Side Neighborhood Research Articles

Living with, or despite, organized abandonment: social reproduction and real estate speculation on Chicago’s Large Lots

ABSTRACT Between 2014 and 2020, the city of Chicago sold hundreds of city-owned lots for a dollar to property owners across its South and West Side neighborhoods through the Large Lots program. An expedient way of returning city land to tax rolls and offsetting its holding costs, the city cast Large Lots as an effort to empower residents and turn vacant lots into vibrant neighborhoods. This article examines the labor of making vibrant neighborhoods. Against its erasure by the dominant planning imagination, I situate this labor as an important dimension of life's work under regimes of organized abandonment and their attendant economies of real estate speculation. Through interviews and participant-observation with lot owners, I demonstrate that Large Lots has reconfigured relations of responsibility and obligation around vacant land in ways that enroll residents’ social reproductive labor of land care into the production of investable landscapes. Through a property records analysis, I then show that this labor unfolds in tension with renewed channels for speculation established by Large Lots in program neighborhoods. These findings situate social reproduction as a generative vantage point for politically capacious understandings of real estate speculation and the uneven geographies of life-making it engenders.

Landscapes of Hope

Historians have examined vernacular duplex homes in Milwaukee’s north side neighborhoods to write the history of the white working-class immigrants who settled this industrial metropolis during the early years of the twentieth century. African Americans moved into these neighborhoods in the later decades of the twentieth century. This paper explores how current Black residents construe the history of their neighborhood. To examine what such a historical narrative might look like, this paper presents three stories from a single city block: a twentieth century narrative of growth, a more recent story of decline, and a longer aspirational dream of a shared commons. Grounded in the material world that they observe around them, the current inhabitants assemble these diverse memories in anachronic ways, around multiple experiences of time such as nostalgia, a sense of disenfranchisement in the present moment, and an aspirational dream of a yet unrealized future. This ability to craft a complex narrative of place in a precarious world has emerged as a form of collective resistance against realities of racism, segregation, and urban disinvestment.

Pathways From Bullying Victimization to Suicidal Thoughts Among Urban African American Adolescents: Applying the General Strain Theory.

The present study explores the relationship between bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts among African American adolescents in urban neighborhoods. The study, which was guided by the general strain theory, proposed and tested potential pathways that link bullying victimization with suicidal thoughts through the mediators including emotional distress, low future orientation, hopelessness, and drug use. The study sample included 414 African American adolescents who were between ages 12 and 22 years and residing in low-income Chicago's South Side neighborhoods. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and path analyses were conducted. Bullying victimization was not significantly related to suicidal thoughts, although it was positively associated with emotional distress and drug use. The association between low future orientation and hopelessness was bidirectional. The study findings have implications for practice, which is important as resources to assist adolescents who are affected by violence tend to be limited.

Breast Cancer Incidence Among Asian American Women in New York City: Disparities in Screening and Presentation.

Asian American (AsAm) women have some of the lowest rates of up-to-date breast cancer screening, and lack of disaggregated racial/ethnic data can mask disparities. We evaluated presentation patterns among AsAms at two hospitals with distinct communities: New York Presbyterian-Queens (NYPQ), in Flushing, Queens and Weill Cornell Medical Center (WCM), on the Upper East Side (UES) neighborhood of Manhattan. Patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer between January 2019 and December 2022 were identified using a prospective database and clinical data collected. Patients were categorized as self-reported Asian versus Non-Asian. The Asian group was disaggregated as Chinese-Asian versus Other-Asian. Physician workforce data were obtained from public records. A total of 3546 patients (1162 NYPQ, 2384 WCM) were included. More NYPQ patients identified as Asian compared with WCM (49 vs. 14%, p < 0.001). Asian patients were mostly East Asian Chinese (NYPQ 61%, WCM 53%). More Chinese patients at NYPQ reported Chinese as their preferred language (81 vs. 33%, p < 0.001). Greatest differences of screen-detected disease frequency were seen between NYPQ and WCM Chinese patients (75 vs. 59%, p < 0.001). Eighty percent of NYPQ Chinese patients presented with stage 0/I disease versus 69% at WCM (p = 0.007), a difference not observed between Other-Asian patients (75% NYPQ, 68% WCM, p = 0.095). 3% of UES physicians versus 16% in Flushing reported speaking Chinese. Chinese patients residing in a neighborhood with more Chinese-speaking physicians more frequently presented with screen-detected, early-stage breast cancer. Stage distribution differences were not apparent among the aggregated pool of Other-Asian patients, suggesting cancer disparities may be masked when ethnic groups are studied in aggregate.

