Urban Sociology
Ruth Glass: Aspects of Change
Changes in Central London (1964) Influx of "the gentry" New elegant residences, new businesses, infrastructure improvements Increasing juxtaposition between wealth and poverty Spread of affluence throughout entire neighborhoods Longtime working class residents displaced, forced into undesirable locations.
Influential Policies to Explain Divergence in lakeview and 9th ward
Look and Leave Program Green-Dot Map "Bring New Orleans Back" Road Home
School Choice in Era of Gentrification How do They Make the Choice?
Parents' Social Networks Central to "making the choice" Build a critical mass Mitigate "risk" Marketing Campaigns Civic, business, and educational leaders market schools to middle-class families Hope to revitalize certain districts through middle-class educational reinvestment
The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences \ Physical Displacement
Physical Displacement Scholars debate the extent to which longtime residents are displaced from their communities Most studies show longtime residents in gentrifying neighborhoods move at similar rates as low-income residents in non-gentrifying neighborhoods. Implications? BUT scholars agree that there are other consequences aside from physical displacement: Cultural displacement/culture clash Social displacement Political displacement Commercial displacement Physiological outcomes
What are the consequences if cities dont adapt? Klinenberg
Physical Infrastructure Social infrastructure How can you help your neighbor out her house if it is flooded?
The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences Political Displacement
Political power transfers from longtime to new residents (Hyra 2014)
Case Study: Washington DC's Shaw/U Street Neighborhood
Racially and economically diverse Many subsidized housing units HUD (Obama admin.) and Mayor: "successful mixed income neighborhood" because of affordable housing stock amid influx of new affluent residents (i.e., less physical displacement) "Diversity Segregation": In mixed-income neighborhoods, people live next to each other, but not alongside each other. Outcomes: Political displacement Commercial displacement
Cities try to be more sustainable through:
Recycling Electric and hybrid vehicles Solar energy and other renewable resources Citizen activities (clean-up projects) Mass transit Limits urban sprawl Driving less = less carbon emitted into the air In 2010, HALF of all transportation emissions came from urban areas
Neil Smith: Rent-Gap Hypothesis
Rent-Gap Hypothesis Gentrification caused by land markets Gentrifiers and investors take advantage of gap between current and potential ground rent values in neighborhoods (get the "highest and best use" out of the property) What produces this gap?
Why is the flight of affluent white residents to the suburbs and into private schools important for understanding the fate of urban school districts?
Resources! Took with them social, economic, cultural capital!
Small's argument: "Four Reasons to Abandon the Idea of 'The Ghetto'"
"The Ghetto" and its formulation is based on Chicago as a model Why Chicago? Chicago School of Urban Sociology The University of Chicago + urban researchers today William Julius Wilson's powerful work on ghetto poverty
Social dimensions to disaster:
(1) Exposure, (2) Response, and (3) Recovery they are not random
Explanations for Gentrification : Demand Side
(Consumption) Markets cannot exist without consumer demand and preferences Housing stock, economics, and state policies influence gentrification, but gentrification will not occur without gentrifiers who wish to participate in that process.
After Busing Brown vs. Board of Education
After Busing White flight from cities to the suburbs Increase in private school enrollment among white students Continued de facto school segregation Inter-district inequality Courts overruled metropolitan-wide desegregation efforts
Flag Wars Movie Who are the other actors involved in the gentrification process? What is their role?
Banking system Giving loans to certain people and not others City inspectors; Governmental Actors Deciding which codes to inforce Real Estate Agents Steering residents into certain neighborhoods Court System Being labeled a historic preservation
Flag Wars Movie Who are the longtime residents?
Black middle class
Mary Pattillo: Black Middle Class Gentrifiers Who are gentrifiers?
Black middle class residents
Physiological Outcomes The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences
Black respondent living in a gentrifying neighborhood were 75 percent more likely to report poor-to-fair health than counterparts in other neighborhoods.
Flag Wars Movie Why do they gentrify?
By being a man they are more comfortable moving into dangerous neighborhood Feel like pioneers/ feel cool Drawn to historic preservation Wanted to create a more family community for LGBTQ Investment potential Buy and fix up house themselves which increased value of homes
What produces rent gap?
