Black Neighborhoods Research Articles

The long-run implications of slum clearance: A neighborhood analysis

This paper analyzes the federal urban renewal and slum clearance program. This program was one of the largest and most controversial policies used to rehabilitate neighborhoods in the United States. Using a newly constructed dataset, I examine the characteristics of neighborhoods cleared for redevelopment and the effect that such projects had on neighborhoods over time. I show that conditional on experiencing urban blight, Black neighborhoods were twice as likely as white neighborhoods to be targeted for clearance. Redevelopment led to a decline in housing density, population density, and the share of Black residents while simultaneously increasing median rents and incomes.

Using a smart city framework to advance justice: applying an equity lens to compare air quality in neighbourhoods of different socioeconomic profiles

ABSTRACT The smart city framework, while initially received with enthusiasm, has been critiqued for reproducing urban inequalities rather than reducing marginalisation. This paper demonstrates how application of an equity lens within a smart city framework can advance justice by addressing air quality inequities in a diverse coastal city. We conducted a pilot study in which integrated air quality sensors are deployed for criteria pollutants in two contrasting neighbourhoods, to demonstrate that the smart city framework can be used with an equity lens for baseline data collection and analysis to support communities of colour in advocating on their own behalf. Communities of colour are disproportionately impacted by poor air quality, pollution exposure, and health burdens. Research shows that marginalised communities often lack air quality sensors installed by traditional regulatory measures. Thus, smart city technology using targeted deployment of air quality sensors can aid neighbourhood-level sampling, and data can be leveraged by marginalised communities for policy development to address inequities in pollution exposure and health impacts. In this study, air quality sensors were deployed and integrated with a web-based interactive platform called Community Resiliency Information Systems (CRIS) to compare a white, affluent neighbourhood with a marginalised, predominantly Black neighbourhood in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Data collected indicates significant differences in concentrations of air pollutants in the study neighbourhoods; exposure levels are higher in the poor, minority-dominated neighbourhood. CRIS facilitates two-way communication between residents and policy makers, demonstrating that careful application of technology can produce data to support community advocacy and address environmental inequalities. Key policy highlights The smart city framework integrated with air quality sensors has the potential to advance justice when applied through an equity lens. This pilot project demonstrates air quality inequities at neighbourhood level comparisons (affluent vs marginalised) in a coastal city – exposure levels are higher in the poor, minority-dominated neighbourhood. The CRIS platform facilitates two-way communication between residents and policy makers, demonstrating that careful application of technology can produce data to support community advocacy and address environmental inequalities.

Gentrification and the political and ideological displacement of the Philadelphia Black Worker tradition

ABSTRACT As major American cities lose Black residents in part through gentrification, the democratic political tradition they championed is being affected as well. While abundant literature documents the impacts of gentrification, less is known about political displacement. This study uses a novel theoretical framework to understand how residents rooted in the tradition of the Black Worker in Philadelphia, as defined by W. E. B. Du Bois, are impacted by the political activities of a professional managerial class (PMC). This paper argues that from the perspective of leaders in the Black Worker tradition interviewed, PMC-anchored new progressive and new urbanist movements are part of a hostile takeover of the neighborhood civic landscape and the erasure of a truly democratic political tradition. Residents reject new progressive movements for being unrooted in the city’s organic traditions, and new urbanist policies promoting density, biking, reduced parking, and multifamily zoning for eroding Black Worker neighborhoods created by progressive struggles for working-class self-determination.

A Case Study for Teaching Urban Politics: Examining Residential Racial Segregation through Historic Significance of Black Neighborhood

Moving students out of the classroom and into the community provides promising outcomes for teaching residential racial segregation and understanding of historical context of preservation. This class provides an exploratory case study of students in political science and art studio who worked in teams to develop digital stories for an historically black neighborhood in a large urban city. Through examination of archival data, conducting interviews, and experiencing places within the neighborhood, students gained insight into the politics that work to promote some history over others. Students became more aware of the importance of neighborhoods and gained an understanding of the importance of history to the lives of people living in particular communities. Students learned to work as a team, to overcome challenges of working in a community, and gained an understanding of political processes that work to hide or bury significant history of marginalized groups and neighborhoods.

