Urban Sociology Final Exam
environmental racism
Policies and practices that render minorities more likely to live/work near environmental hazards -- e.g pipelines, factories, levees in nola, placement of expressways, toxic waste, pollution, and urban decay - whites are also more able to avoid them
Desmond mortgage interest deduction program (MID)
"A generous public housing program for the rich" -- *Ability to reduce taxable income by the amount of interest paid on a loan secured by their principal home* - post-WWII GI Bill and subsidizing suburbs - grew homeownership in the US for white people - millions count on the MID tax refund, so it can't just be pulled, also props up the price of homes as it incentivizes people to buy more expensive properties --> more expensive homes = more money to deduct - MID as a "stealth benefit" - the government rendered itself invisible to those families receiving the MID, "who soon came to see their successes as wholly self-made"
Urban Ecological Footprint, Reese and Wackernagel
"cities cannot be sustainable" but cities "are a key to sustainability" - cities require vast amounts of limited resources - but the organization of cities is efficient and ecologically advantageous
What are new urban forms?
'new' partnerships between public and private groups that complicate access to a public urban life
The business of homelessness
** cities say it's too expensive to subsidize housing for low-income people when actually the current system is more expensive -- people profit from poverty - prefer to overspend city budget if it means satisfying private interests - private developers and property managers profit from city payments to provide temporary housing to the homeless
How homeownership became the engine of american inequality, Desmond
- "the nation is facing one of the worst affordable-housing shortages in generations" - 1/4 households that qualify for assistance receives it
Zukin, Gentrification as Market and Place
- 'islands of renewal in a sea of decay' = gentrification alongside disinvestment/the decline of urban areas - Each neighborhood has a unique experience of gentrification, but it happens in all cities
A green new deal for housing, Cohen Palaces for the people, like in Vienna
- no one should be able to tell a person's status from their post code - income diversity
Airbnb in NOLA Negative effects
- not good neighbors - places often sit empty despite lack of housing - increases rent - prompts gentrification - causes evictions
Childress, the problem with Broken Windows policing
- officers rewarded for high tallies of citations - "convenient targets" = minorities, elderly, mentally ill, disabled - what counts as 'disorder'? - subjective - statistics and research is inconclusive
Let's talk about neighborhood stigma, Hertz Doesn't reputation reflect serious issues?
- places w stigmas for drugs aren't always the places w the most drug crime - race and immigrant status affects stigma more than drug activity - in Chicago, a neighborhood's reputation was a stronger predictor of poverty than its poverty level
men without property, Duncan how is moral order maintained?
- police - codified laws - indirectly through planners and architects - local moral orders are maintained through shopkeepers, gangs etc.
men without property, Duncan Moral order
- police respect the local moral order in certain places e.g. tolerate certain deviant behavior on skid row - homeless not allowed in public places as they do not own property - homeless people's classification of urban spaces is shaped by the dominant group's distinction between prime and marginal spaces - homeless people have to find out how dominant groups value spaces and resign themselves to marginal spaces -- by doing this they reconfirm their social marginality in the eyes of the host group
The second battle of Nola Context
- post WWII, suburbanization, white flight - america is going crazy over cars
"Whose Place is this Space? Life in the Street Prostitution Area of Helsinki, Finland", Tani
- questions over ownership of public space - activists felt that the neighborhood was their space and they had the right to fight for it - fighting against prostitution, assuming the whole community shared this value - "no such thing as collectively shared local experience/space"
"Fortified Enclaves", Caldeira
- real or imagined danger --> 'total security' w gated communities
"The erosion of public space and the Public Realm", Low How to integrate diverse communities and promote social tolerance?
- represent diversity in memorials and monuments in parks to make people feel welcome - consider difference in income levels and visitation patterns to enable access to all groups - overall, we should consider the laws/regulations that govern public spaces
Urban Ecological Footprint, Reese and Wackernagel What kinds of cities have the biggest ecological footprints?
- wealthy cities are able to impose more of a load on the environment - while the population is becoming more urban, rural places are being exploited more intensely than ever
"Whose Place is this Space? Life in the Street Prostitution Area of Helsinki, Finland", Tani What happens in the space when there's no collective sharing/experience?
- women (activists, residents) make a clear distinctions between themselves and prostitutes - kerb-crawlers treat all women like prostitutes - neighborhood has become a sexualized space, where any woman's presence is a sign of a prostitute - neighborhood is also marked as heterosexual space - women police their own behavior ( where/when they're in the neighborhood) and clothes to distance themselves from prostitution ** women end up unwittingly reproducing gendered power relations
"Casinos, Prisons, Incinerators...", Mele Where are the spillover effects of investments?