Capital depreciation, cycle of disinvestment in the inner city Rise in potential ground rent levels
Vicarious citizenship
Care a lot about the institutions and citizens without actually living there
The Rise of Vacant Residences
Census: "vacant: for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use"
The Emergence of Large-Scale Commercial Prostitution (explained by...) Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Rise of urbanization of capitalism Rise of wage labor Separation of home and work spheres Separation from kin networks Rise of Urbanization New cultural ideals of gender and sexuality New boundaries of public and private life Divided along class lines Evolution of Sexual Commerce Tied to Industrializing Cities Urban expansion Rise of the automobile Growth in entertainment and leisure industry Increasing immigration Its expansion increased political and moral imperatives to regulate sexual commerce Result of increased regulation? Concentration of sexual commerce in the Tenderloin Proximate to Downtown (Union Square)
Problem in cities for sustainability?
Rise of waterfront redevelopment projects
What are the advantages of living alone? Case 2: The Marriage Market
Sexual freedom and experimentation Time to mature, develop, and search for "romantic love" Liberates young people from roommates, including friends Enables one to socialize when and how they want to
Benefits of Gayborhood
Sexual minorities can find each other for friendship, fellowship, sex and love Incubate unique cultures, political perspectives, organizations businesses, etc. Provide promise of safety, refuge from discrimination bigotry and bias
Why do we care about education in urban contexts?
Where we live dictates our educational opportunities Cities are segregated on the basis of race and class
Conclusions The Ghetto: Past and Future Directions
While many poor neighborhoods are very difficult to live in, they are not all difficult in the same way. Black urban poverty does not look and feel the same everywhere Poor Black neighborhoods are NOT homogenous (the same)
Who constitutes the new middle class? David Ley: The New Middle Class
White collar workers associated with post-industrial service sector economy
Flag Wars Movie Who are gentrifiers?
White gay middle class men Characteristics: often do not have children (tend to have more expendable income)
Who are gentrifiers? Neil Smith: The Urban Pioneer
White, middle class urban pioneers
Cities and Sustainability
are trying to be more sustainable Use planning to reduce a city's ecological footprint (i.e., its impact on the environment)
Neil Smith: The Urban Pioneer
presents the classic account of "the gentrifier"
North Lawndale heat wave
residents: Predominantly African American Abandoned factories, businesses, homes; tall grass, open fields, empty lots, poor lighting soical ties: Fewer social ties, social support, high residential turnover institutions: Few and far between, residents must travel to other neighborhoods for necessities. Illicit Economy, economic isolation collective life: weak
South Lawndale heat wave
residents: latino Dense concentrations of busy sidewalks, active commerce, dense residential buildings social ties: Informal social support, public activity institutions: Many local commercial institutions, informal methods of social support. Religious institutions had more financial and social support collective life: strong
Lower 9th Ward History: Case of Katrina
1920s industrial canal split neighborhood 1960s mass exodus due to school desegregation 1965 levee breaks Hurricane Betsy Deindustrialization + white flight = extreme isolation and concentrated poverty 2000: 95% African American with a 34% poverty rate
Brown vs. Board of Education: A Brief History
1954: Brown v. Board of Education Overturns "separate but equal" Overturns de jure (by law) educational segregation 1955: Brown II Supreme court orders lower federal courts to desegregate "with all deliberate speed" 1960-1970s De facto segregation continues, rulings expand to meet desegregation requirements 1971: Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenberg Board of Education Mandated busing
Lakeview History: Case of Katrina
Affluent residential neighborhood Akin to the "gold coast" Segregated neighborhood for upper and middle class whites
Pattillo, Everyday Experience of School Choice for the Black Community
A Quality School -Parents uniformly expressed wanting a quality school for their children -Despite wanting a quality school, many did not get what they wanted -Most still opt for and/or are placed in, a neighborhood school Barriers to Access -Transportation -Test scores, rigid admissions standards Being Chosen The school (the algorithm) chooses the students The Burden of Choice -Labor intensive -Burden on the parents
Flag Wars Movie What are the consequences of gentrification?
