My current project explores the imbrications of urban development, racial displacement, sexual normativization, and environmental degradation in Central Florida. Specifically, analyzing the interrelationship between historical trends of economic inequality, profit-making, and ecological modification with social movements, sexuality, and lived experiences after the Great Recession.
Below is a juxtaposition of a western portion of historic Winter Park, known as the Dixie Terrace neighborhood. From 1994 to 2018, new home construction has depleted the area's urban forest.
Below is a juxtaposition of Hannibal Square, Winter Park's historically black neighborhood from 1994 to 2018. The gentrification of this neighborhood has not only pushed the neighborhood's black residents out of the area, but has also led to the destruction of the area's urban tree canopy. While the city has made a number of efforts to plant new trees along city streets in an effort to maintain Winter Park's ecological aesthetic, tree removal continues to be a private endeavor as developers cater to Central Florida's wealthy consumers by subdividing existing properties and building large single-family homes that take up entire lots.
Below is a juxtaposition of an eastern section of Historic Winter Park as seen in 1994 and 2018: