Neighborhood Stability Research Articles

Neighborhood predictors of suicide and firearm suicide in Detroit, Michigan

BackgroundSuicide is a leading cause of death in the United States with rates increasing over the past two decades. The rate of suicide is higher in rural areas, but a greater number of people in urban areas die by suicide; understanding risk factors for suicide in this context is critically important to public health. Additionally, while many studies have focused on individual-level risk factors, few studies have identified social or structural features associated with suicide or firearm suicide, especially among young people.MethodsStudy outcomes included total firearm suicide, total youth (age 10–29) firearm suicide, total suicide, and total youth suicide in Detroit, Michigan from 2012 through 2019. The predictors in this study included 58 census-tract level variables characterizing the physical features, residential stability, socioeconomic status, and demographics of neighborhoods in Detroit over the study period. We used random forest, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and generalized linear mixed models to predict the four outcomes.ResultsWe found that the tract-level variables used in all three modeling approaches performed poorly at predicting the suicide outcomes, with area under the curve values at times exceeding 0.60 but with extremely low sensitivity (ranging from 0.05 to 0.45). However, the percentage of parcels sold in arms-length transfers in the previous 5 years, the count of vacant lots per square mile, and the percentage of children aged three and older who were enrolled in preschool each demonstrated associations with at least two of the outcomes studied.ConclusionsOur findings suggest place-based factors at the tract level do not provide meaningful insight into the risk of suicide or firearm suicide among youth or the general population in Detroit, Michigan. Future practice and study should consider focusing on both larger and smaller areas, including city and individual-level factors. For example, studies might benefit from the use of both neighborhood and individual-level measures and their interactions to improve our understanding of place-based risk factors and suicide risk.

Inplacement, not just displacement: Urban assemblages and neighborhood stability in the face of gentrification

ABSTRACT In recent decades, residents and community organizations in the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Albany Park, on Chicago’s northwest side, have been resisting gentrification, emerging as one of the city’s most active neighborhoods in anti-displacement organizing and policy setting. We seek to understand how a multiplicity of actors, human and non-human, have coalesced to achieve a modicum of success in stalling, subverting, and overcoming gentrification and its attendant displacement of low-income residents. We draw on the work of urban assemblage theorists to build a temporal and spatial analysis, showing the complex assemblage of resistance actors, their experiences, and their narratives over a 20-year time span. Despite the fear of many scholars and residents, Albany Park shows that once started, gentrification is not inevitable. We introduce the concept of “inplacement” to show resistance to displacement is possible through the work of civil society organizations and other neighborhood actors.

The KIND Challenge community intervention to reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood relationships: an international randomized controlled trial.

Loneliness and social isolation are risk factors for poor health, but few effective interventions are deployable at scale. This study was conducted to determine whether acts of kindness can reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood social cohesion. Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted in the USA, UK, and Australia, involving a total of 4284 individuals aged 18-90years old, randomized to the KIND challenge intervention or a waitlist control group. Participants allocated to the intervention were asked to do at least one act of kindness per week within a four-week period. The primary outcome was loneliness and secondary outcomes included measures of social isolation, mental health, and neighbourhood social cohesion. There was a significant, albeit small, intervention effect after four weeks for reduced loneliness in the USA and the UK, but not for Australia. Relative to controls, KIND challenge participants also showed significantly reduced social isolation and social anxiety in the USA, and reduced stress in Australia. There was also reduced neighbourhood conflict in the USA, increased number of neighbourhood contacts in the USA and Australia, greater neighbourhood stability and feelings of neighbourhood importance in the UK, and better neighbourhood social relationships in Australia. Promoting the provision of social support through small acts of kindness to neighbours has the potential to reduce loneliness, social isolation and social anxiety, and promote neighbourhood relationships, suggesting a potential strategy for public health campaigns. Clinical Trials Registry. NCT04398472. Registered 21st May 2020.

Refugee Placemaking and Community in San Francisco: Building a Little Saigon Community in San Francisco, from the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation Archives (1980-2000)

The article draws from Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) archival materials, housed in the San Francisco History Center, to present a case study of how post-1975 Vietnam War refugees (from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) and a collection of actors collectively affected the local space (1980-2000). This article (1) examines the discourse of “neighborhood stabilization” amidst housing precarity, (2) discusses the implications of refugees as “revitalizers” and “entrepreneurs,” and (3) documents the role of community partnerships and urban planning in building a Little Saigon community in the heart of San Francisco. Overall, the article argues that efforts to build affordable housing within a unique urban planning environment were instrumental in the formation of the Little Saigon community of San Francisco, and it demonstrates how local affordable housing and the built environment in refugee resettlement sits at the nexus of competing discourses about development and about inclusion.

