Railyard reuse and spatial justice: Environmental and socio-economic impacts of infrastructural removal and intensification in Chicago

Transportation and mobility are critical in shaping social, political, and cultural aspects of life through the movement of people and goods and through the infrastructure that supports that movement – including the afterlives of that infrastructure. As we consider ever more urgently the need to move away from fossil fuel-based modes of transport, we should also consider the impacts of the infrastructure that is left behind, including the uneven impacts of its reuse. The United States suffered a severe decline in passenger rail service in the 20th century, while the last several decades have seen rapid growth in freight rail. These changes have put new pressures on existing infrastructure, either intensifying its transportation function, or remaking it into something else entirely. Here, we address the question of whether the afterlives of rail infrastructure further existing environmental injustices or, alternatively, create new inequalities via environmental gentrification. Through a GIS analysis of past and present railyards in the Chicago area, we find that transportation uses have remained or intensified in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, while neighborhoods where redevelopment has occurred have become wealthier and whiter. This suggests a double-edged impact of intensification of externalities from the global logistics system in communities already experiencing environmental injustice, while environmental gentrification is occurring around redeveloped sites where transportation infrastructure has been removed.