A culture shift Loss of tradition and culture Culture displacement Displacement of long term residents Racial tensions Financial issues
The Ghetto (as conceptualized over time):
A particular type of neighborhood, characterized by a cohesive set of characteristics, such as deteriorating housing, crime, depopulation, and social isolation that recur from city to city. The ghetto is directly or indirectly perpetuated by either dominant society or, specifically, the state. The ghetto constitutes a form of involuntary segregation.
School Choice in Era of Gentrification Middle Class Parents Involvement in Urban Public Schools
Active Parents, Vocal Advocates Benefits: resources, money, etc. Disadvantages: policies and practices of middle-class can cause tensions, marginalize low-income families Double-Edged Sword New, better resources School profile raised, attracts more middle class families, greater demand, makes it more difficult for low-income students to gain access and benefit from these changes. Outcomes? Intra-school inequality!
Resilience and Risk:
Adaptive capacity of a social system or unit to withstand shocks and protect against other hazards by reorganizing and innovating Threat of harm caused by socioeconomic or environmental crises or other trauma
Conclusions Pattillo, Everyday Experience of School Choice for the Black Community
Affluent black and white families can buy into "good" neighborhood schools and exercise school choice through these means. Disproportionate toll on low-income families School choice is constrained by larger set of factors School choice does not empower in practice!
School Choice
Any arrangement that allows parents to decide which of two or more publicly funded schools their child will attend. For example, students may attend a magnet program, a traditional public school outside of their assigned school boundary, or a public charter school, or they may obtain a voucher or tax credit to offset the cost of private school tuition Intra-district and inter-district choices and limitations (Jordan and Gallagher 2015) In theory, we expect that school choice... Would mitigate racailly segregated schools and give people the opportunity to attend better schools
Suburbanization of Poverty
As (some) central cities become increasingly affluent, low-income residents are pushed to the peripheries of cities. Some move to inner-ring suburbs, others move to satellite cities proximate to the larger city. This is particularly true for cities without a strong affordable housing infrastructure.
The result? Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Emergence of indoor sex trade New class of sex workers Do not sell sex, sell an experience "Bounded Authenticity": create an emotionally authentic experience that is bounded by the ($) exchange
Klinenberg, Can cities be climate proofed? What are some problems that cities are grappling with today from climate change?
Cities are equipped to handle to effects of climate change Power outages
Conclusions The History of the Gayborhood
Conclusions The "gayborhood" formed as a socially and historically specific response to oppression
Symbolic Ownership The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences
Control of the aesthetic presentation, public perception, and social and economic utility of a social space (Deener 2007)
David Ley: The New Middle Class What drives gentrification?
Cultural and political ideologies of the new middle class Large-scale changes in industrial and occupational structure of capitalist cities New place-based values Diversity, sense of history, landscape amenities, reject suburbia
Supply Side Factors that Produce Gentrification
Cycles of disinvestment and investment Neoliberal state policies Deindustrialization and rise of service economy Liberal mortgage lending policies
Gina Perez: Gentrification Definition
Gentrification: "an economic and social process whereby private capital (real estate firms, developers) and individual homeowners and renters invest in fiscally neglected neighborhoods through housing rehabilitation, loft conversions, and the construction of new housing stock. Unlike urban renewal, gentrification is a gradual process, occurring one building or block at a time, slowly reconfiguring the neighborhood landscape of consumption and residence by displacing poor and working class residents unable to afford to live in 'revitalized' neighborhoods with rising rents, property taxes, and new businesses to an upscale clientele" (Perez 2004, p. 139)
What do we know about where gay men and lesbian women tend to live? What accounts for these differences in territorial claims?
Live in different metropolitan areas Sometimes cluster together and share same areas Lesbians tend to live in less urban areas, men opt for bigger cities.
How is the gap closed?
Developers and financial institutions actively close the gap to make way for "newer and best" land use
School Choice? Pattillo, Everyday Experience of School Choice for the Black Community
Discourse from school choice advocates in Black community "School choice is a way to empower Black families, control children's education, and exert agency within the larger educational system" Question Does school choice actually empower, give control, and give agency to Black families? Method Interviews with 77 African American parents, guardians, and parent figures Had children entering high school in Chicago in the Fall of 2007 Recruited parents from traditional public high school and one charter public high school located in the same predominantly African American neighborhood in Chicago
Where do they gentrify? Neil Smith: The Urban Pioneer
Disinvested low-income residential neighborhoods in cities
How have these historical forces shaped contemporary issues in cities across the United States?
Disinvestment Affordable housing eviction Education section! De Facto segregation Lack of resources between schools Fund available to schools Environmental disasters Linked to history of disinvestment and abandonment
Definition of the Gayborhood (Amin Ghaziani)
Distinct geographic focal point Unique culture Concentration of residences Cluster of commercial spaces and non-profits
Theoretical Benefits of the In-Migration of Middle Class
Economic investment Recapture lost tax dollars Middle class families come with infusion of economic, social, and cultural capital Middle class families (research shows) devote a great deal of time, money, and labor to children's schools and classrooms Middle class families advocate for and secure improvements in facilities, academics, and extracurricular.
Neighborhood Effects: Moving to Opportunity
Experimental housing mobility study 4,600 mostly Black and Latino single mothers from high-poverty areas Randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group 1: experimental group, received vouchers to be used only in low-poverty areas Group 2: Received unrestricted vouchers, could be used anywhere Group 3: Did not receive a voucher Findings: Experimental Group Less likely to have psychological distress or major depression Improved some physical health outcomes, but not all
What are the historical forces that shaped contemporary issues in cities across the United States?
FHA mortgages post-WWII, redlining, blockbusting Deindustrialization + economic isolation
What explains variation in the pace and trajectory of post-Katrina neighborhood redevelopment in the Lower Ninth Ward and Lakeview?
Feedback effects of past socio-spatial patterns of investment and disinvestment and unequal access to recovery aid and resources
What can cities do to adapt to climate change? Klinenberg
Find ways to utilize water Water gardens Putting barriers for short term solutions
Historical Context The History of the Gayborhood
First formed during WWII Gay men clustered in cities Bars, institutions cemented dense networks and increased visibility, further concentration 1969 Stonewall Riots triggered great (gay) migration to large cities
Mary Pattillo: Black Middle Class Gentrifiers Where do they gentrify?
High-poverty black neighborhoods
Conclusions Hurricane Katrina (Gotham and Greenberg 2014)
History of racial and class exclusion in the city explains vulnerability, risk, and redevelopment outcomes Powerful actors make decisions about what land is valued Determines construction, investment, and disinvestment
Stereotypical, not Typical The Ghetto: Past and Future Directions
How many depopulated and deinstitutionalized neighborhoods exist? Premise: Urban Black population more likely than others to live in high-poverty in predominantly same-race neighborhoods. BUT: many also live in predominantly Black neighborhoods with poor working class, middle class Blacks, and others live in poor areas with neighbors of other racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Which cities are more likely to engage in environmental protection policies?
Larger cities Cities with higher levels of education
Case 2: The Marriage Market
In 1950 22% of American adults were single 4 million lived alone 9% of households Today (2010) 50% of American adults are single 31 million (1 in 7!) live alone 28% of all households Historically, living alone more common in rural Western states Alaska, Montana, and Nevada Today, most single and living alone people live in cities! Washington, DC, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, NYC, and Miami
Gentrification Defined (from class)
In-migration of affluent middle class residents into previously disinvested and devalued low-income neighborhoods.
The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences Commercial Displacement
In-migration of new businesses that cater to the tastes and preferences of affluent newcomers (Hyra 2014)
Flag Wars Movie Where does gentrification occur?
Inner city, disinvested neighbor Often with working class residents
School Choice: Concluding Thoughts
Inter-district segregation and inequality Intra-district segregation and inequality Intra-school segregation and inequality
There goes the gayborhood? Gayborhood today? What explains this shift?
It is in the decline Recent gayborhoods trends: "gay flight" Traditional explanations Gentrifications Neighborhood branding LGBT life exists "beyond the closet" Fewer LGBT's live in the gayborhoods or the "gay ghetto" LGBT's more accepted into the mainstream, more comfortable in other parts of cities
What sustainability efforts do cities in the US engage in?
