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Eamon O'Connor Master's Thesis 2019 Advised by Toni L. Griffin Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Eamon O'Connor
The work of building a more just and socially integrated community takes a village. This thesis has been no different — thank you to all who made it possible. to Toni L. Griffin, my advisor, mentor, and role model, who always pushed me to think more provocatively and personally about this work to the many members of the Crown Heights community who welcomed in a curious student into their homes, offices, sidewalks, dance halls, prep kitchens, and artist studios to Hanne van den Berg, who co-led the thesis program with grace, and brought wisdom, humor, and a welcome reality check to every feedback session to Mike Hooper, who steered the ship of the thesis program, served as a font of positive energy, and helped shape and solidify this research agenda to Jorrit de Jong and Cecily Tyler, who helped me deepen this work by bringing the faces and places of Crown Heights to life on screen to Rafael Carbonell and the Taubman Center for State & Local Government at Harvard Kennedy School, whose support and funding helped make this research possible to my web of advisors and thought partners at Harvard and beyond, who forced me to confront big questions that could have gone ignored or unexplored to my Harvard friends and peers, who offered endless intellectual stimulus and inspiration — but more importantly, an invitation to slow down when I needed it most to my family, who never lets me forget where I come from, and provides the love, support, and slagging to bring me back to earth and to Barry, who always said there would be no ceiling — may I continue to push, ever upward, in your memory.
Completed for fulfillment of the Masters in Urban Planning May 2019 · Harvard Graduate School of Design Online at www.sharingmorethanspace.com 2 •
Sharing More Than Space
FOREWORD 5 INTRODUCTION 10 CHALLENGE 13 OPPORTUNITY 27 LITERATURE 37 GEOGRAPHY 47 METHODOLOGY 55 FINDINGS 65 POSSIBILITIES 89 CONCLUSION 110 APPENDIX 113 • 3
Eamon O'Connor
A week ago I visited Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I had brunch with three friends — all White — who had recently moved to the area. There were 26 spots in the restaurant, by my count. In a neighborhood that is now over 50 percent Black (down from about 78 percent in 2000, given its rising appeal)1, 21 of the seats were filled by White people, myself included. On Thursday, I returned to Cambridge. Buried in a glut of schoolwork, I took a break to attend a friend's event. There were talks on building a new, anticapitalist economy, and calls for social justice and anti-racism. There wasn’t a person of color in the room. Today, I sit in a café in Davis Square. Behind the counter are five servers — all White. The clientele is marginally more diverse than the staff — but not by much. I’ve stayed here for four hours anyway.
4 • Foreword
Sharing More Than Space This is a glimpse of my week in urban with those around us at the bodega, at White America. In any of these settings, I the coffee shop, or at the bar. Indeed, reckon a poll of me and my fellow patrons as sociologists Maria Krysan and Kyle would have garnered near-universal Crowder have found, our social patterns support for racial integration, equity and only reinforce a cycle of “baked-in justice. But would our beliefs translate to segregation,” one placed in the oven by behavior? I’m not so sure. those in power.7 I pursued my career in urban planning Our choices from the top down and the and policy because I believe in the power bottom up reveal a gap between surfaceof place to bring people together. The level interest and lived commitment. As challenge is, most of our places only bring Sheryll Cashin says in an excerpt from her those most like us together. We move 2005 book The Failures of Integration, “there through segregated worlds, shaped by is a national cognitive dissonance when it choices. comes to integration.”8 Recent research Many of these choices are made by those from 2016 bears out this reality: Whites, in power, past or present, who decided in their current neighborhoods and the that White people should live in some ones where they search for housing, are places, and that others should not — surrounded by larger percentages of whether through redlining or restrictive White neighbors than they say they desire. covenants in the Black and Latino mid-20th century,2 populations, on the or NIMBYism other hand, search in the present in neighborhoods OUR CHOICES FROM THE day.3 That White that align with TOP DOWN AND THE people should their diverse BOTTOM UP REVEAL A GAP work in some preferences — but places, and that end up living in BETWEEN SURFACE-LEVEL others should not, neighborhoods INTEREST AND LIVED through workforce with a higher COMMITMENT. discrimination percentage of and flagrant hiring people in their own bias.4 That White demographic set.9 people should learn in some places, At the root of this White dissonance are and that others should not, through choices. We’re choosing not to understand admissions screens that indiscriminately why we move through separate and unequal block students of color.5 That White people worlds. We’re choosing not to act in ways should play in some places, and that others that make us uncomfortable, or that serve should not, through racially inscribed to bridge gaps between the racial divides social spaces that segregate people of color that animate our everyday lives. We’re by design.6 choosing not to hold ourselves and one another accountable to this collective exit • from our comfort zone. It’s high time we started making different But these choices are also made by choices. We’re long overdue. people like you and me. We choose where we live, and how we engage with our • neighbors. We choose where we work, and how we engage with our bosses and In Where Do We Go From Here?, Dr. co-workers. We choose where we send Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to a country our kids to school, and how we engage that was just starting to glimpse what with other parents and their children. We racial integration could look like. As the choose where we play, and how we engage color line — in its explicit form, at least Foreword • 5
Eamon O'Connor — started to fade, he cautioned Americans against complacency. “Desegregation will break down the legal barriers and bring men together physically, but something must touch the hearts and souls of men so that they will come together spiritually because it is natural and right. … True integration will be achieved by men who are willingly obedient to unenforceable obligations.”10 As White people, the process of understanding, acting, and holding ourselves accountable to more anti-racist behavior is inherently unenforceable. Since our country’s founding, we’ve held the upper hand — and any moral obligations, it seems, have yet to motivate us to use this hand for good. Indeed, as Sharon Stanley reflected half a century after King’s words: “Whites have thus far proven unwilling or unable to make their own sacrifices even as Blacks have willingly served as integration pioneers.”11 By ignoring our end of the bargain, we forgo more material progress toward racial integration, justice, and equity. That’s a tall order, though. It’s unclear what such progress looks like in practice — or to the unconverted, why we should give a damn to begin with. What’s more, giving a damn about an uneven playing field is doubly hard when we might not even know how it was created. As James Baldwin said, White people are “trapped in a history they don’t understand.”12 • We’re trapped not just on the surface, as I was at that brunch spot in Brooklyn, at that event in Cambridge, and at that café in Somerville. The segregated spaces we move through are just signals; they may be where we’re stuck, but they don’t capture the turmoil we push off to the side for survival. We’re trapped in much deeper ways. We’re trapped in how we see ourselves. Many of us believe we work hard and do good. My parents came to Worcester, Massachusetts about a year before I was born, opened up an Irish restaurant and 6 • Foreword
bar, and busted their behinds to make it a now-30-year success. But only in recent years did it become clear to me that, had a Black couple sought to own and operate that restaurant, they would’ve hardly seen the same reception. Putting structural barriers to the side, let’s address the restaurant’s predominantly White, middle-class clientele — the bread and butter of the business, and heirs to a “melting pot” city that had, with its industrial rise, excluded and effectively hollowed out a oncethriving Black community.13 Would these heirs have warmed up as much to a soul food restaurant as they did to an Irish bar and restaurant? Likely not. Recognizing realities like these helps us, as White people, to situate ourselves as direct beneficiaries of a system rigged to reward us and to discriminate against others. My parents benefited from this system. With the wealth they created, I continue to benefit, through educational opportunities, financial stability, and freedom to choose my career (which, to be clear, will not involve running the restaurant). We’re trapped in how we see each other. Many of us believe we treat others with respect. I, too, believe that I’ve long been a follower of the Golden Rule. But as a freshman copy editor at my college newspaper, I stood by as a mostly White senior staff covertly published the annual April Fool’s Issue — a special edition that drew protests (including a sit-in at our offices) of articles that mocked diversity and inclusion advocates at the school, and called for more “interracial loving,” among other “jokes.” I had admired these senior staff members, who had welcomed me in my first months of college. It was a group of vocal, predominantly Black students, though, whose protest exposed their personal flaws and the institution’s flaws — and who forced me to question how I was participating in a hurtful and selfdestructive culture. We’re also trapped in how we see our country and our world. Many of us believe our democracy rests on a sturdy foundation, where everyone has a voice. But two years
Sharing More Than Space ago, the veneer wore off as I worked in a • Mayor’s Office department charged with community engagement. When pushing As we dig ourselves out of this mess, through a major institutional development, we’re running against the clock. Our I watched the group do little else than country is only getting more diverse, check a box in the name of community which demands we learn from and act in input. I transcribed, verbatim, pages of communion with our fellow citizens of feedback for all to see on a projector. But every color.14 But this demographic shift once the meeting wrapped and I handed is also occurring in a political climate that off the file to the consultant charged with reinforces the White vs. non-White divide. “synthesizing,” I implicitly knew it would Indeed, with hate crimes on the rise,15 get a glance, at most — much less than, racial resentment is enabled by political say, a call from an affluent, White resident leadership that invokes and is rewarded might have for a comparable development. electorally for racially coded language.16 I’m still trapped in many ways I have yet We could resign ourselves to grim to discover — but I’m starting to see the prospects. Perhaps there is little chance way out. of reconciling increasing diversity with an I’m more intentional in the way I talk imperiled democracy. In their 2018 book about my origin story. In a college essay or Why Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and cover letter, I once used my story as a nod Daniel Ziblatt note to a universalist that there has yet American Dream. to be a successful But now I temper multiracial it with a nod to I’M STILL TRAPPED IN democracy where the structural MANY WAYS I HAVE YET the dominant factors that, with race (in our case, my parents’ grit, TO DISCOVER — BUT I’M “White”) became forged my path. STARTING TO SEE the minority.17 This is no cure-all, THE WAY OUT Cashin adds, “Our but it opens a door growing diversity to a more honest presents an s e l f- p e r c e p t i o n opportunity to make this abstract vision — the type of introspection we’ll need to much more of a shared cultural value. bring to any work to dismantle racism. But this is not where we are headed. The I could have floated on through college current trend is one of enclave formation by putting the senior editors on a pedestal. and pronounced class separation, leading But when that pedestal was pulled out to separate and unequal realities.”18 We from underneath them, it forced me and could stay the course and risk continued the next generation of leaders to initiate a fracture, or we could repair the wound. long-overdue organizational reset — one We could heed King’s unenforceable that made us a better paper, and that obligations. instilled in me the value and importance of Just as we have a choice on where, how, bringing all voices to the table, especially and with whom we live, work, learn, or those who are so often silenced. play, we have a choice to turn humble I could have assumed the community understanding into bold action. Baldwin, engagement I observed in that city was conscious of our trap, calls on us to see business as usual. But my work in graduate ourselves as we are — to “cease fleeing school has me rethinking and redesigning from reality and begin to change it.”19 We’re what meaningful civic participation trapped in this together — but liberation and design look like in a structurally can’t come without us doing our outsized imbalanced world, where not everyone has share of inner and outer work. equal voice. Foreword • 7
Eamon O'Connor Liberation requires learning from a place of humility and acting from a place of boldness — no matter the space we move through. Learning in our power centers means getting smart on how the schools, companies, foundations, or public agencies we have access to continue to perpetuate racial injustice. Learning in our town centers might mean opening up ourselves to new places and perspectives that help us reperceive our segregated world. But knowledge is not enough. Acting from the top down might mean taking our leaders and peers to task on any number of choices — whether minor (an offhand comment in a meeting) or major (a decision on where to invest funds). From the bottom up, it might require ceding, rather than just standing, our ground — opening up a community to new development, a school to new students, or a home to new guests, no matter how unfamiliar they may seem. • This project aspires to help us better understand the way our everyday choices in our everyday environments can live up to, or run counter to, our ideals of a more integrated, equitable, and just multiracial democracy. It does so by profiling and investigating the social processes that animate a neighborhood center — a place in a rapidly changing community, in a segregated and unequal city, in a country saddled by the consequences of its past. It is not a prescription for solving our racial challenges. But it is an invitation to understand them, to confront them, and to envision ways we might work through them from the ground up.
8 • Foreword
Sharing More Than Space
ENDNOTES 1 “Crown Heights/Prospect Heights Neighborhood Profile – NYU Furman Center.” n.d.
Accessed December 13, 2018. http://furmancenter.org/neighborhoods/view/crown-heights-prospect-heights. 2 Coates, Ta-Nehisi. 2014. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic, June 2014. https:// www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/. 3 “It’s Time to Retire This Scapegoat for Segregation.” n.d. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/houston-affodable-housing-scapegoat-segregation-nimby. 4 Quillian, Lincoln, Devah Pager, Ole Hexel, and Arnfinn H. Midtbøen. 2017. “Meta-Analysis of Field Experiments Shows No Change in Racial Discrimination in Hiring over Time.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (41): 10870–75. https://doi.org/10.1073/ pnas.1706255114. 5 Budds, Diana. 2018. “How a Brooklyn School District Is Integrating—with the Help of Urban Planners.” Curbed NY. November 9, 2018. https://ny.curbed.com/2018/11/9/18076048/ brooklyn-district-15-diversity-inclusion-plan-wxy. 6 Mock, Brentin. n.d. “A Legacy of Racism in America’s Parks.” CityLab. Accessed December 13, 2018. http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/06/for-african-americans-park-access-is-aboutmore-than-just-proximity/485321/. 7 Krysan, Maria, and Kyle Crowder. 2017. Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification. Russell Sage Foundation. 8 Cashin, Sheryll. 2005. “The Failures of Integration.” Center for American Progress. June 15, 2005. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/courts/news/2005/06/15/1497/the-failures-of-integration/. 9 Havekes, Esther, Michael Bader, and Maria Krysan. 2016. “Realizing Racial and Ethnic Neighborhood Preferences? Exploring the Mismatches Between What People Want, Where They Search, and Where They Live.” Population Research and Policy Review; Dordrecht 35 (1): 101–26. http://dx.doi.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1007/s11113-015-9369-6. 10 King, Martin Luther. 1968. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Bantam Extra; NZ4341. New York: Bantam, p. 101. 11 Stanley, Sharon. 2015. “The Enduring Challenge of Racial Integration in the United States.” Du Bois Review; Cambridge 12 (1): 5–24. http://dx.doi.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard. edu/10.1017/S1742058X14000320, p. 26. 12 Baldwin, James. 1964. The Fire next Time. Delta Book. New York: Dell, p. 19. 13 “Office to Help Freed Slaves Opens in Worcester.” n.d. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/office-to-help-freed-slaves-opens-in-worcester. html. 14 “The US Will Become ‘Minority White’ in 2045, Census Projects.” n.d. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/03/14/the-us-will-become-minorityWhite-in-2045-census-projects/. 15 Staff, and agencies. 2018. “FBI Data Shows Sharp Rise in US Hate Crimes.” The Guardian, November 13, 2018, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/fbi-data-hate-crimes-rise-us-report. 16 Lopez, German. 2017. “The Past Year of Research Has Made It Very Clear: Trump Won Because of Racial Resentment.” Vox. December 15, 2017. https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study 17 “The US Will Become ‘Minority White’ in 2045, Census Projects.” n.d. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/03/14/the-us-will-become-minorityWhite-in-2045-census-projects/. 18 Cashin. 19 Baldwin, James. 1964. The Fire next Time. Delta Book. New York: Dell, p. 21.
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Eamon O'Connor
CHALLENGE 13
Persistent racial segregation and inequality have created separate worlds for Americans. We move through different daily patterns, in different places, with different access to opportunities — and largely separate from other races and classes than our own. This segregation is costing us: in income; in lives; in health; in education; and in democracy. This condition is by design. In his final years, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned that formal desegregation was just the first step to building a thriving multi-racial democracy. Deeper integration would be unenforceable through policy, but would rely on Americans’ obedience to unenforceable obligations — to a shift not just in policy and regulation, but in culture and behavior. Over half a century later, we have not only failed in pursuing the enforceable policies of desegregation, but we are actively failing in our pursuit of the unenforceable behaviors of integration. Our policies have proved insufficient in cultivating diverse neighborhoods, and our culture has not shifted enough to promote meaningful engagement across racial lines.
OPPORTUNITY 27
This poses major challenges for a society that seeks to achieve greater social integration — an ideal that requires a tricky balance between social ties within identity groups (from race to age to class), and social ties across them. Striking this balance leads to communities and societies that are more prosperous, more safe, more healthy, more educated, and more civically engaged. But in the United States, our severe imbalance has produced just the opposite. What’s more, legacies of active disinvestment and discrimination mean that any multiracial communities that do take shape often appear diverse from the top down, but remain socially segregated on the ground. This thesis responds to this imbalance by investigating the underlying and less-studied social processes that promote or detract from racial integration. It asks: How can a deeper understanding of social integration across race — through a study of programmatic, behavioral and spatial dynamics on a diverse urban commercial corridor — inform more successful integration efforts in urban planning, design, and policy?
10 • Introduction
Sharing More Than Space
This research poses two important challenges: first, the limited number of neighborhoods with sufficient racial diversity to enable a study of integration, given the persistent segregation of American cities; and second, the nature of diversity itself in these neighborhoods — in many cases, a transitional demographic reality that is saddled with racial and socioeconomic inequities. Moreover, existing literature demonstrates a range of structural, behavioral, spatial, and programmatic forces to contend with when pursuing social integration across race and class. The case study site — Nostrand Avenue, the commercial spine of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood — reflects these challenges. A historically Black community with a large Hasidic Jewish community, Crown Heights has become significantly more diverse in recent years — but due in large part to the area’s increasing appeal to more affluent, predominantly White residents, and the resulting displacement of longtime residents of color. As a result, this demographic shift creates racial diversity on the surface, but a tangled web of power dynamics below — a reality that complicates the potential for any meaningful integration akin to King’s “obedience to unenforceable obligations.” Through a mixed-method approach, I have analyzed, triangulated, and synthesized my findings to uncover a range of factors that might produce more of this “obedience” in diverse neighborhoods — thus creating and catalyzing the conditions necessary for a more socially integrated community across race and class. These findings and the recommendations that follow, however, are not a prescriptive toolkit for reaching an integration ideal. Rather, they present emerging possibilities and challenging questions for consideration by residents, small businesses, community organizations, and officials who are navigating diverse neighborhoods — particularly those facing transitions like Crown Heights and its Nostrand Avenue. By shaping conditions that promote greater social integration, we might not only advance more meaningful engagement across race and class, but the broader goals of preserving culturally essential enclaves, redressing deeply rooted injustices, and recalibrating severe power imbalances.
37 LITERATURE
47 GEOGRAPHY
55 METHODOLOGY
65 FINDINGS
89 91 POSSIBILITIES
Introduction • 11
Eamon O'Connor
12 • CHALLENGE
Sharing More Than Space
T
o understand our segregated reality and its costs, we must look to history. In Where Do We Go From Here?, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. distinguished the work of desegregation from the work of integration. With the momentary successes of desegregation underway, King called on Americans to look toward the deeper work of integration: “Desegregation is only a partial, though necessary, step toward the final goal which we seek to realize, genuine intergroup and interpersonal living. ... True integration will be achieved by men who are willingly obedient to unenforceable obligations.”20 Indeed, cultivating a thriving multiracial democracy would require not just coexisting with those of other races, but meaningfully engaging with them — a much more challenging and “unenforceable” endeavor. Cultivating this meaningful engagement — rather than mere coexistence — is behind the success of most multiracial democracies. Indeed, literature on
social capital describes the dual role of bonding and bridging ties. Bonding ties — demarcated by race, age, or ethnicity — often take care of themselves by virtue of the affinity that comes from shared identity. Bridging ties — those relationships that cut across these boundaries — are much more challenging to cultivate, and typically take the work of institutions like schools, the military, or civic bodies. While challenging to foster, these bridging ties — the ultimate goal of integration efforts — yield higher collective outcomes on a number of measures. Indeed, countries with stronger bridging ties have been found to have lower rates of inequality and higher health, educational, and economic outcomes among all residents.21 The research behind such outcomes holds that bridging ties lead to a greater spread of opportunities, knowledge and connections. Through its failures in racial desegregation and integration, however, the United States has yet to cultivate the bridging ties necessary for the type of thriving, multiracial CHALLENGE • 13
Eamon O'Connor democracy King envisioned.
White resistance to integration has taken many forms since the Civil Rights Movement. Historically, it took shape in FAILING DESEGREGATION the form of avoidance — through redlining and White flight. This has led to decades In her 2005 book The Failures of of disinvestment and discrimination Integration, Sheryll Cashin details this that have deepened the divides between progression, and reflects on its implications more affluent, White communities for an increasingly diverse country: “Our and less affluent communities of color. growing diversity presents an opportunity And when racial diversity did rise in to make this abstract vision much more neighborhoods, the change primarily took of a shared cultural value. But this is not place in White neighborhoods. Indeed, as where we are headed. The current trend is a recent New York Times analysis found, one of enclave formation and pronounced between 1980 and 2000, more than 98 class separation, leading to separate and percent of census tracts that grew more unequal realities. A more hopeful destiny diverse did so through Hispanic, Asianwill only come about as the result of a American, and African-American families conscious effort to change our public 22 settling in neighborhoods that were once policies and culture.” predominantly White.25 This bears out in the numbers. Indeed, More recently, however, Whites’ a recent analysis of U.S. Census data by residential choices have evolved from Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program avoidance to encroachment — a reality found that among the nation’s 51 that runs counter to Cashin’s assumption, largest metropolitan areas, Black-White as cited in Stanley’s passage, that Whites segregation has shown modest declines, at have yet to “view integrated or majoritybest, since 2000 — with the highest levels minority neighborhoods as viable options.” of segregation in the upper Midwest and the Indeed, since 2000 in many major U.S. Northeast.23 The analysis found that most cities, Whites have Whites remain in demonstrated they overwhelmingly do increasingly White areas, and in view majoritya 2015 essay, Sharon WHITES’ RESIDENTIAL m i n o r i t y Stanley reflected CHOICES HAVE EVOLVED neighborhoods on their role in FROM AVOIDANCE TO as viable options maintaining this ENCROACHMENT — but largely in segregated reality: the context of “The remarkable White-dominated power of White gentrification. That supremacy to endure formal desegregation indicates same New York Times study found that one that Whites have thus far proven unwilling in six predominantly Black census tracts or unable to make their own sacrifices nationwide has experienced an uptick in even as Blacks have willingly served as the arrival of White residents since 2000. integration pioneers … This is why Sheryll This pattern occurs consistently across Cashin (2005) appeals specifically to the country, in cities of all sizes. What’s Whites to ‘view integrated or majoritymore, these White newcomers bring with minority neighborhoods or schools as them the economic might endowed by our viable options’ … It is reasonable, then, unequal society: the study found that new and not simply an objectionable retreat White homeowners in these communities from the moral obligation to integrate, had markedly higher incomes than their for Blacks to await more promising signs non-White new arrivals.26 that White America is ready to sacrifice In these neighborhoods, this shift toward as well for the sake of integration.”24 more statistical diversity — loaded as it is 14 • CHALLENGE
Sharing More Than Space with racial and socioeconomic differentials between old and new residents — does not necessarily result in the type of integration to which King aspired, nor in the type of sacrifice Stanley asks of Whites.
FAILING INTEGRATION Just as racial diversity in our neighborhoods is lacking or problematic, so is social integration across race. Take the low number of interracial relationships among Americans — and most markedly, among White Americans. Indeed, as a study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found, Blacks have 10 times as many Black friends as White friends, while White Americans have 91 times as many White friends as Black friends.27 What’s more, PRRI’s data showed that a full 75 percent of Whites have “entirely White social networks without any minority presence.” Another enterprising study evaluated over 1,000 photographs of wedding parties in the United States; the researcher used this approach given the intimacy of friendship indicated by selection for a wedding party. The findings? Just 3.7 percent of Whites included Black friends in their wedding parties — while 22.2 percent of Black Americans included White bridesmaids and groomsmen in their wedding parties.28 Put another way, Black people included Whites in their wedding parties at six times the rate that White people included Blacks in theirs. While these studies are national in scale and likely cross many segregated and homogeneous communities, similar dynamics appear to play out in racially diverse communities, too. As Derek Hyra discovers in Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City, such neighborhoods are often subject to what he calls “diversity segregation” — conditions where divisions of race and class persist and limit the number of interracial relationships.29 What’s more, spurring more meaningful interaction across racial lines is challenged due to declining community ties more broadly. The percentage of the U.S. population that reports never spending
time with their neighbors has increased markedly since the 1970s, just as the percentage of Americans that reports spending time with neighbors daily or twice weekly has declined during the same period. This same study found that: just one third of Americans knew their neighbors by name; distrust among Americans is increasing; most Americans spend up to 19 hours watching television each week, compared to 10 hours each week in the 1960s; and our recreation is increasingly privatized.30 This decline in neighborhood social life complicates and exacerbates the potential of any efforts to promote more social interaction — never mind the greater challenge of interracial interaction.
