perspectives: conflict, commodification and cosmopolitanism. Focusing on Highland, a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood in Denver, Colorado, I first delve into skirmishes over street legitimacy. I then unpack quiet workaday measures used by cities to regulate the public right-of-way, namely parking policy and liquor license issuances. I move on to the commodification of ethnic culture by those who ultimately benefit from the displacement of Latino families from North Denver. Lastly, I engage with the concept cosmopolitanism, arguing that diversity discourses, both in the academy and on the street, obscure important relationships between asymmetrically positioned symbolic economies and low-level regulation of public space. Foregrounding routine urban governance over neoliberal agendas, this study critiques gentrification as a commonsense urban policy.