Lowest cost policies Lowest political risk policies Policies with co-benefits Examples City-wide recycling programs Energy audits of gov't buildings (fed. gov't provided funding)
Problems With Sustainability Efforts
Many cities claim to pursue sustainability, few actually do Cities use the term "sustainability" as a slogan rather than a concrete goal Cities vary with regard to what they view to be important environmental issues
Demand Side Factors that Produce Gentrification
Market and states respond to consumer demand Gentrifier plays a central role Culture: gentrifiers' cultural tastes Ideological shifts Increase interest in diversity and taste for historic properties.
Supply Side (Production) explanation
Markets dictate where gentrification will occur. Economic and political conditions align to produce the buildings, funding, and state policies required for the gentrification of a particular neighborhood.
Who studied gentrifiers in North Kenwood-Oakland (NKO) neighborhood in Chicago?
Mary Pattillo
What accounts for these differences in territorial claims between gays and lesbians?
Masculinity and Femininity Family Formation Subcultural Differences Relationship to Gentrification
Case 1: Sex Work Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Methodology Field work from a 7-year period in San Francisco Observations in work spaces and performance venues Attendance at sex workers' political meetings and support groups 15 in-depth interviews with sex worker advocates Analysis of sex workers' own writings and films
Super-Gentrification : Cause
New, post-industrial global economy infused those in FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) with exorbitant levels of wealth
Lakeview Post-Katrina
Middle class white residents had access to cars, didn't travel far Rented apartments, bought houses, moved in with friends in suburbs Remained close to deal with rebuilding efforts Disproportionate amount of federal aid (21 million in FEMA) Road Home attracted young homeowners, gentrification
The Dot Com Era Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
More capital moved into San Francisco Increased technology
Lower income Black and Latino residents are...(exposure conditions)
More likely to live in lower elevated areas Less likely to be able to leave in the event of a disaster Are exposed to more dangerous conditions when stuck in place
Lower 9th Ward Post Katrina
More likely to move to far away regions (force) less likely to come back Had limited saving, low levels of flood insurance Less likely to have homes
Freeman The Outcomes of Gentrification: Benefits?
Neighborhood Effects in a Changing Hood -Social capital -Institutional resources
Neighborhood Health Effects
Neighborhood characteristics—and in particular concentrated disadvantage—shapes lives and outcomes above and beyond a person's individual character. How? Life in a disadvantaged neighborhood may depress residents' outcomes by exposing them to stressful conditions or by limiting access to strong schools or job referrals that lead to opportunity.
Stonewall Uprising What is the role of the gay neighborhood? The gay bar? Why were they above so important?
Neighborhood they could be themselves Gave them sense of community Bar was a safe haven where they could be who they really are Place they can feel intimacy and love Usually marginalized, discriminated against Police heavily regulated against them Arrested and beaten
What can we do about it displacement?
Neutral third spaces Earmark $ for local bridging organizations and programming Mandate low-income representation on governing councils
The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences \ Culture Clash
New (often white, affluent) and longtime residents (often low-income, minority) hold differing attitudes toward the neighborhood, the home, sex roles, child rearing, work, and public space. These differing attitudes produce class and cultural conflict between residents in gentrifying neighborhoods (Levy & Cybriwsky 1980)
Ruth Glass: Aspects of Change Factors That Facilitated These Changes
Post-War (WWII) urban renewal Movement of manufacturing out of central city The shift from "suburban to urban aspirations"
Constrained Choice, Not Involuntary Segregation The Ghetto: Past and Future Directions
Premise: Many have theorized the ghetto as being maintained through "involuntary segregation" BUT: this assumes that people only live near poor because they have no choice at all, but this is not the case! (HINT: Black middle class gentrification).
Multiple State Actors, Not Just One State The Ghetto: Past and Future Directions
Premise: Poor Black neighborhoods result from state actions or inactions BUT: There is no single "state actor." There are different state actors at the city, state, and federal level who respond differently to different problems and demands.