Planning the Implementation of a Multilevel Blood Pressure Control Intervention in Chicago: Community and Clinical Perspectives.

Hypertension is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The complications of hypertension disproportionately impact African American residents in Chicago's South Side neighborhood. To inform the implementation of an evidence-based multilevel hypertension management intervention, we sought to identify community member- and clinician-level barriers to diagnosing and treating hypertension, and strategies for addressing those barriers. We conducted 5 focus groups with members of faith-based organizations (FBOs) (n=40) and 8 focus groups with clinicians and administrators (n=26) employed by community health centers (CHCs) located in Chicago's South Side. Participants across groups identified the physical environment, including lack of access to clinics and healthy food, as a risk factor for hypertension. Participants also identified inconsistent results from home blood pressure monitoring and medication side effects as barriers to seeking diagnosis and treatment. Potential strategies raised by participants to address these barriers included (1) addressing patients' unmet social needs, such as food security and transportation; (2) offering education that meaningfully engages patients in discussions about managing hypertension (eg, medication adherence, diet, follow-up care); (3) coordinating referrals via community-based organizations (including FBOs) to CHCs for hypertension management; and (4) establishing a setting where community members managing hypertension diagnosis can support one another. Clinic-level barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, such as competing priorities and resource constraints, are exacerbated by community-level stressors. Community members and clinicians agreed that it is important to select implementation strategies that leverage and enhance both community- and clinic-based resources.

Art for People's Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965-1975 by Rebecca Zorach

Art for People's Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965-1975 by Rebecca Zorach

Spatial clustering of property abandonment in shrinking cities: a case study of targeted demolition in Buffalo, NY’s African American neighborhoods

ABSTRACT Many low-income and minority-concentrated neighborhoods have been struggling for decades with the acute problem of endemic abandonment in shrinking cities. Using high-resolution spatial–temporal data, this study attempts to extend our understanding of the influence of abandonment on future abandonment and the impact of interventions such as demolition by identifying spatial patterns of housing abandonment and demolition in Buffalo, New York when the city invested heavily in an aggressive 5-in-5 demolition plan targeting predominantly African American neighborhoods with high rates of abandonment. Our results confirmed that the clustering of abandoned properties has been consistently confined to the city's majority African American east side neighborhood. We found a higher level of duress housing sales on the east side after the 5-in-5 plan's implementation. In essence, 5-in-5 was a demolition and slum clearance policy akin to mid-twentieth-century urban renewal programs focusing on removing blighted properties without a concomitant revitalization component.

POPULATION KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE FAMILY HEALTH PROGRAM IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF IGARASSU

Introduction: The Family Health Program began in mid-1993, and was actually regulated in 1994, as a strategy of the Ministry of Health to change the traditional form of assistance, aiming to stimulate the implementation of a new model of Primary Care that (about 85%) of health problems. Objective: To identify the degree of knowledge of users regarding the services offered in the family health program. Methodology: The study was carried out through exploratory research, cross - sectional, descriptive field and quantitative approach. It was held at USF Beira Mar I, located at Rua Eudes Francisco, numberless, I sea side neighborhood, in the city of Igarassu, state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The sample consisted of 100 users. Results: The data were analyzed manually by filling in the questionnaires used in the interviews. The results were demonstrated through graphs. It was observed that the users of this health unit are mostly well informed of the activities that exist within the health unit. Final Considerations: The Family Health Program has an important role for the health of the population, its importance must be taken to improve care for the population.

