Branding Olympic streetscapes: Korean immigrant place entrepreneurs and the contest for racial belonging

Traditional scholarship has long examined how place entrepreneurs–or actors who develop, market, and capitalize on the economic, social, and symbolic value of land–drive the political economy of urban growth. Their pursuit of profit often brings them into conflict with community stakeholders who value place in terms of its social ties, local identities, and affective meanings. In multiracial neighborhoods, however, these conflicts are further shaped by historically unequal claims to space and uneven access to political power. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 place entrepreneurs and other community stakeholders, we examine how the entrance of Korean immigrant players in Koreatown growth politics has complicated the meaning of place through contestation with other racial groups. We show that conflicts over urban redevelopment are not only about unequal influence over how the neighborhoods are represented, planned, and transformed. As immigrant place entrepreneurs gain access to development networks, political coalitions, and decision-making processes, they also reshape local growth agendas in ways that generate tensions among racialized and working-class residents with different stakes in neighborhood change. We highlight how race, ethnicity, historical context, and unequal political access reconfigure placemaking and growth politics beyond capital interests.