WHY INTEGRATE? These desegregation and integration setbacks pose major challenges for urban planners, designers, and policymakers — especially those who take up the mantle of supporting and shaping mixed-race and mixed-income communities. But why should we care about achieving this diverse, multiracial nirvana to begin with? In short, because our current segregated reality is costing us: in income; in lives; in health; in education; and in democracy. And when these costs converge, they combust. This combustion may appear sudden, as in recent cases of racial unrest in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, New York City, Cleveland, or Milwaukee. But such cases represent a decades-long process — borne of a steady accumulation of material inequities and social mistrust in these cities and throughout the country. As the United Nations has duly recognized, a human rights crisis is occurring under our watch.31
WHAT WE ALL LOSE The costs that follow indicate how racism and segregation weigh on all races. Advancing racial justice and integration is not a zero-sum game, but a cause that CHALLENGE • 15
Eamon O'Connor will reshape a more equitable and thriving multiracial democracy.
Income Segregation makes us all worse off economically. A landmark study by Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), found that the region’s gross domestic product would rise by about $8 billion if it combatted segregation (and that’s only by calibrating levels to the U.S. national median, which is itself not an exemplar).32 Indeed, metro areas suffer from segregation — those with higher levels of racial segregation tend to have slower economic growth and shorter periods of economic growth. As Dreier and co-authors have found, this “vicious circle of sprawl and economic segregation … imposes significant costs on all parts of metropolitan areas.”33 More affluent areas lose out by paying for public services to address the effects of segregation, such as in the criminal justice and public health systems. What’s more, research has found that racial segregation works in tandem with rising income inequality and lowers our national economic might. As income and wealth inequality rise (as they have nationally since 1980) they only deepen the divides between marginalized communities and more affluent communities. In the words of the MPC report, “These lowered incomes have a cost: research has shown that if the average incomes of people of color were raised even beyond the national median, up to the average incomes of Whites, our gross national product would increase by $1.9 trillion.”34 But segregation limits the diversity of social networks, too. This leads to opportunity hoarding by Whites, and disproportionately negative impacts on marginalized communities’ job prospects. As Nancy DiTomaso has found, “Because we still live largely segregated lives, such networking fosters categorical inequality: whites help other whites, especially when unemployment is high. Although people 16 • CHALLENGE
from every background may try to help their own, whites are more likely to hold the sorts of jobs that are protected from market competition, that pay a living wage and that have the potential to teach skills and allow for job training and advancement. So, just as opportunities are unequally distributed, they are also unequally redistributed.”35 When our social networks lead to segregated workplaces, we also perform more poorly: we focus less on facts; we process these facts less carefully; and we are less innovative and creative.36
Lives Segregation costs human lives and hollows out our communities. The MPC report found that Chicago’s rising homicide rate since 2010 has “a ripple effect: it removes residents from communities by death and incarceration, unravels families and traumatizes survivors.” This deals a blow to student and worker capacity, and makes the region a less appealing place to live and work. Said the MPC report: “Chicago is a microcosm of both trends: In 2016, more than half of the city’s homicides occurred in 11 communities that were predominantly people of color and home to some of the city’s highest rates of poverty. Chicago ranked last in population growth in 2015 among the nation’s 10 largest cities.” Indeed research has firmly linked homicides to population loss for cities — finding that every additional homicide over the previous year results in the loss of 70 residents.37
Health Segregation and inequality cripple our health outcomes and systems. The concentrated poverty and disparities that stem from persistent segregation have been shown to deal blows to physical and mental health at a community level — and significant costs at a metropolitan level. A St. Louis-based study found that the deaths of 305 out of 3,101 Black adults in
Sharing More Than Space St. Louis City and County in 2011 could be attributed to conditions of poverty — and the lacking access to healthy food, recreation, environments, and medical care that result. Indeed, the same study found that health disparities in heart disease, cancer, and diabetes were costing St. Louis $65 million a year in inpatient hospital charges; and disparities tied to racial differences in mental health costed the region $27 million in inpatient hospital charges.38 But costs don’t just come at a regional level. Discrimination — whether structural or experienced on a person-toperson level — has been tied to an elevated risk among Black Americans for many conditions, from high blood pressure to abdominal obesity to breast cancer to premature mortality.39 But not only Black Americans suffer from discrimination — the type that leads to segregated communities. Indeed, in one study, individual and community-level racial prejudice was found to increase both Whites’ and Blacks’ risk of mortality, even when controlling for individual and community characteristics.40 What’s more, while White Americans in a segregated United States may fare better in health access and outcomes than their fellow citizens of color on many fronts, they do not fare well when compared to other countries. Indeed, the life expectancy of Whites in the United States ranks behind all residents in countries ranging from South Korea to Chile, from Greece to Cuba.41 And a comparison of data between the United States and the United Kingdom found that U.S. Whites with the highest levels of income and education had comparable health outcomes (e.g., diabetes, heart disease) to their White counterparts with the lowest income and education levels across the pond.42
Education Segregation cuts short pathways to educational achievement. One study has found that the lifetime earnings gap between a person with a high school diploma and a person with a four-
year college degree is $1,078,446. Further research found a correlation between lower levels of segregation and a lower percentage of the population holding a bachelor’s degree, for both Blacks and for Whites. 43 For the Chicago region, the MPC report found, this means losing out on about $90 billion in total lifetime earnings as a result of this education gap. Indeed, students in highly racially and socioeconomically segregated schools and classrooms have been found to suffer on a range of measures: for Black and Latino students, in dropout rates44 and test scores45; and for all students, in levels of stereotypes and prejudice46, and the effectiveness of their group decisionmaking47.
Democracy Segregation jeopardizes our democracy — from participation to public goods. Segregated networks, patterns, and behaviors help sharpen divides, weaken trust across racial lines, and lead to a “zero-sum” mindset that discourages any bridging efforts and the civic outcomes that come with them.48 Indeed, cities with higher levels of racial segregation have been found to have higher levels of political polarization, exacerbating efforts for collective investment in public goods.49 What’s more, segregation by class is associated with lower levels of civic engagement and participation.50 As Amy Widestrom has written, “increasing economic segregation in the United States denies low-income citizens the civic and social resources vital for political mobilization and participation. People living in poverty lack the time, money, and skills for active civic engagement, and this is compounded by the fact that residential segregation creates a barren civic environment incapable of supporting a vibrant civic community. Over time, this creates a balance of political power that is dramatically skewed not only toward individuals with greater incomes but toward entire neighborhoods with more economic resources.”51 CHALLENGE • 17
Eamon O'Connor
What we lose by segregating $8B
of GDP gains for the Chicago region if it combatted segregation
"Because we still live largely segregated lives, job networking fosters categorical inequality."
Makes us all worse off economically
— NANCY DITOMASSO
70
residents lost for every additional homicide over the previous year
Individual and communitylevel racial prejudice found to increase both Whites’ and Blacks’ risk of mortality
$65M
Costs human lives and hollows out communities
Cripples health outcomes and systems
a year in inpatient hospital charges due to health disparities to St. Louis
$90B
loss in total lifetime earnings for the Chicago region due to education gap
Cuts short paths to educational achievement
Cities with higher rates of segregation have been found to have higher polarization, leading to gridlock in public goods provision
"It is the presence of a group that is proximate, yet segregated — close but far — that precipitates the politics of division." — RYAN ENOS
18 • CHALLENGE
Jeopardizes the health of our democracy
Sharing More Than Space
What we gain by integrating $4.4B
increase in additional income for the Chicago region if Black-White segregation reduced to national median
Yields higher incomes and greater access to networks
"Nonhomogeneous groups are simply smarter." — HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Systematically reduces violence and hate
229
lives saved in Chicago in 2016 if BlackWhite segregation was reduced to the national median
Social integration has been found to reduce biases and mistrust among groups — stemming potential for violence
Evens access to healthy environments and outcomes Social integration has also been found to reduce isolation and loneliness, which can exacerbate mental health conditions
83,000
Leads to higher lifetime achievement — for all races
Improves social cohesion and lowers antagonism
more people — Whites included — in the Chicago region would have bachelor's degrees if Black-White segregation dropped to the national median
"One antidote to segregation is contact across groups, social scientists have long recognized. When people from different backgrounds are allowed to meet and know each other as individuals, antagonism drops." — RYAN ENOS
CHALLENGE • 19
Eamon O'Connor This skew doesn’t just lead to lower attendance at community meetings — it limits opportunities and voice, and leads to higher levels of mistrust and anxiety among all races and classes. Indeed, Ryan Enos has found that segregation within metropolitan areas was highly correlated with White support of then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. “it is the presence of a group that is proximate, yet segregated — close but far — that precipitates the politics of division,” his study found. This condition of relative proximity of races (e.g., a white suburban enclave next to majorityminority urban center) led to greater distrust, and support of President Trump’s immigration policies, for example.52
of the Atlantic. We have seen horrendous terrorist attacks in New York, Boston, Orlando, Fla., London, Paris, Istanbul and elsewhere — driven by the rise of extremism. In the United Kingdom, our vote to leave the European Union — Brexit — was driven by growing anti-immigration sentiments and followed by a spike in hate crimes toward minority communities. In France, the same worries led to the burkini ban this summer. In the U.S., you are heading toward a presidential election that is dominated by these issues. It all leads back to social integration.”54
Income Integration yields higher incomes and greater access to networks that drive opportunity.
As the MPC report found: “Incomes for African Americans in the Chicago region would rise by an average of $2,982 per The losses that come with segregation person per year—or an overall increase are deafening. So what do we stand to gain of $4.4 billion in additional income in from more racially integrated communities our region—if we reduced the levels of — and what’s more, those that achieve not economic and African American-White just statistical, but social, integration? segregation to the national median.” The United States’ legacies of structural But more socially integrated racism have yielded a limited set of truly communities can also rewire the preracially integrated communities. And existing, racialized networks that lead to because of this history, any communities the White opportunity hoarding described that are diverse by the numbers do not in the previous necessarily yield section. Indeed, meaningful social stronger, more interaction and diverse social integration — and THE ENDURING REALITIES networks help may mask social OF STRUCTURAL RACISM people of all separation or 53 b a c k g r o u n d s conflict. HAVE YIELDED A access economic Even still, there LIMITED SET OF TRULY o p p o r t u n i t i e s . 55 are material RACIALLY INTEGRATED And within our outcomes that workplaces, more COMMUNITIES. can come from diverse teams reducing social make better segregation across decisions that identities. When can yield greater economic outputs for it comes to the more challenging work organizations. As Harvard Business of promoting true social integration, Review reports, “nonhomogenous teams societies are less prone to the mistrust, are simply smarter. Working with people anxiety, and loss of opportunity that feed who are different from you may challenge into extremism worldwide. In the words of your brain to overcome its stale ways of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, “This has been made more urgent by events on both sides thinking and sharpen its performance.”
WHAT WE ALL GAIN
20 • CHALLENGE
Sharing More Than Space
Lives Integration can systematically reduce violence and hate — and the costs that come with them. The MPC found that the homicide rate would drop by 30 percent — the equivalent of saving 229 lives in the city of Chicago in 2016 — if the level of segregation between Blacks and Whites was reduced to the national median. The MPC’s work further discovered that had this rate been 30 percent lower in 2010: “167 more people would have lived that year, earning some $170 million over the course of their lifetimes; the region would have saved some $65 million in policing costs and an estimated $218 million in corrections costs; and residential real estate values would have increased by at least $6 billion.”56 Other studies have found infant mortality rates would drop significantly for both Black and Latino populations. Indeed, models have found that complete BlackWhite residential integration would result in at least two fewer Black infant deaths (2.31) per 1000 live births. For Latinos, full integration would yield a lower infant mortality rate than Whites.57 But behind these numbers, research shows that social integration across race can start to chip away at the deeply held biases and mistrust that result from the racialized system we move through, day in and day out — whether through reduced crime58 or reduced prejudice.59
Health Integration evens and expands access to healthy environments and outcomes. More socially integrated communities benefit from reduced isolation and loneliness — critical drivers of mental health.60 And a recent study found that Black Americans who moved from highly segregated to less segregated neighborhoods experienced a drop in blood pressure, which persisted after accounting for factors like changes in income and education.61 It is important to note that researchers hypothesized the drop could
be attributed to the reduced stress and anxiety that come from being exposed to less concentrated poverty and violence — a reminder of the consequences that come with longtime disinvestment in marginalized communities. People living in more integrated communities are also more likely to have access to quality parks, healthy food access, and activities conducive to a healthy lifestyle. But availability does not necessarily guarantee use of such spaces — indeed, for all to benefit from their use, according to one study, social cohesion is necessary. Social integration across races, they find, helps to strip away existing health inequalities and equalize greenspace access among subgroups of the local population.62
Education Integrated communities and classrooms lead to higher achievement for all races. The MPC’s landmark study found that 83,000 more people — including Whites — in the Chicago region would have bachelor’s degrees if Black-White segregation levels dropped to the national median.63 The benefits of integrated schools extend to all students — they don’t just improve outcomes for minorities. Indeed, students in integrated schools have been found to have higher average test scores.64 They’re more likely to enroll in college.65 They’re more likely to be satisfied with their education and have intellectual self-confidence.66 They’re less likely to experience anxiety when interacting with other races or ethnicities.67 And they’re better prepared to navigate an increasingly complex global economy.68
Democracy Socially integrated communities experience greater cohesion and lower rates of antagonism. Social integration is the basis for a successful democracy where strangers can build trust, shape shared institutions, and exercise their right to vote. As Amy CHALLENGE • 21
Eamon O'Connor Widestrom and Jessica Trounstine found, in separate studies cited in the previous section, lower levels of segregation have been tied to lower levels of political polarization. And Enos’s research into Whites’ support of then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election speaks to the promise of true social integration, rather than mere proximity, in reducing the anxiety and polarization that dominate our civic life. Indeed, as he reflects, “One antidote to segregation is contact across groups, social scientists have long recognized. When people from different backgrounds are allowed to meet and know each other as individuals, antagonism drops.” But Enos also addresses our failure to create such conditions in our policies to date. “In the United States we approach integration only obliquely and partially, allowing it to happen a bit in universities and a few kinds of workplaces, even as few neighborhoods are affected. Even our schools, once the flashpoint of efforts to desegregate, have fallen into, or remain in, patterns of separation by race and ethnicity. As long as these sweeping patterns of segregation exist, spatial geography will drive a political wedge between groups. … If certain city neighborhoods and exclusive suburbs become places where only certain classes, or races, can live, then the patterns of social geography that drive us apart — and that drove some Americans toward Trump — will persist. What’s needed is a policy that allows for a broader mix of people to share every given neighborhood. Only then will we see the power of social geography to bring us together — not just drive us apart.”69 • Policymakers and planners are failing in the pursuit of shaping more statistically desegregated communities, as well as more socially integrated communities. And it's doubly clear the costs these failures have on income, lives, health, education, and democracy in the United States. Whether we're up to the challenge of rebuilding 22 • CHALLENGE
our policies and reshaping our culture to address these failures remains to be seen.
Sharing More Than Space
ENDNOTES 20 King, Martin Luther. 1968. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Bantam
Extra; NZ4341. New York: Bantam, p. 101. 21 Allen, Danielle S. 2016. “Toward a Connected Society.” Our Compelling Interests: the Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by E. Lewis and N. Cantor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 22 Cashin, Sheryll. The Failures Of Integration: How Race and Class Are Undermining the American Dream. New York; Oxford: PublicAffairs, 2005. 23 Frey, William H. “Black-White Segregation Edges Downward since 2000, Census Shows.” Brookings (blog), December 17, 2018. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/12/17/black-white-segregation-edges-downward-since-2000-census-shows/. 24 Stanley, Sharon. 2015. “The Enduring Challenge of Racial Integration in the United States.” Du Bois Review; Cambridge 12 (1): 5–24. http://dx.doi.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard. edu/10.1017/S1742058X14000320, p. 26. 25 Badger, Emily, Quoctrung Bui, and Robert Gebeloff. “The Neighborhood Is Mostly Black. The Home Buyers Are Mostly White.” The New York Times, April 27, 2019, sec. The Upshot. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/27/upshot/diversity-housing-maps-raleigh-gentrification.html, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/27/upshot/diversity-housing-maps-raleigh-gentrification.html. 26 Ibid. 27 “Three Quarters of Whites Don’t Have Any Non-White Friends,” Washington Post, accessed May 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/25/three-quartersof-whites-dont-have-any-non-white-friends/. 28 Berry, Brent. “Friends for Better or for Worse: Interracial Friendship in the United States as Seen through Wedding Party Photos.” Demography 43, no. 3 (August 1, 2006): 491–510. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2006.0020. 29 Hyra, Derek S. Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. 30 “City Observatory.” City Observatory, June 9, 2015. http://cityobservatory.org/less-incommon. 31 “UN Experts Urge US to Address Legacies of the Past, Police Impunity and ‘Crisis of Racial Injustice.’” UN News, January 29, 2016. https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/01/521182-un-experts-urge-us-address-legacies-past-police-impunity-and-crisis-racial. 32 Council, Metropolitan Planning. “The Steep Cost of Segregation.” Metropolitan Planning Council. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/cost.aspx. 33 Dreier, Peter, John H. Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom. Place matters: Metropolitics for the twenty-first century. Third Edition, Revised. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas (2014). Quote from page 58. 34 Council, Metropolitan Planning. “The Steep Cost of Segregation.” Metropolitan Planning Council. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/cost.aspx. 35 DiTomaso, Nancy. “How Social Networks Drive Black Unemployment.” Opinionator (blog), May 5, 2013. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/how-social-networks-drive-black-unemployment/. 36 Rock, David, and Heidi Grant. “Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter.” Harvard Business Review, November 4, 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter. 37 Cook, Phillip J., and Jens Ludwig. Gun violence: The real costs. Oxford University Press on Demand, (2000); calculations and analysis by the Metropolitan Planning Council 38 “For the Sake of All: A report on the health and well-being of African Americans in St. Louis and why it matters for everyone,” Washington University in St. Luis, July 31, 2015. 39 Mays, Vickie M., Susan D. Cochran, and Namdi W. Barnes. “Race, Race-Based Discrimination, and Health Outcomes Among African Americans.” Annual Review of Psychology 58 (2007): 201–25. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190212. 40 Y. Lee, P. Muennig, I. Kawachi, M. Hatzenbuehler. “Effects of racial prejudice on the
CHALLENGE • 23
Eamon O'Connor health of communities: a multilevel survival analysis.” Am. J. Public Health, 105 (2016), pp. 23492355 41 National Center for Health Statistics. “Health, United States, 2015: with Special Feature on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities,” Hyattsville, MD (2016). 42 Malat, Jennifer, Sarah Mayorga-Gallo, and David R. Williams. “The Effects of Whiteness on the Health of Whites in the USA.” Social Science & Medicine, The role of Racism in Health Inequalities: Integrating Approaches from Across Disciplines, 199 (February 1, 2018): 148–56. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.06.034. 43 Carnevale, Anthony P., Stephen J. Rose, and Ban Cheah. “The college payoff: Education, occupations, lifetime earnings.” Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, (2011); calculations and analysis by the Metropolitan Planning Council. 44 R. Balfanz and N. Legters, “LOCATING THE DROPOUT CRISIS: Which High Schools Produce the Nation’s Dropouts? Where Are They Located? Who Attends Them?” Center for Research on The Education of Students Placed at Risk, Johns Hopkins Univfersity, September 2004, http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techreports/report70.pdf. 45 D. Card and J. Rothstein, “Racial Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap,” working paper, The National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2006, https://www. nber.org/papers/w12078.pdf. 46 R. Bigler, & L. S. Liben, “A Developmental Intergroup Theory of Social Stereotypes and Prejudices,” Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 34 (2006), 39-89. T. F. Pettigrew, and L. R. Tropp, “A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, no. 5 (2006), 751–83. 47 “The Evidence That White Children Benefit From Integrated Schools.” NPR. org. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/19/446085513/the-evidence-that-white-children-benefit-from-integrated-schools. 48 “White People Think Racism Is Getting Worse. Against White People.” Washington Post. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/21/ white-people-think-racism-is-getting-worse-against-white-people/. 49 Trounstine, Jessica. “Segregation and Inequality in Public Goods.” American Journal of Political Science 60, no. 3 (2016): 709–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12227. 50 “Displacing Democracy: Economic Segregation in America (American Governance: Politics, Policy, and Public Law) - Kindle Edition by Amy Widestrom. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle EBooks @ Amazon.Com.,” accessed November 1, 2018, https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B00QUSFVJQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1. 51 Ibid. 52 Enos, Ryan D. “How Segregation Leads to Racist Voting by Whites.” Vox, November 28, 2017. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/11/28/16707438/social-geography-trump-rise-segregation-psychology-racism. 53 Turner, Margery Austin, and Lynette Rawlings. “Promoting Neighborhood Diversity: Benefits, Barriers, and Strategies: (716702011-001).” American Psychological Association, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1037/e716702011-001. 54 Khan, Sadiq. “London Mayor Sadiq Khan: Time to Let Go of Segregation — Globally.” chicagotribune.com. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-sadiq-khan-mayor-london-integration-perspec-0915-md-20160914-story.html. 55 Uslaner E. M. (2012). Segregation and Mistrust: Diversity, Isolation, and Social Cohesion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 56 Council, Metropolitan Planning. “The Steep Cost of Segregation.” Metropolitan Planning Council. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/cost.aspx. 57 LaVeist, Thomas A. “Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Segregation on Racial and Ethnic Health,” n.d., 2. 58 Social Integration Commission (2014). Social integration: A wake-up call. London: Social Integration Commission. 59 R. Bigler, & L. S. Liben, “A Developmental Intergroup Theory of Social Stereotypes and
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Sharing More Than Space Prejudices,” Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 34 (2006), 39-89. T. F. Pettigrew, and L. R. Tropp, “A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, no. 5 (2006), 751–83. See also J. Boisjoly, G. J. Duncan, M. Kremer, D. M. Levy, & J. Eccles, “Empathy or Antipathy? The Impact of Diversity,” American Economic Review, 96, no. 5 (2006), 1890-1905; Heidi McGlothlin and Melanie Killen, “How Social Experience Is Related to Children’s Intergroup Attitudes,” European Journal of Social Psychology 40, no 4 (2010): 625; Adam Rutland, Lindsey Cameron, Laura Bennett, and Jennifer Ferrell, “Interracial Contact and Racial Constancy: A Multi-site Study of Racial Intergroup Bias in 3-5 Year Old Anglo-British Children,” Applied Developmental Psychology 26 (2005): 699–713, https://kar.kent.ac.uk/26168/4/rutland%20 et%20al%20JADP.pdf; and Amy Stuart Wells and Robert L. Crain, “Perpetuation Theory and the Long-Term Effects of School Desegregation,” Review of Educational Research 64, no. 4 (1994): 531–55. 60 Uslaner E. M. (2012). Segregation and Mistrust: Diversity, Isolation, and Social Cohesion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 61 Kershaw, Kiarri N., Whitney R. Robinson, Penny Gordon-Larsen, Margaret T. Hicken, David C. Goff, Mercedes R. Carnethon, Catarina I. Kiefe, Stephen Sidney, and Ana V. Diez Roux. “Association of Changes in Neighborhood-Level Racial Residential Segregation With Changes in Blood Pressure Among Black Adults: The CARDIA Study.” JAMA Internal Medicine 177, no. 7 (July 1, 2017): 996–1002. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.1226. 62 Seaman, Peter J, Russell Jones, and Anne Ellaway. “It’s Not Just about the Park, It’s about Integration Too: Why People Choose to Use or Not Use Urban Greenspaces.” The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 7 (October 28, 2010): 78. https://doi. org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-78. 63 Council, Metropolitan Planning. “The Steep Cost of Segregation.” Metropolitan Planning Council. Accessed May 8, 2019. https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/cost.aspx. 64 G. Palardy, “Differential school effects among low, middle, and high social class composition schools,” School Effectiveness and School Improvement 19, 1 (2008): 37. 65 G. J. Palardy, “High school socioeconomic segregation and student attainment,” American Educational Research Journal, 50, no. 4 (2013): 714. 66 N. F. P. Gilfoyle, “Brief of amici curiae: The American Psychological Association in Support of Respondents in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin,” November 2, 2015, http://www. scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/14-981bsacAmericanPsychologicalAssociation.pdf; “Brief of The American Educational Research Association, et.al. as amici curiae in Support of Respondents in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin,” October, 30, 2015, http://www.scotusblog.com/ wp-content/uploads/2015/11/14-981bsacAmericanEducationalResearchAssociationEtAl.pdf. 67 S. Levin, C. van Laar, J. Sidanius, “The Effects of Ingroup and Outgroup Friendship on Ethnic Attitudes in College: A Longitudinal Study,” Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 6 (2003), 76-92; H. Swart, M. Hewstone, O. Christ, and A. Voci, “Affect Mediators of Intergroup Contact: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Studies in South Africa,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101 (2011), 1221-1238. 68 “Brief of amici curiae: Brown University et al. in Support of Respondents in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.” 69 Enos, Ryan D. “How Segregation Leads to Racist Voting by Whites.” Vox, November 28, 2017. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/11/28/16707438/social-geography-trump-rise-segregation-psychology-racism.
