Abstract
The Cost of Public Good: Health Impacts of Urban Renewal on Hispanic Communities in the Southwest
Rae Anne Martinez, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado - Denver
During “urban renewal” (1949-1974), the US federal government spent nearly $78 billion (in 2024 dollars) on 2100 municipal projects in approximately 1000 cities that (1) were aimed at clearing residential and industrial “blight” (i.e., slum areas) and (2) were coupled with private redevelopment to encourage economic growth and modernization. However, research on the relationship between urban renewal displacement and health has been limited by a lack of available data on displaced individuals and their subsequent outcomes. This study will use long-run multisource linked census and administrative data to conduct the first individual-level investigation of the consequences of urban renewal displacement for health and aging across the life course, specifically on early mortality and aging related outcomes. The focus of this study is on the displacement of Chavez Ravine residents, whose property was seized by the City of Los Angeles for a public housing project and eventually repurposed for Dodger Stadium. The team will seek to understand how life course timing of displacement (i.e., removal in early, mid, or later life) may result in heterogeneous impacts for these outcomes.