Socio-Demographic Correlates of of Social Disorganization and Neighborhood Quality

The aim of the research was to determine the relationship between socio-demographic variables of the respondents and the perception of social disorganization related to housing conditions and the quality of the neighborhood. The research was conducted in December 2022 on a sample of 102 respondents (49 male and 53 female), average age 43. The following scales and questionnaires were applied: Sociodemographic Variables Questionnaire, Social Organization Inventory and Social Perception Scale. The results of the research showed that socio-demographic variables have influence on the perception of social disorganization and neighborhood quality. It was found that there is a statistically significant positive association with the social disorganization variable in the direction of the impact of tenants on the quality of collective living, emotional ties of tenants, the need to fulfill requests, neighborhood stability and informal control. The data indicate that all individual items of the subtest of the neighborhood variable showed a statistically significant positive association with tenants' external connections, with institutions related to the quality of housing, pro-social norms of collective housing, basic participation of tenants in skyscraper activities, informal participation of tenants in skyscraper activities and formal participation of tenants in skyscraper activities. Factor analysis revealed three dominant factors: involvement of tenants in activities of common interest, connection and assistance among tenants, and opportunities to improve living conditions for all tenants by engaging in the local community. The obtained results suggest positive attitudes related to housing values that arise from social organization and neighborhood quality. The paper is concluded with recommendations for future research and directions.

Model-based event-triggered control for linear systems using a finite-time convergent observer

In this paper, we present an improved model-based event-triggered control approach for regulation of networked linear time-invariant plants by integrating a finite-time convergent observer. Utilizing the send-on-delta concept, we introduce two event-triggering strategies that substantially decrease the number of samples transmitted over the sensor-to-controller communication channel: (1) one strategy guarantees global asymptotic stability of a tunable compact neighborhood of the origin with a finite number of sampling events; (2) the other strategy ensures global asymptotic stability of the origin with arbitrarily large inter-sampling time. Through the lens of hybrid systems theory, we demonstrate that both methods avoid Zeno solutions, making them suitable for digital implementation, and both strategies exhibit robustness against both small and large perturbations. We showcase the advantages of our proposed strategies over other model-based approaches using a perturbed linearized batch reactor example.

Decomposing Neighbourhood (In)Stability: The Structural Determinants of Turnover and Implications for Neighbourhood Crime

Abstract While the human ecological model views neighbourhood instability as a function of household-level decisions, the present study draws on a political economy of place perspective to highlight how the profit-seeking interests of outside actors shapes instability, with consequences for neighbourhood crime. Using data on neighbourhoods in Los Angeles County from 2007 to 2013, I decompose levels of stability according to housing dynamics (displacement, development, changing rents, sales, low-income units), and assess their direct and indirect association with violent and property crime. I find that, over a 7-year period, poorer neighbourhoods are more vulnerable to these exchange-value pressures, stability is more consequential to crime in high-poverty neighbourhoods, and certain housing dynamics are associated with increasing crime through their detrimental effect on renter stability.

How buses alleviate unemployment and poverty: Lessons from a natural experiment in Clayton County, GA

Many studies have documented the linkage between public transportation and economic outcomes, though there is relatively little empirical evidence on the consequences of losing existing transit services, especially bus services, which disproportionately serve low-income populations. We investigate the impacts of bus access on poverty and employment using a natural experiment in Clayton County, GA, where the local bus transit was terminated between 2010 and 2015. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find substantial increases in poverty and unemployment rates in affected neighbourhoods during the five-year period. Our findings suggest both the spatial mismatch hypothesis, which predicts the reduction in transit access can lead to reductions in job accessibility and employment, and the residential sorting hypothesis, which states that poor households gravitate towards neighbourhoods with better transit access, could be at play. Overall, we find strong evidence that disruptions in bus transit could have significant adverse impacts on neighbourhood economic outcomes. Our findings underscore the need for federal and local public transportation funding to help improve job access, alleviate poverty, and maintain neighbourhood stability.