- yet to materialize for most of Chester's residents - no incentives for small shop keepers near to the casino - instead a *fragmented city*
Highway history
-Robet Moses, 1888-1981 - government official in New York - credited w highway projects across the US at the expense of funding public Transportation (uneven development)
Cross-class interaction in Mixed-income communities is often undermined by:
1. restrictions on social gatherings in public spaces 2. rules about who is eligible 3. underlying assumption that residents need to change or improve - often public housing residents are/feel unwelcome
"Why There's a Homelessness Crisis Among Transgender Teens", Holder
1/3 of transgender Americans experience homelessness
Fragmented city example
Amazon HQ2 - cities promised millions of dollars in tax cuts to the company - example of neoliberal urban development? - amazon's withdrawal from NYC = an end of neoliberal urban development's dominance?
Gilbert, Rootedness
Black women were more likely to rely on family and church networks (vs. newspaper ads, other contacts) - racism meant they had less choice - these networks formed a shield to deal with life in a racist society -- but these networks are more likely to lead them to sex and race segregated jobs (which tend to pay less)
How is NOLA branded?
Significant rebranding post Katrina to counteract stigma of city as crime-ridden, dangerous - "urban branding is particularly silent about issues of social justice, equity and inclusion"
Broken Windows Theory
a criminological theory that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further/worse crime
Zukin, loft living
artists in NYC in the '70s allowed to live in lofts because growth machine participants also valued culture/art and therefore allowed a deviation from the exchange value of property -- liked the use value of art - artists became 'pioneers' and unintentionally paved the way for more gentrification
Waves of Gentrification
artists/hipsters -- LGBTQ -- young professionals
Manufactured insecurity, mobile homes why is 'mobile home' a misnomer?
bc they're not really mobile
How could sociologists argue Gentrification isn't inevitable?
cities and gentrification are products of human decisions and actions, and thus it is contestable that Gentrification is not natural or inevitable - policies can be changed, housing markets can be changed - disinvestment can be stopped, it isn't inevitable but rather the effect of decisions of politicians and growth machines
How do new urban forms shape lives in cities?
create or reinforce exclusions and segregations, make fragmented cities
Mixed income communities, Hope IV (1990s - )
demolition of public housing projects and replacing them with mixed income housing - 1/3 market rate owner-occupied units - 1/3 affordable units - 1/3 public housing unites a way to revitalize neighborhoods and reduce concentrated poverty - by dispersing it - also by engineering opportunities for across-class networks and social mobility
What is gentrification?
describes the influx of middle-class people to urban neighborhoods that prompted the *displacement* of working-class residents -- the process of renovating an area so that it conforms to middle-class taste -- the displacement of non-middle-class residents ("old-timers") who are usually minorities by newcomers who are often white - British sociologist Ruth Glass coined in '64 - not just 'improvements' to buildings and neighborhoods
Rootedness definition
existence of personal networks - Can be a resource as well as a constraint - women use personal networks to ensure their emotional and economic wellbeing - but rootedness can also constrain opportunities for jobs, housing, childcare
Transportation and segregation
expressways cut through cities, dividing them by race
Neoliberal Urban development
focus on private interest, capital accumulation and extension into legal and political realm i.e. laws and politics prop up capitalism through deregulation - though capitalism seems natural, it only succeeds through the support of law and policy - roll-back and roll-out neoliberalism
issues with Mixed income communities
not enough units - Mixed-income communities are lower density and only consist of 1/3 public housing units - displaced former residents location of Mixed-income communities is strategically away from rich, well-established neighborhoods like the Garden District
Rogers Park: diversity snapshots 5. late 1980s
now a welcome mat for investors - disinvestment and low-income housing afforded rent gaps - diversity as a brand - diversity signaling 'not just populated by dark-skinned people'
"The erosion of public space and the Public Realm", Low What is public space?
place for social interaction where anyone is welcome - can be used to foster inclusion and diversity
Duncan prime places
places with high property value e.g. the garder district
Duncan Marginal spaces
places with no/low property value e.g. space under a highway
NOLA public Transportation
- 10 years after Katrina only 45% of overall transit service had returned - street cars were prioritized over busses -- tourism - buses serve more of the city BUT come much less frequently
Zukin, gentrifiers are 'urban pioneers'
- 1st wave gentrifiers clearing the 'frontier' of existing populations and clearing the way for other newcomers - middle-class appropriation = taking space from the poor and claiming it as their own
The gentrification puzzle, Florida
- Controversial social scientist, critiqued for celebrating gentrification - not many cities are gentrifying (as measured by home price) --> people most at risk for displacement are renters - gentrification doesn't make existing residents poorer (as measured by credit score) and has mixed correlation with income inequality
"The erosion of public space and the Public Realm", Low How is public space threatened?
