In shrinking cities, with large populations of low-income and people of color, redeveloping vacant lots can improve access to the benefits of greenspace, but also spur or accelerate gentrification. Understanding people’s viewpoints on gentrification and vacant lot redevelopment in shrinking cities is important, especially as these perspectives may differ depending on people’s socioeconomic conditions and proximity to these spaces. One common development of vacant lots is into parks. As such, we assessed people’s beliefs and attitudes about gentrification, their levels of support of park development in low-income areas, and differences based on presence of vacant lots in their neighborhood, through an online survey of residents in St. Louis, Missouri—a shrinking city (N = 521). We found that respondents valued investments in their neighborhood, including park development. Specifically, respondents supported signs of gentrification from those investments, but also supported preserving neighborhoods—a potentially contradictory viewpoint. When comparing by proximity to vacant lots, we found some differences in respondents’ views. Further, respondents’ beliefs and attitudes about gentrification influenced their support for different types of development, particularly building parks in formerly vacant lots, if there were not vacant lots present in their neighborhood. Among residents living near vacant lots, beliefs about neighborhood change were unrelated to their attitudes toward gentrification or support of park development—suggesting that abstract beliefs about neighborhood change are not salient to their attitudes and support. These findings have implications for urban planning and community engagement, particularly in shrinking cities where legacies of environmental racism endure.

在拥有大量低收入人群和有色人种的收缩城市中，重新开发空地可以改善获得绿色空间的好处，但也可以刺激或加速高档化。了解人们对收缩城市中高档化和空地重建的看法很重要，特别是因为这些观点可能会因人们的社会经济条件和与这些空间的接近程度而异。空地的一种常见发展是进入公园。因此，我们通过对密苏里州圣路易斯居民的在线调查，评估了人们对中产阶级化的信念和态度、他们对低收入地区公园开发的支持程度，以及基于社区空地存在的差异——一个缩小的城市（N = 521）。我们发现受访者重视在他们附近的投资，包括园区开发。具体而言，受访者支持这些投资的高档化迹象，但也支持保护社区——这是一个可能相互矛盾的观点。在比较空地的接近程度时，我们发现受访者的意见存在一些差异。此外，受访者对中产阶级化的信念和态度影响了他们对不同类型开发的支持，特别是在以前的空地上建造公园，如果有的话他们附近没有空地。在居住在空地附近的居民中，对社区变化的信念与他们对高档化或支持公园发展的态度无关——这表明关于社区变化的抽象信念对他们的态度和支持并不重要。这些发现对城市规划和社区参与具有重要意义，特别是在环境种族主义遗留问题不断缩小的城市中。