Opposite Treatment on Null Space: A Unified Control Framework for a Class of Underactuated Robotic Systems With Null Space Avoidance

Design of feedback control for underactuated robotic systems (URSs) is often complex and nonintuitive due to the inherent incapability of generating arbitrary velocities or accelerations at each moment. Researchers have designed various controllers; however, there are few unified intuitive feedback stabilization controllers for a wide range of URSs. In this article, we propose a real-time and unified control framework for a class of URSs with three states and two inputs based on the intuition of avoiding null space. To control diverse URSs, unlike transforming them to canonical forms, we approach them from an inverse perspective based on a Jacobian-like mapping matrix and disclose a fundamental issue, null space attraction, which fails all Jacobian-based standard kinematics control. An opposite treatment on null space, avoiding null space, is applied to oppose null space attraction, allowing the standard kinematics controllers to keep control authority. Overall, the proposed control framework consisting of a standard kinematics controller and a null space avoidance controller can fundamentally solve point-to-point stabilization for the class of driftless URSs and also render <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> -neighborhood stabilization for URSs with a nonvanishing and constant drift. Both the convergence properties are rigorously analyzed. Simulations and applications are conducted to demonstrate the generality, effectiveness, and robustness of our controllers.

RANKING RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS BASED ON THEIR SUSTAINABILITY: A CM-BWM APPROACH

Population growth and rapid urbanization have consequences that are reflected in the economic, environmental, and social stability of city-residential neighborhoods. These impacts directly affect not only residents but also real estate markets and local governments. The professionals working in the latter entities have become increasingly concerned about urban sustainability and its strategic integration into their plans. Strategies have been implemented that focus on both addressing negative aspects of residential neighborhoods and enhancing positive features that can contribute to the continuous improvement of locals’ living conditions. This study applies the multiple-criteria decision analysis approach and a combination of cognitive mapping and the best-worst method (BWM) to identify the most relevant criteria and use these to rank residential neighborhoods according to their sustainability. To apply the selected techniques, two group meetings were held with a panel of decision makers. The results were validated by the panel members and the Funchal City Council councilor for urbanism, who concurred that the proposed ranking system facilitates the identification of the most sustainable residential neighborhoods. The contributions and limitations of the methodological approach are also discussed.

Neighbourhood trajectories in Stockholm: Investigating the role of mobility and in situ change

This paper studies the dynamics of neighbourhood change and neighbourhood stability, using the case of Stockholm during the period 1990–2015. We employ Swedish register data and a three-step methodology to investigate to what extent and how neighbourhoods’ characteristics change over time and the factors driving those changes. Firstly, we apply k-means clustering to a set of socioeconomic, housing and demographic characteristics at the neighbourhood level, and identify a typology of neighbourhood states. Secondly, we build neighbourhood trajectories out of the states over time and use sequence analysis to obtain ideal-typical neighbourhood trajectories. Finally, we decompose the neighbourhood change into selective mobility, i.e., the differences in the characteristics of in- and out-movers, and in situ change of sitting residents. Our results reveal a mixed picture, with the role of selective mobility and in situ change varying depending on the type of neighbourhood transition and the variable under consideration. Trajectories of neighbourhood upgrading towards elite status in the Stockholm city-centre and downward trajectories ending in vulnerability in the periphery are mainly driven by selective mobility. Other typical trajectories comprise the emergence of newly built elite areas and the ageing of certain middle-class areas, the latter mostly driven by ageing of sitting residents.

Architectures of mis/managed retreat: Black land loss to green housing gains

Hurricane Katrina submerged thousands of single-story, slab-on-grade homes in low-lying New Orleans, disproportionately displacing African Americans they sheltered and sustained. Critical disaster studies cast charitable individuals and organizations as sponsors of Black survival, yet nongovernmental aid programs remain marginal to scholarship on environmental justice and Black geographies. This paper sheds light on the funding programs, public-private partnerships, and design-build projects by which philanthropies and charities aid Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) in retreat from flood hazards. This nested case study of HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization program and the Salvation Army’s EnviRenew program shows Black developers, planners, and architects of retreat from New Orleans’s Pontchartrain Park Historic District gained public, private, and philanthropic sponsors at steep costs: the loss of land, life, and leadership in sustainable development. Drawing on administrative data, legal documents, and stakeholder interviews, the mixed-methods analysis finds new housing built above projected base flood elevations inside flood hazard zones not by choice or by chance, but in compliance with aid programs requiring Black participation in land buyout programs (Road Home) and Black facilitation of green home building and buying (Build Back Better). The Pontchartrain Park case of “management failure,” which included rescinded grants and land takings, not only illuminates the macroeconomics and microaggressions that restrict where and how Black resettlement takes place. Ultimately, this article reveals climate mitigation patrons relocate BIPOC households and heritage from endangered places in theory, yet, in practice, their relief formulas may house marginalized minorities in precarious places above measured risks.

