Gentrification, Tourism, and the Future of LGBTQ Space: An Urban Policy Exploration

Abstract

In this thesis, I ask the question: what are the methods and the consequences of how the city acknowledges, historicizes, and publicizes LGBTQ spaces? I focus on three particular policy areas in order to answer it: gentrification, tourism, and official memorialization. I take advantage of comparisons made by policymakers between two areas within New York City: Times Square, Manhattan and Jackson Heights, Queens. By comparing processes of gentrification, strategies relating to tourism, and official acknowledgement of LGBTQ histories and identities in the two areas, I arrive at a concept of what LGBTQ space is, how it is formed, and how the government of the contemporary city reacts to it.