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Climate change is upending Miami\u2019s real estate markets, turning one of its poorest neighborhoods into some of the most desirable real estate around. It\u2019s a phenomenon known as \u201cclimate gentrification,\u201d a term coined by urban studies professor Jesse Keenan. \n\nIn a 2018 paper, Keenan writes that while gentrification is most often driven by supply \u2013 that is, a surplus of devalued property that invites development and transformation \u2013 climate gentrification is the opposite.\n\u201c[It]is really about a shift in preferences and demand function,\u201d says Keenan. \u201cAnd that's a much broader phenomenon in terms of geography and physical geography or markets in some markets than any kind of localized gentrification in a classic sense.\u201d\n\nIn other words, as people are attracted to areas of lower vulnerability, developers see an opportunity to make a killing. Valencia Gunder, a community organizer and climate educator in Miami, recognizes the irony. She says that in that city\u2019s earliest days, Haitian, Bahamian and Caribeean immigrants were barred from living in the tony beachfront areas.\n\n\u201cBlack people had to live in the center of the city, which is different than most America, because usually low income black communities are in lower lying areas\u2026and so everything they did that they thought they were doing to hurt us, actually ended up helping us in the long run.\u201d\n\nBut there\u2019s only so much Little Haiti to go around. As longtime residents are being priced out of their community, climate change isn\u2019t helping matters.\n\n\u201cOnce the water comes in, Little Haiti will be beachfront property,\u201d Gunder predicts. \n\u201cBottom line, it\u2019s gonna be beachfront property, it\u2019s going to be the new shore. So it's become like the hottest toy on the shelf.\u201d\n\nGuests:\nValencia Gunder, Founder, Make the Homeless Smile \nJesse Keenan, Lecturer, Harvard University Graduate School of Design \nGuy Williams, President and CEO, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice\n\nPortions of this program were recorded at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices