Claiming Identity through Space: LGBTQ+ Community Building via Commercial Development in West Hollywood and Palm Springs

Examining the relationship between queer identity and urban space, this thesis focuses on LGBT+ commercial real estate and its role in community building. Through the cities of West Hollywood and Palm Springs in California, it explores historic, contemporary, and forward-looking narratives of LGBT+-oriented commercial development, with an emphasis on retail, hospitality, and multifamily. Key questions address how LGBT+ communities claim and shape space (socially, economically, and physically) within “gayborhoods”, as well as strategies for navigating urban change. By analyzing these narratives with qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis offers insights for developers, planners, and other stakeholders invested in creating vibrant, inclusive communities. This interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach includes original GIS and data analysis of historic LGBT+ establishments, demographic study, literature review, site observation, interviews with stakeholders ranging from economic development professionals to mayors, and case studies of a queer women-owned small business and LGBT+ senior living community. The findings underscore the subversive and politically charged origins of gayborhoods, characterized by authenticity, entrepreneurship, and community-centric values. The analysis also reveals challenges to gayborhood identity as West Hollywood and Palm Springs grapple with questions of gentrification vs. preservation, commercialization, and shifting demographics (aging populations, increasing affluence, mainstream audiences, etc.). Given increased LGBT+ acceptance in the US since the mid-century (generally speaking) and the advent of social media and dating apps, some question whether the gayborhood is dying or even necessary anymore. I argue that the gayborhood as a framework, though evolving, persists in its relevance due to its core commitment to LGBT+ community building. And its resilience is reflective of the historic legacy of the LGBT+ community itself.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Ng, Jason

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Gamble, David
• Sant'Anna, Vinicios

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/156118

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/156118