2025 Theses Master's

Balancing Growth and Community Well-being: The Socio-economic and Environmental Impacts of Airports on New York City's Surrounding Communities

He, Yuan

This paper is devoted to the socio-economic and environmental effects that airport development has on the adjacent fit neighborhood of New York. A mixed-methods approach including encompassing geospatial analysis, descriptive statistics, and temporal comparison, examines three key dimensions: housing rentability, employment structure, and environmental evolutions within Jamaica, East Elmhurst, and Corona.

Findings reveal that airport-adjacent communities experienced significantly higher housing price increases, coupled with deteriorating affordability as price-to-income ratios exceeded the "severely unaffordable" threshold of 5.0 in most communities. Environmental analysis demonstrates concerning patterns, with airport-adjacent areas suffering more than double the surface temperature increases and substantially greater vegetation loss compared to city averages. Employment patterns reveal a spatial segmentation of labor markets, offering divergent economic opportunities with varying degrees of stability and upward mobility.

These findings highlight the multifaceted pressures facing airport-adjacent communities, where housing unaffordability and environmental stress coexist alongside limited but valuable job pathways. Despite the fact that airports' development are a source of many skilled jobs that are accessible locally, ensuring these positions offer living wages and career advancement is essential. The findings highlight the need for integrated planning frameworks that include affordable housing protections, environmental mitigation strategies, and inclusive economic policies to ensure airport development benefits local residents across socioeconomic backgrounds.