CHALLENGE • 25
Eamon O'Connor
26 • OPPORTUNITY
Sharing More Than Space
I
n the section that follows, I’ll first identify the opportunity for a more nuanced approach to understanding the balance between bonding within and bridging across identity lines. Then, I’ll explore the limits of our knowledge and action in confronting the severe imbalance between bonding and bridging brought on by persistent segregation in the United States — a condition that takes shape geographically as well as socially, even in mixed-race and mixed-income communities. I’ll conclude by presenting my research question, which seeks to deepen our understanding of the factors that can promote social integration across race and class on the ground — in order to support communities that can both preserve essential bonding ties, while fostering the bridging ties crucial to thriving multiracial democracies.
THE BONDING-BRIDGING BALANCE What does the ideal of social integration
look like? Drawing from the work of social capital and political theory scholars, we know that both bonding ties within identity groups and bridging ties across identity groups are necessary for social integration to take shape. Scholars also note the importance of “linking” ties, which occur between people in different levels of status, typically in an employment context. Given such ties are less relevant to this research, I will focus on the balance communities can strike between bonding and bridging ties. Balancing bonding and bridging Bonding ties are those connections that bring together family and close friends, often along lines of social similarity (e.g., race, age, etc.). These connections are essential in any society — and they tend to be self-sustaining because they radiate out naturally from family or friends. Bridging ties, on the other hand, are slightly weaker than bonding ties and more challenging to achieve. These connections occur across OPPORTUNITY • 27
Eamon O'Connor
Bonding ties among historically marginalized communities can often be threatened by social integration
Bridging ties are not guaranteed in diverse neighborhoods, where deeper divides reproduce themselves
BONDING
BRIDGING
ties within identity groups
ties across identity groups
demographic domains, it builds boundaries the foundation of COMPLICATING BONDING AND BRIDGING (religion, age, political equality.”71 In diverse neighborhoods, especially those shaped by income level, Due in large part White encroachment, bonding and bridging ties are not race) and typically to its legacies of guaranteed to form across racial lines. take the work structural racism of institutions and persistent to cultivate segregation, the successfully: such as through schools, the United States has failed to cultivate the military, or political entities.70 bridging ties necessary for realizing this But the payoff from successfully egalitarian ideal. As Allen goes on to fostering bridging ties is large. Indeed, note, “Perhaps one of the most profound bridging ties are shown to be at the root examples of a failure at the level of of most egalitarian societies, producing associational life in a democracy is the case better health, educational, and economic of racial segregation in the United States. I outcomes for all. The benefits of bridging do not refer to a historical phenomenon, ties are largely tied to their ability to for instance, a relic of the mid-twentieth diffuse knowledge and promote the century. Racial segregation continues to social connectivity required for greater have a significant impact on American opportunity. Indeed, as Danielle Allen life in the present and has been pretty reflects, invoking scholars in network conclusively shown to be at the root of theory, “To the degree that a society racial inequality along all dimensions.”72 achieves greater levels of connectedness, This follows from the findings of scholars and more equally empowers its members of network theory — indeed, one’s level of in economic, educational, and health social connectedness only heightens access 28 • OPPORTUNITY
Sharing More Than Space to knowledge, skills, and opportunity.73 Segregation markedly diminishes levels of social connectedness for all Americans — and in so doing, deepens inequalities between races. It is worth noting that seeking stronger bridging ties will not come at the expense of bonding ties. As Allen notes, “a connected society respects and protects bonding ties while also maximizing bridging ties.”74 What’s more, these two types of social relations do not exist in isolation from one another. As a society becomes more socially integrated, the line between bridging and bonding may blur, and once-bridging ties may themselves become bonding ties. This end state, however, is especially hard to achieve in racially segregated contexts like the United States.
these assumptions. Indeed, bonding ties among communities of color — nurtured in spite of the country’s legacies of redlining, White flight, and disinvestment — are under threat as urban cores become increasingly appealing to White and more affluent residents.76 Indeed, social integration efforts may risk putting the onus on communities of color to assimilate into a dominant White culture. As Mary Patillo has written, “Promoting integration as a means to improve the lives of Blacks stigmatizes Black people and Black spaces and valorizes Whiteness as both the symbol of opportunity and the measuring stick for equality. In turn, such stigmatization of Blacks and Black spaces is precisely what foils efforts toward integration. After all, why would anyone else want to live around Complicating bonding and bridging or interact with a group that is discouraged from being around itself?”77 Any efforts The bonding-bridging balance is a helpful to promote integration, then, must avoid device for understanding the United States’ conflating the worthwhile pursuit of segregation challenges — and their impacts integration with the often-destructive on our broader health as a multiracial reality of assimilation. Moreover, in such democracy. But it also has its limits. Allen’s contexts bonding ties may require more vision of a more connected society risks intentionality to sustain — perhaps decentering the important racial dynamics through the type of institutional support at play in the United States in two ways: that Allen deems necessary to promote first, it does not acknowledge the ways in bridging ties. which racially significant “bonding” ties are On the second note, there is no guarantee under threat in diversifying communities; that greater commitments to institutions and second, it does not account for our like schools and the military necessarily significant knowledge gaps in how to translate to bridging ties. Indeed, as much actually promote research has found, bridging ties mere diversity in a across race on the given setting does WE MUST NOT CONFLATE ground — beyond not necessarily institutional translate to THE WORTHWHILE channels like relationships across PURSUIT OF INTEGRATION demographic schools and the WITH THE OFTENcleavages.78 military. DESTRUCTIVE REALITY OF Proximity has On the first been found to note, Allen notes ASSIMILATION. have a minor effect that bonding ties on bridging ties tend to “take care because boundaries of themselves” are inscribed in spaces79; neighborhoods and that pursuing bridging ties ought 75 may be integrated statistically, but still not compromise them. Dynamics socially segregated80; and civic or power in gentrifying urban neighborhoods, imbalances may only be reproduced in however, demonstrate the challenges of OPPORTUNITY • 29
Eamon O'Connor these contexts.81 part of this work, As Patrick Sharkey but it cannot notes, “most take precedence available evidence over the enduring THIS WORK IS PRIMARILY shows that challenge of racism FOCUSED ON SOCIAL integration through in this country INTEGRATION ACROSS housing policy — its “original sin,” RACE, GIVEN THE CENTRAL does not generate in the words of meaningful anti-racist author ROLE OF RACISM IN interaction across Jim Wallis.85 SHAPING U.S. OUTCOMES. race and class Given the lines … I have seen e n d u r i n g little persuasive challenges of evidence for the hypothesis that racism, there are also significant barriers neighborhood integration enhances social to shaping communities where bridging trust or reduces racial prejudice.”82If we are ties move beyond mere desegregation to to pursue the holy grail of stronger bridging include more meaningful integration. ties in theory, then, we need to better What follows is an exploration of how a understand what makes or breaks such better understanding of such factors may connectedness on the ground. help us confront and combat persistent Thus, social integration cannot center racial segregation, and promote social only on relationship-building, because integration across both race in urban such relationships are necessarily planning, policy, and design. impacted by broader forces. The City of London’s definition of social integration SEGREGATION’S CAUSES — part of a broader strategy on the matter — acknowledges this reality: “Social What factors shape segregation? Our integration is the extent to which people understanding of segregation’s causes positively interact and connect with typically breaks the challenge down into others who are different to themselves. It is top-down structural factors, and bottomdetermined by the level of equality between up behavioral factors. Social capital theory people, the nature of their relationships, might point to shared identity (e.g., a and their degree of participation in the preference for enclaves bound to cultural communities in which they live.”83 affinity) as a behavioral driver of the “bonding” ties that lead to segregation. • But the United States’ history of structural racism requires including two important It is important to note that this research top-down causes of segregation. First, is primarily concerned with social systemic discrimination (e.g., redlining of integration across race, given the United and active disinvestment in communities States’ legacies and enduring reality of of color, and resulting White flight) structural racism and racial inequality. has led to communities of color being As research by Raj Chetty and Nathaniel cut off from predominantly White Hendren has found, this approach is communities. Second, socioeconomic paramount to addressing inequality, given disparities — deeply intertwined with the the particular intergenerational wealth aforementioned legacy of discrimination gaps facing Black Americans.84 Attempting — such as wealth gaps and educational to resolve racial injustice and segregation achievement gaps, have helped to cement challenges by focusing only on class risks the country’s segregated reality.86 both ignoring and deepening these realities. These three causes — shared Addressing the role of class dynamics in identity, systemic discrimination, and social integration becomes a necessary socioeconomic disparities — neglect a 30 • OPPORTUNITY
Sharing More Than Space
SOCIOECONOMIC DISPARITIES
SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION
e.g., wealth gaps, achievement gaps
e.g., redlining, disinvestment
structural
research focus
behavioral SHARED IDENTITY
SOCIAL DIVIDES
e.g., preference for enclaves
e.g., inherited knowledge, preconceptions
HOW BONDING AND BRIDGING TAKE SHAPE IN A SEGREGATED U.S. Integration and segregation each stem from a set of structural and behavioral causes. In the case of U.S. segregation, structural racism has mutated it from what would otherwise be a "bonding" condition based on shared identity. In both cases, social factors are less understood.
SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY
SYSTEMIC OPENNESS
e.g., access to capital, jobs
e.g., fair housing, anti-discrimination
structural
research focus
behavioral SHARED PURPOSE e.g., desire for diverse community
SOCIAL INTERACTION e.g., sustained contact and interaction
OPPORTUNITY • 31
Eamon O'Connor fourth, behavioral factor that perpetuates segregation in U.S. communities. In their 2018 work, Cycle of Segregation, Maria Krysan and Kyle Crowder speak to the social processes — such as inherited knowledge and preconceived mental maps — that underlie and reproduce segregation.87 They posit that segregation works in a cyclical fashion between such behavioral factors and more frequently cited structural factors, creating “bakedin segregation.”88 Krysan notes, “The separation of different racial and ethnic groups into separate social worlds means that members of different racial and ethnic groups have different lived experiences. They have different daily rounds.” These different “daily rounds,” they argue, need to be understood, addressed and incorporated more effectively in the work of researchers and practitioners seeking to combat segregation patterns.
RESEARCH QUESTION 1
FOUNDATION
FOCUS
FUTURE
WHAT THIS ISN'T WHAT THIS IS
A study of neighborhood A study of everyday social integration that studies top- processes that interplay with down factors alone and reinforce the structural
IDENTIFY DRIVING FACTORS
... through a study of behavioral, programmatic, and spatial dynamics on a diverse commercial corridor ...
3
What might it take to tip the balance away from our racially segregated reality, and toward one that more meaningfully integrates communities while affirming the bonding ties that are so critical to developing communities of affinity? Like segregation, paths to integration take a similar mix of bottom-up behavioral and top-down structural action. From a bottom-up standpoint, shared purpose or preference for a pluralistic community can certainly lead to greater integration at a smaller scale — as seen in examples like Chicago’s Oak Park89 and Beverly neighborhoods90. But integration would also require a set of structural interventions to actively dismantle the discrimination and disparities that have led to segregation. First, policymakers would need to foster more systemic openness — an effort that has resulted in efforts such as fair housing and anti-discrimination law in the housing searching process. But they would also
ELEVATE SOCIAL DYNAMICS
How can a deeper understanding of social integration across race ...
2
INTEGRATION’S CAUSES
A singular view of the kind(s) A mixed-method approach of data that can lend insight to better understand and into social conditions triangulate social processes
GENERATE GROUND-LED SOLUTIONS
... inform more successful integration efforts in urban planning, design, and policy? 32 • OPPORTUNITY
A prescription for 'getting A set of design possibilities to along' or assimilating to spur deeper engagement — overcome historic inequities in service of broader goals
Sharing More Than Space need to be able to foster the socioeconomic mobility — such as through greater access to capital and jobs — that is necessary to redress the deeply rooted effects of such discrimination. But just as we are only starting to discover more about the social processes that underpin segregation, so are we discovering more about the social processes that drive integration. Indeed, even if the three previously cited causes hold — shared preference, systemic openness, and socioeconomic mobility — there is no guarantee that a community that is desegregated and/or diverse at the surface will experience any integration or bridging on the ground. As Derek Hyra noted in a 2015 call to academics and practitioners alike: “We need to better understand how to grease the wheels of microlevel integration to facilitate meaningful interactions across both race and class. Our federal and local housing policies have not seriously addressed microlevel social segregation, and we need research to better understand the mechanisms and conditions within mixedrace, mixed-income communities that bring people together.”91 Understanding these “microlevel” factors that make or break meaningful interactions, then, must be the work of any policymakers, planners, designers, academics or communities.
TOWARD A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING We need to better understand the social processes and conditions that can both (1) facilitate the type of meaningful interaction that leads to bridging ties, and (2) ensure such interactions do not compromise or erase culturally affirming bonding ties. Only through this understanding, I hypothesize, might we begin to make bottom-up decisions at the community-level, and top-down decisions at the policy level that start to promote more meaningful integration across the race — the kind that leads to healthier communities, and a healthier democracy. As such, I ask: How can a deeper understanding of social integration across
race — through a study of behavioral, programmatic, and spatial dynamics on a diverse urban commercial corridor — inform more successful integration efforts in urban planning, design, and policy? The first part of this research question represents the research foundation — a study of everyday social processes that reinforce structural segregation and inequality, rather than a study of top-down factors alone. The second part of this research question represents the research focus — a mixedmethod approach to better understanding what behavioral, programmatic, and spatial factors promote or detracts from social integration, rather than a singular view of the kind(s) of data that can lend such insight. The third part of this research question represents the research’s future — a set of design possibilities for shaping environments more conducive to social integration across race, rather than a prescription for ‘getting along’ in order to overcome deeply rooted, historic inequities. This focus poses three major challenges discussed in this section. First, social integration efforts risks jeopardizing bonding ties among communities of color in a White-dominant culture. Second, diverse neighborhoods are often saddled with racial and socioeconomic inequities that impact bridging relationships. And third, more practically, is the challenge of selecting a site for observing social integration across race. As Thomas Sugrue has noted, “There are so few data points, because there are so few racially integrated communities in the United States.”92
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ENDNOTES 70 Allen, Danielle S. 2016. “Toward a Connected Society.” Our Compelling Interests: the
Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by E. Lewis and N. Cantor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 71 Allen, Danielle S. 2016. “Toward a Connected Society.” Our Compelling Interests: the Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by E. Lewis and N. Cantor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 72 Allen, Danielle S. 2016. “Toward a Connected Society.” Our Compelling Interests: the Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by E. Lewis and N. Cantor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 73 Sine, Wesley D. “Organization Science.” In In Search of Research Excellence, by Ronald Mitchell and Richard Dino. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781849807630. 00024. 74 Allen, Danielle S. 2016. “Toward a Connected Society.” Our Compelling Interests: the Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by E. Lewis and N. Cantor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 75 Allen, Danielle S. 2016. “Toward a Connected Society.” Our Compelling Interests: the Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by E. Lewis and N. Cantor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 76 Badger, Emily, Quoctrung Bui, and Robert Gebeloff. “The Neighborhood Is Mostly Black. The Home Buyers Are Mostly White.” The New York Times, April 27, 2019, sec. The Upshot. 77 Ellen, Ingrid Gould, and Justin Steil. The Dream Revisited: Contemporary Debates about Housing, Segregation, and Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. 78 Hyra, Derek S. Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. 79 Wessel, Terje. “DOES DIVERSITY IN URBAN SPACE ENHANCE INTERGROUP CONTACT AND TOLERANCE?” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 91, no. 1 (2009): 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2009.00303.x. 80 Hyra, Derek S. Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. 81 Fainstein, Susan S. “Cities and Diversity: Should We Want It? Can We Plan For It?” Urban Affairs Review 41, no. 1 (September 1, 2005): 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087405278968. 82 Ellen, Ingrid Gould, and Justin Steil. The Dream Revisited: Contemporary Debates about Housing, Segregation, and Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. 83
“All of Us: The Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration,” Greater London Authority, March 2018.
84
Chetty, Raj, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie Jones, and Sonya Porter. “Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective.” IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc, 2018. http://search.proquest.com/docview/2059107837/?pq-origsite=primo. 85 Wallis, Jim. America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2016. 86 Krysan, Maria, and Kyle Crowder. Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification. Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. 87 Krysan, Maria, and Kyle Crowder. Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification. Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. 88 Krysan, Maria, and Kyle Crowder. Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification. Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. 89 Vodar, Linda. “The Use of Racial Housing Quotas To Achieve Integrated Communities: The Oak Park Approach.” Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal 6, no. 1 (1975): 164. 90 Vodar, Linda. “The Use of Racial Housing Quotas To Achieve Integrated Communities: The Oak Park Approach.” Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal 6, no. 1 (1975): 164.
34 • OPPORTUNITY
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91
Hyra, Derek. “Greasing the Wheels of Social Integration: Housing and Beyond in Mixed-Income, Mixed-Race Neighborhoods.” Housing Policy Debate 25, no. 4 (October 2, 2015): 785–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2015.1042206. 92 Blumgart, Jake. “The Invisible Segregation of Diverse Neighborhoods.” Slate, July 24, 2017. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/07/why_even_diverse_neighborhoods_remain_segregated_by_race.html.
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36 • LITERATURE
Sharing More Than Space
W
hat does it mean, and take, for mixed-race or mixed-income communities to interact? Literature to date has focused on a range of factors, which are organized as follows into three categories of study and practice: People, or the role of biases, attitudes, and behaviors; Program, or the role of activities, uses, and programming; and Place, or the role of design and built form. Before uncovering some of these factors, though, they must be contextualized amid broader, racialized power dynamics in the society that we move through. As previously mentioned, this research is challenged by the threat that neighborhood diversity poses to bonding ties among communities of color, and by the uphill battle to fostering interracial bridging ties, given racially segregated social networks that are defined by inequities and power imbalances. Iris Marion Young’s “Five Faces of Oppression” helps situate some of the
underlying forces behind these challenges. Indeed, Young’s working definition of oppression distinguishes it from more overt discrimination. Oppression, she notes, “names the vast and deep injustices some groups suffer as a consequence of frequently unconscious assumptions and reactions of well-meaning people in ordinary interactions, media and cultural stereotypes, and structural features of the bureaucratic hierarchy and market mechanisms, in short, the normal ongoing processes of everyday life.” 93 As this study seeks to understand levels of social integration in racially diverse neighborhoods, any evaluation of “ongoing processes of everyday life” does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. Indeed, the behavioral, programmatic, and spatial dynamics I will observe are necessarily shaped by oppressive structures — structures that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities in the United States. Per Young’s “five faces,” these structures LITERATURE • 37
Eamon O'Connor
literature review in brief POWERLESSNESS M
CULT U
RAL
DOM
INAN CE
I AT
T OI
PL
EX
NA ARGI
ON
N
TIO LIZA
People
Place
uses and activities
space and design
Biases and blind spots animate our behaviors within our communities — making us more likely to antagonize from afar when segregated, and less likely to engage socially when statistically "integrated"
Social cohesion has been tied to the volume and variety of communitycentered institutions and programming in an area — a benefit that is under threat amid privatization of such services
Spatial design can create the conditions for engagement to take place across racial lines — facilitating the creation of "weak ties" by fostering physical connections and collective identity
may vary in the ways that they show up. They may present as exploitation, or when workers’ energies and capacities are controlled by and appropriated for the benefit of other people. They may present as marginalization, or when some are shut out of the market. They may present as powerlessness, or when some are not able to participate in processes or decisions that shape their lives. They may present as cultural dominance, or when one group’s experiences, culture, and history are deemed superior to all other groups’. Or, they may present as violence, which may be systematically directed at some groups over others.94 Any of the behavioral, programmatic and spatial factors in this section, then, cannot necessarily produce greater social integration without confronting and addressing these intertwined forces of oppression.
PEOPLE Biases and blind spots animate choices 38 • LITERATURE
Program
behaviors and choices
and behaviors in the built environment — creating pre-conceived mental maps that dictate where we choose to live and reproduce segregation.95 This is especially detrimental to the potential for racial integration and justice, for White attitudes toward Blacks only rise in negativity as segregation rises.96 And as Enos found in his study, even somewhat “proximate” segregation can lead to higher levels of extremism and polarization.97 This echoes findings at the community level that diversity in urban places is thwarted by a constant fear that ‘low status’ people and uses will hurt ‘high status’ people and uses, and vice versa.98 What’s more, even when communities do become statistically integrated by race or class, this does not translate to social integration — segregation reproduces itself on the ground in the ways residents move through spaces and the ways small businesses set up shop.99 100 101 As historically marginalized communities of color face gentrification and displacement,
VIO
LE
NC E
Sharing More Than Space planners increasingly confront such social realities, and are forced to grapple with how social expectations and customs intersect when residents move into and gentrify existing neighborhoods.102 103 But among residents, some studies have found a certain level of passivity in “building a bridge” — one study of residents in a mixed-race and mixedincome Milwaukee neighborhood found very little motivation among locals to seek out social integration.104 In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam crystallized such challenges facing mixed-race communities105, as did William Julius Wilson in his review of racial, ethnic, and class tensions in Chicago neighborhoods.106 In response, many conservative commentators seized these challenges an opportunity to decry the death of multiculturalism.107 But even with these setbacks to greater social integration, it has also been found that diverse communities are where social cohesion — and the benefits it yields — has the greatest potential of thriving.108 This only elevates the challenge of counteracting racial tensions in such contexts. As Emily Talen reflects, overcoming biases and attitudes, and shifting behaviors, will be no easy feat: “What these studies show is that neighborhood-level diversity and the tolerance and inclusiveness it requires is not, and never was, an easy row to hoe. No matter how enduring the power of a shared American dream, no matter how compelling our historical sense of the moral rightness of American pluralism, we are always going to have to work hard to make diversity in local contexts endure. It is not going to ‘just happen.’”109 Contact theory points a way toward creating the conditions for attitudes and behaviors to change in service of social integration — namely, promoting greater racial and socioeconomic equality in diverse communities to ensure equal group status, and providing opportunities for diverse groups to cooperate around common goals.110 111Indeed, Jonathan Kahn in Race on the Brain, cautions us from pointing to racialized attitudes and implicit biases as a crutch or distraction
from the deeper challenge of confronting structural inequality and tense race relations. Instead, he argues there should be increasing emphasis on shifting behaviors and policy in service of breaking down the barriers that inform biases and attitudes to begin with.112 Indeed, to realize the benefits of social integration, we will need to confront not just biases and attitudes — but behaviors and structures, too — head on.