Transit development and housing displacement: The case of the Chicago Red Line Extension

Chicago's South Side has long been characterized as a “transit desert” – an area with high transit inaccessibility and insufficient infrastructure to meet residents' needs (Jiao & Dillivan, 2013). Without adequate transit, residents cannot reach employment opportunities or regional amenities – contributing to economic, spatial, and social marginalization. The Chicago Transit Authority's proposed Red Line Extension (RLE) is designed to connect the city's far south side neighborhoods to Chicago's core. Given the scope of the RLE, 175 parcels have been chosen for demolition, meaning that a similar number of households face displacement to make room for the RLE right of way – which may have potentially negative consequences in realizing the subsequent benefits of improved transit access. In this article, we perform an ex-ante analysis of RLE induced displacement. Specifically, we: 1) predict potential location choices that transit displacees are most likely to choose; and 2) analyze these locations in relation to access to transit, amenities, employment, and housing affordability, among others. Within the context of transportation planning, ex-ante analysis is important because it can minimize unintended and negative consequences of transit-induced displacement – like decreased transit access and a loss of potential neighborhood improvements - by predicting potential relocation choices for displacees. Such predicted choices can help planners and decision-makers better understand the trade-offs for directly affected households and thereby allow planners and decision-makers to assist in relocation assistance that maximizes the benefits of the necessarily displaced.

An evaluation of PlayStreets in the South Side neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio.

Outdoor play, physical activity, and social cohesion are crucial indicators of community health. PlayStreets, a street play initiative to engage local children and families in outdoor play, physical activity, and social interactions, were implemented in a low-income neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio throughout the summer of 2019. This article aims to describe the implementation of a hospital-sponsored PlayStreets model executed through support from a community health initiative and to assess neighborhood impact through parent and child surveys. Approximately 350 children attended the events and 69 surveys were collected. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey data. The mean age of children was 7 years, and the majority of children who attended were male. If not for PlayStreets, 55% of caregivers reported that their children would be inside. Event satisfaction levels were high, and 54% of caregivers said that they had more contact with their neighbors because of the events. Hospital buy-in and community support were crucial to the success of the event. We found that this model can successfully engage the local community while increasing opportunity for childhood outdoor play, physical activity, and neighborhood social interaction.

James T. Farrell and Baseball: Dreams and Realism on Chicago's South Side

During the 1930s and 1940s, James T. Farrell was a prolific American writer; his naturalistic novels include the Studs Lonigan trilogy (Young Lonigan [1932], The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan [1934], and Judgment Day [1935]) and the Danny O'Neill pentalogy (A World I Never Made [1936], No Star Is Lost [1938], Father and Son [1940], My Days of Anger [1943], and The Face of Time [1953]). In James T. Farrell and Baseball, Charles DeMotte documents the significant role that baseball played in Farrell's life and fiction, especially the novels featuring the author's literary alter ego, Danny O'Neill. Farrell sought to re-create the Irish ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side, where he reached maturity during the first decades of the twentieth century. It was a turbulent time, as rapid growth and industrialization exacerbated ethnic tensions within South Side neighborhoods. As is evidenced by selections from Farrell's writings, baseball...