Heterogeneity, not homogeneity The Ghetto: Past and Future Directions
Premise: Two conditions that people commonly attribute to poor Black neighborhoods Depopulation: the loss of populations Deinstitutionalization: scarcity in organizational institutions (grocery stores, banks, child care centers, etc.) BUT: there is great variety in the extent to which poor Black neighborhoods are depopulated and deinstitutionalized
Today's single dwellers: Case 2: The Marriage Market
Primarily women Mostly middle-age adults 35-64 Young adults 18-34 fastest growing segment
Why should we care about gentrifiers' motives?
Process: If gentrifiers' tastes and preferences are central to our understanding of why gentrification occurs, we must fully unpack their tastes and preferences to understand the process. Outcomes: To understand the outcomes of gentrification—and in particular the consequences of longtime residents—we must understand what gentrifiers value and how these values impact everyday local life.
The city is X and Y through individual and group actions. Inequality in the city is X and Y.
Produced; created
School Choice in Era of Gentrification Why do middle class parents send their kids to urban public schools?
Progressive or liberal political ideology A way to live out their values Appreciation for diversity Different educational experience from their own Child's classroom reflects the "real world" Diverse learning environment has instrumental value Desires for Neighborhood Schools Distance from racism Frustration with school assignment model Desire walking to school Reflects ideological and political orientations
Gentrification Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Proximity to Union Square Tenderloin became valuable space for white middle class City more dependent on tourism and projecting "safe" images SROs (single room occupancy units) were converted into hotels Reclamation of urban space
Why is living alone so appealing? Case 2: The Marriage Market
Pursue modern values Living alone helps us reconnect How? Why?
Case 2: The Marriage Market What would our early urban theorists think about the rise of individuals going solo and living alone?
Simmel Rise of individualism Extreme example of blasé attitude Wirth Segmentation Extreme schizoid character Loss of primary ties
What factors created the new middle class? David Ley: The New Middle Class
Social and political upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s Rejection of suburbia Rise of post-industrial, service-sector employment in the central city.
Local Policies Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Street sweeps of "visible" crime (war on drugs era) "Quality of life" concerns, enforcement of public nuisance laws
Change in Sex Work Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Street walking primary form of solicitation This began to change in the 1980s and 1990s Rise in newspaper ads for sex workers
What explains why people today are more likely to be single and live alone in cities? Case 2: The Marriage Market
What explains why people today are more likely to be single and live alone in cities? Rising status of women Communications revolution Mass urbanization (and gentrification)
The Outcomes of Gentrification: Consequences \ Social Displacement
The replacement of one group by another, in some relatively bounded geographic area, in terms of power and prestige. Ability to affect decisions and policies in the area, to set goals and priorities, and to be recognized by outsiders as the legitimate spokesperson for the area (Chernoff 1980)
Why do they gentrify? Neil Smith: The Urban Pioneer
To reclaim space from poor and minority groups To "tame" the "wild" urban "frontier"
Why do they gentrify? Mary Pattillo: Black Middle Class Gentrifiers
To serve as a "Middleman": to be a resource magnet and role model for low-income neighborhood Middleman: those who negotiate power relations between white decision makers in the mainstream and community relations with lower-income members of the Black community.
How do cities become more sustainable?
Today, we rely on local level decision making, defer to municipalities to enact change National policies can incentivize cities to enact climate change prevention measures Cities tax local residents, property owners, and businesses to finance climate adaptation
Super-Gentrification
Transformation of already gentrified, prosperous and solidly upper-middle-class neighborhoods into much more exclusive and expensive enclaves (Lees 2003)
Conclusion Bernstein, Temporarily Yours
Urban processes shape the contours of sex work Urbanization The separation of home/work Gentrification
Cities are important in climate change conversations
Urbanization has implication for the environment Cities are particularly vulnerable to climate climate change Cities are complex social systems Cities hold large part of the world's population Many cities are built directly on the water!
City-level factors that contribute to heterogeneity The Ghetto: Past and Future Directions
Variation in local government (money, resources, private-public partnerships) Variation in city's ability to adapt to the post-industrial economy Variation in incarceration/policing