Investigating disparities: the effect of social environment on pancreatic cancer survival in metastatic patients

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PCA) incidence is higher in Black compared to White patients. Beyond race, neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) may also inform disparities. However, these effects on metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (mPCA) are not well-studied. The aim of this study was to explore whether nSES influences survival in patients with mPCA. nSES measures were derived from U.S. census data at the census tract (CT) level. We correlated medical records of mPCA patients (diagnosed 2010-2016; n=370) to nSES measures retrospectively via a geocode derived from patient address. Multivariable cox proportional hazards models were used to identify patient-level (age, sex, race, marital status, treatment (radiation/chemo/surgery), PCA family history, stage, Jewish ancestry, tobacco use, BMI, diabetes, and statin use) and nSES measures (deprivation, racial concentration, stability, transportation access, immigration) associated with mPCA survival; P values <0.05 were significant. Eighty-two percent of patients were White; less than one-third of patients resided in highly deprived neighborhoods. Three hundred thirty-three mPCA patient deaths occurred, with a survival ranging from 7-9 months (median 8 months). Patient-level factors including younger age, receipt of chemotherapy or initial surgery and statin use, were associated with improved survival, whereas neighborhood stability (i.e., a higher % of residents still living in the same house as 1 year ago) was significantly associated with poor pancreatic survival. Our findings suggest nSES has limited effect on survival of mPCA patients as compared to clinical variables. This may be due to the aggressive nature of this cancer, however, additional studies with larger, more diverse cohorts are needed to better understand the effect of nSES on survival of patients with mPCA.

Protectionist Property Taxes

National restrictions on trade and immigration are the most salient illustrations of the current protectionist moment, but cities have played their part too, taxing foreign investors in local real estate and imposing second or vacant home taxes that indirectly burden foreign investment. Although these protectionist property taxes are new, they draw from an old well of suspicion about foreign ownership. We provide economic and historical context for the recent wave of protectionist property taxes and evaluate their legality under U.S. law. We conclude that taxes on second or vacant homes would likely survive constitutional challenge but facially protectionist property taxes probably would not. We then assess the policy merits of these taxes using an economic framework that highlights how law affects housing risk. We show that foreign real estate investment can reduce the riskiness of local housing markets, so that even if a city can get away with enacting a protectionist property tax, it is not typically a good idea. Government spending can better achieve policy goals such as affordable housing and neighborhood stability without running afoul of constitutional prohibitions.

The Contemporary Defended Neighborhood: Maintaining Stability and Diversity through Processes of Community Defense

This article extends Suttles’ (1972) theory of the defended neighborhood by applying the framework to a contemporary context and exploring the social processes that residents of a diverse community used to defend their neighborhood from change. Drawing on data from an ethnography of Beverly—a stably diverse, highly efficacious, upper middle–class neighborhood on Chicago's far southwest side—I identify and examine three defensive processes used by residents: cultivating neighbors and a culture of surveillance, demarcating and enforcing boundaries, and the creation of an insider housing market. I show how residents employed these neighborhood defense processes to maintain desirable conditions and stable diversity in their community. Defensive processes, however, also resulted in collateral consequences for Black residents, who experienced more scrutiny and surveillance than did White residents. These findings demonstrate how residents’ defensive processes can promote neighborhood stability, but may also result in the social exclusion of perceived outsiders including their own neighbors.

Leadership in informal stormwater governance networks.

Recent transitions in the governance of urban stormwater, specifically developments that leverage the environmental and social benefits of green infrastructure (GI) including infiltration and neighborhood stabilization, often require capacities beyond those of any single municipal- or regional-scale organization. In many cities, transitions toward green stormwater infrastructure have been shepherded by networks of individuals spanning a diversity of organizations from governments to NGOs. These networks are often informal, that is, not established by legal mandate, governing authority, or formal agreement, and are often striking for their lack of formal hierarchy or formal leadership. Previous scholarship has revealed the importance of leadership in the development and efficacy of these multiorganizational, cross-sector environmental governance networks, but research has yet to empirically investigate and characterize informal network leaders within the context of GI for stormwater mitigation. To address this gap, we designed and administered a social network analysis (SNA) survey to individuals in a regional network of GI stormwater management professionals in and around Cleveland, Ohio USA. We collected network data on individual relationships, including collaboration and trust, and tested the impact of these relationships on peer-recognition of leaders in the GI network. Our findings suggest that network size, frequency of collaboration, and individual position within the network—specifically, betweenness centrality and openness—defined and likely supported leaders in the stormwater governance network. Leaders in this non-hierarchical, multi-institution context were more likely to be women and brokerage roles within the network benefitted women, not men, which contrasts with previous findings from research on single-organization and corporate networks. The implications of this research suggest that informal environmental governance networks, such as the GI network investigated, differ substantially from the generally more hierarchical networks of organizations. This finding is useful for municipalities and regional authorities grappling with complex environmental challenges, including transitions in strategies to manage excess stormwater for the protection of municipal drinking water sources and urban freshwater ecosystems.

