Chapter 1: Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Diversity in U.S. Cities. by Philip Nyden, John Lukehart, Michael T. Maly, and William Peterman Chapter 2: Overview of the 14 Neighborhoods Studied by Philip Nyden, John Lukehart, Michael T. Maly, and William Peterman by Barbara Ferman, Theresa Singleton, and Don DeMarco Chapter 1: Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Diversity in U.S. Cities Philip Nyden Loyola University, Chicago John Lukehart Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities Michael T. Maly Roosevelt University William Peterman Chicago State University The existence of racially and ethnically diverse urban neighborhoods is one of our This study seeks to challenge the skeptics and policy pessimists. It documents several Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research • Volume 4, Number 2 • 1998 Cityscape 1 The neighborhoods we describe in this study have maintained their racial and ethnic diversity for at least 10 years and as long as 30 years. The study was not created in the heads of academic researchers; rather, it has been a nontraditional project involving collaboration among university researchers and community-based leaders. The study thus has benefited both from academics' research skills and knowledge of the literature and from community leaders' experience and day-to-day practical wisdom. The findings of this research project, therefore, are anchored in the everyday reality of community life. In the United States, diverse urban communities are unquestionably the exception to what sociologists Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton (1993) refer to as "American apartheid." Massey and Denton describe a present-day "hypersegregation" that has marginalized African-Americans and Latinos in the housing and job markets. They correctly identify these segregated communities "as an institutional tool for isolating the byproducts of racial oppression: crime, drugs, violence, illiteracy, poverty, despair and their growing social and economic costs." Their analyses, along with many others, clearly indicate a dominant pattern of housing discrimination and segregation. This apartheid goes beyond race. Our Nation has also been marked by significant economic segregation, which has become much more of a problem for city residents during the past decade. Low-income, inner-city neighborhoods have suffered economically as a result of the out-migration of the middle class to the suburbs, the shift from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy, the displacement of poor people caused by gentrification, and the economic downturn of the 1970s and 1980s. A dwindling tax base and a large percentage of predominantly minority residents without competitive skills and employment opportunities increase the marginalization of these neighborhoods and continue to undermine the viability of central cities. Although polls have indicated a strong demand for a larger number of diverse neighborhoods than actually exist (Darden, 1987), such neighborhoods are commonly perceived as inherently unstable. Whether the perception is correct or not, for middle-income groups, racial or economic diversity is often a flag for neighborhood decline and decreasing housing values. For lower income groups, diversity is often a flag for gentrification, inevitably leading to displacement. Neighborhood character is thus determined not only by physical structures and amenities, but also by social, political, and cultural practices that create a perception of community (Goetze, 1979). These practices and resulting perceptions can be affected by institutions outside the neighborhood (for example, the media, the real estate industry, lending institutions, and local government) as well as inside the neighborhood (for example, community-based organizations, schools, religious congregations, business owners, and other neighborhood groups) (Taub et al., 1984). There has been substantial documentation of forces outside the neighborhood that influence who lives in what neighborhood. In a Wall Street Journal column, writer Hugh Pearson (1996) observes: The pervasive practice of discrimination in the real estate industry... is the major reason there are predominantly black neighborhoods, Hispanic neighborhoods, Asian neighborhoods and white ones, which tend to contain the best housing stock of all. And it is a major reason racial misunderstanding continues, since it lessens opportunities for interaction across our artificial racial barriers. |