PROGRAM Given these behavioral and attitudinal barriers, certain types of spaces have been cited as venues for greater interracial interaction. Jane Jacobs spoke of the need for a variety of uses that facilitate a blend of “cultural opportunities,” a “variety of scenes,” and a “great variety [in] population and other users.”113 Moreover, William Morrish and Catherine Brown identified five types of neighborhood assets — homes and gardens, community streets, neighborhood niches, anchoring institutions, public gardens — that should form the basis of community-oriented planning and design.114 More recently, Eric Klinenberg’s work has focused on the role of this variety in fostering social capital and neighborhood resilience. He discovered that certain programmatic features and spatial conditions — moreso than cultural or economic differences — determined one Chicago neighborhood’s resilience in a heat wave, and another’s comparatively high fatality rates. Specifically, he calls for investment in spaces and programming that can foster greater social interaction across difference — from cafes to libraries, from schools to community gardens.115 In his words, “It’s only through our shared experiences and shared attempts to solve common problems that we are going to make headway. We are not going to resolve our differences through moral persuasion. We are not going to work this out through debate, and it’s clearly not going to happen through the formal political process.”116 A variety of settings are indeed conducive LITERATURE • 39
Eamon O'Connor to social integration and mixing. Klinenberg conflict and customer turnover, however. Another recent study surfaced the dual spoke of the value of local libraries in 117 challenge and opportunity of these spaces: helping individuals confront differences. challenging, in that they may reinscribe Integrated schools, for example, have racial or socioeconomic differences and been found to generate greater mixed-race norms, but also community-centric, in that friend groups.118 And they don’t just benefit they are particularly malleable to different students, for children have been found to forms of customer use and engagement.126 be an essential ingredient in forming adult 119 Faced with these realities, Talen explores social connections. Moreover, leisure design interventions — detailed in the areas like community gardens have also next section — that more small-scale, been found to be shared sites for interracial dispersed anchor spaces in communities interaction because of free choice and selfcan consider to ensure they remain quasidetermination. Community gardens offer public spaces essential to promoting social such an opportunity, and were found to interaction in diverse communities.127 boost a sense of belonging.120 But even with effective programming, such open spaces and parks also bring with them the PLACE risk of reifying social separation121 and are more geographically dispersed, thus less There is disagreement in the literature able to foster social mixing.122 on the role that spatial design and Other types of venues that are more planning should play in promoting social dispersed in nature can also serve as engagement across identity groups. essential community anchors — such as For many, physical design and planning coffee shops, churches, theaters, and corner is seen as a critical tool in designing our markets — places of exchange and shared way out of exclusive and homogeneous experience that for decades have been conditions and toward more mixed-race cornerstones of daily social life.123 Indeed, and mixed-income communities.128129 as Klinenberg found in his research, “If But others, still, have found the you lived in a poor neighborhood that had approach of connecting physical form a dense and flourishing retail district, you to social goals to be overly controlling.130 were just more likely to be drawn out of Indeed, any attempts to build community your home and into areas where you would through spatial design have often led to establish social contacts.”124 overt exclusion or promotion of social And even with limitations of certain homogeneity.131 David Harvey even argued commercial spaces as “quasi-private” that a focus on community-building spaces, one study of coffee shops recently via design was commensurate with found that they actually skew more toward “surveillance bordering on overt social “quasi-public” spaces — but with mixed repression.”132 In many settings, placeresults. Indeed, the “territorial” customers based identity has become associated with were found to set rules on how much and “landscapes of privilege” and exclusion.133 And even if how long they spatial design is could engage in the used as a tool in space, regardless THERE IS DISAGREEMENT promoting social of management integration across intervention and ON THE ROLE THAT identities, it may the amount of SPATIAL DESIGN AND not necessarily money invested PLANNING SHOULD PLAY 125 be an effective in a purchase. IN PROMOTING SOCIAL one. In diverse This presented neighborhoods, drawbacks, ENGAGEMENT. physical proximity of course, to does not inter-customer 40 • LITERATURE
Sharing More Than Space necessarily guarantee interaction across groups, because of “boundaries” inscribed in spaces.134 For example, one recent study dissected the role of storefront signage features as signals of a place’s inclusion or exclusion to different demographic groups.135 However, interaction in close proximity is not necessarily needed to shape more tolerant attitudes — indeed, mere proximity in a diverse neighborhood may serve as a catalyst for tolerant attitudes.136 To get to the deeper level of engagement across race and income that is necessary for social integration to take shape, the role of spatial design largely rests on creating the conditions for such interactions. This includes stable access to housing, schools, and jobs, of course, but also other spatial factors. Scholars have hailed the importance of “smallness” in neighborhood commercial areas, for example — which begin to provide the basis of multiple ownership, and encourage a diversity of services.137 Other studies have noted the importance of safe crossings, traffic calming, and walkability can create the recurring, passive contact necessary to spark interactions.138 139As Rick Grannis found, “networks of neighborly relations” are tied to pedestrian connectivity and street networks.140 These findings suggest that spatial design can play a crucial role in laying the foundation for interactions to take place — facilitating essential “weak” social ties that open the door to deeper social integration.141 Emily Talen presents a range of spatial strategies for sustaining diverse interactions in mixed-income and mixedrace communities. Space for shared, pluralistic identity, for example, can become a “nuclear square” — and could be anywhere from a small plaza to a highly trafficked street corner.142 She advises locating such centers in areas on areas where “civic deserts” (e.g., an absence of libraries, schools, or community centers) overlap with high diversity in use and people.143 Talen also notes the importance of collective spaces for interactions
and encounters: “This is important in any neighborhood, but it is especially important in a diverse neighborhood as a way of counteracting the distrust or fear residents might be harboring about people unlike themselves … Collective space promotes interaction, providing a better chance for informal, voluntary control.”144 Such spaces, she deems, may need to be programmed without a specific agenda or goal, and should be optimized for both activation and proximity. In terms of activation, she speaks of the importance of reducing vacancies in commercial corridors, for example, as keys to boosting resident security. On proximity, she hails the potential of smaller, more geographically dispersed spaces — drawing on empirical evidence that users frequent shared, public spaces most often if they can walk to it, and if it is 3 to 5 minutes walking distance from their residence or workplace.145 146 She recommends boosting the potential for such spaces to serve as bridges by: promoting connectivity between institutions (e.g., via streetscape improvements); encouraging concentrations within a block, so that they comprise a mutually reinforcing network; and encouraging design of quasi-public spaces (e.g., small courtyards, parklets, or pocket parks) within their footprint to encourage community connections.147
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ENDNOTES 93 “Five Faces of Oppression.” Princeton University Press, 22. https://www.jstor.org/sta-
ble/j.ctvcm4g4q. 94 “Five Faces of Oppression.” Princeton University Press, 22. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcm4g4q. 95 Krysan, Maria, and Kyle Crowder. Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification. Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. 96 Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, and David G. Embrick. “‘Every Place Has a Ghetto...’: The Significance of Whites’ Social and Residential Segregation.” Symbolic Interaction; Hoboken 30, no. 3 (Summer 2007): 323–45. http://dx.doi.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1525/si.2007.30.3.323. 97 Enos, Ryan D. “How Segregation Leads to Racist Voting by Whites.” Vox, November 28, 2017. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/11/28/16707438/social-geography-trump-rise-segregation-psychology-racism. 98 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 99 Rich, Meghan Ashlin. “‘It Depends on How You Define Integrated’: Neighborhood Boundaries and Racial Integration in a Baltimore Neighborhood.” Sociological Forum 24, no. 4 (2009): 828–53. 100 Hyra, Derek S. Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. 101 Tredoux, Colin Getty, and John Andrew Dixon. “Mapping the Multiple Contexts of Racial Isolation: The Case of Long Street, Cape Town.” Urban Studies 46, no. 4 (April 1, 2009): 761–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009102128. 102 Agyeman, Julian. Introducing Just Sustainabilities Policy, Planning, and Practice. S.l.]: Sl: NBN International, 2013. http://portal.igpublish.com/iglibrary/search/NBNIB0003542.html. 103 “There Goes the ’hood : Views of Gentrification from the Ground up - Harvard University.” Accessed May 10, 2019. https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01HVD_ALMA212114191120003941&context=L&vid=HVD2&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=everything&query=any,contains,freeman%20there%20 goes%20the%20hood&sortby=rank&offset=0. 104 Spitz, Gina Ann. Neighbors or Strangers: Racial Diversity without Racial Integration in a Milwaukee Neighborhood, 2015. 105 Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. 106 Wilson, William J. There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, 2006. 107 Joppke, Christian. Is Multiculturalism Dead?: Crisis and Persistence in the Constitutional State. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA, USA: Polity Press, 2017. 108 Neal, Zachary. “Making Big Communities Small: Using Network Science to Understand the Ecological and Behavioral Requirements for Community Social Capital.” American Journal of Community Psychology 55, no. 3 (June 1, 2015): 369–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9720-4. 109 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 110 Anastasopoulos, L Jason. “A Formal Model of Segregation and Political Polarization,” n.d., 60. 111 Pettigrew, Thomas F., Linda R. Tropp, Ulrich Wagner, and Oliver Christ. “Recent Advances in Intergroup Contact Theory.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 35, no. 3 (2011): 271–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.03.001. 112 Kahn, Jonathan. Race on the Brain: What Implicit Bias Gets Wrong About the Struggle for Racial Justice. Columbia University Press, 2017. 113 Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. 114 “Planning to Stay : A Collaborative Project - Harvard University.” Accessed May 10, 2019.
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Sharing More Than Space https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01HVD_ALMA211939920010003941&context=L&vid=HVD2&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=everything&query=any,contains,PLANNING%20TO%20STAY&sortby=rank&offset=0. 115 Klinenberg, Eric. Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. First edition. New York: Crown, 2018. 116 Florida, Richard. “Why ‘Social Infrastructure’ Is the Key to Renewing Civil Society.” CityLab. Accessed May 10, 2019. https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/09/how-social-infrastructure-can-knit-america-together/569854/. 117 Klinenberg, Eric. Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. , 2018. Print. 118 Fischer, Mary. “Does Campus Diversity Promote Friendship Diversity? A Look at Interracial Friendships in College*.” Social Science Quarterly 89, no. 3 (2008): 631–655. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00552.x. 119 Gleeson, Brendan, and Neil Sipe. Creating Child Friendly Cities: New Perspectives and Prospects. London: Routledge, 2006. 120 Shinew, Kimberly J., Troy D. Glover, and Diana C. Parry. “Leisure Spaces as Potential Sites for Interracial Interaction: Community Gardens in Urban Areas.” Journal of Leisure Research; Urbana 36, no. 3 (Third Quarter 2004): 336–55. 121 Seaman, Peter J, Russell Jones, and Anne Ellaway. “It’s Not Just about the Park, It’s about Integration Too: Why People Choose to Use or Not Use Urban Greenspaces.” The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 7 (October 28, 2010): 78. https://doi. org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-78. 122 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 123 Burgess, Patricia. “Local Attachments: The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920. By Alexander von Hoffman · Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Xxiv + 311 Pp. Illustrations, Maps, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. $39.95. ISBN 0-8018-4710-9. (Book Review).” Business History Review 68, no. 04 (1994): 583–585. https://doi. org/10.2307/3117200. 124 Florida, Richard. “Why ‘Social Infrastructure’ Is the Key to Renewing Civil Society.” CityLab. Accessed May 10, 2019. https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/09/how-social-infrastructure-can-knit-america-together/569854/. 125 Griffiths, M. A., & Gilly, M. C. (2012). Dibs! Customer Territorial Behaviors. Journal of Service Research, 15(2), 131–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670511430530 126 Pozos-Brewer, Rose. “Coffee Shops: Exploring Urban Sociability and Social Class in the Intersection of Public and Private Space,” n.d., 115. 127 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 128 Cortright, Joe. “Identifying America’s Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods,” City Observatory (June 2018). 129 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 130 Talen, Emily. “Sense of Community and Neighbourhood Form: An Assessment of the Social Doctrine of New Urbanism.” Urban Studies 36, no. 8 (1999): 1361–1379. https://doi. org/10.1080/0042098993033. 131 Silver, Christopher. “Neighborhood Planning in Historical Perspective.” Journal of the American Planning Association 51, no. 2 (1985): 161–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944368508976207. 132 Harvey, David. “The New Urbanism and the communitarian trap.” Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring (1997), p. 68-69. 133 Duncan, James S. Landscapes of Privilege: The Politics of the Aesthetic in an American Suburb. New York: Routledge, 2004. 134 Wessel, Terje. “DOES DIVERSITY IN URBAN SPACE ENHANCE INTERGROUP CONTACT AND TOLERANCE?” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 91, no. 1 (2009): 5–17.
LITERATURE • 43
Eamon O'Connor https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2009.00303.x. 135 Trinch, Shonna, and Edward Snajdr. What the Signs Say: Gentrification and the Disappearance of Capitalism without Distinction in Brooklyn. Vol. 21, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12212. 136 Wessel, Terje. “DOES DIVERSITY IN URBAN SPACE ENHANCE INTERGROUP CONTACT AND TOLERANCE?” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 91, no. 1 (2009): 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2009.00303.x. 137 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 138 Fischer, Claude S. To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. 139 Gehl, Jan. Life between Buildings: Using Public Space. 6th ed. Copenhagen]: The Danish Architectural Press, 2006. 140 “T-Communities: Pedestrian Street Networks and Residential Segregation in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York - Harvard University.” Accessed May 10, 2019. https://hollis.harvard. edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_proquest218969271&context=PC&vid=HVD2&lang=en_ US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=everything&query=any,contains,rick%20grannis%20t-communities&sortby=rank&offset=0. 141 Skjaeveland, Oddvar, and Tommy Garling. “EFFECTS OF INTERACTIONAL SPACE ON NEIGHBOURING.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 17, no. 3 (1997): 181–198. https://doi. org/10.1006/jevp.1997.0054. 142 Zucker, Paul. Town and Square: From the Agora to the Village Green. 1st M.I.T. Press paperback ed. Cambridge: MITPress, 1970. 143 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 144 Ibid. 145 Ibid. 146 Kaplan, R., & Kaplan, Stephen. The experience of nature : A psychological perspective. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 147 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008.
44 • LITERATURE
Sharing More Than Space
LITERATURE • 45
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46 • GEOGRAPHY
Sharing More Than Space
S
electing a setting for studying social integration across race is no small challenge in the United State. First, what type of space(s) can help to illuminate our understanding of how people of different races engage with one another? Second, in a persistently segregated country, what neighborhoods might provide sufficient diversity to explore interracial dynamics to begin with? This section provides an overview of the typological challenge and opportunity presented by commercial corridors, and the site challenge and opportunity presented by Nostrand Avenue in New York City’s Crown Heights neighborhood.
TYPOLOGY By selecting the neighborhood commercial corridor as a typology of focus, I will be evaluating the nature and depth of interracial interactions in a space that offers its own challenges and opportunities. The corridor, compared to other neighborhood
spaces, has seen less robust study. Some studies of more sustained interaction — in community gardens148 and universities149 — begin to show some promise in dismantling and rewiring these segregated networks. But even so, these present just two settings, and recent research has called for greater understanding of the “micro-level” dynamics that animate segregated and integrated communities alike.150 151 Corridors present a compelling typology for a case study, one that has been documented to some degree through the lens of race.152 But studies of segregation and integration along corridors have largely focused on consumer choice at a citywide scale,153 or on the impact of segregation on access to goods and services.154 Indeed, corridors present both a challenge and an opportunity because they sit in a blurry middle ground between public and private space. The quasi-public third spaces there provide, in the words of New York City Public Design Commission Executive Director Justin Garrett GEOGRAPHY • 47
Eamon O'Connor Moore, opportunities for “many of the important and even defining exchanges, interactions, and even altercations that help define our human experience of the city.”155 What’s more, at a time of declining public investment in and public use of community facilities (e.g., community centers, libraries), commercial areas may increasingly play a role as neighborhood social hubs.156 With this grey area comes great variety: in program, through a range of uses on the spectrum from public to private; in place, through a range of spatial elements, from storefronts to signage to sidewalks; and in people, through a diversity of interaction types, depths, locations, lengths, and times of day — among a range of different actors.
SITE I grounded site selection in a comparison of multiple cities, and multiple corridors within them. I ultimately decided on New York City because of its high levels of racial diversity, number of high-density corridors where I could sufficiently observe activity, and shifting demographics, particularly in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Within New York City, which faces persistent segregation citywide157, I focus in on the Crown Heights neighborhood and a 10-block stretch of its commercial spine, Nostrand Avenue. Compared to the city as a whole, the neighborhood is more integrated by the numbers. Indeed, its population is 56.2 percent Black, 23.5 percent White, 12.1 percent Latino, and 4.1 percent Asian. Historically home to strong African-American, West Indian, and Hasidic Jewish communities, its racial diversity is on the rise. As of 2016, it was ranked 25th among New York City neighborhoods in terms of racial diversity (an index which gauges the probability that two randomly chosen people in a geographic area will be of a different city). That ranking jumped from 50th in 2010, representing a 67% spike in racial diversity in just six years, largely due to the influx of more White, affluent residents.158
48 • GEOGRAPHY
As a community, Crown Heights has long toed the line between racial conflict and cohesion — making it a fitting neighborhood for a study on social integration. From the early to mid 1800s, Weeksville, as the broader area was called at the time, was home to the secondlargest community of free Blacks in the country. As European migration swelled in the early 20th century, the neighborhood grew increasingly integrated, a standardbearer for the broader city and home to Brooklyn’s first integrated public school. Redlining, White flight, and disinvestment in the mid-20th century, however, returned it to a relatively homogeneous, segregated reality.159 Toward the end of the 20th century, conflict flared up between the neighborhood’s Black and Hasidic Jewish communities, following the accidental death of Gavin Cato, a sevenyear-old Black boy who was IN CONTEXT accidentally The 10-block site is run over by a bounded by Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Hasidic Jewish Avenue, and includes a driver. The range of amenities. event became a touchstone moment in American race relations, sparking violence and debate around the role of policing, medical services, and anti-Semitism in its wake. In the years since, the neighborhood has built up an infrastructure of community organizations and leaders focused on reconciliation. As a retrospective look by The New Yorker found in 2011, “The Black and Jewish residents of Crown Heights ‘have spent a lot of time listening to each other,’ Rabbi Bob Kaplan of the Jewish Community Relations Council told The Jewish Week, in a change from earlier days. Members of local grassroots organizations say they have seen an improvement in relations— pleasant working environments and more eye contact and greetings on the streets.”160 This reconciliation process
PROSPECT PROSPECT HEIGHTS HEIGHTS
Brooklyn Brooklyn Botanical Garden Garden Botanical
BEDFORDBEDFORDSTUYVESANT STUYVESANT
Sharing More Than Space
nostrand avenue
FFrraannk klilinn AAve vennuuee
Atlant antic Atl ic Ave Avenue nue
CROWN CROWN HEIGHTS HEIGHTS Brower Brower Park Park
St. John's John's St. Park Park
Eastern tern Par Eas Parkwa kwayy
PROSPECT PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENS GARDENS LEFFERTS
GEOGRAPHY • 49
Eamon O'Connor
has been met with skepticism by others, conflict surrounds gentrification dynamics who still see divides between the two in the neighborhood. Indeed, residential 161 populations. The author of The New sales prices spiked by 14 percent between Yorker’s retrospective, herself a local 2016 and 2017 — versus a 10 percent Black resident, felt differently: “But the increase in Brooklyn and an 8.3 percent Crown Heights that I know is one that jump citywide during that same period.163 remembers its past, but doesn’t dwell on New, White residents are also buying much it. In places like Basil Pizza and Wine Bar, of the property in the neighborhood. Since just blocks north of my old apartment 2012 the three census tracts covered along and which has famously fused a mixed the corridor have seen an average of 62 Black and Jewish staff and clientele, percent of home loans go to White buyers the atmosphere is convivial. On school — with the highest percentages going to days, kids horse around outside of both White homebuyers on the northern and the public school and the neighboring southern transit-proximate ends of the yeshiva on wide, calm streets. In a sense, corridor. what was once, at one moment in New The neighborhood has also seen major changes in its business environment. York’s history, very important to Blacks According to data from the New York City and Jews — their strained relationship Comptroller, the Crown Heights North — has simply become less of an issue. and Prospect Heights neighborhoods Whatever the distance between them, the have seen a 28 two communities percent growth in can celebrate that the neighborhood their lives are retail trade (the CROWN HEIGHTS OVER TIME led peacefully, in fourth highest The area has long been shaped by demographic shifts, a shared urban from its days as a haven for free blacks, to its growth rate of all 162 space.” current gentrification challenges. 59 community Crown Heights’ (Diagram is an approximation based on available data.) districts in the newest source of
BK'S 1ST INTEGRATED SCHOOL
REDLINING & WHITE FLIGHT
1991 RACE RIOTS
RISING GENTRIFICATION
RACIAL DIVERSITY
A FREE BLACK COMMUNITY
0
185
50 • GEOGRAPHY
0
190
0
195
0
0 20
9
1 20
Sharing More Than Space
“A lot of my neighbors have gotten priced out so I socialize here less, but I like my new ones.”
“I do worry about some of the businesses I go to — I go to the hardware store around the corner from me a lot and it’s pretty empty all the time.”
“This neighborhood is the best ever now. I’ve been living here for 22 years. They tried to buy me out, but no way.”
RESIDENTIAL
COMMERCIAL
25th 4th
in 2016 city racial diversity ratings, from 50th in 2010, largely due to more White residents
highest retail trade growth rate (28%) of all NYC community districts between 2000 and 2010
“Sometimes when you go into black-owned businesses, you might think, only black people are going to come in and support. There have been all types of people who support these businesses.”
14% 74%
jump in residential sale prices from 2016 to 2017, vs. 10% and 8% in Brooklyn and citywide, respectively
jump in food/drink service establishments from 2010 to 2016 (2nd highest in the city)
62% 38%
of home loans have gone to White buyers along the corridor's three census tracts
of jobs in NYC’s 24 gentrifying neighborhoods are filled by Whites, despite being 28% of the population
city), and a jump A later arrival of 74 percent to gentrification in food and scares than some drinking service of its Brooklyn CHANGES AFOOT establishments peers, the area In recent years, the neighborhood has seen major changes in residents and retail alike. between 2010 and has strong assets 2016 (the second at its disposal: a highest growth robust community 164 rate among community districts). These activist and tenants’ rights network,167 a changes occur in the context of broader burgeoning anti-displacement alliance dynamics around local business and job between the local Hasidic Jewish and Black growth in the city — where new businesses populations,168 as well as a high number of and jobs in gentrifying neighborhoods go and support for Black-owned businesses.169 disproportionately to White residents: “In As for the bullet-hole bar? The business has the city’s 24 gentrifying neighborhoods, been reclaimed by many Black residents, only 28 percent of the residential and is undergoing a rebrand.170 Together, population is White, but 38 percent of all these factors could portend greater local jobs are filled by White employees, cohesion amid demographic change including 47 percent of higher-wage jobs — especially compared to the “social (paying more than $40,000 per year).”165 cleansing” experienced in neighborhoods On the ground, recent business openings like Williamsburg.171 on or around Nostrand Avenue have incited outcry — whether one bar that took on a racially charged name, or another that that fetishized gun violence by retaining a bullet-hole wall.166 But amid this anxiety, there are signs the corridor may be standing its ground.
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ENDNOTES 148 Kimberly J. Shinew, Troy D. Glover, and Diana C. Parry, “Leisure Spaces as Potential
Sites for Interracial Interaction: Community Gardens in Urban Areas,” Journal of Leisure Research; Urbana 36, no. 3 (Third Quarter 2004): 336–55. 149 Mary Fischer, “Does Campus Diversity Promote Friendship Diversity? A Look at Interracial Friendships in College*,” Social Science Quarterly 89, no. 3 (2008): 631–655, https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00552.x. 150 Derek Hyra, “Greasing the Wheels of Social Integration: Housing and Beyond in Mixed-Income, Mixed-Race Neighborhoods,” Housing Policy Debate 25, no. 4 (October 2, 2015): 785–88, https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2015.1042206. 151 Colin Getty Tredoux and John Andrew Dixon, “Mapping the Multiple Contexts of Racial Isolation: The Case of Long Street, Cape Town,” Urban Studies 46, no. 4 (April 1, 2009): 761–77, https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009102128. 152 “Rosten Woo - Street Value,” accessed October 19, 2018, http://rostenwoo.biz/index.php/ streetvalue. 153 Dingel Davis and Morales Monras, “How Segregated Is Urban Consumption?,” n.d., 105. 154 Mia Bay and Ann Fabian, Race and Retail: Consumption across the Color Line, Rutgers Studies in Race and Ethnicity (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2015), http://nrs. harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebookbatch.PMUSE_batch:20170722muse45518. 155 Budds, Diana. 2018. “It’s Time to Take Back Third Places.” Curbed. May 31, 2018. https:// www.curbed.com/2018/5/31/17414768/starbucks-third-place-bathroom-public. 156 “City Observatory.” City Observatory, June 9, 2015. http://cityobservatory.org/less-incommon. 157 “Analysis | America Is More Diverse than Ever — but Still Segregated.” n.d. Washington Post. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/segregation-us-cities/. 158 “Crown Heights/Prospect Heights Neighborhood Profile – NYU Furman Center.” n.d. Accessed December 13, 2018. http://furmancenter.org/neighborhoods/view/crown-heights-prospect-heights. 159 “The History of Weeksville: When Crown Heights Had the Second-Largest Free Black Community in the U.S.” n.d. 6sqft. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.6sqft.com/the-history-of-weeksville-when-crown-heights-had-the-second-largest-free-black-community-in-the-u-s/. 160 Okeowo, Alexis. “Crown Heights, Twenty Years After the Riots,” August 19, 2011. http:// www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/crown-heights-twenty-years-after-the-riots. 161 “A Changing Crown Heights Marks 25 Years since Brooklyn ‘Pogrom.’” 2016. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (blog). August 15, 2016. https://www.jta.org/2016/08/15/united-states/a-changing-crown-heights-marks-25-years-since-brooklyn-pogrom. 162 Okeowo, Alexis. “Crown Heights, Twenty Years After the Riots,” August 19, 2011. http:// www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/crown-heights-twenty-years-after-the-riots. 163 “Crown Heights/Prospect Heights Neighborhood Profile – NYU Furman Center.” n.d. Accessed December 13, 2018. http://furmancenter.org/neighborhoods/view/crown-heights-prospect-heights. 164 Analysis of “NYC Neighborhood Economic Profiles.” Office of the New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/nyc-neighborhood-economic-profiles/. 165 “NYC Neighborhood Economic Profiles.” Office of the New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/nyc-neighborhood-economic-profiles/. 166 Rosner, Helen. 2017. “A Restaurant’s Fake ‘Bullet Holes’ Cause Controversy in Brooklyn.” Eater. July 24, 2017. https://www.eater.com/2017/7/24/16019888/summerhill-brooklyn-gentrification-boycott. 167 “The Last Battle for Brooklyn, America’s Most Unaffordable Place to Buy a Home | Cities | The Guardian.” n.d. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/
52 • GEOGRAPHY
Sharing More Than Space oct/03/last-battle-brooklyn-new-york-americas-most-unaffordable-place-buy-home. 168 FractenbergJune 20, Ben, and 2018Ben Fractenberg. “Will Crown Heights Blacks And Jews Unite Against Gentrification?” The Forward. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://forward.com/ news/403127/will-crown-heights-blacks-and-jews-unite-against-gentrification/. 169 “Three Black-Owned Bars in Brooklyn Stand Their Ground In Contested Space - Eater.” n.d. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.eater.com/2018/4/18/17109872/ black-owned-bars-brooklyn-gentrification. 170 Dai, Serena. 2018. “Once-‘Racist’ Brooklyn Bar Summerhill Now Attracts Tons of Black Patrons.” Eater NY. July 16, 2018. https://ny.eater.com/2018/7/16/17576200/summerhill-brooklyn-controversy-crowds-black-clientele. 171 “The Last Battle for Brooklyn, America’s Most Unaffordable Place to Buy a Home | Cities | The Guardian.” n.d. Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/ oct/03/last-battle-brooklyn-new-york-americas-most-unaffordable-place-buy-home.