Perceptions of Tree Risks and Benefits in a Historically African American Neighborhood

An expansive body of research demonstrates the social and ecological benefits of urban forests, although urban tree canopy density tends to be lower than average in areas occupied by marginalized populations. Non-profit organizations and local governments have initiated tree-planting programs; however, some of these programs have encountered local resistance. This study took place in a historically African American neighborhood in the Southern USA with a low tree canopy where residents expressed disinterest in replanting trees following a tree hazard removal campaign led by a local non-profit organization. Employing focus groups and interviews, we explored residents’ environmental attitudes and risk perceptions by asking about the risks and benefits of neighborhood trees and barriers to the enjoyment of them. The material and emotional bonds residents have with the neighborhood informed their preferences about trees and green space. Trees were often viewed as hazards and financial risks, although they were an integral part of residents’ identities for themselves and their community. The findings suggest that neglecting to look at diverse perceptions will challenge a city’s ability to communicate about the urban forest and, therefore, sustainably address disparities in tree benefits and problems.

Exploring the Association Between Structural Racism and Mental Health: Geospatial and Machine Learning Analysis.

Structural racism produces mental health disparities. While studies have examined the impact of individual factors such as poverty and education, the collective contribution of these elements, as manifestations of structural racism, has been less explored. Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, with its racial and socioeconomic diversity, provides a unique context for this multifactorial investigation. This research aimed to delineate the association between structural racism and mental health disparities in Milwaukee County, using a combination of geospatial and deep learning techniques. We used secondary data sets where all data were aggregated and anonymized before being released by federal agencies. We compiled 217 georeferenced explanatory variables across domains, initially deliberately excluding race-based factors to focus on nonracial determinants. This approach was designed to reveal the underlying patterns of risk factors contributing to poor mental health, subsequently reintegrating race to assess the effects of racism quantitatively. The variable selection combined tree-based methods (random forest) and conventional techniques, supported by variance inflation factor and Pearson correlation analysis for multicollinearity mitigation. The geographically weighted random forest model was used to investigate spatial heterogeneity and dependence. Self-organizing maps, combined with K-means clustering, were used to analyze data from Milwaukee communities, focusing on quantifying the impact of structural racism on the prevalence of poor mental health. While 12 influential factors collectively accounted for 95.11% of the variability in mental health across communities, the top 6 factors-smoking, poverty, insufficient sleep, lack of health insurance, employment, and age-were particularly impactful. Predominantly, African American neighborhoods were disproportionately affected, which is 2.23 times more likely to encounter high-risk clusters for poor mental health. The findings demonstrate that structural racism shapes mental health disparities, with Black community members disproportionately impacted. The multifaceted methodological approach underscores the value of integrating geospatial analysis and deep learning to understand complex social determinants of mental health. These insights highlight the need for targeted interventions, addressing both individual and systemic factors to mitigate mental health disparities rooted in structural racism.

Reversing food-land relationships in the city: Insights from the Seeding East Buffalo Fellowship Program

The Seeding East Buffalo Fellowship (SEBF) pro­gram, co-founded by community and academic organizations from Buffalo, NY in 2022, supported residents in Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods to grow their own food, emerge as urban agriculture (UA) leaders, and engage in and advocate for UA policy. This article reflects on the lessons learned from this pilot program. The authors, all of whom are either co-founders or team members of the SEBF program, drew from field notes and qualitative interviews with SEBF growers in this article. Key lessons for policy change are that programs must be rooted in the community’s history, pedagogical strategies must be tailored to the local context, and long-term relationships must be fostered. . . .

Gender, race, and space: A qualitative exploration of young Black women's perceptions of urban neighborhoods.

