Michael T. Maly

The emergence of stable racially and ethnically diverse urban communities: A case study of nine U.S. cities

Abstract We examine the characteristics of 14 stable racially and ethnically diverse urban communities in 9 U.S. cities and point to policies that could strengthen these communities and encourage the growth of more diverse neighborhoods in American cities. The cities examined are Chicago; Denver; Houston; Memphis, TN; Milwaukee; New York; Oakland, CA; Philadelphia; and Seattle. University researchers and community leaders in each city collaborated on the research for this project. We identify two types of stable diverse communities, “self‐conscious” and “laissez‐faire,” which have evolved for different reasons and with different characteristics. Stable diverse communities will not just happen, but they can be influenced by a number of policy recommendations stemming from our research. These include helping individuals and organizations take leadership roles in their communities, strengthening and enforcing fair housing and antidiscrimination laws, earmarking economic resources to encourage neighborhood di...

The Neighborhood Diversity Index: A Complementary Measure of Racial Residential Settlement

This article proposes another research approach available to researchers for studying racial and ethnic integration. The measure, called the Neighborhood Diversity (ND) index, allows researchers to include multiple racial and ethnic categories while adhering to a comparable understanding of integration. The value of the ND index is illustrated through an examination of residential settlement by race in Chicago neighborhoods in 1980 and 1990. Despite the limitations of the measure, the ND index provides an important tool for measuring and categorizing increasingly multiethnic and multiracial populations, and for broadening our understanding of neighborhood integration and transition.

Local Government Fiscal Burden in Nonmetropolitan America

Rising fiscal pressure on local governments in rural areas of the United States is documented in this study. The level of fiscal burden on taxpayers to support local governments in nonmetropolitan areas is found to be higher than that in metropolitan areas between 1977 and 1987. Using a model from the urban fiscal literature, the level of fiscal burden in nonmetropolitan areas is found to be influenced by a combination of demographic, socioeconomic, intergovernmental, and historical factors. Intergovernmental revenue transfers from the state and federal government play a critical role in determining the level of fiscal burden rural taxpayers bear. These findings have implications for rural economic development and for understanding how rural areas are influenced by the larger society.

The End of an Idyllic World: Nostalgia Narratives, Race, and the Construction of White Powerlessness:

We examine the experiences of whites displaced by racial change by focusing on the ways in which nostalgia narratives are used to construct and maintain white racial identity in an era of color-blind discourse. Expanding on the analysis of nostalgia as a tool to create identity in response to a loss in one’s place attachment, we explore how nostalgia is used in constructing and maintaining contemporary forms of whiteness. Based on data from in-depth qualitative interviews, we find that nostalgia narratives are useful in framing white racial identity along the themes of innocence and virtuousness as well as powerless and victimhood. In the shared storytelling of this nostalgic past, whites create a present that plays by color-blind rules, while reproducing, reiterating, and strengthening whiteness.

Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, and Chicago Lawn, Chicago

The city of Chicago stands tall among urban areas in the United States. It features a bustling central business district that serves as a financial anchor for the Midwest, a government with significant regional and national influence, a vibrant cultural life, a multi-ethnic population, a patchwork of distinct neighborhoods that are home to nearly 3 million people, one of the worlds busiest airports, and the worlds tallest building (at least for the time being). With its towering skyscrapers, lush and expansive park system, lavish North Michigan Avenue, and historic landmarks, Chicago opens an impressive front door to all who visit.

Overview of the 14 Neighborhoods Studied

The 14 communities studied vary significantly in both the nature of their diversity and the context within which diversity was achieved and is maintained. In the initial stages of the project, 14 neighborhoods were chosen from a pool of 77 neighborhoods in more than 20 cities. To select the final 14 neighborhoods to research, care was given to choose those that varied in relation to the following characteristics: * Racial composition. * The level of segregation in the city. * The age of the city. * The regional location of the city. * The consistency with which informants identified the areas as diverse. * The presence or absence of community organizations committed to sustaining diversity.

Children as agents of social and community change: Enhancing youth empowerment through participation in a school-based social activism project:

School-based social activism projects have much potential to foster civic engagement, self-efficacy, and positive youth development. Social activism projects may also be a means by which children, a group that is disempowered due to their age and dependence on adults, might seek to positively impact social and community problems. The current study evaluated elementary school age children’s (K-7th grade) participation in grassroots campaigns, which are year-long school-based activism projects that are a component of their school’s comprehensive social justice curriculum. Results found that even young children could successfully and meaningfully participate in these school-based activism projects. Additionally, students’ participation in these projects was characterized by a high level of enthusiasm and also facilitated a sense of community and empowerment in these children.

Mixed Communities: Gentrification by Stealth? Gary Bridge, Tim Butler, and Loretta Lees

Mix Communities: Gentrification by Stealth? is an edited volume by Gary Bridge, Tim Butler, and Loretta Lees which examines the rise of social mix as an urban policy and planning goal in a variety of countries. The book’s editors draw together a range of case studies to examine the relationship between social mix policies and plans and gentrification. Challenging the notion that social mixing is an unquestioned good, the book professes three general objectives: (1) to demonstrate the spread, differences, and similarities between social mix policies enacted through urban renaissance or gentrification polices in countries around the world; (2) to evaluate the claim that gentrification can positively break down socially segregated, deprived areas; and (3) to start a debate on gentrification-promoting social mix policies that promote gentrification between gentrification researchers, policy-makers, planners, and housing groups. The book meets these objectives through an analysis of different national, housing policy, and neighborhood contexts. In the end, the book advances a critique of social mix policies by demonstrating how such polices are employed uncritically, often belying clear evidence that such policies will not reduce segregation or lift the poor out of poverty. The book proceeds in five parts. Part 1 involves general reflections on social mix policy enacted in different countries. The chapters in this part discuss the difficulty in defining success of social mixing as well as reviewing evidence on whether a social and economic mix has a positive impact on the poor’s welfare. Part 2 reviews two case studies of encouraging social mix in urban redevelopment projects, focusing on Canada and Germany. Emphasis is placed on the importance of context (i.e. politics, government, and economy) in the delivery of such policy and plans. Part 3 continues the examination of social mix policies and gentrification in different national settings, locating these policies in a neoliberal context, and demonstrating how such policies operate on a flawed deficit model approach to poor communities. Part 4 examines the rhetoric and reality of gentrification and social mix. These chapters, particularly compelling, examine the way social mixing is sold as social inclusion and “plain good sense” despite such policies being largely ineffective in boosting the poor’s welfare and increasing social interaction. Part 5 examines social mix policies and gentrification on the ground and chronicles that social mix policies often lead middle-income people into low-income communities displacing the poor (or at least, creating displacement pressure), destroying existing communities, and weakening organizing networks and, thus, the political strength of the poor. Like all good academic undertakings, this volume’s authors probe the underlying motivations behind the municipal use of their analytic object, social mix policy, and planning. The answer in every chapter is that because the purported benefits of social mixing are rarely met, social mix strategies appear to be about something else, determining what that something is provides one of the intriguing aspects of the book. A principal explanation woven through the chapters is neoliberalism, although, as one author points out, social mix emerged from progressive ideals, only later becoming regressive under