GEOGRAPHY • 53
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54 • METHODOLOGY
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T
he case study method afforded an opportunity to gain close-up understanding of the dynamics behind interracial interaction along commercial corridors. My methodology for data collection relied on a mix of methods for gathering information on “program” (uses), “place” (spatial elements), and “people” (interactions) along the corridor. “Program” data were used to identify how programmatic elements relate to observations and findings from the “People” data (e.g., mapping use information against individuals’ reports of integrated gathering spots). “Place” data were used to identify how spatial elements relate to observations and findings from the “People” data (e.g., mapping spatial features like greenery or small open spaces against individuals’ reports of integrated gathering spots). Taking stock of these methods required a deliberate approach. First, I focused on analysis of each type of data collected,
noting key trends. Second, I triangulated findings from each data source against one another to surface broader trends that cut across data sources. Following this triangulation process, I synthesized my findings into a set of eight factors that were found to inform social integration in the corridor. These are detailed in the next chapter. A more detailed description of my methodology is below. All supplementary materials and tools for these methods can be found in the appendix.
PROGRAM Collection This portion of my data collection sought to identify patterns in use along the corridor. I mapped all buildings along the corridor based on the following dimensions: • Location (Address, Block, Side of METHODOLOGY • 55
Eamon O'Connor Corridor) • Name • Category ɐɐ Arts & Culture ɐɐ Beauty ɐɐ Community Services ɐɐ Financial Services ɐɐ Food & Drink ɐɐ Grocery ɐɐ Health ɐɐ Lifestyle ɐɐ Professional Services ɐɐ Religious; Substances ɐɐ Utility ɐɐ Vacant • Gathering Level ɐɐ 1 = Low gathering ɐɐ 2 = Medium gathering ɐɐ 3 = High gathering • Price Point (determined based on a triangulation of Yelp ratings and available product prices) ɐɐ 1 = Low-priced ɐɐ 2 = Mid-priced ɐɐ 3 = High-priced • Transparency ɐɐ 1 = Low transparency (25 percent or less of storefront interior visible) ɐɐ 2 = Medium transparency (25 to 75 percent of storefront interior visible) ɐɐ 3 = High transparency (75 percent or more of storefront visible) • Condition ɐɐ 1 = poor condition ɐɐ 2 = moderate condition ɐɐ 3 = good condition, based on evaluation of storefront quality
Documentation I documented this data by hand using the template found in the Appendix; the template also included fields for counts of customer demographics, detailed in the ‘People’ section that follows. Completed templates were then entered into a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Analysis
56 • METHODOLOGY
Analysis involved mapping of storefront gathering level, price point, transparency and condition levels, to surface trends along the corridor. It also involved quantitative analysis of the data, namely the percentage of each storefront within each of the dimensions tracked: category; gathering level; price point; transparency; and condition.
PLACE
Program
People
Collection This portion of my data collection sought to identify patterns in spatial elements along the corridor. I collected data on the following factors: • Buildings ɐɐ Height ɐɐ Style ɐɐ Quality • Sidewalks & Crosswalks ɐɐ Width ɐɐ Condition • Streets ɐɐ Width ɐɐ Modes of transit ɐɐ Traffic volume ɐɐ Condition • Open Space ɐɐ Trees ɐɐ Pocket parks / parklets ɐɐ Planters ɐɐ Community gardens • Transit ɐɐ Stops ɐɐ Modes • Infrastructure ɐɐ Lighting ɐɐ Trashcans ɐɐ Street furniture (e.g., benches, seating) ɐɐ Bike racks ɐɐ LinkNYC terminals • Storefront ɐɐ Condition (collected via Program inventory) ɐɐ Transparency (collected via Program inventory)
Place
Sharing More Than Space CATEGORY
PROGRAM INVENTORY
199 storefronts
PRICE POINT GATHERING LEVEL STOREFRONT SOCIAL INTEGRATION
344 public realm 68 storefront
OBSERVATIONS PUBLIC REALM INTEGRATION GENERAL SOCIAL PATTERNS
58 surveys
SURVEYS INTERRACIAL SOCIAL PATTERNS EXPERIENCE WITH NEIGHBORHOOD
INTERVIEWS
11 local interviews
PERCEPTION OF INTEGRATION POTENTIAL FOR MORE INTEGRATION STOREFRONTS
SPATIAL INVENTORY
various
OPEN / GREEN SPACE INFRASTRUCTURE
METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW Three streams of data collection were complemented by interviews with experts
Documentation
Collection
I documented this data by hand, on a block-by-block bases, on the templates found in the Appendix. I then mapped these digitally.
Throughout the corridor, I observed social interactions in the public realm over the course of an eight hours during a calendar week in January. Sixteen 30-minute observation shifts took place at an even distribution of times of day (Morning: 8AM-9AM; Midday: 11:30AM12:30PM; Afternoon: 3:00PM-4:00PM; and Evening: 6:30PM-7:30PM), at an even distribution of locations (four visits each to four equally sized “zones” along the corridor), and a at a proportional distribution of weekday and weekend visits (three visits per zone on weekdays, 1 visit per zone on weekends). For these public realm observations, the following information was tracked about each social interaction observed during the 30-minute window:
Analysis Through mapping, I identified key clusters or gaps in incidence of certain spatial conditions.
PEOPLE This portion of my data collection sought to identify patterns in interactions along the corridor. I used the following methods to gain a better understanding of interactions across race and class lines:
Public Realm Observations
• Length of Interaction METHODOLOGY • 57
Eamon O'Connor ɐɐ Short (2 minutes or less) ɐɐ Medium (2-10 minutes) ɐɐ Long (10 minutes or more) • Depth of Interaction ɐɐ Acknowledgement (Nod, wave, greeting) ɐɐ Friendliness (Exchange, pleasantries, hug) ɐɐ Engagement (Conversation, activity, walk) • Perceived Demographics ɐɐ Race / Ethnicity (Asian; Black; Latinx; White; Other) ɐɐ Gender (Male; Female; Other) ɐɐ Age (Under 18; 18-70; Over 70)
Documentation I tracked observations by hand using the worksheet in the Appendix, and then
entered the data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Analysis I analyzed the data by conducting quantitative analysis of length of interactions, depth of interactions, and splits in interracial and interracial interactions — breaking all of them out by zone and race, where applicable.
Storefront Observations Collection Throughout the corridor, I conducted point-in-time observations of clienteles within a subset of storefronts, selected based on whether they were rated as “medium” or “high” in gathering level
OBSERVATION / INTERCEPT ZONES Survey and observation time was equally distributed across for equally sized "zones."
ZONE
1
4 1 3 1
ZONE
2
COVERAGE PER ZONE HOURS OF OBSERVATION (2 HOURS) / SURVEY (2 HOURS) HOUR EACH OF MORNING, MIDDAY, AFTERNOON, EVENING HOURS ON WEEKDAYS HOUR ON WEEKENDS
58 • METHODOLOGY
ZONE
3
Sharing More Than Space (tracked in Program data collection). I conducted point-in-time observations at periods of time that were representative of each business focus (e.g., observing a café in the morning or afternoon, rather than just before closing, and a bar in the evening rather than the afternoon). I tracked the following information to gauge general racial diversity within the storefront, and the level of racial integration of groups within storefronts: • Demographics (number of perceived Asian customers; number of perceived Black customers; number of perceived Latinx customers; number of White customers; number of ‘Other’ customers) • Number of total groups • Number of mixed-race groups
Documentation I documented counts by hand, on the Program worksheets, found in the appendix, and in select cases, digitally via Google Sheets on a mobile phone. I then entered the counts into a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Analysis I conducted basic quantitative analysis of the storefronts selected for observation to determine the percentage that hosted diverse clienteles, the percentage that hosted groups, and the percentage of those with groups that hosted integrated, mixedrace groups.
ZONE
4
Observation Points
Intercept Surveys Collection I conducted intercept surveys following each 30-minute public realm observation shift, for another 30-minute period. They fulfilled the same even distribution of times and locations as the public realm observations did. I fielded intercept surveys from people on their street to gauge their attitudes and behaviors toward
integration and interaction across racial lines. Specifically, I measured the following factors: • Familiarity With Neighborhood ɐɐ Very ɐɐ Somewhat ɐɐ Not at all • Frequency of Socializing in the Neighborhood ɐɐ Very often (2+ times per week) ɐɐ Somewhat often (4-6 times per month) ɐɐ Not very often (2 times per month or fewer) • Place of Socializing in the Neighborhood (Check all that apply) ɐɐ Home ɐɐ School ɐɐ Parks / open space ɐɐ Religious spaces ɐɐ Transit ɐɐ Commercial areas ɐɐ Community services ɐɐ Other ɐɐ Specific places mentioned within these categories • Frequency of Socializing With People of Different Races in the Neighborhood ɐɐ Very often (2+ times per week) ɐɐ Somewhat often (4-6 times per month) ɐɐ Not very often (2 times per month or fewer) • Frequency of Socializing With People of Different Income Levels in the Neighborhood ɐɐ Very often (2+ times per week) ɐɐ Somewhat often (4-6 times per month) ɐɐ Not very often (2 times per month or fewer) • Interest in Interaction With People of Different Races / Income Levels ɐɐ Definitely ɐɐ Maybe ɐɐ Not really • Demographic Information ɐɐ Race / Ethnicity (Asian; Black; Latinx; White; Other) METHODOLOGY • 59
Eamon O'Connor
survey respondents in brief
58
respondents
58%
report being "very familiar" with the area; the remainder are "somewhat familiar"
46%
say they socialize in the neighborhood "somewhat often" (35% report "very often"; 19% report "not very often")
ɐɐ Gender (Male; Female; NonBinary / Third Gender; Prefer to Self-Describe; Prefer Not to Say) ɐɐ Income ($45,000 and under; $45,001-$85,000; $85,001$100,000; $100,001 and over) ɐɐ Relationship to area (Business Owner; Employee / worker; Resident; Local NYC visitor; Tourist; Other) ɐɐ Age (17 and under; 18-34; 35-50; 51-70; 70 and over)
Documentation I documented survey responses by hand for respondents in most cases, because of the cold, but had them fill out surveys in select cases. I then entered the survey data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet, including specific locations mentioned as venues 60 • METHODOLOGY
SURVEY
NEIGHBORHOOD
Asian
4.8%
4.1%
Black
41.9%
56.2%
Latinx
9.7%
12.1%
White
40.3%
23.5%
Other
3.2%
Female
60.3%
54.8%
Male
41.9%
45.2%
Prefer Not to Say
1.7%
$45,000 and Under
31.03%
$45,001 - $65,000
25.9%
$65,001 - $100,000
13.8%
$100,001 and Over
13.8%
Prefer Not to Say
15.5%
for socializing, and other comments from survey respondents.
Analysis I conducted basic quantitative analysis of responses to each survey question, breaking out by race, age, and income level. I also mapped respondent mentions of specific places where they socialized, marking by race. Along with the interviewee mentions, I then was able to identify clusters of social activity in the area, and any places where there appeared to be more or less social integration across race.
Semi-Structured Interviews Collection I conducted semi-structured interviews to gain deeper, more nuanced understanding
$45,776 MEDIAN
Sharing More Than Space
interviewees in brief GENDER
RACE
TENURE
PRICE POINT
BUSINESS TYPE
M
BLACK (AFRICANAMERICAN)
ESTABLISHED
N/A
CIVIC ORGANIZATION
M
ASIAN
NEW
$$
RESTAURANT
M
WHITE (JEWISH)
SOMEWHAT ESTABLISHED
$$
BAGEL SHOP
M
LATINX
SOMEWHAT ESTABLISHED
$$
CAFE
M
WHITE
ESTABLISHED
N/A
N/A
M
LATINX
ESTABLISHED
$
BARBER
M
WHITE
ESTABLISHED
N/A
ARTIST
F
BLACK (AFRICANAMERICAN)
ESTABLISHED
$$
DANCE STUDIO
F
BLACK (WEST INDIAN)
ESTABLISHED
N/A
N/A
F
ASIAN
NEW
N/A
N/A
F
WHITE (JEWISH)
SOMEWHAT ESTABLISHED
N/A
COMMUNITY SERVICE
on corridor dynamics around integration from formal and informal ‘experts’. Interviewees were selected to represent a diversity of local residents, small businesses, and community organizations based on a range of measures: race; price point (if applicable); gender; and tenure in the neighborhood. A detailed interview protocol can be found in the appendix, along with the documentation form used for note-taking. Interviews focused on the following three parts: • Experience With the Neighborhood • Definition and Evaluation of the Current State of Social Integration • Opportunities for Deeper Social Integration
Documentation
I filmed eight of the interviewees on camera for a companion short film, and had them sign a brief consent form before beginning the interview. All interviews were recorded, and I took supplementary hand-written notes during the interview itself. Nine of the 10 interviewees also completed three brief mapping exercises, which I mapped and are delineated in further detail on the Protocol document in the appendix.
Analysis Following the interviews, I transcribed and coded interviews using a bottomup approach. I tracked each mention of a discrete factor discovered to promote or detract from social integration in a spreadsheet — and then grouped these factors into sub-themes within the
METHODOLOGY • 61
Eamon O'Connor categories of People, Program, and Place, with the addition of Policy to account for interview content. I then conducted a brief quantitative analysis to gauge incidence of sub-themes and People / Program / Policy / Place themes among all interviewees. For the mental maps that interviewees completed, I first included their reported sites of socializing on the same map as that created for survey respondents, marking by race. I also mapped the sites where they perceived racial and socioeconomic integration and segregation, and then observed if there were any ways of alignment or dissonance among interviewees.
62 • METHODOLOGY
Sharing More Than Space
METHODOLOGY • 63
Eamon O'Connor
64 • FINDINGS
Sharing More Than Space
T
he findings that follow indicate that the Crown Heights neighborhood and its Nostrand Avenue corridor sees moderate to low levels of social integration. This is largely due to reasons acknowledged in previous chapters — namely, the power imbalances wrought by gentrification and racial inequities in the neighborhood. Even still, data analysis, interviews, and surveys yielded a set of eight factors — contextualized by four broader forces — that will might begin to foster greater social integration across race and class in the neighborhood. These factors are categorized into the research areas of People, Program, Place, with the addition of Policy, to account for topics surfaced in the interview process.
HOW SOCIALLY INTEGRATED IS THE NEIGHBORHOOD? Before evaluating the factors that might promote more social integration across
identity lines in corridors like Nostrand Avenue, it is helpful to understand the current state of social integration more generally within the area. Three important contextual findings emerged during the research process. People report that most of their social interactions take place in commercial areas Survey respondents were asked to identify the places where they most often socialized with others in the neighborhood. Compared to other categories, commercial areas were cited most often (30 percent of respondents) — followed by homes (24 percent of respondents) and parks (15 percent of respondents). The prevalence of commercial areas as venues for socializing was consistent across demographic groups; Asian, Black, Latinx, and White respondents all cited commercial areas most often. This elevates the crucial opportunity there is to leverage commercial areas as venues for community building. It is important to note that the preference FINDINGS • 65
Eamon O'Connor
most people say they TEND TO socialize in commercial areas
29%
COMMERCIAL AREAS To f
RAN
KLIN
24% HOMES
To No
stran
d
15% PARKS
8%
RELIGIOUS SPACES
8% TRANSIT
5% 5%
SCHOOLS
COMM. SVCS
How socially integrated is Crown Heights, anyway?
ITE
WH K AC
BL N
IA AS
INX
T LA
COLINA CUERVO
TWO SAINTS
GLORIA’S
SUPER POWER
CAFE
BAR
CARIBBEAN EATERY
TIKI BAR
how often do you hang out in the area?
46% SOMEWHAT OFTEN
35%
VERY OFTEN
19%
NOT VERY OFTEN
PEOPLE SAY THEY MIX ACROSS DIFFERENCES PRETTY FREQUENTLY FRANKLIN AVE HAUNTS
NOSTRAND AVE SOUTH
BROOKLYN CHILDREN'S MUSEUM & BROWER PARK
DIFFERENT RACES
21
23 12
these were their favorite spots IN THE AREA
66 • FINDINGS
VERY OFTEN
SOMEWHAT OFTEN
NOT VERY OFTEN
19
19
15
DIFFERENT INCOMES
Sharing More Than Space
some say yes
"People are incredibly friendly in Crown Heights." "I don’t think Crown Heights is socially integrated."
"The whole neighborhood is community-driven." "People just hang out in their apartments, with their circle."
some say no
say, "definitely" er s gh t hi on as fr w e t or bu st in
% 18
l cia es so rac alm ss re ro ic ac bl d pu rre e d cu rv oc se ns ob tio of rac e int
OUTDOORS
ra in re teg in ra pu tio bl n ic wa sp s ac e
88%
32 %
9%
of interactions were rated mid or low engagement, meaning few people stopped to nod or say hello on the street
INDOORS
10%
of all 344 public realm interactions were 5 minutes or less, meaning there were few brief exchanges or chats
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN MORE OPPORTUNIITIES TO INTERACT WITH NEIGHBORS OF DIFFERENT RACES AND CLASSES THAN YOUR OWN?
of g ba roup se s d in on st po ore int fro -in nt -ti s w m er eo e bs mix er ed va tio rac ns e,
few pleasantries
placed on commercial areas as spots for socializing may also be reflective of two other factors: first, the relative dearth of parks in the immediate area (Brower Park is about five blocks away, and Prospect Park about eight blocks away from the midpoint of Nostrand Avenue); and second, the lack of central community infrastructure such as libraries and recreation centers in the immediate (1-2-block) area. (Repair the World, a local chapter of a national nonprofit, is located on Nostrand Avenue and provides free community space and offers space for variety of programming, from theater rehearsals to mentoring.) But within the public realm, ‘neighborliness’ was markedly limited Observations of social interactions in the public realm reflected the degree to which there are few “neighborly” pleasantries that one might expect in an urban, densely populated community. Of 344 observed social interactions, only 9 percent of them were categorized as medium or low engagement (e.g., a short conversation, or a simple greeting, respectively), and only 10 percent of them were categorized as medium or short in duration (i.e., 5 minutes or less). Most interactions observed in the public realm were high in duration and high in engagement (e.g., 5 minutes or more, and occurring via a deeper conversation or a shared activity, respectively). This may have been because people were socializing with people who they already knew, and thus felt more comfortable engaging in a longer interaction. Said one interviewee, “Sometimes people just come in and out and I don’t even see their faces because they don’t say hi.” What’s more, observed interactions across race were moderate (in storefronts) to low (in the public realm) in frequency Observed social interactions in the public realm and within select storefronts showed moderate to low levels of integration across race — a finding consistent with Hyra’s concept of “diversity segregation” in statistically diverse neighborhoods.172 FINDINGS • 67
Eamon O'Connor Within the public realm, only 18 percent (or 62) of all 344 interactions occurred across racial groups — overwhelmingly, socializing in the public realm occurred within racial groups (82 percent, or 281). One interviewee, a recent arrival, echoed these findings, “One of the things I’ve noticed about Crown Heights is that it is very diverse, and you do see a great mix of people, but you don’t see these people necessarily interacting. … I feel like when you walk along Nostrand … there’s this divide among the Black population and the hipster White population.” Within storefront interiors, there were slightly higher levels of social mixing across races. Two layers of analysis informed this finding: first, point-in-time observations of a subset of storefronts’ clienteles; and second, point-in-time observations of groups’ racial compositions within these storefronts. The storefronts observed comprised 68, or 40 percent, of active, non-vacant storefronts along the Nostrand Avenue corridor. Among these, a slight minority of 46 percent hosted diverse clienteles (i.e., where there was at least some mix of races). Of the 68 storefronts observed, however, only 28 had any groups of two or more people at the time of observation. Of these 28 storefronts where there were groups of people, about a third (32 percent) had mixed-race groups. These observations indicate higher levels of social integration across race within storefronts than in the public realm — though still moderate levels. Survey responses indicate moderate levels of social mixing across races in the neighborhood as well — somewhat consistent with the observed interactions within storefronts, but counter to the observed interactions within the public realm. When asked how often they hung out in the neighborhood with people of different races than their own, most respondents (41 percent) reported “somewhat often,” followed by 38 percent reporting “very often,” and 21 percent reporting “not very often.” When breaking out these responses by race, it is worth noting the distinction between Black 68 • FINDINGS
and White respondents’ replies. Black respondents indicated they interacted socially both “very often” (44 percent) and “not very often” (28 percent) at higher rates than their White counterparts. The majority of White respondents, on the other hand, reported socializing with other races “somewhat often” (56 percent), followed by “very often” (32 percent), and “not very often” (12 percent). This may indicate greater variability in social mixing across races within the area’s Black community, and more consistently moderate levels of social mixing across races within the area’s White community. These findings of course, are subject to a number of survey response biases — but still offer another lens into social integration.
WHAT FORCES AND FACTORS SHAPE SOCIAL INTEGRATION? Within this context, analysis and triangulation of findings surfaced eight factors that may make for higher levels of social integration in diverse neighborhoods like Crown Heights. These are hardly a formula for reaching the challenging ideal of social integration — rather, they provide important insights from the ground on how to promote more mixing across races. Before elaborating on these factors, however, it’s important to recognize four broader forces that interviewees and survey respondents frequently invoked when discussing social integration levels in the neighborhood.
Racism Racism and racial tension were undercurrents in conversations with interviewees and survey respondents. Said one longtime Black resident, “This is what makes Brooklyn — the mix — unlike the City [Manhattan]. Brooklyn has always been about bringing different people together.” Faced with this new mix, however, that same respondent cautioned against compromising the neighborhood’s integrity and legacy. “Some people also want to rename the neighborhood Crow
Sharing More Than Space
"You c past an't swe ep unde r the our rug."
t ke
ar
M
me y u o b ay." t d rie no w t t y he , bu T " ut o
to watch r e f e r p " "You'd episode. x i fl t e N another
te
ch
giv rea e mea son n s to s & sta y r ou stay local y to ow kn ghbor stay in busines s nei design for de n endly i s r o f c i d a l stre se , buil s t n e o ts fr store sho w , your up fo r e h t nei ge r ghb get to man u o r get h sses e n i bus ole help their r play
ra
cis
m
ns iticia l o p think impact." t ' n "I do have an can
no
t
lo
gy
n me
rn
e ov
g
Hill, to get away realizing the potential for that from Crown to be an affront Heights. But you FORCES AND FACTORS to the Caribbean can’t sweep our folks who arrived Each of these broader forces shaped eight factors that past under the were found to foster greater social integration. right here circa rug. It’s part of our 1970, 1971.” history and we have Some newcomer, to learn from it.” predominantly White respondents also Beyond understanding the neighborhood’s spoke of racial tensions they experienced history, some respondents also expressed because of their presence in a historically concern about appropriation of it: “Like Black neighborhood: “I get it, I’m the signal Glady’s … a [new] Caribbean spot with 14 of change, so sometimes people lash out dollar jerk chicken cooked by White folks — and you begin to alter your patterns, to who moved into the neighborhood and just not put yourself in those situations.” were like, ‘Let’s show you what we think is great Caribbean food,’ and not necessarily FINDINGS • 69
Eamon O'Connor
Market The area, and New York more broadly, are undergoing rapid development that both leads to new pressure on historically disinvested communities, and threatens their displacement. As such, market forces were commonly cited as a shaper of social integration levels. Multiple survey respondents touched on these dynamics: “I interact with a lot of different types of people almost every day. … We now understand we are all one. Brooklyn is cleaner now, there are fewer gunshots, we can walk through it more easily.” (Black resident); “This neighborhood is the best ever now. I’ve been living here for 22 years. They tried to buy me out, but no way.” (Black resident); “This place was a desert … I’ve been here 13 years and it finally seems we’ve turned a corner.” (White resident); “I like all the new bars that are popping up. They bring something to do.” (Black resident) Of course, greater investment was also cited as a drawback for social fabric — leading to displacement (“I love my neighborhood. A lot of my neighbors have moved [due to displacement] so I socialize here less, but I like my new ones.” (Black resident)) and creating more commercially mediated spaces for socializing (“If I don’t have any money, it doesn’t make sense to hang out in bars and restaurants.” (Black resident)).