How people think and feel about their neighborhood impacts the way they think of themselves and their futures. These linkages are especially important to understand in the case of urban-residing young Black women. Researchers know very little about what contributes to young Black adults' urban neighborhood perceptions and often rely on "expert" definitions of markers of neighborhood quality. These definitions and subsequent explorations of residents' neighborhood assessment have not adequately considered intersecting oppressive systems that structure urban spaces both physically and socially. Further, within-group diversity of young Black adults based on other social identities, such as gender and class, has gone underexplored in research on residents' neighborhood assessment. We used theory from Black feminist geography and sociology to guide our thematic analysis of interviews with young Black women (N = 9) regarding their urban neighborhood quality. We sought to explore the aspects or features of the neighborhood that young Black women discussed and how social identities may play a role in young Black women's descriptions of their urban neighborhoods. We argue three themes tell an overarching story of young Black women's urban spatial critical analysis: (1) outsiders' perceptions versus our realities, (2) gendered safety, and (3) visibility of young Black women. Young Black women's narratives highlighted communal aspects of neighborhood evaluation and attention to dominant narratives regarding marginalized groups and urban spaces.

Lessons in Legacies: Treatment Plant Expansion Under the Clean Water Act

The US Clean Water Act of 1972 required cities to build secondary wastewater treatment plant capacity to improve the environment and protect public health. The expansion of the Southeast Pollution Control Plant in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point, a historically Black neighborhood, illustrates how planners employed rational-comprehensive approaches as the bases for their decision-making, worsening the community’s environmental burdens. This occurred even as the community used recently adopted environmental policy frameworks to mitigate the plant’s consequences. The Clean Water Act should be evaluated on clean water objectives and in terms of how communities were harmed to achieve these environmental goals.

Controlling Images of Neighborhoods in Gentrification Coverage

Abstract Prior literature has largely used the concept of “controlling images” to explain how the news media and other institutions use racialized and gendered stereotypes to control marginalized groups. This article extends the concept of controlling images to neighborhoods using 583 newspaper articles about gentrification in San Francisco. Using qualitative and spatial analysis, I demonstrate how controlling images exist in media through representations, underrepresentations, and omissions in the form of three controlling images of neighborhoods: “The apolitical Asiantown” appears through the omission of Asian neighborhoods and Asian residents of other gentrifying neighborhoods, “the immigrant barrio” through the underrepresentation of Latinx residents and centering of White residents in Latinx neighborhoods, and “the violent ’hood” through the focus on issues of blight, crime, and violence in Black neighborhoods. The findings contribute to our understanding of how institutional racism operates not only through racist representations, but also through racist exclusions.

“Reimagining education for our dreamchasers”: creating a humanizing education space through culturally relevant teaching for Latin(x) and black elementary students

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how one elementary school administrative team responded to their changing student populations to include Latin(x) within their black community. The responses included looping practices, relationship building with families and culturally relevant pedagogies. In particular, this paper considers how the three aspects of the change worked together toward the goal of providing its students with quality educational opportunities and enhancements.Design/methodology/approachThe research presented here is part of a longitudinal (four-year) qualitative study where ethnographic approaches to data collection were adopted.FindingsThe four-year immersion in the values of culturally relevant pedagogy created a reciprocal growth in understanding among the teachers and the students of the black and Latin(x) populations, sustained the overarching ideas of deep family connections and contributed to asset-driven curriculum.Originality/valueA national trend shows rapid changing demographics where Latin(x) families are moving into black neighborhoods and schools. This change in schools’ student populations finds educators facing new challenges in addressing the educational and cultural needs of two minoritized populations. This research adds to the existing scholarship by documenting how one school shifts their learning atmosphere to deeply engage students in culturally relevant pedagogies.

Robert Burns's Black Neighbours in Ayrshire

Robert Burns's decision to emigrate to Jamaica in 1786 as a slave-driver is well known, and is increasingly debated as Scotland develops its understanding of its direct and indirect roles in the transatlantic slave trade and Black chattel slavery. The stories, and even the names, of the Black people of that period (servants and tradesmen) are typically more ephemeral than those of Burns and his friends and patrons, but it would be wrong to assume that there were no Black people living and working in Ayr and its environs in Burns's day. While the Black population across Scotland was small (commentators suggest around seventy individuals against some fifteen thousand in England & Wales), contemporary records show that over a dozen lived and worked in Ayrshire. While there is no concrete evidence in the Poet's writings, this study shows that it is highly likely that Burns saw some of these people on the streets, that he met the biracial children of the manumitted Black man Scipio Kennedy, and that he was present at the baptism of a Black man, John Cartwright, in Mauchline Kirk in 1784.