- Designed/policed to reduce undesirable (homeless) people - Surveillance cameras and policing - Privatizing spaces, making them exclusionary and unwelcoming - creating spaces geared towards middle-class and tourists -- e.g. golf courses, the Highline in NYC
kicked out: renter's rights in NOLA, Ludwick
- From 2015 to 2018: 24,000+ people were displaced by court-ordered evictions in new orleans - in black neighborhoods, 1/4 renters experienced a court-ordered eviction vs. 1/24 in white areas
The second battle of Nola
- Moses proposes an expressway to run along riverfront (between Jackson Square and river) -NOLA proposed riverfront expressway - decades long fight throughout the '50s and '60s - at the time the city didn't recognize that the use value of the French Quarter could translate to exchange value - unprecedented outcome based on: -- local organization (well-funded groups) -- national appeal of the French Quarter
There's basically no way not to be a gentrifier, Hertz
- Regardless of intentions of behavior, middle-class residents moving into a working-class area will cause displacement - move to a higher-income solution = sustains a high cost of living, forcing others to be gentrifiers -gentrification is only one half of a broader problem, other half is that people can't afford to live where they want
A green new deal for housing, Cohen Why isn't density good enough?
- Residents of dense neighborhoods tend to be wealthy and have big carbon footprints - neighborhoods should be mixed-income, dense, and close to public transit
Let's talk about neighborhood stigma, Hertz What are the effects of neighborhood stigma?
- Stigma can help create the very disadvantages it supposedly reflects -- *reputation is a stronger predictor of the future poverty than current the poverty rate* - Reputation as a mechanism of inequality - 'no-go' areas - fail to treat people in these places as people vs. problems - Don't ask people/residents for input in policies for improvement (top-down policies)
Airbnb in NOLA Positive effects
- Stimulus to local businesses - extra money to citizens -- normal people can make additional money, especially w stagnant wages
A green new deal for housing, Cohen
- median incomes have stagnated since 2000, but in the same period a foreclosure boom has shredded millions of families' savings, and average urban rental costs have increased by 50% - The best way for a GND to expand, decarbonize and guarantee housing is to build 10 million new, public, no-carbon housing units a year
Zukin, cultural and economic claims to urban spaces
- artists, LGBTQ, women, well-educated lower income people also moved into downtowns for cheap housing and cultural expression and social diversity - fixing up old building bc they valued the cultural/use value of housing stock BUT, developers saw this as an opportunity and began large-scale projects that renovated old buildings and marketed them to newcomers
Gilbert, "Race, Space and Power: The Survival Strategies of Working Poor Women" why does this paradox exist?
- black women rely on closer networks - equating mobility with power and immobility with powerlessness is too simple - working closer to home is more beneficial
is homeownership always desirable?
- building equity means enduring short-term shocks to the market, and this requires financial security --> i.e. building wealth through homeownership requires wealth - homeowners are slightly more civically engaged than renters, but this isn't necessarily good for everyone else e.g. opposing integration, affordable housing
Alternatives to Broken Windows policing
- community policing - i.e. foot patrols, community engagement and trust - the goal is to have officers who 'know people's grandmothers'
How to create safer public housing projects, Friedrich
- despite the reputation, crime is concentrated in a very small number of public housing developments - some researchers believe the design is an important factor e.g. prevent dark hallways, unsecure exits - others believe residents' participation in the community and eyes on the street is more important than security measures e.g. provide places for people to meet and social surveillance (libraries, gardens etc.)
"Fortified Enclaves", Caldeira Spacial separation
- exacerbates social difference - fosters inequality and sense that different social groups belong to separate universes and have irreconcilable interests - Errodes democracy and citizenship -- separating different people, discouraging discussion it's not that people who live in gated communities are bad, it's that people's fears have been exploited for profit and are reinforced in urban design and residential landscapes
"Why There's a Homelessness Crisis Among Transgender Teens", Holder Why is there a homelessness crisis among trans teens?