Technology Emerging technology is also shaping the neighborhood’s social fabric. Respondents spoke of how several on-demand services can detract from community: streaming services like Netflix, which may discourage shared, in-person experiences outside of the home; delivery services like GrubHub, which may detract from in-person patronage of local businesses; short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, which impact transience of residential communities and small business patronage alike; and ridesharing platforms like Uber, which may divert users from travel by foot or transit. In the words of one local business owner and resident, “You would not leave the 70 • FINDINGS
house on 11 o’clock on a Sunday, you would prefer to stay home and watch another Netflix episode, and get your food delivered … and that doesn’t create any community.” Said another business owner and resident, “People don’t join reading clubs or social clubs or go to church, people just hang out in their apartments, with their circle, they get everything delivered.”
Government Many spoke of government’s role in providing a safety net for residents and small businesses alike. Said one Black resident, “We need equal rights and opportunity.” and another, “The area needs more jobs.” Many also perceived government to be unhelpful to small businesses. They cited long lines for government services, and the Amazon HQ2 incentive package as evidence of a government uninterested in prioritizing small businesses trying to keep pace with and serve changing communities. Said one business owner, “Three million in tax breaks to Amazon, are you kidding me? Give me a tax break, I employ nine people, where’s my tax break?” Faced with these challenges, respondents were mixed in their confidence in government in being able to address social integration challenges. For example, whereas one interviewee felt the challenge came down to “economic incentives” to promote social mixing and another focused on the need for more structural fairness, others felt it started on the ground with residents or small businesses making an effort. Said one interviewee, “I don’t think politicians can have an impact, I really don’t. I don’t think New Yorkers or Americans are as dependent on politics to shape culture as in other places.”
Sharing More Than Space
A GUIDE TO
sharing more than space The factors that follow are grouped into four categories
People
behaviors and choices
Program
d rea
uses and activities
Place
on
explor e for y ours on the map ins elf ert
space and design
Policy
regulations and services D
E
F
“I joined a local [Obama 2012] group... that was probably one of the most meaningful interactions. I was the only Caucasian person, and they were all happy to have me. But I don’t talk to any of those people after that was done.”
Commercial areas like Nostrand (specifically its southern end) and Franklin Avenues were the most-cited hangouts for locals — followed by homes and parks
STOrEFrONTS
Facades • Interior Design • Ambiance Facades can send signals of who is welcome where, and storefront interiors can facilitate social mixing through design and ambiance choices.
benches along the corridor, all of which are on the southern half, and six of which are owned by private storefronts
Perceived racial and socioeconomic integration varied, but northern Nostrand was often seen as segregated by race and income; Franklin was seen as segregated by income vacant to vibrant
LATINX
ASIAN WHITE
ASIAN
“People move in and out so much that you don’t get a chance to speak or be communal in any way because everyone’s so different.”
LATINX
colina cuervo
two saints
gloria’s
super power
CAFE
BAR
COUNTER-SERVE
BAR
scarce social furniture
Design features (e.g., benches) conducive to gathering are limited in the public realm, mostly privately owned, and all are concentrated on the southern end of the corridor
small business organizing hub
a neighborly nosedive
DENSE, SOCIAL STrEETS
8
8
Interviewees found that deeper engagement through shared, recurring experiences led to more successful, lasting social integration across race and class lines
10.2%
9
9 11
Interviewees rarely cited policy’s impact on social integration; when they did, they cited the roles of housing, business mix, and school quality in supporting diverse communities
14
“There are a lot of minority-owned businesses in the area that have incredibly strong clientele.”
“Alive, and getting stronger. In the summer we’re all hanging out on the stoops with wine. There’s stoop sales, too.”
Many elements of small business operations were found to impact who felt welcome where: from ownership to pricing to staff to product choice
The stoop and the block were cited as hubs for social integration across identities — especially in the summer — but residents worried the culture may be fading
ONLY 7%
“Making sure that housing development is checked ... you can’t just do a ton of high-rises.”
“There has to be a cap in rents and in the amount of certain types of stores.”
“Everyone moves out when you’re 28 because the schools are terrible.”
“I keep operating this cafe with [third-wave coffee], pretty high-end ... and yet I keep my one-dollar cup of coffee.”
next-level hospitality
the social stoop & street
of interviewee mentions were policy related
Despite relatively high vacancies, 75% of stores have high or medium transparency, and facade condition is moderate (42%) to good (37%) — indicating most places are inviting
“We’d play on the street in front of the houses. My aunt would sit on her stoop and watch. Now, nothing like that.”
“Making sure you hire locally, making sure you hire people that have the same intention, that have the same position and philosophy.”
“That’s another reason I opened a bagel shop. I didn’t open something for a certain group of people ... I could be selling only quinoa salad with zucchini flowers on top, but I sell something that everybody eats.”
“It’s definitely the infrastructure of the places. We all do it, we look at a place and we’re like, ‘if it looks sketchy, let’s not go in there.’”
“I notice a lot of empty storefronts. It would be good to have a group to occupy those spaces in a productive way.”
B
e
82%
of interactions in the public realm were intraracial
policy? What policy?
?
FACADES IN FAIR CONDITION
A
welcom
of groups in storefronts were homogeneous
15
ON THE MAP F13
68%
a dense defense
12 TO STAY
18%
“If you’re out in Bushwick, nobody’s going to stand up to you because why would they care about this old warehouse becoming a luxury condo. Here it’s like, ‘well that block used to be something.’”
14%
Housing • Schools Social integration can’t happen without sustained diversity in residents — which means ensuring ample access to housing and schools.
32%
of groups in storefronts were mixed race
of interactions in the public realm were interracial
Locals felt confident in the area’s ability to support diversity because of its dense urban form — versus formerly industrial areas with a less patchworked footprint
possibil itie greate r social s for integr ation
15
GIVE MEANS
In the public realm, social interactions and foot traffic were highest on the “tails” — which are transit-proximate gateways to the corridor is INDOORS more integrated than OUTDOORS?
“I feel like when you walk along Nostrand or on Franklin, there’s this divide among the black population and the hipster white population. That’s what it is here.”
WELCOME KITS
of storefronts along the corridor are vacant
AND rEASONS
bustling transit gateways
POLARIZED public realm
Only 18% of all 344 observed social interactions in the public realm took place across races — interracial interactions were slightly higher on the corridor gateways
speed dating
ON THE MAP F13, L2
“One day, it’s full of a mixture. Another, I might go and be the only person of color. Or another time, everyone is a person of color. Every day it changes but you never feel like you’re not welcome.”
Based on point-in-time observations, about half of storefront interiors had diverse clienteles; of those that had groups, about a third of groups were racially mixed
storefront mashup
street fair
delivery divestment
Small businesses spoke to the camaraderie among local entrepreneurs — and making concrete business decisions that would support one another
13
BUSINESSES
PLAY THEIr rOLE
“When we ask long-time residents how they feel about gentrification ... we hear how newcomers walk around with their headphones in, looking at the ground, and don’t smile or say hello to anyone.” welcome
mixed(ish) CLIENTELES
Policy Rents • Tenant Mix • Access to Services Stable rents, well-balanced tenant mix, and streamlined access to government services can help small businesses serve as community anchors.
of interactions were mid or low engagement, meaning few people stopped to nod or say hi
convo starter signs
“There’s still so much room in the market, and we just want to see each other do well.”
“I don’t sell bagels because I don’t need to compete with [Lula Bagel]. ... Make it competitive, but diverse.”
9.0%
passing by in public space
of all 344 interactions were 5 minutes or less, meaning there were few brief exchanges or chats
“It just kind of feels like a lot of the newer places are catering to the new folks.”
!
“I see people that realized when they got in dance class that they live in the same building. They started seeing each other, opening the door for each other, walking to dance class together. Now they’re making dates and plans ... Now they’re able to come into a space where they feel accepted and comfortable asking questions — but also comfortable being checked.”
ON THE MAP D7, F12, M10
HELP
Interviewees feared neighborly interactions — such as everyday greetings — were dropping, reflected in the few shorter, lower-engagement exchanges in public space
from run-in to relationship
SMALL BIZ co-opetition Density & Character • Social Street Features The area’s dense urban form and social street life have helped to sustain diversity and social integration, compared to fast-changing peers.
7
BLACK LATINX LATINX
5
perception paradox
WHITE BLACK
ON THE MAP B14, C3, L6
DESIGN FOr
3
“People just don’t leave their houses. ... You would prefer to stay home and watch another Netflix episode, and get your food delivered. For me, it’s terrible because I pay 30% ... and that doesn’t create any community.”
7
11
BUILD FrIENDLY
“Most people are more segregated in this area ... you just walk down there, and there’s a lot more stores for rent. You see a lot more shabby looking liquor stores.”
WHITE
ON THE MAP D8, I4
Place
58%
of the corridor’s vacand storefronts are concentrated on the northern five blocks of the corridor
WHITE
BLACK
4
social integration department
12
GET HUMAN
Shared Purpose • Recurring Engagement Shared, recurring experiences can help multiracial communities let a guard down and find common purpose — from dance to politics.
civic suppers
pocket spaces
friendly facades
GET
friendly business incentives
6
5.1% 5.1%
ON THE MAP B5, L13, I9
TOGETHEr,
7 8
“You gotta stay in business, you gotta survive.” “It’s very easy for us to recruit people for a cocktail hour about gentrification ... but when we offer the opportunity to do a project at an anti-violence organization run by people of color, it’s much harder to get newcomers.”
Residents and small businesses spoke of opting out of online shopping in favor of supporting local businesses — but businesses feared the rise of on-demand services
TRANSIT
7
BUSINESS
Most storefronts are low (70%) or moderately (27%) priced. But even with inclusive pricing, residents and businesses cited price concerns — like these three pricey groceries
opting offline (for some)
8.0%
ASIAN
O
10
3
8.7%
RELIGIOUS SPACES
BLACK
N
NOT VErY OFTEN
PARKS
TOP FOUr LOCAL HANGOUTS CITED BY 56 SUrVEY rESPONDENTS, BY rACE
TO STAY IN
SOMEwHAT OFTEN
“At places for groceries. ... that’s where I see a divide pretty heavily.”
Interviewees cited civic participation — such as through service, voting, and organizing — as an area of potential common ground, but with varying levels of traction
CONVENING ON COMMERCIAL
Product • Pricing • Hiring Small businesses help set the neighborhood tone — building community and serving as portals for essential goods and services.
VErY OFTEN
15
“I need thermal paper for my printers, I know the guy at the Met sells it, and he can make a profit off of me — higher than what it would cost me to go online. Yes, I have that option, but that’s not what’s important to me. To me, I also like the interaction.”
SCHOOLS COMMUNITY SVCS
Program
M
lending voice / hand / vote
15.2%
ON THE MAP B11, I4
STAY LOCAL
5 6
CAFE & RESTAURANT
rand
L
accessibly priced ... for now
19
“There are a lot of minorityowned businesses that have incredibly strong clientele ... I try really hard to go to those — I haven’t shopped on Amazon in a couple months.”
HOMES
To Nost
10
3 4
Patronage • Promotion • Participation Actively participating in the community as a resident or a small business means supporting local commerce and causes.
NOT VErY OFTEN
19
of 56 survey respondents said they wanted more opportunities to engage with neighbors of different races or income levels
“”
23.9%
5
SHOw UP
FOr YOUr
SOMEwHAT OFTEN
“” “”
cafe rue dix
29.7%
NKLIN
NEIGHBOr
12
Most respondents reported socializing with people from different racial or income levels very often or somewhat often; nearly all said they’d like more opportunities to do so
COMMERCIAL AREAS
To fRA
23
50
“There’s tables that are connected, so you might be next to people that you don’t know. The more intimate spaces really force interaction.”
4
ON THE MAP H11, G2, K8
K
13
NEIGHBOr
J
DEMAND FOR integration
Smaller spaces — especially with communal tables — were often cited as those that felt more socially integrated across race, compared to more comfy, spacious interiors
Greetings • Relationships Simply greeting and knowing neighbors is a first step to promoting social integration — but not necessarily achieved easily.
I
14
YOUr
21
VErY OFTEN
6
1 2
KNOw
H
2
INTErACTION ACrOSS rACE
MAPPING AND IMAGINING SOCIAL INTEGRATION ON BROOKLYN’S NOSTRAND AVENUE CORRIDOR
Cramped but communal
People
G
1
C
INTErACTION ACrOSS INCOME
B
Pluralism or polarization?
2
sHARING MORE THAN SPACE
1
A A GUIDE TO
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
FINDINGS • 71
1 Eamon O'Connor
People
KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOR Simply greeting and knowing neighbors is a first step to promoting social integration — but not necessarily achieved easily.
Greetings The few short, everyday exchanges observed in the public realm (9 and 10 percent of all social interactions observed, respectively), as well as the few interracial interactions (18 percent of all social interactions observed) indincate the neighborhood is somewhat siloed, both generally and by race. To one interviewee who was raised between the neighborhood and Trinidad and Tobago, this represents a marked shift from the community she observed growing up: “There’s action on Nostrand Avenue still, honestly, but the streets, it’s just, sometimes people just come in and out and I don’t even see their faces because they don’t say hi.” There was also a sense that newer residents did not engage as readily on the street, walking “with their headphones in, looking at the ground, and [not smiling or saying hello] to anyone” in the words of one community service provider. This led to what another newcomer respondent called a “divide among the Black and the hipster White population.”
Relationships Despite this perception and the observations on 72 • FINDINGS
the ground, many survey respondents and interviewees did cite strong ties with their neighbors. Said one interviewee, “People are incredibly friendly in Crown Heights so I don’t think that’s a problem.” Another, White respondent spoke of the community he had built with his Trinidadian neighbors: “I know all of my neighbors, above and below, not just on a first-name basis but we share cake and ice cream when somebody has a birthday or a celebration. The kids who came up almost to my shoulder from when I first moved in, I took to vote for the first time the other day … I haven’t locked that door behind you in nine and a half years, because I don’t have to.” Survey respondents demonstrated interest in more opportunities to engage with neighbors. The overwhelming majority (88 percent) of survey respondents said they were “definitely” interested in more opportunities to engage with neighbors of different backgrounds. Respondents felt this would require intentionality upon the part of residents, but with a large payoff: “Simple things need to happen that probably wouldn’t happen, and the simplest being greeting each other … because then that says, I’m open to speaking with you and developing some sort of relationship even if it’s just, ‘I know where your spare
Sharing More Than Space
"People just come in and out and I don’t even see their faces because they don’t say hi."
makes breaks GREETINGS Saying hello on the street
18% 82%
of interactions in the of interactions in the public realm were public realm were interracial intraracial
Looking down at your phone
RELATIONSHIPS Engaging across difference
"There’s this divide among the black population and the hipster white population. That’s what it is here."
Staying in familiar circles
"You create relationships with people based on the moments of overlap in your life. You went to college together, you work in the same place."
key is just in case of an emergency.’ That is what builds the community and that’s what might lead to, 'oh hey, let’s go to Gloria’s and try my food' … so, more people from different backgrounds would just try restaurants and eating places that they’ve never tried before. That’s where it starts.” Initiating such relationships would be a challenge, interviewees felt, because of pre-existing social networks. Said one interviewee, “I think the reality is that you create relationships and connections with people based on the moments of overlap in your life. You went to college together, you work in the same place.” This echoes earlier cited findings at a national scale on the relationships between segregation and multiracial friendships.
FINDINGS • 73
2 Eamon O'Connor
People
SHOW UP FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR Actively participating in the community — whether as a resident or small business — means supporting local commerce and causes.
Simply knowing neighbors was not the only driver of social integration, however — many interviewees described a need to actively participate in the community, primarily through three types of activity: local patronage; business operations; and civic participation.
Patronage Amid the technological forces described earlier, many small businesses and residents felt that support for local businesses was under threat. As such, some called for an opt-out of such services. Said one resident who recently moved to the area, “I haven’t shopped on Amazon in a couple months … I understand why some people do it, but I live in New York, where it’s pretty easy to get what I need.” For small businesses, reliance on Amazon, delivery, or the convenience of Netflix led to poor returns in financial and community terms. One small business owner reflected on the impacts of on-demand ordering services like GrubHub: “It doesn’t really make you any money. You pay your commission, you pay more for paper goods, and also, you know, it kind of changes your menu, because then you’re trying to make things that carry well.” And another, 74 • FINDINGS
“That doesn’t create any community. When you come into a place and there’s three people in line versus 15 people in line … you can have 15 more conversations!” But opting out of Amazon wasn’t the only way consumers said they should show up in terms of patronage — indeed, multiple interviews felt there were high levels of loyalty to and support for minority and women-owned businesses in the community. “I’ve seen lots of different types of people going to all businesses, so not just Black people going into Black-owned businesses, but White people, Indian people, Asian people going into the businesses and supporting … and that’s really important, especially as the neighborhood is changing.” Indeed, this is reflected in the neighborhood’s high levels of retail growth173 and growing appreciation for Black-owned businesses — while the city does not maintain data on Black-owned businesses citywide, various local websites have begun curating lists of and celebrating such entrepreneurs in the borough.174
Promotion Three small business owners that were interviewed also spoke of “showing up” for neighboring
Sharing More Than Space
"I haven’t shopped on Amazon in a couple months … I understand why some people do it, but I live in New York, where it’s pretty easy to get what I need."
makes breaks PATRONAGE Buying local
Buying with one click
PROMOTION Referring fellow businesses
Getting too cutthroat
PARTICIPATION Advocating for neighbors
Showing up when it's easy
"We don't see each other as competition because there's still so much room in the market." "It’s very easy for us to recruit people for a cocktail hour about gentrification."
businesses by promoting and purchasing from other businesses. “I don’t buy my office supplies online, I buy them from the guy across the street. If that guy is successful, I’m successful. … I also enjoy the interaction.” This reflects a larger sense of community among small businesses in the neighborhood, despite the lack of a formal local merchants’ association (though according to some local small businesses, there is movement to establish one). In the words of one entrepreneur, “We don’t see each other as competition because it’s so small, there’s still so much room in the market.” Another spoke of how she actively supports small businesses through a bulletin board promoting local businesses, and by creating a reference sheet of local women-owned businesses.
community activities. “It’s very easy for us to recruit people for a cocktail hour about gentrification ... but when we offer the opportunity to do a project at an anti-violence organization run by people of color, it’s much harder to get newcomers.” Said another with experience hosting civically minded events within his restaurant, “In my experience of doing community events it’s always very difficult to get people to show up, engage, and to keep them coming, at least not without a big investment. Most people want to go home after work and rest.”
Participation Beyond local patronage and business promotion, civic participation was cited as a pathway to “showing up” for neighbors in pursuit of a more socially integrated neighborhood. One interviewee felt the local community board was a strong presence, but another felt that newcomer, predominantly White residents were less likely to participate in essential FINDINGS • 75
3 Eamon O'Connor
Program
STAY LOCAL TO STAY IN BUSINESS Small businesses help set the neighborhood tone — building community and serving as portals for essential goods and services.
Product
Mentions of product choice centered on the dual importance and challenge of marketing products with broad appeal. “I could be selling quinoa salads with zucchini flowers on top, but I sell something in both stores that everybody eats,” said one local business owner. But establishing such broad appeal presents challenges in targeting toward a specific audience: “It’s hard to market for everyone because it probably wouldn’t sell that much.” As mentioned earlier, there was also a concern about new businesses appropriating elements of neighborhood history and character, such as through nearby Glady’s restaurant, a White-owned Caribbean eatery. (Within the corridor, 25 percent of storefronts offer an explicitly ethnic good or service to the community.) Over-marketing to the young, single market also represented a missed business opportunity, said one local entrepreneur. “There’s actually a lot of older residents here, with a lot of resources, and people don’t realize that … but chances are low that any entrepreneurs are trying to get some of that. … People want to go for the young, single market, who definitely have money, but that market is super saturated, and there’s other people that have money, but don’t necessarily get love from entrepreneurs.”
Pricing Pricing was also cited as a critical but challenging path to cultivating community — reflecting a major challenge to the role of commercially mediated 76 • FINDINGS
spaces in cultivating social integration in mixedincome communities. The neighborhood maintained a relatively accessible price point among its 171 nonvacant storefronts; 70 percent of these businesses were rated at a low price point, according to Yelp pricing indicators. The very small share of high-priced venues ( just 2 percent, or four storefronts, based on Yelp ratings) comprised three high-end grocery stores concentrated at the corridor’s northernmost block. In the words of one interviewee, “I don’t really think about socioeconomic segregation except mostly at places of food shopping. Because there are grocery stores that are definitely more affordable than others. And that’s where I see a divide pretty heavily.” Small businesses were concerned about the impact rising rents would continue to have on the accessibility of their pricing. Said one small business owner who reported having to raise prices since opening several years ago: “Even the new people who move from more expensive neighborhoods will come and be shocked that we’re on Nostrand and that our prices are higher … but you gotta stay in business, you gotta survive.” Another mentioned how longtime local haunts could end up crowding out their original clientele, “There might be a plug in The New York Times about the best Caribbean spots in Crown Heights and then you got all these young, 18-34-year-old predominantly Caucasian kids creating a long line at the Caribbean spot where the locals are suddenly at the back end of the long line for their own spot — and now they’re thinking about raising the prices because they can charge nine
Sharing More Than Space
"I could be selling quinoa salads with zucchini flowers on top, but I sell something in both stores that everybody eats."
makes breaks PRODUCT
70%
of storefronts along the corridor are rated at a low price point, according to Yelp ratings and menu analysis
Appealing to many
Targeting a few
PRICING Keeping essentials sacred
Dealing out sticker shock
HIRING Hiring a familiar face
Looking elsewhere to hire
"It just makes you care a little bit more if you’re cooking the food for the neighborhood you live in." dollars for the jerk chicken instead of the six dollars it once was.” This bears out in other research that has found those longtime businesses that do adapt can often risk losing their old customers.175 Even in this challenging market context, multiple businesses cited ways they maintained a somewhat accessible set of products. One café owner mentioned how he deliberately reserved a “dollar coffee” on the menu despite offering a more expensive, “third wave” roast. “I have a guy who comes here religiously, the grumpiest, oldest man I know. He folds a dollar bill in half and hands it to me. And then I give him a cup of coffee. And that’s our transaction, it’s been happening for the last three and a half years. Recently he’s got a little smile, but that’s important to me, because I know the guy can have his cup of coffee anytime he wants.” The owner of a local dance studio also mentioned the importance of maintaining accessible pricing when filling a gap in the local market: “there’s not really any dance studios in the area, especially dance studios that offer so many culturally diverse classes or that welcome everyone, or that are affordable.” The leader of a local nonprofit, too, spoke of the ways they open up free community space to local residents and community groups — from theater troupes to mentoring organizations — thanks to a community foundation grant. “Our original plan was to charge a modest fee to use the space, but the foundation offered us a grant to make the space available for free. So now any space that wants to use the space for the public good or the community good can use the space for free, and it’s amazing.”
Hiring Among all small businesses interviewed, hiring locally was a priority. Indeed, interviewees said all of their employees were from the neighborhood. Businesses viewed this as a way to give back to the community, but also recognized that hiring locally was good for business — in terms of staff planning, employee morale, customer relationships, and sales. Said one business owner, “It’s added stress for the employee if they have to commute … I also think it just makes you care a little bit more if you’re cooking the food for the neighborhood you’re in.” Moreover, the relationships between local employees and local customers were found to generate sales: “My employees all live in the neighborhood, so they know a lot of their people, and most of my employees are with me for a long time so they create a certain group of people that come to see them as well — and we don’t do anything other than that.” Another small business cited the importance of “making sure you hire people that have the same intention, that have the same position and philosophy toward interacting with the neighborhood.” From a customer standpoint, local hiring sends signals of inclusion to longtime residents: “I think the most important piece is the people — it’s like, who greets you at the door and are they friendly or not, and are they Black or are they White. Having the presence of longtime residents of the community is a signal to other longtime residents that they’re welcome in a space.”
FINDINGS • 77
4 Eamon O'Connor
Program
GET TOGETHER, GET HUMAN Shared, recurring experiences can help multiracial communities let a guard down and find common purpose — from dance to politics.