Galaxy morphology classification based on Convolutional vision Transformer (CvT)

Context. The classification of galaxy morphology is among the most active fields in astronomical research today. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, deep learning is a useful tool in the classification of the morphology of galaxies and significant progress has been made in this domain. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of classification accuracy, automation, and related issues. Aims. Convolutional vision Transformer (CvT) is an improved version of the Vision Transformer (ViT) model. It improves the performance of the ViT model by introducing a convolutional neural network (CNN). This study explores the performance of the CvT model in the area of galaxy morphology classification. Methods. In this work, the CvT model was applied, for the first time, in a five-class classification task of galaxy morphology. We added different types and degrees of noise to the original galaxy images to verify that the CvT model achieves good classification performance, even in galaxy images with low signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns). Then, we also validated the classification performance of the CvT model for galaxy images at different redshifts based on the low-redshift dataset GZ2 and the high-redshift dataset Galaxy Zoo CANDELS. In addition, we visualized and analyzed the classification results of the CvT model based on the t-distributed stochastic neighborhood -embedding (t-SNE) algorithm. Results. We find that (1) compared with other five-class classification models of galaxy morphology based on CNN models, the average accuracy, precision, recall, and F1_score evaluation metrics of the CvT classification model are all higher than 98%, which is an improvement of at least 1% compared with those based on CNNs; (2) the classification visualization results show that different categories of galaxies are separated from each other in multi-dimensional space. Conclusions. The application of the CvT model to the classification study of galaxy morphology is a novel undertaking that carries important implications for future studies.

Sex Differences in Receipt of Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Considering Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Composition.

Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (B-CPR) and defibrillation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) vary by sex, with women being less likely to receive these interventions in public. It is unknown whether sex differences persist when considering neighborhood racial and ethnic composition. We examined the odds of receiving B-CPR stratified by location and neighborhood. We hypothesized that women in predominantly Black neighborhoods will have a lower odds of receiving B-CPR. We conducted a retrospective study using the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES). Neighborhoods were classified by census tract. We modeled the odds of receipt of B-CPR (primary outcome), automatic external defibrillation application, and survival to hospital discharge (secondary outcomes) by sex. CARES collected 457 621 arrests (2013-2019); after appropriate exclusion, 309 662 were included. Women who had public OHCA had a 14% lower odds of receiving B-CPR (odds ratio [OR], 0.86 [95% CI, 0.82-0.89]), but effect modification was not seen by neighborhood (P=not significant). In predominantly Black neighborhoods, women who had public OHCA had a 13% lower odds of receiving B-CPR (adjusted OR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.76-0.98]) and 12% lower odds of receiving automatic external defibrillation application (adjusted OR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.78-0.99]). In predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, women who had public OHCA were less likely to receive B-CPR (adjusted OR, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.73-0.96]) and less likely to receive automatic external defibrillation application (adjusted OR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.64-0.87]). Women with public OHCA have a decreased likelihood of receiving B-CPR and automatic external defibrillation application. Findings did not differ significantly according to neighborhood composition. Despite this, our work has implications for considering strategies to reduce disparities around bystander response.

From Mammy to Big Mama: Caring for Collections on Our Own Terms

Hallie Q. Brown Community Center (the Center) began as a settlement house in 1929. It has and continues to serve the predominately Black neighborhood, commonly known as Rondo, in Saint Paul, MN. I am the first professional archivist hired by the Center and, as such, I was the first to establish workflows, implement standards, and provide easy access to the Center’s archival collections. Yet, I was trained to be an archivist by white people at predominately white institutions and have learned over time that not all the frameworks, ideas, and expectations impressed upon me apply in community archives which serve Black people. In this paper I will discuss the underappreciated social and emotional labors involved in being a Black woman in charge of a community archive, which serves a historically Black community, and was initially led by Black women. I will explore aspects of internal colonialism, catalog description, and efforts in community collaboration and outreach as it relates to collections entrusted to the Hallie Q. Brown Community Archives (HQBCA). This paper will offer a vignette into the journey of a professional serving the majority as a minority in collections care, to serving an underrepresented community as a fellow member of a marginalized group.

