In our ongoing efforts to understand public reactions to urban transformations, the ATRAPA project team has identified fears of gentrification as a key reason behind resistance to these changes. Adding to this exploration, Pablo Villar-Abeijon latest research offers new insights by directly investigating whether pedestrianization projects in Barcelona have led to signs of gentrification.
Pablo’s study carefully maps the pedestrianized streets implemented between 2012 and 2020, using neighborhood-level census data to track who moves into and out of these areas. His findings indicate clear shifts: neighborhoods with pedestrianized streets attracted more highly educated residents and migrants from the Global North, while seeing a notable decline in older residents. These are strong markers typically associated with gentrification, which validates the idea that some criticisms of urban interventions can be grounded validly on gentrification and displacement fears.
This important contribution to our understanding of urban renewal and gentrification was successfully presented at both the AESOP 2025 Conference in Istanbul and the ENHR Affordable Housing Conference in Paris, sparking engaging discussions among scholars and policymakers.
Read Pablo’s full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920925001282