Special Report: Racism and Inequities in Health Care for Black Americans

<i>Special Report:</i> Racism and Inequities in Health Care for Black Americans

The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy by Kevin D. Greene

Reviewed by: The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy by Kevin D. Greene Elizabeth Whittenburg Ozment The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy. By Kevin D. Greene. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. xvi, 226. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-4649-7; cloth, $90.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-4648-0.) Origin stories that anchor blues authenticity to tropes of culturally isolated African American male guitarists from the Mississippi Delta region remain so deeply ingrained in American popular music memory that it is reasonable for scholars to approach blues biographies with an air of skepticism and genuine hope for repurposing stories that challenge biographical caricatures. Kevin D. Greene’s thoughtful depiction of Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley) sidesteps these trappings by mapping American demographic shifts and commercial music developments onto Broonzy’s lived geography. Greene describes his research as a recovery act that stretches public memory of this Chicago bluesman beyond Broonzy’s influence on white rock musicians during blues revivals. The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy carefully situates Broonzy in a continuum of twentieth-century black [End Page 500] intellectuals and meditates on the development of a modern African American musical consciousness in relationship to Jim Crow urbanization. The most salient lesson Greene imparts is that Broonzy’s life story offers one route to understanding how black music flourished under the weight of Jim Crow. The book captures Broonzy’s conscious fashioning of sound and image, while moving between cosmopolitan centers and reacting to music industry shifts, during a period when social structures were designed to subordinate black men. Drawing from interviews, archival manuscripts, and memorabilia, the book follows a chronological framework that reconciles Broonzy’s public and private identities while describing the social impact of musical celebrity in Chicago and white fascination with black bluesmen. Greene’s overview of the Great Migration depicts the birth and circulation of early commercial blues as an employment path for those with little economic mobility, thus complicating the genre’s relationship to race, gender, industry, and leisure. Broonzy was one of thousands of African Americans to relocate to Chicago at a critical moment during the Great Migration, when the blues craze transformed the city into a national music center. The blues emerges as a story of contested urban encounters and purposeful melding of preexisting ideas and musical practices from tent shows, vaudeville, churches, and sheet music rags. Professional music making was understood as an opportunity for greater autonomy and as an escape from hard manual labor for a talented few, but it required careful timing and socialization during racist, anti-immigrant, and antilabor movements that segregated Chicago’s South Side and West Side neighborhoods. Music did not enable Broonzy or his contemporaries to transcend social struggles, but it provided an alternative mechanism with which they navigated perilous terrains. Greene details Broonzy’s command of the Chicago music scene when unemployment patterns pushed working-age men to other cities, technological developments caused record sales to surpass live performance revenues, and consumer preferences leaned toward the grittier sounds of Muddy Waters. Greene argues that Broonzy gets lost in dominant blues histories because he refused to abandon established black fan bases and his urban blues stylings in pursuit of more lucrative white music communities. Broonzy’s departure from dominant music industry trends makes this biography a compelling case study about musical agency. Musicologists know well the troubles of tracking music biographies with chameleon-like narrative shifts, archival holes, exaggerations, and offensive racialized promotional materials. Yet contemporary biographers who confront these challenges illuminate the depth of political, cultural, socioeconomic, and artistic change that is indexed by individual musicians. The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy dissects our motivations for remembering or forgetting individual musicians and ethically documents social and cultural networks that can aid our ability to understand human creativity in relation to the passing of time. [End Page 501] Elizabeth Whittenburg Ozment University of Virginia Copyright © 2020 The Southern Historical Association

Buffalo's West Side Story: Migration, Gentrification, and Neighborhood Change

Using a multi–methods approach, we examine socioeconomic and demographic change in Buffalo, New York's, West Side neighborhood. We do this by performing a systematic case study of the neighborhood analyzing census tract data, crime data, key informant interview data from community leaders and organizational representatives, and content analysis data from local newspaper articles. Results suggest that although the neighborhood has shifted dramatically over the last forty–five years, the changes have been uneven across the West Side. Two divergent areas have emerged: one neighborhood fueled by white gentrifiers and another driven by international migrants.