Spatial accessibility and travel to pharmacy by type in the Detroit region

BackgroundCommunity pharmacies are a critical part of the health care provision system. Yet less is understood about the spatial accessibility to pharmacies and how people travel to reach these services. ObjectivesThis study compared spatial accessibility and actual travel to different types of pharmacies among selected neighborhoods in the Detroit region. MethodsThree types of neighborhoods were selected and compared, including two lower income Black urban neighborhoods of high-density and four upper income White suburbs (two of low density and two of high density). Spatial accessibility was computed by pharmacy type and compared among neighborhoods using ANOVA. Pharmacy trips reported in a travel survey were geocoded and linked with community pharmacies in a list generated from ReferenceUSA business data. Destination choices were mapped and the relationship between spatial accessibility and actual distance traveled was examined using ordinary least squares regressions. ResultsOn average, urban residents in Detroit had higher access to local independent pharmacies (0.74 miles to the nearest one) but relatively lower access to national chains (1.35 miles to the nearest one), which most residents relied on. Urban residents also tended to shop around more for services even among national chains. In fact, they bypassed nearby local independent pharmacies and traveled long distances to use farther pharmacies, primarily national chains. The average trip distance to pharmacy was 2.1 miles for urban residents, but only 1.1 miles and 1.5 miles for residents in high-density suburbs and low-density suburbs, respectively. ConclusionSupposedly good spatial access considering all pharmacies together may mask excessive burden in reaching the pharmacy services needed in low-income minority urban communities, as shown in the case of Detroit. Thus, when mapping pharmacy deserts, it is important to distinguish spatial accessibility among different pharmacy types.

Assessing the Impact of Cannabis Decriminalization on Racial Disparities in Chicago’s Cannabis Possession Arrests

Black and Hispanic neighborhoods have suffered the most severe consequences of the “war on drugs.” As the war on drugs waned, cannabis legalization/decriminalization efforts increased across America. A prime example of decriminalization occurred in August of 2012 as the City of Chicago introduced a new law providing officers with option to ticket, rather than arrest, individuals caught in possession of 15 grams of cannabis or less. As cannabis policy continues evolving, it remains to be seen whether or not the trend toward decriminalization will produce equitable changes in drug arrest outcomes across racial/ethnic groups. We employ data tracking cannabis arrests over time by neighborhood to assess the impact of cannabis decriminalization in Chicago and estimate racial disparities in the likelihood of arrest (v. ticket) using two sets of models: within-neighborhood models and hierarchical logistic regressions with random effects. We find that Blacks and non-White Hispanics are more likely to be arrested than ticketed for minor cannabis possession in Chicago following the introduction of the Alternative Cannabis Enforcement (ACE) program, regardless of the neighborhood where the arrest took place. In addition, Black neighborhoods did not experience the same reduction in arrests after the law changed in comparison with racially mixed, White, or predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. Our findings draw attention to the differential deployment of discretionary policing strategies across neighborhoods of different racial/ethnic composition. Although Chicago’s ACE program has lowered the overall rate of cannabis arrests, major racial/ethnic disparities in those arrests remain and become exacerbated when examining macro neighborhood-level trends.

Exposure of Neighborhood Racial and Socio-Economic Composition in Activity Space: A New Approach Adjusting for Residential Conditions.

