Reports & Working Papers
I obtained my PhD from the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA in June 2014 and am currently an Assistant Professor in the the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture and Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program at UW-Madison.
Research
My research approaches the dynamic of urban change through the lens of gentrification. Through this perspective, I attempt to uncover the way in which urban change occurs by way of the process of displacement and eviction. My work draws attention to the role that property owners, financial institutions, and the state perform in the process of urban displacement and gentrification. I see eviction and the monopoly powers bestowed through property rights as key to understanding capitalist urbanization. I have been influenced greatly by Marxian geographers such as David Harvey and others working on the edges of Marxian analyses such as Allen J. Scott. At the same time, I am critical of the general under-emphasis these groups of authors have given the role of racialization in urbanization processes. To this end, the seminal works of Omi and Winant on racial formation, and Cheryl Harris' work on whiteness as property have also been critical to my approach.
Some of my publications are available here, however I have been currently working on a couple projects that I believe are worth mentioning because they highlight the intersection of research and critical planning practice through collaboration and community-based participatory action research that I believe are important to my work.
Madison, WI
Despite having a reputation as a politically liberal/progressive city with a high quality of life, Madison's housing conditions are becoming increasingly difficult for many of the city's residents. An excellent report by my colleague, Kurt Pulsen at UW-Madison entitled, Housing Needs Assessment: Dane County and Municipalities (2015) shows that the City of Madison contains the vast majority of low income and poor households in the county and the region. In addition, Pulsen's report shows that while Madison is disproportionately poor, housing costs are also comparatively more expensive than other urban areas in the region being that it is the 37th most expensive metro area in the country. This polarization between low incomes and high housing costs is made even more difficult because there are few housing options available. Thus, despite recent 'high-end' housing development projects near the downtown core, many of which cater to university students, Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E) estimates that the vacancy rate for multi-family rental units in the Madison area has declined almost 30 percent from an average of 3.98 in 2009 to 2.8 percent in 2015. U.S. Census data shows that available housing may be even harder to come by than MG&E estimates as 44 percent of the census tracts in the County have less than 0.5 percent vacancy.
In order to help shift the discourse around this issue, I have partnered with a local nonprofit organization, the Tenant Resource Center, to work on a collaborative research project on evictions. The report produced from this effort, Evicted in Dane County, Wisconsin: A Collaborative Examination of the Housing Landscape, was covered by the Wisconsin State Journal and the Badger Herald among other publications, and demonstrates that while income is an important explanatory factor, the most non-white neighborhoods are by far the most impacted by eviction processes in the county. The report also documents how changes in landlord-tenant law at the state level have contributed to tenant vulnerability. The impact of this aspect along with the specificity of race and housing development on eviction in Dane County will be investigated in future publications.
Santa Ana, CA
Two recent articles on housing conditions in Santa Ana are troubling. In 2014, the L.A. Times published a piece, "L.A. and Orange counties are an epicenter of overcrowded housing," that showed that 2 of the top 10 most crowded zip codes were located in the city. And recently, in 2016 another article appeared, "Santa Ana: Living Behind Cardboard Walls," that documented many of the poor housing conditions low-income renters face in Santa Ana's unaffordable housing market. The author of the latter piece cited an interview with Santa Ana’s Community Development Agency’s housing division manager, Judson Brown saying: "To adequately meet the demand for low-income housing, Judson Brown estimates that his city would need to build 1,200 units for the homeless and at least another 5,000 for its low-income renters." Unfortunately, this is not going to happen any time soon and meanwhile gentrification pressures in Santa Ana's core continue to exacerbate conditions. Unfortunately, existing subsidized affordable housing complicates the issue as I have shown in a recent paper, "Façades of Equitable Development: Santa Ana and the Affordable Housing Complex." In this work, my co-author and I argue that a narrow focus on affordable housing, as it is designed and produced within the larger affordable housing complex (AHC), can actually facilitate the process of gentrification and displacement.
In 2015, Dr. Carolina Sarmiento and I partnered with community organizations in Santa Ana including the El Centro Cultural de Mexico, the Kennedy Commission, and St. Joseph's Health Community Building Initiative to address these issues through a collaborative research project. The report, Lacy in Crisis and in Action: A report on housing and tenant conditions in the Lacy neighborhood of Santa Ana, California, was released in March 2016 at a community forum in the Lacy neighborhood which was led by residents. Regrettably, the findings from this report show that neighborhoods like Lacy are struggling to secure quality affordable housing; a situation that is made more difficult by increasing gentrification pressures. We have just finished collecting data from the second year of this three-year project and will be publishing our findings soon.
Personal
I was born and raised in northeast Los Angeles. My interest in gentrification and displacement emerged when I became active in a community organization in Echo Park, Casa del Pueblo, during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Although we were unable to achieve our goal of developing cooperative housing, I learned an incredible amount about the housing struggles of low-income tenants and how gentrification uproots communities. The experience also impressed on me how little we knew about gentrification in Los Angeles at the time. And thus with this in mind, I entered the Urban Planning program at UCLA and continued on to write my dissertation on displacement and evictions in the city during the pivotal decade of the 1990s. Looking back, our inability to address the gentrification-induced housing crisis in Echo Park has left residents increasingly vulnerable to displacement. Two articles highlight how far we have come in terms of community disruption and dislocation: (1) With gentrification, Echo Park gang members move outside their turf (L.A. Times Feb. 3, 2014) and (2) The Median Price For Housing in Echo Park is Now $813,000 (Crubed LA Jan. 26, 2016).
When I am not doing research or planning, I enjoy riding and wrenching on bicycles with others, hiking/camping, and enjoying the transition between seasons in the Midwest that is completely new to me.