- face rejection from families and communities i.e. challenging notion that community is always positive - more likely to avoid shelters, fear of abuse/violence
What Detroit needs now: more squatters
- for centuries, homeownership has been considered the optimal form of housing - assumption that a homeowner whose life savings are invested in a house is more likely to invest in community -- in Detroit it's the opposite - many homeowners have abandoned the land and abdicated tax obligations - squatters are the ones demonstrating responsibility -- relate to property w/o a market logic, isn't about taking care of a home bc you can sell it in 20 yrs and retire off the money
Gentrification and violent cultural resistance, Marina
- gentrification pushes the producers of NOLA culture out of the historically black neighborhoods - it's one thing to be poor among the poor; it's another thing to experience poverty surrounded by wealth
A neighborhood identity of diversity
- glosses over elements that threaten people with power and privilege i.e. inequality of power and resources - valorizes homeownership, stigmatizes low-income renters
The placement of highways is no accident
- government effort to maintain/reinforce segregation - building highways through communities with the least political power to resist (environmental racism)
Does America's housing policy need a reset?
- government policies that encourage homeownership are premised on the theory that homeownership produces better outcomes than renting - most people don't question this -- as American as apple pie
Unpacking "the gentrifier"
- image of gentrifiers as pioneers is too simple - pioneers do exist, but some gentrifiers try to protect oldtimers e.g. social preservationists
kicked out: renter's rights in NOLA, Ludwick Underlying cause of eviction?
- increase in housing costs, stagnation in wages - rents have increased 29% since 2012 - about 60% of all Nola renters - including 72% of women of color - are cost-burdened (rent is >30% of income) by their homes - wages have stagnated, average income has dropped 8% since 2000
Talk of diversity
- indicates a "shared buy in into an unmarked white, middle-class culture of tolerance" - selective incorporation of 'respectable' people of color threatened by 'unrespectable' low-income minorities and affordable housing
How can we invest in neighborhoods without promoting Gentrification?
- invest in social/public services, schools - grants for people to fix up their homes or for existing businesses - higher wages, invest in human capital
Manufactured insecurity, mobile homes Why is the mobile home insecurity a problem?
- largest form of affordable housing that isn't state subsidised
Negative aspects of homeownership
- limits economic mobility - advocate for zoning laws, segregation, prioritizing homeownership above all else - myth of equity building is oversold: homeownership hasn't benefitted low/middle-income families
Urban Ecological Footprint, Reese and Wackernagel How are cities sustainable and ecologically advantageous forms of human settlement?
- lower costs per capita of amenities and infrastructure - great possibility for reuse and recycling - density, which reduces per capita demand for land - potential for reducing fossil fuel consumption through limitation of cars
Racial bias in perceptions of neighborhoods
- many studies show that everyone (including minorities) is more likely to view minority neighborhoods as problematic e.g. despite the actual number of abandoned buildings, graffiti, amount of crime, people perceive African American and Latino neighborhoods as more dangerous, problematic, crime-ridden
Manufactured insecurity, mobile homes why are mobile homes so precarious?
- the land they're on often gets sold - they own the home not the land
How has diversity lost its meaning?
- there's a difference between being seen and being heard - becomes a code word for 'all those other folk' - becomes tokenized and pejorative - the 'diverse' people don't get to control the narrative
How cities use technology to address crime
- to prevent crime, cities often increase lighting and use surveillance cameras - apps, publicly sources and notifies users of local crime, serving as personalized alert platforms
"Casinos, Prisons, Incinerators...", Mele 1st wave: Roll-back neoliberalism
1970s - 80s - active dismantling of urban land-use policies, *disinvestment* and defunding public projects
How Private Companies Are Profiting from Homelessness in New York City, Hattem
1975 Supreme Court 'right to shelter decision' in NYC - NYC must guarantee nightly housing for eligible residents what went wrong? - huge increase in homeless population - profitable government contracts, outsourced to private companies w little oversight - cluster-site housing concentrates poverty -- closed opportunity structure - housing isn't safe, secure, precarious - no protection from sudden eviction
"Casinos, Prisons, Incinerators...", Mele 2nd wave: Roll-out neoliberalism
1990s onwards - the government actively chasing private capital by 'rolling out' tax incentives, rezoning, and capital assistance to private re-development - Chester, Pensylvania's 'hodge-podge' landscape is the result of 2 chronological waves of neoliberal governance strategies -- new casinos, commercial buildings vs. dilapidated and low income housing
Rogers Park: diversity snapshots 1. 1960s
Amid white flight and disinvestment - the neighborhood welcomed 'everybody' to prevent further devastation - diversity used as a tool to attract white ethnics and avoid becoming a ghetto during white flight
Broken Windows Theory policing
Curtailing small signs of crime, anti-social behavior and civil disorder in order to prevent further/worse crime -- e.g. stop and frisk, war on drugs - extremely disproportionate policing in groups of color - leads to a loss of faith in the police
Disinvestment leads to gentrification
Disinvestment allows for the rent gap
Rogers Park: diversity snapshots 4. 1980s
Diversity as a defense against subsidized housing - Said they were already diverse - said subsidized housing would cause a homogenous community of colored people
The Enigma of Diversity, Berrey What is the enigma of diversity?
