Diversity exists in the Heights in all aspects-from housing to the business districts. Those who walk down any commercial strip can see upscale coffee houses and Mexican restaurants side by side, as well as large, renovated Victorian-style mansions next to dilapidated turn-of-the-century homes. At the block level, neighbors interact, and that is where the stability begins. The best characterization of intergroup relations in the Heights is that its residents tolerate sharing their neighborhood with other groups. However, an increasing number of residents of the Heights embrace diversity, even though they may not be engaged in active efforts to promote it.

Authors

Karl Eschbach is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston. His research interests include the cognitive construction of ethnicity, racial and ethnic inequality, and the process and impact of immigration. He is currently participating with coauthor Jacqueline Marie Hagan in a Center for Immigration Research study of the mortality of undocumented migrants at the United States-Mexico border and a study of the changes in ethnic composition and inequality in the Houston metropolitan region. Jacqueline Maria Hagan is associate professor of sociology and codirector of the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston. Her research interests include immigration, social policy, community organization, and human rights issues. With coauthor Nestor P. Rodriguez, she is working on a study of family separation, mental health, and coping strategies among Latinos in Houston and a multisite study of the effects of the 1996 immigration and welfare reform initiatives on Texas-Mexico border communities. She continues to collaborate with coauthor Karl Eschbach on a Center for Immigration Research study of migrant mortality associated with unauthorized U.S.-Mexico border crossings.

Nestor P. Rodriguez is associate professor of sociology and codirector of the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston. His research and publications concern Mexican and Central American immigration, urban growth in the world system, globalization and intergroup relations, and mental health issues among new immigrants. He is currently conducting research in several sites in Texas and northern Mexico to examine the community effects of recent United States immigration and welfare laws. Anna Zakos is a graduate student in the department of sociology at the University of Houston and a research assistant at the Center for Immigration Research. Her current research interests include medical sociology, community health, women's health, stratification, and immigration issues. Her thesis research is a study of the possible of effects of changes in immigration and welfare laws on the use of public assistance and health care in Houston.

The research reported in this paper was conducted jointly by the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston and the Inter-Ethnic Forum of Houston. The authors would like to thank lain Evans, Diana Espitia, and Doriel Dyck for their excellent research assistance; Rosa Davila for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the study; and Phil Nyden for insights offered during a site visit to the Houston Heights.

References

Feagin, Joe R. 1988. Free Enterprise City: Houston in Political and Economic

Perspective. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Houston Association of Realtors. Multiple Listing Service. 1996. Monthly News Release, October.

Houston Independent School District. 1993–94. District and School Profiles. Houston: Houston Independent School District.

Rodriguez, Nestor P., and Jacqueline Hagan. 1992. "Apartment Restructuring and Latino Immigrant Tenant Struggles: A Case Study of Human Agency." Comparative Urban and Community Research, Volume 4.

Shelton, Beth Anne, Nestor P. Rodriguez, Joe R. Feagin, Robert D. Bullard, and Robert D. Thomas. 1989. Houston: Growth and Decline in a Sunbelt Boomtown. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Sister Agatha. 1956. The History of Houston Heights, 1891-1918. Houston: Premier Print Company.

Chapter 13: Conclusion

Philip Nyden

Loyola University, Chicago

John Lukehart

Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities

Michael T. Maly

Roosevelt University

William Peterman

Chicago State University

The purpose of this study was not to engage in an academic exercise and neatly classify diverse communities into appropriate categories. The two models of stable diversity outlined in chapter 1-diversity by direction and diversity by design—are helpful for understanding the different origins and different characteristics of stable and diverse communities in American cities. The important task ahead is to understand what has produced this stable diversity and make clear that segregation and resegregation need not be the norm in American urban communities. Alternatives exist if we are willing to examine and learn from them. Before detailing our recommendations, it is helpful to provide a summary of the characteristics that are common to all of the diverse communities studied and the ways in which the community characteristics varied.

Similarities Among All Diverse Communities

Attractive Physical Characteristics

All of the communities studied contain distinctive physical characteristics or environmental assets that make them desirable to outsiders. Although hard to quantify, these characteristics make the communities more attractive than the average city neighborhood and include good location (proximity to the city's central business district and/or ease of access to other parts of the city by roads or public transportation), architecturally interesting homes (for example, older historic homes with a history of being a planned community), and an attractive environment (for example, on the lakefront in Chicago or with a view of Mount Rainier in Seattle).

A Mixture of Two Diversity Types

We found a mixture of two types of diversity in the communities studied: racial/ethnic diversity within blocks and small pockets-two or three blocks-of racial homogeneity within a larger diverse community.

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The Presence of Social Seams

Social seams are points in the community where interaction between different ethnic and racial groups is sewn together in some way—a concept used by Jane Jacobs (1961) in The Life and Death of Great American Cities. The most common seam is a grocery store or strip of stores. Even where people of different races and different ethnicities live within small clusters of blocks, seams can bring them together. In some cases the seams are schools where children of different races and ethnicities come together on a daily basis and where parents interact in the course of parent-teacher association activities and regular school events. Parks, special communitywide events, and neighborhood festivals also

can serve as seams.

Residents' Awareness of the Community's Stable Diversity

A consciousness exists among the residents of the communities studied that the racial and ethnic diversity within the community is relatively stable compared with other urban neighborhoods.

Community-Based Organizations and Social Institutions
Contribute to Maintaining Diversity

Maintaining diversity directly. In some communities, local organizations have emerged specifically to promote diversity or integration.

Maintaining diversity indirectly by addressing communitywide service issues. In the course of addressing some community need-for example, through developing recreational programs for youth, revitalizing a local business district, enhancing community safety, or developing a focus for a magnet school within the community-organizations serve to bring various parts of the community together. Although these efforts and these organizations are inclusive and effectively encourage diversity, they do not always see diversity as a primary goal.

Maintaining diversity indirectly by developing ethnic or racial interest groups that
engage in debate and dialogue to resolve differences. Organizations representing
specific groups-for example, religious congregations with memberships from a particu-
lar class/ethnic/racial group, Asian business people, Latino youth, low-income tenants,
and owners of historic homes-advance their interests in communitywide debates in
the press, at zoning board hearings, or at less formal gatherings. Where there typically is
no dominant racial, ethnic, or class group in the communities studied, a pluralism and
accommodation process develops that is not commonly seen in urban communities.

The Moral- or Value-Oriented Component to Community
Organizations' Involvement

While economic self-interest (for example, the value of residents' homes) permeates
discussions of diversity promotion, explicit debate on values—what helps to create a
"good" community-occurs more in the communities studied than in most communities.
Religious congregations also perform a crucial role. Because churches tend to be segre-
gated at the same time that they promote brotherhood and sisterhood, they often become
involved in ecumenical efforts to bridge racial boundaries. Although religious organiza-
tions are involved in both types of diverse neighborhoods, their functions vary.