Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City

300 Pages·2022·11.511 MB·English

by  Kevin Loughran

PA R K S
F O R
P R O F I T
SELLING
NATURE
IN THE
CITY
KEVIN LOUGHRAN
PARKS
FOR
PROFIT

PARKS
FOR
PROFIT
SELLING
NATURE
IN THE
CITY
KEVIN LOUGHRAN
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2022 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Loughran, Kevin, author.
Title: Parks for profit : selling nature in the city / Kevin Loughran.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2021. |
Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021017227 (print) | LCCN 2021017228 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231194044 (hardback) | ISBN 9780231194051 (trade
paperback) | ISBN 9780231550628 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Gentrification—United States—
Case studies. | Social stratification—United States—Case studies. |
United States—Economic conditions—20th century. |
Parks—United States—Case studies.
Classification: LCC HT175 .L68 2021 (print) | LCC HT175 (ebook) |
DDC 307.3/4160973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017227
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017228
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
For Caroline, of course
•

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Sometime in 2009 3
2. Varieties of Urban Crisis: New York, Chicago, Houston 7
II. GROWTH MACHINES IN THE GARDEN
3. “The Yuppie Express” 31
4. “No More Bake Sales, Man” 50
5. “A Piece of Crud” 72
6. Parks for Profit or for People? 92
III. GARDENS IN THE MACHINE
7. Defective Landscapes 99
8. Imbricated Spaces 104
viii Contents
9. Constructing Environmental Authenticity 115
10. Spatial Practices and Social Control 147
IV. CONCLUSION
11. After the High Line 171
12. Abolish, Decolonize, Rot:
Three Proposals for Parks Equity 178
Notes 185
References 237
Index 267
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
F
IRST, I want to thank Eric Schwartz, editorial director of
Columbia University Press, for believing in my vision for
this book. From our first meeting in 2017, Eric has shown
great enthusiasm and a judicious editorial eye—true gifts to a
first-time author. Columbia is the perfect home for this book,
and I could not imagine a better person to guide it from start
to finish. All authors should be fortunate enough to have some-
one like Eric in their corner. Many thanks as well to the kind,
organized, and highly professional Lowell Frye, associate editor
at Columbia University Press, who offered great support for this
book and has been an absolute pleasure to work with.
This book literally would not exist without Jim Elliott, who
graciously invited me to join the Department of Sociology at
Rice University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2017. From there, Jim
provided a stream of resources and goodwill that enabled me to
investigate Houston’s Buffalo Bayou Park and become immersed
in the city’s history and culture. My three years spent in Hous-
ton were a time of considerable creative and intellectual ferment,
thanks in large part to my collaboration with Jim. Thanks, Jim, for
giving me the opportunity to write this book, and for everything
else, too.