Diversity is vague and can obscure as much as it explains - often glosses over equity -- equity is giving everyone what they need to be successful. equality is treating everyone the same - it's a buzzword, hides the reality
The taking of Freret Street, Ruffin
Gentrification happens in stages - an economically depressed neighborhood sees the arrival of hippies/artists --> then a young professional class arrives, w children and a trust fund --> banks heavily invest, spurring the kinds of shifts seen on Freret
Gilbert, "Race, Space and Power: The Survival Strategies of Working Poor Women"
In contrast to the idea of closed opportunity structures, she argues that women are not necessarily spatially trapped - draws on intersectionality - context of her study: post '90s 'welfare reform' -- eliminated cash assistance, made assistance dependent on stringent work requirements
Rogers Park: diversity snapshots 3. 1980s
Laissez-faire 'melting pot' - huge in-migration of African Americans, immigrants from central/south America, Africa, Asia, Europe - no policy intervention like other neighborhoods
What is branding?
Marketing, creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product in competitive markets - outcome is profit
Let's talk about neighborhood stigma, Hertz What is neighborhood stigma?
Negative perceptions/reputations of the neighborhood
The Enigma of Diversity, Berrey Rogers Park: "the most diverse neighborhood in Chicago"
Snapshots of 'diversity' - diversity has meant different things and has had different purposes
What's different about how we've been talking about the environment vs. the Chicago school sociologists?
They found and studied cities as if they were 'natural' when really that's not the case, they're influenced and constructed by people
Transportation is unequal
Transportation is linked to inequality in many ways: - neighborhoods w highest levels of poverty generally are underserved in terms of Transportation -- e.g. post-Katrina transit service reduced by 95% in Hollygrove - inadequate Transportation creates numerous obstacles ** people who use public transit the most are most likely not to live close to it -- only 12% of jobs are accessible via public Transportation in a 30 min. period
Rogers Park: diversity snapshots 2. 1960s
Welcoming black Chicagoans - welcomed black Chicagoans unlike other neighborhoods - used language of diversity and 'welcoming' to appease white residents who were tempted by suburbs
social preservationists
gentrifiers who acknowledge the effects of their presence and try to prevent the displacement of old-timers in their area
How homeownership became the engine of american inequality, Desmond Affordable housing
housing that costs 30% or less of a family's income -- including mortgage, electricity/water bills etc. - b/c of rising housing costs and stagnant wages more than half of all poor renting families spend over 50% of their income on housing costs, 1/4 spends over 70%
Public transit use and demographic group
more likely to use: - foreign-born - younger people - lowest income group - people who make the most money use it more than those in the middle-class -- people w high paying jobs are concentrated in big cities
Revanchism, Smith
taking back the city from urban poor which is justified through blaming them for poor conditions
Zukin, cultural value is linked to exchange value How do city governments reinforce the cultural claims of gentrifiers?
tax incentives, designating historic districts, zoning out manufacturing
Who gets to define what diverse is?
the default is white American men
Smith's Rent Gap Thesis
the difference between the current income generated by a property and its potential future income -- the gap is what attracts investors to an area
men without property, Duncan Moral order of a landscape definition
the organization of behavior, activities, etiquette in a space by the dominant group (usually middle class) - feels inherently correct to the dominant group - middle-class moral order is generally dominant in cities as a whole vs. 'local moral orders'
'The Monster': Claiborne ave before and after the interstate
unlike in the French Quarter, the I-10 was built in the '60s the state: - had to acquire 55 properties - cleared over 200 oak trees - closed 80 black-owned businesses - altered landscape of cultural heritage (Mardi Gras Indians) and social support community members tried to organize against construction but: - had little political clout relative to white elites - black politicians/activists at the time were occupied w other issues e.g. Civil Rights
Gentrification and violent cultural resistance, Marina What is violent cultural resistance?
various forms of physical or cultural violence to fight back against gentrification - not very effective - 'weapons of the weak' = when people lack political or economic power, they express their frustration in other ways - it may not be 'effective' but it still serves a purpose
Gilbert, "Race, Space and Power: The Survival Strategies of Working Poor Women" paradox in existing research:
white women are more spacially constrained than white men -- e.g. have *shorter* commutes to work which negatively affects employment opportunities black women have *longer* commutes to work than white women, which also negatively affects their employment
