“Trickle out” economics: Spatial imaginaries of the entrepreneurial city in New York’s 421-a and J-51 housing programs

Keywords: entrepreneurial city, housing, gentrification, GIS, urban geography
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

A hallmark of entrepreneurial urban governance is what Harvey (1989) termed a “political economy of place rather than territory.” This is a spatial imaginary premised on diffusion-based growth strategies, prioritizing targeted subsidies for a small number of places rather than territorially-scaled collective consumption. It is a geographic analogy to trickle-down economics – just like preferential treatment for certain people is justified based on assumed multiplier effects, special treatment for certain places is justified on the assumption that benefits will “trickle out” to the broader city. Yet both concepts have long been “zombie” ideas: vestiges of a waning neoliberal paradigm, lumbering along despite being widely debunked as ineffective (and regressive) fiscal policy. This spatial imaginary has a long history within housing politics of New York City, from revanchist forays into the “gentrification frontier” (Smith, 1996) to a present-day “real estate state” (Stein, 2019). One prominent example is the curious way that the local state subsidizes affordable housing: by providing tax benefits to market-rate developments (that set aside a portion of units for lower income tenants). I evaluate how these housing subsidies have reflected trickle-out growth politics across several historical periods, using a GIS analysis of the 421-a and J-51 tax abatement programs. Mapping 6200 properties which enrolled in these programs from 1990-present, I use spatial-temporal statistics to compare their geography to the evolving geography of the gentrification frontier. This contributes by periodizing urban entrepreneurialism across three decades, and interpreting entrepreneurial housing policy through gentrification cycles both temporally and spatially.