What Counts as Displacement? Understanding Residential, Commercial, and Neighborhood Change in New York City

Displacement is often discussed as a consequence of development and rising rents, but its definition and the mechanisms in place to address its patterns are rarely straightforward. Displacement can mean the loss of housing, the closure of businesses, the erosion of community institutions, or the loss of belonging that occurs when residents no longer feel rooted in the places they call home.

This Civic Leadership Program development session discussed how neighborhood changes are measured by New York City, what type of experiences are captured or left out of those measurements, and what can be done about it. Using the Equitable Data Development Explorer's (EDDE) Displacement Risk Map and Racial Equity Reports as starting points, the session explored how perception, data, and public policy shapes which forms of displacement become visible, communicated, and ultimately addressed through policy regulation and funding.

The panel brought together speakers whose work approaches displacement from different but overlapping perspectives. Renae Widdison of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Moses Gates of the Regional Planning Association, and Gina Lee of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development spoke to current research and data surrounding residential vulnerability and commercial displacement. Shanna Sabio of GrowHouse and Oscar Romero of the NYC Civic Engagement Commission expanded the conversation to consider the dissemination of public information, civic participation, community experience, and cultural memory. Together, the panelists framed displacement as a condition shaped by multiple interrelated factors, including structural inequality and unequal access to resources and power.

Gates and Lee's presentations complicated the assumption that better data alone is the solution in understanding displacement. Gates presented recommendations for improving the EDDE tool and Racial Equity Reports, while Lee emphasized how small businesses and commercial corridors often experience pressures that are not fully addressed by existing policy frameworks. The discussion raised a deeper question: Is clearer communication of data enough when communities are already living with the conditions that data seeks to document? The more consequential question may be what happens next-how that data becomes leverage for policy change and, ultimately, delivers tangible benefits to the people and businesses most vulnerable to displacement.

Oscar and Shanna demonstrated how residents can play an active role in shaping projects, setting policy priorities, and influencing public investments. This requires building trust, making complex information accessible, developing engagement strategies that give participants meaningful influence over decision-making, and creating community-led institutions such as community land-trusts. Leveraging the knowledge embedded in a neighborhood's cultural memory, including historical patterns of disinvestment that continue to shape communities today can help residents better understand the forces shaping their neighborhoods and recognize displacement as a structural issue that should not be experienced individually, but addressed collectively.

Understanding displacement means building capacity to address it at all levels of the City, while ensuring that residents, small businesses, and community organizations have the resources, knowledge, and power to shape the policies and investments that affect their neighborhoods.