Shared Purpose & Work Many interviewees cited shared purpose and work as pathways to deeper engagement with other people in their community. One respondent spoke of his experience volunteering with a local organizing group for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. The only White person in a group of longtime residents of color, he described the experience of making calls from neighbors’ living rooms and knocking on doors as “one of the most meaningful interactions” he has had in the neighborhood: “They were all happy to have me. We were all there for the same stated goal, which was to re-elect Barack Obama.” Similarly, the owner of a local dance studio described how the shared experience of a dance class brought together people who ordinarily might have brushed past one another. “I have people that live in the same building that look different from one another … and there’s a sense of anxiety and frustration around the apartment rents being increased … so being able to be in a dance space with people ... now they’re going to hold the door open for them, now they’re going to say good morning, now they’re going to say, ‘Oh, I’m going 78 • FINDINGS
to the store, do you need anything?’ Now they’re making dates and plans.” As these relationships deepened over time, she observed, the dance studio promoted a level of psychological safety — to learn about other cultures, to ask questions, but also to confront differences — “to be able to come into a space where you’re accepted and where you feel comfortable asking questions — but you feel comfortable also being checked.” Another interviewee, who painted 200 portraits of local residents over the course of a year, spoke of the interactions he tried to foster among those he painted: “my job became not just to paint pictures but to trigger and promote social interaction amongst people who otherwise not say hello to one another.” He described the way he paired up portrait subjects based on the issues they spoke to during the painting sessions — for example, providing two people with garbage pickers who said they worried about litter on Eastern Parkway. The shared service experience that resulted opened the door to deeper engagement, including a visit by a local West Indian resident to his Orthodox Jewish “partner’s” Friday Sabbath meal. The availability of spaces or avenues for
15
of 199 storefronts along the corridor were rated as facilitating a high level of engagement
Sharing More Than Space
makes breaks PURPOSE & WORK
"I have people in the same building that look different from one another ... being able to be in a dance space with people ... now they're going to hold the door open for them. ... Now they're making dates and plans."
Sharing activities, cause
Sharing just an event
FREQUENCY Coming back in the door
Going for a one-time stint
"We were all there for the same stated goal, which was to re-elect Barack Obama. That was one of the most meaningful interactions I've had ... but I don't talk to any of those people after that was done."
such engagement was somewhat limited in the neighborhood: indeed, only 15 of the 199 storefronts on Nostrand Avenue were rated as facilitating a high level of gathering, and of those 15, many were food and drink venues. Select sites provided explicit opportunities for shared work and purpose across demographic groups — such as Repair the World, a community service provider with open community space; Fit4Dance, a dance studio; and Bergen Street community garden, which one survey respondent volunteered at, but another said felt closed off (“It feels like they’re not open to the public and I don’t really want to be a trespasser.”).
Prolonged, Recurring Engagement
also spoke of the value of prolonged interactions like the shared service experiences or dinners — but even still, the portrait series and interactions it generated were limited to the “We Are Crown Heights” portrait series timeline. Another longtime resident spoke of the Labor Day parade’s power as a convening force in the community, but also its limitations as a onceannual event: “The past few years I’ve been here, there’s been more and more people from everywhere in Brooklyn who come down, a lot of diversity, even if they’re just spectators … that is probably the most integrated Crown Heights ever gets, and everyone’s interacting.” Creating more opportunities (e.g., “rock climbing facilities, community yoga classes”) she felt could offer more opportunities for engagement.
Shared activities are only as valuable to social integration as the frequency with which they take place, however. Indeed, as the Obama volunteer mentioned, “That was really nice. I don’t talk to any of those people after that was done.” And as the dance studio owner noted, the repeated experience of coming to dance class was what helped break down the boundaries between racial or socioeconomic groups — so they could go from “holding the door” to “making dates and plans.” The portrait painter FINDINGS • 79
5 Eamon O'Connor
Place
BUILD FRIENDLY STOREFRONTS Facades can send signals of who is welcome where, and storefront interiors can facilitate social mixing through design and ambiance choices.
Facades
“It’s definitely the infrastructure of the places. … we all do it, we look at a place and we’re like, ‘it looks sketchy, let’s not go in there,’” said one interviewee on the role of storefront facades on patronage choices. Conversely, one resident spoke of how newer facades can send signals of exclusion: “It’s obviously non-scientific … but a lot of the other places, though, it just kind of feels like it’s catering to the new folks.” Façade elements — such as window transparency and general condition — seemed to shape areas of perceived segregation and integration. Indeed, in the interview mapping exercise, all respondents aligned on the northern end of Nostrand Avenue as an area that felt more racially and socioeconomically segregated. This is also a section of the corridor that had a slightly higher incidence of vacant, lowtransparency, and poor-condition storefronts. Indeed, this area had a 58 percent vacancy, compared to the southern half’s 42 percent vacancy. The southern end of Nostrand Avenue, however, was generally rated as more racially and socioeconomically integrated by respondents — and they generally felt it was a more inviting area. For a newer community service provider operating a storefront in this section, opting out of a metal gate was an attempt to be more inclusive, but actually differentiated it from longtime businesses: “We had a big dilemma as to whether we would use the 80 • FINDINGS
metal gate that goes up and down the storefront, and ironically the newer businesses don’t use their front gate, which you would think would be the opposite — like maybe the newcomers would be more scared and more cautious, but it’s actually the opposite.”
Interior Design Once inside the store, design elements were also attributed to different levels of interaction. One local cafe owner described how he opted for a more minimalist design — with little artwork on the walls — to ensure the focus was on socializing. “The dining room is very much designed, and it could feel, like a patio. Big windows, tiles, nothing to see around you on the walls, with the idea that when you sit, you don’t have things to see other than yourselves, with the idea that when you bring a friend, there’s just a small amount of time you’re going to spend talking about the place itself, and more about engaging them.” Multiple residents also spoke of the size of spaces as having an influence on social interactions: “I feel like the size of spaces really matters. I’ve noticed that the more intimate spaces really force interaction, in a way, and therefore lead to that feeling of welcomeness. Like, at Greedi Vegan, it’s just one bar that you either sit it or you wait for takeout at, and so you talk to the owner, you talk to people who are just sitting there.” Another commonly cited example was Café Rue Dix, a nearby café and restaurant that to
Sharing More Than Space
58%
of vacant storefronts along the corridor were located in the northern half, which was perceived as more segregated by all interviewees
"We all do it, we look at a place and we’re like, ‘it looks sketchy, let’s not go in there."
FACADES Making entry easy
“”
Forcing people to filter
INTERIOR DESIGN Building in intimacy
“” “”
makes breaks
Making it too roomy
AMBIANCE Mixing up the vibe
"I've noticed the more intimate spaces really force interaction ... and therefore lead to that feeling of welcomeness ... cramped, but in a nice way." one resident felt “cramped, but in a nice way,” and to another, benefited from the presence of communal tables: “There’s tables that are connected, so you might be next to people that you don’t know, which is cool but it still feels like you’re interacting with the people you came with but you’re still around people that you don’t know. I like that.” One resident felt that other, newer businesses’ interiors detracted from interracial social mixing and inclusion. The aforementioned “bullet hole wall” in now-rebranded Summerhill was a commonly mentioned case, but one interviewee and local architect noted how many new places mimicked design trends from other neighborhoods, creating “comfortable” spaces for new, predominantly White and affluent, arrivals to the neighborhood: “They remind me of places in Williamsburg and in Manhattan … and so they flock there in a way. … Places that have muted color menus …or very calming, spacious interiors. When I think of Berg’n, the food hall, it’s very spacious and very calming, in a way. It’s definitely a much more, ‘comfortable’ situation for those people.”
Ambiance Interviewees commonly mentioned ambiance more broadly as a driver of social integration across race. For example, multiple respondents spoke of the role of music in appealing to a diverse clientele: “I love music, so when I go out, I pick the place that
Catering to just one
"If it’s only pop and EDM I won’t go."
I’m going to based on the music, so if if it’s only pop and EDM I won’t go, but if it’s soca and reggae then I’m going to go. But I love when there’s a mix … like when there’s DJs playing both reggaeton and dance hall or whatever it may be. You see both sets of people there, and they might not be interacting as much but they’re both in the same space. And that is just the beginning of friend groups that will mix and mingle.” Yet another interviewee mentioned how music could break the ice between social groups: “On Friday and Saturday nights, you’ll see different types of people that are in cliques, but still, when a good song comes on, everybody’s on the dance floor, everybody’s gettin’ down.” Another spoke of one nearby venue, Ode to Babel, that transitioned from a coffee shop to a nighttime hangout, possibly generating a more diverse type of clientele: “It’s not cheap, but it’s … almost like a lounge and coffee shop during the day and evening but then gradually it turns into more of a reggae dance party. But the DJs are so diverse, so the people are diverse, and you have the people who were there earlier in the day, drinking their coffees, and come 6 or 7 o’clock, they are now drinking at the bar, because the atmosphere of the place has just changed. So you still have those people plus the newcomers who came just for the nighttime party.”
FINDINGS • 81
6 Eamon O'Connor
Place
DESIGN FOR DENSE, SOCIAL STREETS The area’s dense urban form and social street life have helped to sustain diversity that can lead to social integration, compared to fast-changing peers.
Density & Character The area’s density and historic character were commonly cited as factors that have helped the neighborhood weather the impacts of gentrification and sustain a diverse community, especially compared to less dense, often formerly industrial peer neighborhoods in New York City. In the words of one resident, “I think it has maintained its integrity as a diverse, historic neighborhood in New York City, unlike some other neighborhoods like Williamsburg, SoHo, and Tribeca … all three of them had an industrial history to begin with.” Said another respondent, “The history matters, so I think that does help. People don’t necessarily want to see that go away whereas, if you’re out in Bushwick, nobody’s going to stand up to you because why would they care about this old warehouse becoming a luxury condo. Here it’s like, ‘well that block used to be something,’ so it’s a little bit harder.” Despite the district’s high-density, historically landmarked storefront and brownstone footprint — a characteristic that scholars such as Emily Talen have said are critical to sustaining diverse neighborhoods176 — new developments underway are beginning to pose a 82 • FINDINGS
“physical reconfiguration of the neighborhood” in the words of one interviewee, in ways that it has not seen before. This shift that may provide more housing relief on the one hand, but a compromise to the type of dense, neighborly street life that has long characterized the neighborhood.
Social Street Features Street life was commonly cited as a hallmark of life in Crown Heights — supported in large part by the use of Nostrand Avenue, the stoop and the residential block as places for community building. One resident reflected nostalgically on her childhood in the neighborhood, when she and her friends would play in the street and her aunt would watch from the stoop. While she felt that this street life had declined, another, more recent arrival, felt there was still a vibrant community on his block and stoops: “There is a block association … they do a lot of things … we have a Halloween Parade, we’ll do a few block parties during the year, we do a Christmas Carol. … Everybody knows each other … there’s just older folks and younger folks, and a lot of children … in the summer there’s obviously a lot more, hanging out mainly on the stoops and wine. So
"If you’re out in Bushwick, nobody’s going to stand up to you because why would they care about this old warehouse becoming a luxury condo. Here it’s like, ‘well that block used to be something,’"
Sharing More Than Space
makes breaks DENSITY & CHARACTER Preserving built form
Building on larger footprints
SOCIAL STREET FEATURES Celebrating the stoop
Limiting seating options
7
“My aunt would sit on her stoop and watch us play. Now, nothing like that.”
benches on the 10 blocks of the corridor — all of which are on the southern end of the corridor
"Everybody knows each other ... so [street and stoop culture] is alive, and even getting stronger."
alive, and even getting stronger.” Other respondents felt the stoop remained an important hangout in the neighborhood because it was somewhat private, and did not invite as much attention from police as other, more explicitly "public" spaces. On the commercial corridor, design features conducive to socializing were less noticeable. Aside from two bus stop benches on either end of the corridor, the 10 blocks had seven benches altogether. All of these were concentrated on the southern half of the corridor, and six of them were owned by private businesses that placed the seating outside their storefronts. The amount of social street furniture may vary by season, of course, as field work took place during the winter months. One interviewee also expressed concern about keeping a bench outside her small business due to maintenance reasons.
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7 Eamon O'Connor
Policy
HELP BUSINESSES PLAY THEIR ROLE Stable rents, well-balanced tenant mix, and streamlined access to government services can help small businesses serve as community anchors.
Rents Across the board, small businesses felt that rents were spiraling out of control, providing them with little certainty that they would be able to remain in the area and serve as hubs for gathering — even with community support and racially and socioeconomically diverse clienteles. Indeed, in the words of one interviewee, his very presence in the neighborhood would both contribute to the community, and price him out of it. “You have the first generation of businesses that come — anchor businesses like me — and they will raise housing values for real estate agents. We’re not going to get any piece of that but then they’re going to try to attract a wealthier clientele, and eventually we might get priced out, so we’re digging our own grave. … That’s a big problem — we don’t properly value labor.” Retail rents have risen markedly for the past three years in the area.177 In an interview, a city official from the Department of Small Business Services also attributed the area’s relatively high vacancy rate to high asking prices from landlords — prices that few area small businesses could meet. Multiple small businesses called for some 84 • FINDINGS
restrictions on rental raises by landlords, fearing their own displacement in the years to come: “Landlords should have a cap as to how much they can get …I see landlords that actively do it — gentrification — and it makes me sick. When my lease is over, there is nothing stopping my landlord from saying, your rent is going to increase 50 percent, so the city or local officials have to have a very good understanding as to how to preserve the community and how to make it successful.” Said another, “I know I have a long lease but me staying beyond my lease is highly doubtful. They’re going to squeeze me.”
Tenant Mix Calibrating tenant mix was also a common topic for corridors like Nostrand Avenue. Among residents, that meant opening new businesses that addressed unmet needs (e.g., more restaurant, fitness, and arts options) and deterring from too many of one type of business. One resident reflected, “We don’t need more bars here! There’s nothing here. I go to Avenue D, eat at friends’ houses, etc. It’s very hard for me to socialize too much around here because I work at the nursing home so much of the time.” A business owner felt oversaturating the corridor with one
Sharing More Than Space
"I know I have a long lease but me staying beyond my lease is highly doubtful. They’re going to squeeze me."
makes breaks RENTS
NOSTRAND'S TOP STOREFRONT TYPES
Supporting longtimers
from Eastern Parkway to Atlantic Avenue
Squeezing out anchors
TENANT MIX
20.9%
Filling community gaps 15.5%
Saturating the market
ACCESS TO SERVICES
13.6% 12.6%
Addressing core needs
Putting up red tape
8.7%
FO
OD
&
IN DR
K U
I TIL
TY
CA VA
NT B
UT EA
Y GR
E OC
RY
"Make it competitive, make it diverse. We have five cafes in the area, right, so let’s bring another business. It cannot be another café."
type of business would lead to too much volatility, “That’s another thing for creating community … if there’s a bagel shop, and if you’re opening another bagel shop a few blocks away, you’re kind of moving communities around, you’re creating a little bit of a mix … it does make the community a little bit more confusing because businesses will open and they will close.” Said another respondent, “Make it competitive, make it diverse. We have five cafes in the area, right, so let’s bring another business. It cannot be another café … but we would definitely benefit from a small fruit market, we would definitely benefit from a couple of good restaurants, we would definitely benefit from a couple of distributors of sorts.”
Access to Services Beyond regulatory interventions like regulating rent increases and calibrating tenant mix in commercial corridors like Nostrand Avenue, small businesses interviewed also felt that policymakers and government departments were generally disconnected from community needs. This took shape in two ways — representation by local politicians, and services from city departments. “I
"If I wanted to expand so I could hire more people and cater to more customers, there’s all these roadblocks."
think the local assemblymen don’t necessarily have a full grasp … of what it is to create community. I don’t think they have defined what community is, and because that’s a difficult definition, and because that varies by neighborhood … if they made an effort to have a better understanding of that and cultivate it … then policymaking would be a lot easier.” On government services, there was a pervasive sense among small businesses that the government was hard to navigate: “If I wanted to expand so I could hire more people and cater to more customers, there’s all these roadblocks. Like by the Department of Buildings, to say, well, you can’t change that, and if you want to, you have to go apply to this, at that window, and if I want to, then maybe when I get to that window, maybe it’s close to 11:45, the person says, it’s my lunchtime. It’s too bureaucratic.” Streamlining access to such services may help businesses better serve and adapt to changing demographics and diverse clienteles.
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Policy
GIVE MEANS & REASONS TO STAY Social integration can’t happen without sustained diversity in residents — which means ensuring ample access to housing and schools.
Housing
Schools
Given New York’s housing market, ensuring access to housing was a common theme — particularly given the previously cited “physical reconfiguration” that has taken place through new development, and rising rents throughout the area. Reflected one business owner, “Crown Heights in the last two years, the residential rental has gone up ... A lot of my locals, a lot of my people, in the past few years, have said, I got to go, I’ve got to move, because I want to renew my lease but I can’t afford it.” Avoiding such displacement can improve the conditions for social integration to take place by stabilizing neighborhood diversity. But the process of organizing for housing stability and justice was itself seen as a possible form of social integration, too. In the words of one interviewee: “The utopian vision would be, neighbors coming together to address social needs — affordable housing, education, gun violence — to see collaboration between communities and not just to address it but to solve it. That’s what the ultimate social integration would look like.”
School quality — a centerpiece of racial integration efforts — was also cited as key to sustaining the diversity necessary for social integration to take place, among children and among parents alike (in the words of one interviewee, “you get to know so many people through your children.”) This potential was found to be under threat, however, given leakage from the neighborhood due to declining school quality. One interviewee noted, “In New York everyone moves out when you’re 28 because the schools are terrible. … So you don’t actually end up building any community there, because everyone’s in and out, in and out, you come here when you’re young and want to make money, and you leave here when you’re older and want to raise a family, that’s the pattern. … The schools in this neighborhood are bad, and there’s no real economic incentive for you to help the community.” Said another, “If you were to bring a couple of schools — you make sure that the school system improves but for the locals, for the designated zone — families don’t go away.”
86 • FINDINGS
Sharing More Than Space
"A lot of my locals in the past few years have said, 'I got to go' ... because I want to renew my lease but I can't afford it."
makes breaks HOUSING Sustaining diversity
SCHOOLS Raising a proud community
"One of my regulars, his son eats here all the time and goes to school here, and you can see how well integrated he is, how effortless he is with different types of people."
Ignoring displacement
Revolving the door
"In New York everyone moves out when you’re 28 because the schools are terrible. ... So you don't actually end up building any community."
ENDNOTES 172 Hyra, Derek S. Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
173
“NYC Neighborhood Economic Profiles.” Office of the New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. Accessed May 11, 2019. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/nyc-neighborhood-economic-profiles/. 174 Morgan, Richard. “A Revival of Black Business, and Pride, in Brooklyn.” The New York Times, June 20, 2018, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/nyregion/black-owned-brooklyn-businesses.html. 175 Lloyd, R. 2006. Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Post-Industrial City. New York: Routledge.
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Sharing More Than Space
T
his work started with the assumption that fostering greater social integration across race and class lines — balanced with essential “bonding” ties along demographic lines — can help advance egalitarian ideals for our communities and society more broadly. Field research demonstrated a set of factors that might make for more meaningful interactions and relationships among residents and small businesses in a diverse neighborhood like Crown Heights — and on its Nostrand Avenue commercial corridor, specifically. But the goal here is not merely ensuring all neighbors can get along and play nice with one another. When cultivated effectively, sustained interaction may do more than just build trust and diversify homogeneous, deeply entrenched, and multigenerational networks. It may build a network of allies and advocates — to further justice to correct for historic inequities. It may foster more equitable representation —to build power in communities and
foster more equitable representation. In the words of one local resident: “The answer I always come back to is: say hello to your neighbors, because when you get to know people on a person-to-person level, when it ceases to be ‘the Caribbean folks’ or ‘the Jews’ and it becomes Deshaun and Mordechai, then that’s when you cease to be OK with somebody else not getting a fair shake, or somebody else being a victim of garden variety physical violence — all the way down to the more insidious violence of economic displacement — being robbed of the place that you call home, the place of your childhood memories.” A goal of social integration, then, must be to ensure more residents don’t just engage with one another, but that they look out for one another — that they “cease to be OK with” harms to their neighbors, whether they are everyday or structural in scope. Fostering such awareness, investment, and commitment among residents in a diverse, multiracial neighborhood like Crown Heights is no easy feat. possibilities • 89
Eamon O'Connor Given the racial and socioeconomic power dynamics behind such neighborhoods’ demographic shifts, the onus for developing such literacy may fall largely on the area’s newest arrivals — its more affluent and White residents. Pursuing the goals of social integration presents an opportunity for these residents to both interrogate their own presence in such a community, and to actively adjust their participation within it accordingly. Otherwise, as “encroachment” rather than “avoidance” becomes the new normal
in urban White demographic patterns, neighborhoods like Crown Heights are likely to fail at any efforts toward social integration. Amid this encroachment, however, comes newfound diversity and an opportunity to shift course: to not only create more opportunities for engagement across race; but to develop an awareness among residents and small businesses of how they can participate meaningfully in their communities — by not just getting together, but going to bat for one another.