Childhood neighborhood context and adult substance use problems: the role of socio-economic status at the age of 30 years

To examine whether the (a) childhood neighborhood context predicts alcohol use disorder, nicotine dependence, and cannabis use disorder symptoms at the age of 39 years; and (b) socio-economic status during young adulthood mediates these relationships. Gender differences were also examined. The Seattle Social Development Project is a prospective longitudinal study of 808 individuals followed up from ages 10 to 39 years in Seattle, Washington, United States. The sample was gender balanced (51% were men). Alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis use disorder symptoms were assessed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-based Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Childhood neighborhood data consisted of 10 neighborhood-level variables from the 1990 national census, which were consolidated using principal component analyses. Two components with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted-neighborhood disadvantage and neighborhood stability. Educational attainment and employment status represented socio-economic status during young adulthood. Covariates included baseline symptoms of psychopathology, baseline substance use, gender, ethnicity, and childhood socio-economic status at the family level. Negative binomial regression was used as the primary modeling strategy. Six models for each outcome measure were estimated. The first three models examined associations between two neighborhood components and each substance use outcome measure. Next, we tested the second research question by adding unemployment and college graduate indicators at the age of 30 years as potential mediators underlying the link between the childhood neighborhood context and three substance use measures. Study findings revealed that childhood neighborhood stability significantly reduced alcohol and cannabis use disorder symptoms nearly 3 decades later. Path analyses suggested that socio-economic status during the transition to adulthood did not influence these relationships but rather had independent effects on problematic nicotine and cannabis use. Furthermore, the effects of childhood neighborhood factors on problematic nicotine use were stronger for men. Neighborhood characteristics during childhood may be important factors for alcohol and cannabis use disorder symptoms among adults and nicotine dependence disorder symptoms among men. Prevention efforts that address community stability and disadvantage can and should start in childhood, with a focus on intervention targets that might gain salience later in life to discourage the development and persistence of problematic substance use in adulthood.

Gentrification and Academic Achievement: A Review of Recent Research

Research in the neighborhood effects tradition has primarily concerned itself with understanding the consequences of growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods. In recent years, however, the in-migration of relatively affluent households into disinvested central city neighborhoods—commonly referred to as gentrification—has markedly risen, transforming the racial, socioeconomic, and institutional composition of many urban neighborhoods. This article examines what existing literature reveals about what these changes mean for children’s academic achievement, with particular attention paid to the impacts of gentrification-induced changes to the social ecology, institutional composition, residential stability, and environmental conditions of urban neighborhoods. The final section proposes a rigorous interdisciplinary research agenda for advancing this budding field of education research.

Residential historic preservation and neighbourhood stability

In addition to facing the challenges of weak market demand and a deteriorating physical capital stock, legacy cities are among those hardest hit by the housing crisis. This combination of circumstances has devastated neighbourhoods, impacting residents, and testing the resolve of neighbourhood planners and their cities. As a potential and partial solution to aid an aging legacy city housing stock and bring about the much sought after ‘neighbourhood stability’, it would seem on the surface that historic preservation would be a go-to tool for regeneration in legacy cities. This has been hampered, however, by a lack of empirical evidence on the relationship between historic preservation and neighbourhood stability. This research paper investigates the relationship between two parcel-level data sets: one on foreclosure filings, and one that details the Heritage Home Program of The Cleveland Restoration Society. This programme has made over 1,000 loans, channeling preservation investments of over $36m into the residential neighbourhoods of Cleveland and its Cuyahoga County suburbs. The research focus is on the degree to which the fate of these preservation properties differs from the average housing outcomes of their surrounding neighbourhoods and communities. Relative to a variety of temporal, spatial, and contextual comparisons, the residential historic preservation activity studied is revealed to have been a stabilising force for neighbourhoods, evidenced through its lower incidence of foreclosure. The use of residential historic preservation, in conjunction with rehabilitation and strategic demolition, offers promise as a neighbourhood stabilisation strategy.

Territorial Attitudes and Victimisation: A tale of two neighbourhoods

One popular use of design strategies for crime prevention is territorial functioning. This study examines the relationship between territorial functioning and victimisation in two neighbourhoods with different crime rates. The quantitative-based method using a questionnaire survey was employed in this study. The survey covered residents' victimisation rates and territorial attitudes as a dimension of territorial functioning. A sample of 206 inhabitants from two neighbourhoods in the UK took part in the study. Through a hierarchical regression analysis, the study revealed that a high victimisation rate was associated with low territorial attitudes. People who perceived more territorial attitudes were less likely to be victimised than their opposite counterparts irrespective of the neighbourhood context.