Abstract TMP73: The Community Engagement for Early Recognition and Immediate Action in Stroke (CEERIAS) Study: Primary Results

Introduction: Early hospital arrival after stroke increases access to proven treatments and improves outcomes. We hypothesized that a community-engaged stroke preparedness intervention to overcome barriers to early activation of 9-1-1 would increase early hospital arrival and emergency medical services (EMS) use after stroke in high-risk neighborhoods in Chicago. Methods: We partnered with stakeholders in a South Side Chicago community with a high stroke incidence and in close proximity to a primary stroke center to develop a community stroke preparedness intervention. The intervention was delivered by “stroke promoters”, trained lay persons from the target neighborhood who utilized in-person discussions to overcome barriers and obtain stroke preparedness pledges as measured by “Pacts to Act FAST”. We applied an interrupted time-series analysis at the target hospital to study the effects of the intervention on EMS utilization and hospital arrival within 3 hours of symptom onset among patients with confirmed ischemic stroke. We compared these results to 6 North Side Chicago stroke centers and 17 St. Louis stroke centers as concurrent controls. Results: During a 12-month period, 242 stroke promoters distributed &gt;110,000 educational materials, participated in 167 community events, and registered 39,975 Pacts to Act FAST, reaching 19.4% of residents in the target South Side neighborhoods. Early arrival increased (0.5%/month post-intervention; p=0.124 for slope change) at the target hospital but was not different compared to North Side hospitals (p=0.560) or St. Louis hospitals (p=0.072). The effect on early arrival was significant among patients &lt;66 years old (0.8%/month increase; p=0.036), men (1.2%/month increase; p=0.026), and African-Americans (0.9%/month increase; p=0.037). No effect was observed on EMS use. Conclusions: Using a community-engaged approach to deliver a stroke preparedness intervention in Chicago, we observed a modest increase in early hospital arrival after confirmed stroke, which was more pronounced in younger, male, and African-Americans patients. Future efforts should consider improving message penetration and sustainability using novel personal approaches such as social media.

Abstract WP240: Community Engagement for Early Recognition and Immediate Action in Stroke (CEERIAS): Exploring Stroke Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Trust in the Healthcare System in Chicago

Introduction: In a segregated city like Chicago with distinct neighborhood characteristics, a discrepancy between neighborhoods in stroke knowledge, self-efficacy, and trust in the medical system could impact stroke outcomes. Methods: As part of a study which implemented a culturally-tailored stroke preparedness intervention targeting South (S) Side Chicago communities, individuals attending community health events were recruited in S neighborhoods and North (N) Side neighborhoods pre- and one-year post-intervention to assess stroke knowledge, self-efficacy, and trust. Independent stand-alone pre- and post-sample cohorts were purposefully recruited to match demographics. Survey outcomes included knowledge (assessed via Stroke Action Test, STAT), self-efficacy (Likert scale), trust (Health Care Trust Survey), and stress (Likert). Zip codes divided subjects into S/N neighborhoods. Two-sample t-tests compared cohorts, and interactions between race/ethnicity-time and neighborhood-time were tested, with multivariable linear regression when statistically (p&lt;0.05) significant. Results: We recruited 364 subjects pre-intervention (S=199, N=165) and 363 subjects post-intervention (S=198, N=165) who were well-matched in race/ethnicity, sex, and education, though the post-group was slightly younger (p=0.04). Unadjusted analysis revealed increases post-intervention in stroke knowledge (p=0.07), self-efficacy (p&lt;0.0001), trust (p&lt;0.0001), and stress scores (p&lt;0.0001). After adjusting for race/ethnicity, gender, and age, the N post-group had greater gains in knowledge (N: 4.0, p=0.02 vs. S: 0.7, p=0.69), self-efficacy (N: 2.3, p&lt;0.0001 vs. S: 0.7, p&lt;0.0001), trust (N: 0.8, p&lt;0.0001 vs. S: -0.1, p=0.20) and stress (N: -0.3, p&lt;0.0001 vs. S: -0.1, p=0.04). Conclusions: The observed gains in stroke knowledge, self-efficacy, trust, and stress, greater in the North Side of Chicago, could signal overall improved public health messaging around stroke recognition and treatment, but could also point to socioeconomic factors that may have disproportionately benefited North Side residents. Further focused research to understand neighborhood factors which influence stroke awareness and action is necessary.

