Neighborhood Comparison of the Upper and Poor Class

In Streetwise, Elijah Anderson (1990) discusses the social forces at work in an urban area he calls the Village-Northton. His is a sociological field study of the daily interactions between the residents of an area encompassing two communities--in his words, "one black and low income to very poor (with an extremely high infant mortality rate), [and] the other racially mixed but becoming increasingly middle to upper income and white" (Anderson, 1990, p. ix). In keeping with valid sociological fieldwork, Anderson (1990) immersed himself in the community from the summer of 1975 through the summer of 1989.

When a neighborhood is gentrified it will not only change the image of it, but also the services available there (Al-Kodmany 2011, 62-63). In other words, gentrification does not only have an impact on the physical aspect of the land, but also the resources that lie there. During the 90s, the Near West Side neighborhood located near Loop, an up-scale neighborhood, sought drastic changes within the area. The changes in racial demographics in the Near West Side indicated that the health risks that affected minorities dropped in the past decade (1992-2002) (Al-Kodmany 2011,

Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating

East Harlem is usually known for being a poor neighborhood. “In much social science literature on the neighborhood, Spanish Harlem is defined primarily by its poverty.” (Martinez).

How has the suburb Harvey and the residential area of Englewood changed over the course of years? Both neighborhoods and residents have faced much adversity and are struggling in many fields such as unemployment, police brutality, gun violence, schools closing, drugs, and high crime rate. Amidst one of the worst economic times in history, residents are being laid off, which interns lead to a domino effect for many. The differences (similarities) between Harvey and the residential area of Englewood are pronounced, and they deserve rigorous scrutiny.

Now days walking down the streets of Atlanta, we see the new neighborhoods consisting of condos, Starbucks, yoga classes and Chipotle. Gentrification is a growing problem in urban areas as the influx of the riches have caused the displacement of lower class families due to higher economic demands and local politics. According to Diane K. Levy, Jennifer Comey and Sandra Padilla (2005), “We define gentrification as the process whereby higher-income households move into low income neighborhoods, escalating the area’s property values to the point that displacement occurs. In addition to changes in economic class, gentrification often involves a change in a neighborhood’s racial and ethnic composition…” (p.1). Though gentrification has lasting affects on the economic status of cities, there are also repercussions that not only effect working individuals but also the students that attend school in these gentrified areas. When areas are gentrified, schools are rezoned thus leading to long lasting consequences that students must face. Some believe that gentrification is beneficial to a growing economy in a growing city, but the realities of the its lasting effects on education are often left under the radar. The issues that lie within the education system as it pertains to gentrification include day segregation and unequal opportunities between affluent and low-income areas.

The economic boundaries for the southern part of Oklahoma City can run the gambit from residents below poverty level to those that would be considered to be upper-class in their monetary value. There are neighborhoods that many would not feel comfortable after dark because there has been a rise in crime to those areas. The zoning of these homes are single story, quarter acre lots that are approximately one thousand to fifteen hundred square feet. These impoverished areas have small, older homes that are two to three bedroom homes that are unkempt and, at times, are cockroach infested. The houses are built closely side by side and do not have much open space throughout the neighborhood. Most of these homes show signs of decay related to the amount of repairs that need to be made to the home. Many of the residents are renting and cannot afford to make the necessary repairs or have landlords that are unwilling to comply with the safety of their occupants. The stores in the south part of Oklahoma City are ones that cater to a lower income, such as, Payday loans, Buy For Less, Ross, Payless shoes, Wal Mart, etc.

I thought cities had more diversity, more poverty, and low income household than suburb areas and this was supported by the above data. I learned that the increase of wealth and income in a small community hinders the rest of community where middle and low income families live. The ability to live in a “good” neighborhood is linked to income. Income can be one of the factors that determine how a region can be segregated. Even in the city, the income of the household separates the lower income families from the higher income families. High income families tend to live together and low income families tend to live in the same

On August 20th, 2016, The New York Times published an article titled “Affluent and Black, and Still Trapped by Segregation” written by John Eligon and Robert Gebeloff. The article discusses why wealthy African Americans choose to live in poverty-stricken areas as opposed to wealthier areas (Eligon and Gebeloff). The writers John Eligon and Robert Gebeloff clarify issues that most Americans would not see, such as children losing their sense of culture in more upscale communities (Eligon and Gebeloff). Culture is what separates different backgrounds of people around the world, and it is vital for everyone to have their own culture that we can learn from. When African Americans culture becomes infringed upon, they take the necessary precautions

Income inequality has a direct relationship with middle class Americans’ destructive and poor lifestyle. In the poor areas of South Chicago, the black communities suffer “higher crime rates, poor performance in school, and family management,” said Robert Sampson, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago. Similarly, Harvard University sociologist William Julius Wilson found “patterns of racial exclusion” and “concentrated poverty” among the middle-class Americans in South Chicago “are much more likely to be exposed to crime and other manifestations of social dislocation and social problems…” Poor minority groups are not only affected by destructive and poor lifestyle due to income inequality but also, poor whites are affected. Poor

“people around here are willing to help their neighbors, this a close knit neighborhood, people in this neighborhood can be trusted, people in the neighborhood generally don’t get along with each other and people in this neighborhood don’t share the same values” (Sampson et al., 1997, 920).

Residential segregation is a wide spread topic of discussion throughout cities across the United States. With population in larger cities growing, the separation of groups into neighborhoods is common — placing different standards of living on each section depending on the wealth and race of the inhabitants. In There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America William Julius Wilson and Richard P. Taub explore a new areas of Chicago and the residential segregation taking place there by creating a

Typically, us Americans categorize neighborhoods we see into two categories, which are wealthy and poor neighborhoods. After observing families’ income in wealthy neighborhoods compared to poor neighborhoods, they are drastically distinctive. Most families who have great amounts of money generally live in a large house, while those who are classified as “poor” will be found in some unsafe areas. These homes have different builds, exteriors may be maintained or may be filled with clutter, and the families inside these homes may express different wants than the opposite class. Unfortunately, wealthy and poor people both fall under a stereotype. The rich are looked upon as snobby and prude, while the poor are seen as lacking intelligence or they could abuse drugs and alcohol. However, I observed a “wealthy” and a “poor” neighborhood in the city of

For the past two decades, gentrification has become a widely-known phenomenon in the U.S. as more wealthy cohorts of population move to quiet and cheap suburban areas instead of bearing the busy and costly lives in a big city. Changes brought by the influx of affluent newcomers in the suburban areas are often praised for fostering urban renewal as well as animating the areas’ local economy. However, the impacts of gentrification cause several types of new problems which now afflict long-time, low-income residents in “gentrifying” neighborhoods. With the soaring prices of the real estate market, landlords’ harassment against low-income tenants, and rising living expenses, gentrification further augments the inequality and conflicts between the poor and rich inhabitants.

Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.