A longstanding urban sociological literature emphasizes the geographic isolation of city dwellers in residence and everyday routines, expecting exposures to neighborhood racial and socio-economic structure driven principally by city-wide segregation and the role of proximity and homophily in mobility. The compelled mobility approach emphasizes the uneven distribution of organizational and institutional resources across urban space, expecting residents of poor Black-segregated neighborhoods to exhibit non-trivial levels of everyday exposure to White, non-poor areas for resource seeking. We use two sets of location data in the hypersegregated Chicago metro to examine these two approaches: Global Positioning System (GPS) location tracking on a sample of older adults from the Chicago Health and Activity Space in Real-Time (CHART) study and travel diaries on a sample of younger adults by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). We introduce a novel and flexible individual-level method for assessing activity space exposures that accounts for the spatially proximate environment around home. Analyses reveal that activity space contexts mimic the racial/ethnic and socio-economic landscape of respondents' broad residential environment. However, after residential-based adjustment, Black younger (CMAP) adults from poor Black neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to Whiter, less Black but less non-poor neighborhoods. Older (CHART) adult activity spaces align more closely with their residential areas; however, activity spaces of poor-Black-neighborhood-residing CHART Blacks are systematically poorer and, less consistently, more Black and less White after local area adjustment. Implications for understanding contextual exposures on well-being and the potential for age or cohort differences in isolation are discussed.

Gender, Socioeconomic Status, Race, and Ethnic Disparities in Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Education-A Scoping Review.

Social determinants are associated with survival from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Because prompt delivery of bystander CPR (B-CPR) doubles survival and B-CPR rates are low, we sought to assess whether gender, socioeconomic status (SES), race, and ethnicity are associated with lower rates of B-CPR and CPR training. This scoping review was conducted as part of the continuous evidence evaluation process for the 2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care as part of the Resuscitation Education Science section. We searched PubMed and excluded citations that were abstracts only, letters or editorials, and pediatric studies. We reviewed 762 manuscripts and identified 24 as relevant; 4 explored gender disparities; 12 explored SES; 11 explored race and ethnicity; and 3 had overlapping themes, all of which examined B-CPR or CPR training. Females were less likely to receive B-CPR than males in public locations. Observed gender disparities in B-CPR may be associated with individuals fearing accusations of inappropriate touching or injuring female victims. Studies demonstrated that low-SES neighborhoods were associated with lower rates of B-CPR and CPR training. In the US, predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods were associated with lower rates of B-CPR and CPR training. Language barriers were associated with lack of CPR training. Gender, SES, race, and ethnicity impact receiving B-CPR and obtaining CPR training. The impact of this is that these populations are less likely to receive B-CPR, which decreases their odds of surviving SCA. These health disparities must be addressed. Our work can inform future research, education, and public health initiatives to promote equity in B-CPR knowledge and provision. As an immediate next step, organizations that develop and deliver CPR curricula to potential bystanders should engage affected communities to determine how best to improve training and delivery of B-CPR.

Powered by gentrification: The uneven development of residential rooftop solar in Atlanta, Georgia

Rooftop solar is widely seen to be a crucial piece of the puzzle for addressing both greenhouse gas emissions and reducing household energy burdens. But studies from across the United States have consistently pointed to inequalities in the adoption of rooftop solar that limit its ability to address these overlapping problems. This paper examines these social and spatial inequalities in rooftop solar adoption in Atlanta, Georgia, using a novel dataset of residential rooftop solar installation permits from 2018 through 2022. Through this analysis, we demonstrate that while more affluent and white neighborhoods are home to the majority of residential rooftop solar installations within the city, the most significant growth in rooftop solar in recent years has been in majority Black neighborhoods. But by combining these records with an analysis of property-level characteristics and transaction histories, we are able to understand how the installation of rooftop solar, especially in predominantly poorer and Blacker communities, is not, in fact, being driven by a narrowing of racial inequalities in rooftop solar adoption or a greater concern for energy justice. Instead, as gentrification unfolds in previously marginalized neighborhoods, these newcomers become the vanguard of rooftop solar adoption rather than longstanding residents who would have the most to gain from such technologies. This paper ultimately clarifies the distinction between spatial redistribution and social redistribution of renewable energy, and the need for both finer-grained analyses of inequalities in clean energy access and adoption and a greater commitment towards both energy and housing justice.