Gaming Evidence: Power, Storytelling and the “Colonial Moment” in a Chicago Systems Change Project

In 2016 The Chicago Community Trust (“The Trust”), a local Chicago foundation, partnered with Roller Strategies (“Roller”), an international professional services firm, to deploy an innovative mixed‐methods approach to community‐driven social change on the South Side of Chicago. This partnership convened a diverse group of stakeholders representing a microcosm of the social system, and launched a project with the aim of developing resilient livelihoods for youth aged 18–26 in three specific South Side neighborhoods. Roller designed and facilitated a process through which the stakeholder group scoped, launched, piloted and prototyped community‐driven initiatives. While innovative and successful by some metrics, the project had its challenges. The convening institutions and their staff were often perceived as “outsiders” and “experts” without intimate local knowledge of the social challenges they were attempting to address. This dynamic played out in complex power maneuvers across groups in the system. The cultural narratives and interests already at play in the system were employed by individuals and groups at all levels to shape the landscape of agency and power in the system, while attempting to retain the methodological and narrative legitimacy of the publicly‐facing project. This case study will explore the narratives and power dynamics at play within the system, look into the causes of these dynamics, and explore the impact they had on the effectiveness of the project as a whole.

Cancer mortality disparities among New York City's Upper Manhattan neighborhoods.

The East Harlem (EH), Central Harlem (CH), and Upper East Side (UES) neighborhoods of New York City are geographically contiguous to tertiary medical care, but are characterized by cancer mortality rate disparities. This ecological study aims to disentangle the effects of race and neighborhood on cancer deaths. Mortality-to-incidence ratios were determined using neighborhood-specific data from the New York State Cancer Registry and Vital Records Office (2007-2011). Ecological data on modifiable cancer risk factors from the New York City Community Health Survey (2002-2006) were stratified by sex, age group, race/ethnicity, and neighborhood and modeled against stratified mortality rates to disentangle race/ethnicity and neighborhood using logistic regression. Significant gaps in mortality rates were observed between the UES and both CH and EH across all cancers, favoring UES. Mortality-to-incidence ratios of both CH and EH were similarly elevated in the range of 0.41-0.44 compared with UES (0.26-0.30). After covariate and multivariable adjustment, black race (odds ratio=1.68; 95% confidence interval: 1.46-1.93) and EH residence (odds ratio=1.20; 95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.35) remained significant risk factors in all cancers' combined mortality. Mortality disparities remain among EH, CH, and UES neighborhoods. Both neighborhood and race are significantly associated with cancer mortality, independent of each other. Multivariable adjusted models that include Community Health Survey risk factors show that this mortality gap may be avoidable through community-based public health interventions.

The Hotel Study-Clinical and Health Service Effectiveness in a Cohort of Homeless or Marginally Housed Persons.

The Hotel Study was initiated in Vancouver's Downtown East Side (DTES) neighborhood to investigate multimorbidity in homeless or marginally housed people. We evaluated the clinical effectiveness of existing, illness-specific treatment strategies and assessed the effectiveness of health care delivery for multimorbid illnesses. For context, we mapped the housing locations of patients presenting for 552,062 visits to the catchment hospital emergency department (2005-2013). Aggregate data on 22,519 apprehensions of mentally ill people were provided by the Vancouver Police Department (2009-2015). The primary strategy was a longitudinal cohort study of 375 people living in the DTES (2008-2015). We analysed mortality and evaluated the clinical and health service delivery effectiveness for infection with human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis C virus, opioid dependence, and psychosis. Mapping confirmed the association between poverty and greater number of emergency visits related to substance use and mental illness. The annual change in police apprehensions did not differ between the DTES and other policing districts. During 1581 person-years of cohort observation, the standardized mortality ratio was 8.43 (95% confidence interval, 6.19 to 11.50). Physician visits were common (84.3% of participants over 6 months). Clinical treatment effectiveness was highest for HIV/AIDS, intermediate for opioid dependence, and lowest for psychosis. Health service delivery mechanisms provided examples of poor access, poor treatment adherence, and little effect on multimorbid illnesses. Clinical effectiveness was variable, and illness-specific service delivery appeared to have little effect on multimorbidity. New models of care may need to be implemented.