Research
My research approaches the dynamic of urban change through the lens of gentrification. Through this perspective, I attempt to uncover the way in which urban change occurs by way of the process of displacement and eviction. My work draws attention to the role that property owners, financial institutions, and the state perform in the process of urban displacement and gentrification. I see eviction and the monopoly powers bestowed through property rights as key to understanding capitalist urbanization. I have been influenced greatly by Marxian geographers such as David Harvey and others working on the edges of Marxian analyses such as Allen J. Scott. At the same time, I am critical of the general under-emphasis these groups of authors have given the role of racialization in urbanization processes. To this end, the seminal works of Omi and Winant on racial formation, and Cheryl Harris' work on whiteness as property have also been critical to my approach.
Some of my publications are available here, however I have been currently working on a couple projects that I believe are worth mentioning because they highlight the intersection of research and critical planning practice through collaboration and community-based participatory action research that I believe are important to my work.
Madison, WI
Despite having a reputation as a politically liberal/progressive city with a high quality of life, Madison's housing conditions are becoming increasingly difficult for many of the city's residents. An excellent report by my colleague, Kurt Pulsen at UW-Madison entitled, Housing Needs Assessment: Dane County and Municipalities (2015) shows that the City of Madison contains the vast majority of low income and poor households in the county and the region. In addition, Pulsen's report shows that while Madison is disproportionately poor, housing costs are also comparatively more expensive than other urban areas in the region being that it is the 37th most expensive metro area in the country. This polarization between low incomes and high housing costs is made even more difficult because there are few housing options available. Thus, despite recent 'high-end' housing development projects near the downtown core, many of which cater to university students, Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E) estimates that the vacancy rate for multi-family rental units in the Madison area has declined almost 30 percent from an average of 3.98 in 2009 to 2.8 percent in 2015. U.S. Census data shows that available housing may be even harder to come by than MG&E estimates as 44 percent of the census tracts in the County have less than 0.5 percent vacancy.
In order to help shift the discourse around this issue, I have partnered with a local nonprofit organization, the Tenant Resource Center, to work on a collaborative research project on evictions. The report produced from this effort, Evicted in Dane County, Wisconsin: A Collaborative Examination of the Housing Landscape, was covered by the Wisconsin State Journal and the Badger Herald among other publications, and demonstrates that while income is an important explanatory factor, the most non-white neighborhoods are by far the most impacted by eviction processes in the county. The report also documents how changes in landlord-tenant law at the state level have contributed to tenant vulnerability. The impact of this aspect along with the specificity of race and housing development on eviction in Dane County will be investigated in future publications.
Santa Ana, CA
Two recent articles on housing conditions in Santa Ana are troubling. In 2014, the L.A. Times published a piece, "L.A. and Orange counties are an epicenter of overcrowded housing," that showed that 2 of the top 10 most crowded zip codes were located in the city. And recently, in 2016 another article appeared, "Santa Ana: Living Behind Cardboard Walls," that documented many of the poor housing conditions low-income renters face in Santa Ana's unaffordable housing market. The author of the latter piece cited an interview with Santa Ana’s Community Development Agency’s housing division manager, Judson Brown saying: "To adequately meet the demand for low-income housing, Judson Brown estimates that his city would need to build 1,200 units for the homeless and at least another 5,000 for its low-income renters." Unfortunately, this is not going to happen any time soon and meanwhile gentrification pressures in Santa Ana's core continue to exacerbate conditions. Unfortunately, existing subsidized affordable housing complicates the issue as I have shown in a recent paper, "Façades of Equitable Development: Santa Ana and the Affordable Housing Complex." In this work, my co-author and I argue that a narrow focus on affordable housing, as it is designed and produced within the larger affordable housing complex (AHC), can actually facilitate the process of gentrification and displacement.
In 2015, Dr. Carolina Sarmiento and I partnered with community organizations in Santa Ana including the El Centro Cultural de Mexico, the Kennedy Commission, and St. Joseph's Health Community Building Initiative to address these issues through a collaborative research project. The report, Lacy in Crisis and in Action: A report on housing and tenant conditions in the Lacy neighborhood of Santa Ana, California, was released in March 2016 at a community forum in the Lacy neighborhood which was led by residents. Regrettably, the findings from this report show that neighborhoods like Lacy are struggling to secure quality affordable housing; a situation that is made more difficult by increasing gentrification pressures. We have just finished collecting data from the second year of this three-year project and will be publishing our findings soon.
Personal
I was born and raised in northeast Los Angeles. My interest in gentrification and displacement emerged when I became active in a community organization in Echo Park, Casa del Pueblo, during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Although we were unable to achieve our goal of developing cooperative housing, I learned an incredible amount about the housing struggles of low-income tenants and how gentrification uproots communities. The experience also impressed on me how little we knew about gentrification in Los Angeles at the time. And thus with this in mind, I entered the Urban Planning program at UCLA and continued on to write my dissertation on displacement and evictions in the city during the pivotal decade of the 1990s. Looking back, our inability to address the gentrification-induced housing crisis in Echo Park has left residents increasingly vulnerable to displacement. Two articles highlight how far we have come in terms of community disruption and dislocation: (1) With gentrification, Echo Park gang members move outside their turf (L.A. Times Feb. 3, 2014) and (2) The Median Price For Housing in Echo Park is Now $813,000 (Crubed LA Jan. 26, 2016).
When I am not doing research or planning, I enjoy riding and wrenching on bicycles with others, hiking/camping, and enjoying the transition between seasons in the Midwest that is completely new to me.