UC Davis

Mobility justice explains justice and injustice in terms of the movement of people, goods, capital, and ideas according to power structures and resource imbalances at multiple scales. Traditionally gentrification scholarship has dealt with other causes of gentrification, such as rising housing costs, real estate speculation, and demand and supply imbalance. The role of transportation infrastructure and forced community movement is under-examined in the transportation literature. This thesis seeks to apply the mobility justice concept to current gentrification in a case study of the Sacramento neighborhood of Oak Park, using oral history interviews with community members, historic document analysis, and analysis of transportation infrastructure. I find that racial covenants, redlining, urban renewal, and freeway building have all served to influence the mobilities of Oak Park residents, especially low-income people of color. Framing gentrification as part of an ongoing process of mobility injustice allows solutions from mobility justice that prioritize the power, decision-making, and needs of community members over the advancement of capital interests. In the short term, cities can prioritize participatory planning, freeway teardown, housing creation, tenant protections, and enhancement of non-car transportation options to enable residents to stay in their communities and benefit from rather than be displaced by investments and changes.