The Muckers: A Narrative of the Crapshooters Club by William Osborne Dapping

Reviewed by: The Muckers: A Narrative of the Crapshooters Club by William Osborne Dapping Rebecca Troeger (bio) The Muckers: A Narrative of the Crapshooters Club, by William Osborne Dapping. Edited by Woody Register. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2016. xvi + 266 pp. Cloth, 59.95; Paper, $24.95. Youse guys probaly think I dont know nothin' because I dont know how to speak swell English. Well, believe me, I'm no dub; even if I cant sling words. What I aint got in learning I've made up in experience, an' it'll take a good one to goldbrick me. I may look like a kid, but I aint no spring chicken, at that. . . . So long as I can earn me three squares a day, find some place to sleep at night, and get a heap o' fun along with it, I'm satisfied. Independence aint confined to the rich. Look at me. I aint worried about nuttin! (58) So opens the story of Spike, the young narrator of William Osborne Dapping's The Muckers, a fictionalized account of Dapping's childhood on the streets of New York's Upper East Side neighborhood, Yorkville, in the late nineteenth century. In this statement and throughout the narrative, Spike directly and aggressively challenges the reader's perceived assumptions and prejudices. Through its goal of exposing and explaining the urban poor to [End Page 253] an upper-class audience, Dapping's work invites comparisons to Stephen Crane's Maggie: Girl of the Streets or Jacob Riis's works on the New York slums, but as editor Woody Register emphasizes in his substantial introduction, this account is unique because it is told in the first person by one of the young "muckers" themselves. This volume, being the first publication of The Muckers more than a century after its composition, encompasses two narratives simultaneously. The first is the fictional narrative of Spike, Dapping's loosely autobiographical alter ego, and the second is Register's account of Dapping and the significance of his work. The text itself came to print somewhat by chance, as Register discovered it in the process of researching the history of the George Junior Republic, a reform school for at-risk boys in Freeville, New York. Syracuse University Press now offers this volume as the first of a series on this school and the lives of its "citizens" after their time there. This publication, which also includes ten photographs of the Republic and Yorkville, will be of interest to literary scholars and historians as a rare account to come directly from the young boys who dominated the street culture of late nineteenth-century urban America. As such, it presents a story that is ultimately ambivalent about the moral imperatives of the reform era. The absence of sentimentality and break from the moral tendencies of reform literature, as Register argues, was enabled by Dapping's refusal to publish the work under his own name. Although this refusal was also the most likely reason for his failure to find a publisher, it also allows the narrative to end not with Dapping's "up from poverty" narrative that took him to the George Junior Republic, then to Harvard, and later to a successful career in journalism, but with Spike's reassertion of the primacy of his experiences in New York. As Register emphasizes, the narrative depicts Spike and his gang as involved in increasingly cruel schemes involving robbery, physical assault, and destruction of property. Because Dapping does not reveal himself as the author, there is no resolution that puts a decisive end to these activities, and Spike's "Crapshooters" gang never atone for nor repudiate their sins. Rather, their behavior is shown to be a small part of the overall corruption that serves as the backbone of Yorkville society. Register's introduction concentrates on the Republic as a source for Dapping's views on adolescent development. The school's founder, William George, subscribed to emerging theories of adolescence exemplified by G. Stanley Hall, who proposed a period between childhood and adulthood during which humans naturally gravitate towards "tribal communalism" [End Page 254] (28). Rather than discouraging gang activity, the George Junior Republic promoted the values of...