Rezoning New York: Class and Racial Inequalities in the Struggle for Space

Author

• Viktor Andre Bensus Talavera, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

9-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Sociology

Advisor

Van Tran

Committee Members

Philip Kasinitz

Carolina Bank Muñoz

Sharon Zukin

Subject Categories

Civic and Community Engagement | Inequality and Stratification | Place and Environment | Politics and Social Change | Race and Ethnicity | Urban Studies and Planning

Keywords

participation, zoning, rezoning, New York City, class and racial inequalities, housing policies

Abstract

Although zoning changes are a critical instrument to address housing affordability concerns, their role in reproducing socioeconomic and racial inequalities is underexplored. This dissertation fills this gap by comparing the participatory rezoning process in two New York City neighborhoods—where citizen participation is mandated but non-binding— between 2014 and 2021. The first case is East New York, a low-income, majority-Black and Latino neighborhood in Brooklyn. The second, SoHo/NoHo, are two affluent, majority-white neighborhoods in Manhattan. Drawing on a combination of archival research, ethnographic observations of virtual public hearings, and 50 in-depth interviews, I analyze how these two very different communities formed coalitions and mobilized resources to navigate technical and political constraints and how city officials framed their proposals to respond to each neighborhood's socioeconomic composition in the context of a chronic, citywide housing crisis and rampant gentrification. Furthermore, I examine the strategies supporters and opponents used to advance their positions and how power relations shape rezoning proposals, processes, and decision-making. I find that the city established the rationale that rezonings would create more affordable housing, which would lead to social and racial justice outcomes. In contrast, communities targeted for rezonings framed them as planned gentrification or displacement. Once engaged in participatory planning and decision-making processes, residents and community advocates recognized the need to learn the technical and legal language of planning documents and processes, what I conceptualize as the language of the state, to meaningfully participate. The combination of mistrust and the need to translate the language of the state leads to the formation of coalitions and the mobilization of resources to organize opposition to the plans, both within and outside formal spaces of participation. Ultimately, the challenges that the design and implementation of participation pose in civil society actors granted city planners and officials outsized political power, enabling them to successfully approve both rezoning plans. Broadly, this dissertation makes three sociological contributions. First, unlike what many scholars of local participation suggest, I found that the local state’s strategic use of institutional and planning tools (e.g., mastery of the technical language of documents and control over the process) in particular political conjunctures (growing demands for racial justice) can lead to the approval of rezonings in affluent, majority-white communities despite residents’ opposition. Second, my comparative approach highlights that low-income communities of color, such as East New York, possess more local social capital and social infrastructure than their more affluent counterparts, although they often lack the economic resources that communities like SoHo/NoHo have. The prevalence of different resources in each community shapes and limits their tactics. Third, I demonstrate that differences become salient with the scale and intensity of the planned intervention (higher densities and more housing in the low-income community), and the temporalities of closure (residents of SoHo/NoHo used lawsuits and lobbyists even after their neighborhoods' rezoning was approved). By shifting the focus from outcomes to processes, I show that the reproduction of class and racial inequalities begins in the participatory planning stage, not with rezonings’ effects.

Recommended Citation

Bensus Talavera, Viktor Andre, "Rezoning New York: Class and Racial Inequalities in the Struggle for Space" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6811