Curbed: Why U.S. cities need more multi-racial, mixed-income neighborhoods

This is something you might have seen on the national Curbed site yesterday. You may have even seen this as a link on Curbed Chicago also.

Why U.S. cities need more multi-racial, mixed-income neighborhoods. https://t.co/YsRVHdAyOc pic.twitter.com/KoY8cbmQuO

— Curbed (@Curbed) August 21, 2018

The report concludes that the U.S. currently has 1,300 neighborhoods home to about 7 million Americans which qualify as diverse, mixed-income communities. Many of these neighborhoods are in three U.S. cities—New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—but a detailed map that accompanies the study reveals that of the 52 most populous metropolitan areas, about 80 percent have at least one neighborhood which fits this description.

There is growing consensus that integration is key to promoting a wide range of positive outcomes for all residents by improving access to economic opportunity. More integrated communities give more people better connections to jobs, schools, and civic resources.

Integration is also important from a fiscal perspective as cities are adversely affected by the financial burdens of segregation. A 2017 study by the Urban Institute and the Metropolitan Policy Center of the Chicago metropolitan area found that segregation cost the city of Chicago more than $4 billion annually.

Could it be integration will be the key to changing some of Chicago's neighborhoods? Especially the most violent neighborhoods?

Just bear in mind not just ethnic/race integration, but income integration. So-called upper, middle, or low incomes.

BTW, read the whole thing! 

Marynook 1962: "Decision at 83rd Street"

[VIDEO] 56 years ago Hugh Hill produced this documentary for CBS Chicago (or WBBM-TV) looking at racial integration in Marynook. On the other hand, what is seen here is an anatomy of "white flight". It's mentioned that realtors are "block busting" they're attempting to stir fears in white homeowners that Blacks are coming to buy homes on their blocks. Of course as we know in the 50+ years most of the south side is mostly Black today.

I can consider the many communities of the south side that since the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, or even 1980s experienced white flight. We can talk about Englewood, Woodlawn, Chatham, South Shore, Roseland, or Auburn Gresham. All of those communities experienced this "white flight".

I also want to note the example of Pill Hill - remember this was a neighborhood that at one point had a high prevalance of doctors working at a nearby hospital. I would recommend this book The South Side: The Racial Transformation of an American Neighborhood to see another angle to white flight. I had checked this book out of the library over a decade ago. The author contacted me years ago to clarify some points I made on another blog.

WBEZ: Is Notoriously Segregated Chicago Becoming More Integrated?

To really look at the point of this article, let's look at the Ashburn community of the south side. How truly integrated is this part of the city

But while the data suggests there are six more integrated communities in Chicago today than there were in the 1990s, the maps and the numbers don’t tell us if residents actually feel integrated.

That’s why we went to Ashburn, a middle-class community of 40,000 people located on Chicago’s Southwest Side. It’s almost in the suburbs, and feels like it, with row upon row of bungalow homes and manicured lawns.

Ashburn was nearly all white 27 years ago, but today it’s a mixed community of blacks, Latinos and whites. It’s also the only neighborhood in Chicago with a dominant black population to add black residents from 2000 to 2010, at a time when black people have been leaving the city in droves.

If you visited Ashburn in 1990, more than four in five Ashburn residents would have been white.

Now, it’s about half black, 38 percent Latino and 13 percent white.

Ashburn’s white population declined rapidly after black people began moving into the area in large numbers in the 1980s. Today, whites continue to leave, and blacks are still moving in, along with Latinos.
...
Like Chicago, Ashburn is divided by invisible racial lines.

It’s almost like there are two neighborhoods within the official community area, one predominantly black and segregated and the other largely Latino with most of the white population sprinkled in. On the east side of Ashburn, at Dan’s Soul Food, owner Dolph Norris says integration is happening in Ashburn, “but it’s basically still segregated.”

“Hispanics [mostly] live west of Pulaski, and then African-Americans live east of Pulaski,” says Norris, who is black. “And you can tell by just walking and going to the parks.”

Loury says that while Ashburn is a diverse community, he takes “integration” to mean a more substantial mixing of people of different groups.

“Essentially what we're seeing [in Ashburn] is that they're all in the same space defined by a border, but they're not necessarily living amongst one another,” he says.

You can see the divisions between blacks and Latinos on a map of Ashburn — and you can also see them by walking around the community, according to Fernando Serna, who is Mexican-American and owns an auto body shop in Ashburn.

Serna says there’s a vibe in the neighborhood he calls: “You do your thing and I do my thing.”

So two or more groups merely living in a community area but in different parts isn't integration. It's not many different ethnicities living on the same block.

Click on the link in the embed tweet below and read the whole thing.

Why less segregated doesn't always mean more integrated: https://t.co/FNJNKjfpaq @WBEZ

— Rachel E. Gross (@rachelegross) July 31, 2017

WBEZ: In Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, integration is no accident

Via The Chicago Neighborhoods

I found this WBEZ story interesting. Many neighborhoods on the south side began to experience change from being a white neighborhood to a Black neighborhood. Natalie Moore seeks to explain why Beverly on the southwest side of the city became an integrated neighborhood.

In fact unlike such neighborhoods as Hyde Park or Roger's Park, Beverly didn't have a university to anchor and play a role in their real estate. The many communities that have changed from Black to white in the 1950s & 1960s include Chatham and Englewood.

Chicago has often been a city cited for it's stark segregation between different races and ethnicities. One can only wonder if this could change in the future.

Integration and more gentrification in Chatham?

This comment was made on the Facebook page a few days ago:

(East) Chatham has been like that for a while. (Northwest) Chatham (a.k.a. Park Manor) is still decent. But it's always been rough from Cottage to Langley. But what needs to happen is MORE gentrification. They not gon' have violence where the white folks live. So, let's be open to them moving back in.

Hmmmm. I think this statement needs a tackling.

Well this was in response to a link I posted there from the CAPCC blog once again proclaiming Chatham is still "Just like Detroit".

I suppose we can talk about Chatham "Hyde Parked" once again! In this regards we'd be talking about integration again.

My goal for Chatham as always is to attract younger people with children, well families to the neighborhood. To do that we may need to find ways to bring needed amenities to this community. And make sure our local schools are in good shape.

As for gentrification. We might need to define that more. There will be those who will be opposed to that although it should be understood that if there is a problem things can't stay the same as they are currently in Chatham.

Of course as always I would just like to say that comparing Chatham to Detroit is very much over-the-top!

!Bienvenidos!

CAPCC blog welcomes the influx of Mexican-Americans to the Chatham neighborhood either as new homeowners or apartment dwellers.

This is a very interesting development. If any neighborhood could have a good chance and hosting an integrated environment with people of different backgrounds it's Chatham. Perhaps the schools with the neighborhood might want to start some Spanish language classes.

If I may ask one question, well this could be for anyone whatever their background or however long they have lived in the neighborhood, it would be what brought you to Chatham? How did you hear about the neighborhood? Most importanly what do you like about Chatham and what don't you like about Chatham?