POWER
to foster equitable representation and decision-making
more than saying hello
“Say hello to your neighbors, because when you get to know people on a JUSTICE person-to-person level, when to correct for deeply it ceases to be ‘the Caribbean rooted, structural inequities folks’ or ‘the Jews’ and it becomes Deshaun and Mordechai, then that’s when you cease to be OK with somebody else not getting a fair shake, or somebody BRIDGING else being a victim of garden variety physical rather than mere exposure, to build violence — all the way down to the more insidious trust and networks violence of economic displacement — being robbed of the place that you call home, the place of your childhood memories.” 90 • possibilities
Sharing More Than Space
THE ROLE OF THE COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR But can commercial corridors like Nostrand Avenue be hubs for relationshipbuilding and productive engagement across race and class — the kind of ties that lead to better outcomes for neighborhoods like Crown Heights and our civic life more broadly? As largely transactional spaces governed by the market, commercial corridors have been underaddressed178 in the fields of urban planning, design and policy — and for intuitive reasons. Housing and schools have long been the centerpiece of racial integration efforts — the activities therein comprise the most foundational of needs: where we live and where our children learn. And other settings — from parks to community centers — have long been hailed as democratized spaces where the public can mix and mingle across racial lines, often with some underlying programming. Indeed, one interviewee for this study spoke of bringing her niece to Brower Park, a green space near to Nostrand Avenue: “That playground is a really amazing place to see children of all races and religions hanging out and playing together.” By contrast, the spaces within a commercial corridor are not as democratic, nor do they represent the same place on the hierarchy of needs as housing or schools (aside, perhaps, from the role of their bodegas and groceries as portals for food access: “a great leveler, because everybody needs milk and eggs,” said one interviewee). Indeed, because retail spaces require some form of payment from a consumer — aside from religious and community spaces — they are inherently less universally accessible to all residents of an area. Indeed, while some may hail the local café as a quasi-public space, that space is quasi-private, too, and brings with it a level of exclusion. As one interviewee discussed, “I am fortunate that I make enough money that I can go into King Tai and spend 13 dollars on a cocktail. There’s a ton of people in this neighborhood that
can’t do that. More than likely, the way that I end up interacting with those folks are through pleasantries on the street, on the Subway, on the bus, or in a brief interaction in a store or commercial venue, and those are not necessarily great places to have deep and meaningful conversation.” Indeed, as financially mediated spaces of proximity, corridors are challenging settings for generating deeper engagement. Even their layout is not intuitively social. The linear design of a corridor’s facades and sidewalks may encourage passing by en route to a destination, rather than stopping to say hello — and the scarcity of benches or other social seating further discourage this on corridors like Nostrand Avenue. This played out in site observations, given the few neighborly greetings and interracial social interactions observed on the street. It also bears out in the potential of corridors to be venues for socializing among pre-existing social groups, rather than their potential to be venues for building social groups anew. Lastly, commercial corridors are particularly thorny to plan, design, and set policy for. Within their footprints, they present a complex patchwork of property ownership and tenancy. Many small businesses’ and city officials’ grievances with property owners confirm this complexity — in particular, the trend of property owners raising rents or sitting on vacant storefronts until a willing tenant (likely one without a community-minded approach) pays up the asking rate. In the words of one interviewee, “They’re asking six or seven thousand dollars in rent across the street … Who’s going to pay that kind of money?” Beyond rent hike challenges, planning for and managing commercial corridors presents major coordination challenges, too — from sanitation to façade improvement to seasonal programming.179 • But even with these drawbacks, commercial corridors still represent a vital space in urban life — and hold promise for possibilities • 91
Eamon O'Connor building community across racial lines. As this research has found, Nostrand Avenue holds important social significance in the neighborhood — what’s more, many felt that Nostrand still maintains a high sense of neighborliness and community, compared to now-quieter residential side streets. It is also the north star for neighborhood character. Nearly all survey respondents spoke of hangouts — from eateries to barber shops — in commercial areas like Nostrand Avenue as the centerpieces of neighborhood social life. Research in other commercial settings has also demonstrated such areas’ importance in meeting friends, creating recurring run-ins with familiar faces, and building relationships between purveyors and customers, especially older or otherwise socially isolated members of the community.180 Indeed, across race and class, commercial areas were found to represent the spaces where socializing takes place in Crown Heights — and perhaps increasingly so, as public sector investment in parks and other community infrastructure declines.181 And while many storefronts therein are not venues for the highest level of engagement, a subset of them are major platforms for mixing and relationship-building across race and class lines. For some storefronts, this commitment is explicit, such as a dance studio with culturally aligned programming, or a local community service provider. For others, a commitment to relationship-building functions as “next-level hospitality” — achieved by a particular relationship between the barber or the barista and their customer, or by adding wraparound services and programming, such as a local restaurant that hosts community conversations and service events in its dining room and backyard. Even the physical presence of a storefront, for one community service provider, was critical to their success in building connections across race and class lines: “I really underestimated before we opened what an incredibly valuable and important resource the storefront could be for the 92 • possibilities
neighborhood. It’s a really important statement to the community that we’re not transient, that we’re coming into the neighborhood, that we’re invested in the neighborhood, that we have a physical space that we make available to the community — as a statement of commitment to the neighborhood, that’s really important to us.” These diverse uses and opportunities for engagement, at different levels of depth, create a variety of entry points for engaging with neighbors. Such an array of entry points, research on commercial corridors in the United Kingdom has found, could be more effective than any intentional “bridge-building” programming that, say, a community center might deploy. As one respondent to that study found, “You could set up a society to bring Jews and Muslims together: he wouldn’t turn up and they wouldn’t turn up, because these sorts of outfits attract special people.”182 As an interviewee of this study mentioned, “the minority of people … are just motivated in that way, like that’s their DNA, they’re communally focused.” Given these realities, and because of their variety and wide catchment, commercial corridors could become a more everyday, effective venue for social integration — especially among those who don’t fall into the “communally focused” category. A commercial corridor is also a critical marker of a neighborhood’s economic health, which creates the conditions necessary for social integration by reducing inequality and anxiety. It signals the level of investment in the area, shapes safety and crime, and functions as a local job and entrepreneurial center. By not supporting its health, we run the risk of exacerbating community fabric. Indeed, if not properly managed through periods of demographic change, commercial corridors can themselves feed into residential gentrification and displacement, thereby reducing the potential for social integration.183 As one study found, “they … signal to private developers and state agencies that a neighborhood is ready for larger investments and grander
Sharing More Than Space
NOPE
YEAH
They're not wholly public spaces — we risk falling into the privatization trap
With a wide footprint and reach, they fill gaps amid declining community assets
They're transactional spaces that foster proximity, not deep engagement
They're the hallmark of neighborhood character and social life
Spatially, their linear layout is not conducive to pausing and engaging Their ownership, tenancy, and footprint are complex and challenging to manage
They create a variety of entry points for different ways of engaging They are economically vital — building entrepreneurial spirit and power
redevelopment; Crown Heights, these risk commercial disrupting local corridors can be A SETTING FOR INTEGRATION? social life and at the front lines Whether commercial corridors be an effective venue for may alienate and of racial and class building social integration is up for debate. displace long-term conflict — such as 184 residents.” The at now-rebranded Institute for Local Summerhill and its Self-Reliance summarized the importance bullet-hole wall — they can also be fertile of elevating these spaces in a recent ground for empowering the community. report, “Just as there’s a public stake in the On Nostrand Avenue, the presence of many availability of affordable housing, so too is Black-owned businesses is a source of there a public interest in the commercial pride for a neighborhood that is otherwise side of the built environment. Having undergoing residential displacement. This a healthy independent business sector is also part of a national trend: a survey is closely tied to other municipal policy of business owners by the Census Bureau priorities, including reducing climate reported a substantial jump in the number emissions, expanding jobs, lessening of Black-owned businesses nationwide economic inequality, and strengthening between 2007 and 2012, to 2.6 million 185 the social fabric of neighborhoods.” from 1.9 million.188 According to Cynthia Healthy commercial corridors can Gordy Giwa, co-creator of local website facilitate social integration by lowering Black-Owned Brooklyn, this presents an crime rates. Indeed, reduced retail vacancy opportunity to shift the narrative. In an rates have been tied to improved safety, interview with The New York Times, she which makes social mixing a more viable said, “It’s so often a story of displacement pursuit to begin with. One recent study or loss when you’re talking about Black found that storefront closures were tied Brooklyn. I don’t want to downplay that, to higher crime rates — with even higher because it does happen and it is a serious impacts in less walkable corridors, which concern, but it’s also not the whole ups the stakes for investing in more picture.”189 186 people-friendly retail centers. Another On Nostrand Avenue, multiple 2010 study found that an open retail interviewees echoed this, citing the diverse business provides over $30,000 a year in ownership and clienteles for local Blacksocial benefit just in terms of larcenies owned businesses and minority-owned 187 prevented. women businesses along Nostrand Avenue. While in gentrifying neighborhoods like Of ownership, one said, “[even the newer possibilities • 93
Eamon O'Connor businesses feel more] connected in terms of the cuisine but also the business owners to the neighborhood.” Said another, “I’ve seen lots of different types of people going … not just Black people going into Blackowned businesses, but White people, Indian people, Asian people going into the businesses and supporting,” said one. From another, “there are a lot of minorityowned businesses in the area that have an incredibly strong clientele from what I can tell.” In short, commercial corridors present a unique and high-opportunity venue to foster social integration in multiracial and mixed-income neighborhoods. Housing and schools may present less fragmented patterns of ownership and built form, but the social experience of our cities in many ways comes to life in our commercial corridors. They occupy a large footprint at the geographic center of communities, leading to high foot traffic and transit proximity. They are a nexus of social life, providing a variety of entry points for relationships across race and class — from low-engagement to high-engagement. They are closely tied to neighborhood safety, a crucial ingredient for building trust. They can be platforms for local entrepreneurs, which help build neighborhood pride, jobs, and wealth. As planners, designers, and policymakers, we have much to learn from this patchwork. But the commercial corridor’s value as a setting for social integration is only as great as the level of access it maintains. By better supporting commercial corridors financially, programmatically, and spatially, we can improve our chances of shaping as optimal an environment as possible for more meaningful engagement — across both race and class — to take place.
POSSIBILITIES What follows is a set of possibilities for shaping greater social integration on Nostrand Avenue and in Crown Heights. These recommendations are not prescriptions for bridging deeply ingrained race and class divides — rather, they are 94 • possibilities
promising seeds of opportunities that a range of locals may consider adopting in service of a more connected and equal neighborhood. The recommendations are targeted toward three key audiences, each of whom have a particular stake in the success of social integration. • Residents, for whom the goal is to (1) cultivate more relationships across race and (2) spur participation and advocacy for neighborhood causes, particularly among less engaged newcomer, predominantly White residents — those who may lack the awareness or motivation necessary to actively engage in the community • Businesses, for whom the goal is to (1) build power so they can continue to remain on the corridor as anchor spaces in the community, and (2) build capacity to adapt operations and programming for increasingly diverse clienteles. Businesses, as defined in this section, is an umbrella term for tenants of the corridor, and may include non-profits who occupy space on Nostrand Avenue. • Officials (e.g., policymakers, planners) for whom the goal is to (1) set the conditions for social integration to take shape, through policy measures, and (2) develop new ways of tracking progress toward social integration across race in neighborhoods like Crown Heights For each of these audiences, I have drafted a brief message elevating the importance of social integration — and have developed a visual companion for each recommendation to bring it to life.
Sharing More Than Space
KEY AUDIENCES OF FOCUS
, s t
n r e a id e d es r
d ape n sh s once bee a long ights w ree e v f a e t his h rown H unity of n’s firs ke t C ds li hange. t comm Brookly s c o rhoo te hbo raphic d large s, and t e Whi ig th e n g N e from upted tell — that er emo ool. seco Stat by d to the United blic sch harder for thuseto1991 riots the e best e to nt of out the de si hom s in the rated pu stories th-2at0tarh century, ure e re id to fig k by ngtim Blac lly integ been defintmedent in thmemmunities. ther you’remaerlo just trying co . s also sinves Black co d whe a new hello d od ha od di or racia say y. An
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GOAL Build power to stay as anchors, and capacity to serve all customers
u ca et s an ne . ow w at yo secr , you rent g to ther ty kn d so th fair toge It’s no it does aptin e Ci ding as d ad ople d th n. An man And rs, an s an in tow ing pe ns de lord gula to br mea g re land st spot t. fort rvin be ar That that tra ef . So u as the torn ap ns se ex es ea in m . forc see yo ing tting way That join of be that ns pu risk ed to inue to mea ep it u'll ne ers cont hood at t’s ke That or e, yo ts. Le t ther custom neighb Heigh To ge So that rce in a own . of Cr with ecting fo wels je nn n co e crow re th You'
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GOAL Foster relationships, and spur advocacy for local causes by mostly White newcomers
ke ds li rhoo g rents hbo neig t. Risin ses t a d th ing poin usines g a goo and t a tipp small b ecomin . And b well s nd ea now hts ar ents a ity risks r divide our ties k u Yo n Heig s resid ivers deepe nect, d Crow utting it s racial to veil we con ion d w p isolat , and s need are e test. It ing use rms ho go. racismorhood s o o ent, to th ow dres transf e first t s — displacegroum nd, neighb to t y e at ity, bu wind chnolog rs are th cing theseglthobree. And on th vers ic di how nom fa e — of oeco as te neighbo neighborhoitiodes across th soci tales stain nary . io su un ly ut m on com ca future just t the not in with than st
GOAL Set conditions for social integration, and develop new ways of tracking progress
to is no ads n. ther more ju . ough ghts ugly he head-o king — ra a le en ginalized d ta n Hei eir gms toward em stab ar ding — an radi Crow aring th ling th k ities ally m stan bric ck are pa d wor al fa mmun oric are re e you ta er by ghts story an soci g co the hist deliv our n Hei hi r akin to se can y to Crow an ugly ns m ealth fo et e . You ci ea w m nt ghts es lik d so That ely build plac n confro orke n Hei g tw ow rin su a ne activ e Cr es ca s of s lik ns en muniti cost m mea hood the hbor That -race co up to neig cing mixed ng to re. ns fa it. teni mea d lis ain futu That to rewire ing an cert s look this un step by t star they face can You them as with
possibilities • 95
Eamon O'Connor
r a n e e d sid e r 96 • possibilities
Sharing More Than Space
n
, s t Neighborhoods like this have long been shaped by demographic change. Crown Heights was once home to the second largest community of free Blacks in the United States, and to Brooklyn’s first racially integrated public school. But this neighborhood has also been defined by stories that are harder for us to tell — from the White flight that led to neighborhood disinvestment in the mid-20th century, to the 1991 riots that erupted between the area’s Hasidic Jewish and Black communities. We’re at a moment where we’re writing a new story. And whether you’re a longtime resident of the neighborhood shocked by rising rents and changing faces, or a newcomer just trying to figure out the best spot for a bagel, we all have a role to play in how this story unfolds. We could look down as we walk to and from the subway, or we could look up to say hello. We could move through familiar circles, or we could get to know our neighbors. We could buy with one click, or we could take a few steps around the corner. We could sit by as those around us struggle to get by, or we could show them we give a damn. If you believe our cities can be places where different races, classes, and generations do more than just live side-by-side, then consider being part of the Crown Heights story — and shaping one you’d be proud to tell. possibilities • 97
Eamon O'Connor
ENGAGEME
Low
Develop a guide for newcomers that helps them understand and engage in the neighborhood.
Design signage that playfully nudges people to interact and engage with one another. Installations on digital LinkNYC portals already visualize some neighborhood-centric signage. Public art or provocative conversation starters could complement them (e.g., “Say hi to your neighbor. They won’t bite.” or “We know you like the people on your screen. What about the people on your street?” ) could be looped into the stalls within this neighborhood — there are 10 LinkNYC along the Nostrand Avenue corridor alone, translating to a visible and well-distributed footprint. Tone and visual style could be human and provocative, in the style of public art installations by Candy Change — who is behind a range of urban art projects, such as the “Before I die” wall.191 98 • possibilities
This model could take the form of storefront signage, or in the form of door hangers or fliers distributed a by a network of volunteers. The messaging would target newcomers in need of sociospatial literacy as they navigate a diverse and changing neighborhood like Crown Heights. Materials may include tips, a small business reference guide, and advocacy and volunteer opportunities. Neighbors in Action and Repair the World’s leadership have demonstrated interest in developing such messaging and programming. Said one interviewee, “This would have meant the world to me when I moved here.” Messaging and graphic identity would need to be visual, simple, and graphically clear, as Emily Talen has noted should be the case when distributing community-centric materials in racially diverse areas.190
Hold a neighbor speed dating night — a playful entry point for building connection. Local restaurants with varying clienteles could volunteer to host such an event, with the goal of getting a diverse set of locals together for quick “getting to know you” sessions — the purpose would not just be to facilitate an introduction, but would be to get locals in the door for deeper engagement on shared work or projects. As with one interviewee’s ‘We Are Crown Heights’ portrait series, participants could be matched based on shared interests. Advocacy or other volunteer opportunities could also be advertised within the context of the event.
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Hold a series of ‘civic suppers’ with a diverse group of locals to build ties and bolster advocates.
Organize residents to do a week-long opt-out of delivery, to back local business. Responding to widespread concern among business owners about the rise of online delivery — and its implications for foot traffic, community, and profits — this proposal would require an organizing effort in the neighborhood. Its aim would not be to change the market and technological forces that are driving a rise in delivery services like GrubHub, but to raise consciousness among residents about the impacts of their choices on local business decisions. Guidance on “buying local” may also be embedded into “Welcome Pack” messaging to shift consumer consciousness. A survey following the fifth year of the Small Business Saturday® campaign found promising results on the program’s impact — indicating similar efforts may help shift behavior among consumers.192
Supper clubs or food-based models for relationship-building have gain prominence in recent years — particularly in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. The People’s Supper is one notable example — a national network focused on bringing people together over conversation.193 Such precedents, however, focus more on shared conversation than they do shared purpose and work. This model would focus not just on relationship-building across races, but also on generating civic participation, anti-racism, and advocacy efforts, particularly among newer, predominantly White residents. The model may also benefit from nested racial affinity groups — drawing from anti-racism work, in which White people and people of color have nested communities to work through identity-specific issues.194 Local non-profit Repair the World has expressed interest in coordinating, and in the words of one interviewee, “if neighborhood restaurants got on board it would be a great way to bring people in.” possibilities • 99
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Crown Heights wouldn’t be what it is without you — whether you’re the neighborhood’s favorite for oxtail stew or almond croissants, for a fresh cut or a fresh juice. And there’s a reason why — you're the ones who hustle, who make customers’ days, who bring locals together when they need it most. It’s no secret that the neighborhood’s changing — and that the ways people live, shop, and gather are, too. And as it does, you can't just survive. You need to thrive. That means demanding fair rents and leases. That means serving regulars, and adapting to newcomers. That means putting in extra effort to bring people together. To get there, you'll need to join forces. So that landlords and the City know we’re a force to be reckoned with. So that customers continue to see you as the best spot in town. And so that you can be the connecting force in a neighborhood at risk of being torn apart. You're the crown jewels of Crown Heights. Let’s keep it that way. possibilities • 101
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Target storefront upgrade grants toward communityfriendly design. Community Development Block Grants’ Storefront Improvement Programs have been a common source of capital for small businesses in improving façade conditions. As an official with the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) observed, however, sometimes these upgrades don’t necessarily get used for the most durable or neighborhood-serving façade needs. A local small business hub, in partnership with SBS, may consider better targeting use of these grants toward improvements that have a lasting effect on storefront quality and perception. Investing in window improvements to boost transparency to the street, and in an electronic security gates may be worthwhile longterm investments. Said one interviewee, "My gate is also very old and gives me trouble closing and opening it. Transparent windows. An automatic gate. This would change my life.” 102 • possibilities
Create spontaneous connections in spaces off of anyone’s “turf." Vacant storefront activation can be a challenging process — especially given storefront repair needs, which property owners often pass on to tenants. That being said, on a corridor with a 14 percent vacancy rate (slightly higher than the 10 percent national median)195, such empty spaces can have a major impact on corridor vitality and safety. A recent vacant storefront activation strategy developed for the Cambridge, Mass. details a range of possibilities for addressing or activating such vacancies in neighborhoodserving ways.196 But in the words of one interviewee, activating such spaces may be valuable given they are “liminal spaces, that invite play, and that are not on anyone’s turf.”
"De-signal” the storefront by bringing local businesses out on to the street. Many residents spoke of the “signals” they or their neighbors used to determine which storefront to patronize along the corridor. Adopting the common Sunday Streets model along the corridor could cut this process short. It would eliminate the need for filtering through such signals, provide an introduction for noncustomers to businesses they ordinarily would not visit, and potentially provide a pathway to future visits by these customers. Said one interviewee, “Nobody would have to question if they come inside … everybody’s already there, there’s no judgment … I think that would be awesome and then you might see people after that and be like, ‘Oh, I really liked that thing from Gloria’s — I don’t know what oxtail is, but I’m going to eat it and go back.’”
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Hold small business crossovers where neighboring spots “pop up” in each others' storefronts. About half of storefronts observed had diverse, mixedrace clienteles during field research — and only about a third of those with groups included mixed-race groups. To draw more mixed clienteles, small businesses might consider popping up in one another or temporarily sharing space. Said one interviewee, “There’s sometimes a correlation between what the coffee shop is for White people and what the barber shop is for people of color. What would it look like to have them actually fused?” Café Erzulie — a Hatian-American café in Bedford-Stuyvesant — presents a compelling precedent for this recommendation. Newcomer café owners partnered with an existing flower shop owner to share the burden of rent, and upgrade the space to accommodate a café and cocktail bar. The resulting collaboration has kept the longtime florist in business, and drawn in a more mixed clientele.198
High
Build power among local small businesses by establishing an advocacy group. While there is a burgeoning merchants’ association along the corridor, more cohesion among small businesses may be beneficial if facilitated by an organizing entity. As the corridor faces rising rents and moderate to high vacancy rates, this entity may be an outlet for advocacy efforts to the city — pushing for some of the measures suggested in the following section, targeted at “Officials.” San Francisco’s Calle 24 — a corridor-based merchant group with a strong organizing power — and recent ‘United Save the Mission’ pushes are strong precedents small business organizing.197 The organization may also be beneficial for programming (e.g., street fairs, small business mashup) and knowledge sharing (e.g., best practices for both serving longtime and adapting to new clienteles). For example, the organization may consider developing simple communitybuilding guide for new businesses on how to embed inclusion into operations. possibilities • 103
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You know well and good that neighborhoods like Crown Heights are at a tipping point. Rising rents are putting its residents and small businesses to the test. Its racial diversity risks becoming a window dressing used to veil deeper divides. And as technology transforms how we connect, our ties with neighbors are the first to go. Crown Heights is not the only neighborhood facing these threats — displacement, racism, and isolation are rearing their ugly heads in communities across the globe. And on the ground, neighborhoods need to see you tackling them head-on. That means making communities stable enough to not just sustain socioeconomic diversity, but to actively build wealth for the historically marginalized. That means ensuring places like Crown Heights are paradigms — rather than cautionary tales — of how mixed-race communities can confront an ugly history and work toward a more just future. That means facing up to the costs of a networked society to our social fabric — and taking steps to rewire it. You can start by looking and listening to neighborhoods like Crown Heights. You can deliver by standing with them as they face this uncertain future.
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Amp up investment in noncommercial, small gathering spots (e.g., pocket parks). Public recreational and community spaces are under threat amid increasing privatization and more limited public funds. A bright spot is just south of Eastern Parkway at the upcoming Bedford Union Armory development — a recreation and community center (including nonprofit and mixed-income housing) blocks away from the site of this field work.202 Even still, greater investment in non-commercial spaces is always beneficial, especially given empirical research shows people are more likely to frequent such venues if they are within a 5 minute walk of their residence or workplace.203 Policymakers may consider providing incentives to landlords to activate vacant storefronts for non-commercial uses (e.g., art, culture, non-profit), or to convert vacant lots into green space activation. One vacant lot on Nostrand Avenue, for example, sits on its northern half and could be a prime setting for a pocket park. The city may also consider ways to better support local community gardens increasing reach and visibility, such as the local Bergen Street Community Garden, which appeared “offlimits” to one interviewee for this study. 106 • possibilities
Track neighborhood-level data on social integration to gauge progress of policy initiatives. As this field research revealed, there is a wealth of untracked data on social integration levels in our neighborhoods — from who visits which businesses, to who interacts with whom on the street. These types of data collection methods may be challenging to scale, however. Recent efforts at MIT have revealed two potential large-scale data sources for understanding such segregation in both storefront interiors and the public realm, however. First, a recent study used cell phone data to determine patronage at different storefronts by income level, revealing stark class segregation at the block scale.199 Second, an initiative — dubbed ‘Placelet’ — is underway to understand and measure pedestrian foot
traffic, engagement with one another, and relationships to public space.200 Both data sources present intriguing possibilities for better understanding social integration patterns, but would also require ethical and data privacy discussions before scaling. The London social integration team has also developed a roadmap for collecting and managing data on the challenge, using less algorithmically complex methods (e.g., surveys, parsing existing census data).201 Collecting a mix of these types of data — calibrated to New York City priorities and overseen by a social integration department or other entity — may help set the agenda for social integration and track progress toward goals.
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Adopt rent stability measures or landlord incentives to mitigate commercial displacement.
Consider installing a city-wide position to focus on issues of social integration. The United Kingdom has put policy muscle into issues of isolation, racial and ethnic division, and inequality in recent years. The country made waves when it appointed a “Minister of Loneliness” in 2018 to combat rising social isolation.205 London Mayor Sadiq Khan took a more deliberate approach to the issue — and its implications for a racially and ethnically diverse city facing inequality — by establishing a deputy mayor position devoted to social integration. He released a strategy on the topic in 2018, and forming an in-house “Social Integration Design Lab” for a two-year period.206 These policy commitments send a message about the importance of building community and bridging ties. New York City could consider a similar commitment — whether by establishing a position outright, or by embedding specialists within existing city departments. For commercial corridors specifically, the Department of Small Business Services may consider establishing a role specifically focused on the role of local entrepreneurs in facilitating the “bridging ties” required for social integration — and advocating for the types of interventions discussed in the previous section targeted at small businesses.
Design city-level incentives for community-centric business decisions (e.g., hiring locally) The B-Corp model has seen strong adoption to promote community- and environmentally friendly practices among businesses204 — including among some small businesses on the corridor. Said one local B-Corp, “I›m a certified B-Corp which means I do all of these things [hiring locally, etc.] but the city doesn›t know and may not even care. If they do I don›t know the programs that would offer me an incentive for doing so.” Through the Department of Small Business Services, may consider maintaining data on neighborhood-serving B-Corp businesses, encouraging adoption of such practices, and devoting a pool of funds for grants to B-Corp businesses — grants could be determined not just based on B-Corp requirements, but based on a set of factors specific to social integration priorities, too. (e.g., hiring of people of color, promoting community-building through programming, etc.).
It’s no secret that among planners and policymakers, commercial rent stabilization lags behind residential rent stabilization. In rapidly changing contexts like Nostrand Avenue, however, policy action is critical, as authors noted in retail-focused case studies of gentrification in Harlem and Williamsburg: “The right to the city passes through the right to shop there.”207 New York City lags behind peers in adoption of small business protection measures. Internationally, London, Paris and Rome have protections in place for historic or culturally significant businesses — with Paris going so far as to buy the properties of such businesses and negotiating rent caps with landlords since 2004.208 San Francisco has been most progressive in the United States, establishing a Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund that offers grants to businesses that are at least 20-years-old; funds can be used to secure continued tenancy, and landlords can get an additional payment for agreeing to a 10-year-lease for the selected businesses.209 In New York City, many commercial rent stabilization measures are in pilot mode or legislation: such as setasides for local ground-floor retail in new developments in East New York210; and a bill under review to provide small businesses under threat of eviction with free legal help.211 possibilities • 107
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ENDNOTES 176 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008.
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“Retail Rents in Brooklyn Are a Mixed Bag. These Corridors Saw the Biggest Changes.” The Real Deal New York, November 28, 2018. https://therealdeal.com/2018/11/28/retail-rents-inbrooklyn-are-a-mixed-bag-here-are-the-corridors-that-saw-the-biggest-changes/. 178 Peter Jones, Marian Roberts and Linda Morris, with Pushpa Arabindoo, Budhi Mulyawan and Alex Upton (University of Westminster) (April 2007) Mixed use streets: Enhancing liveability and reconciling conflicting pressures. Published by The Policy Press for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Report and summary available from www.jrf. org.uk. 179 Peter Jones, Marian Roberts and Linda Morris, with Pushpa Arabindoo, Budhi Mulyawan and Alex Upton. Mixed use streets: Enhancing liveability and reconciling conflicting pressures. Published by The Policy Press for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. (University of Westminster) (April 2007) Report and summary available from www.jrf. org.uk. 180 Sophie Watson with David Studdert (Open University) (September 2006) Markets as spaces for social interaction: Spaces of diversity. Published by The Policy Press for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Report and summary available from www.jrf.org.uk. 181 “City Observatory.” City Observatory, June 9, 2015. http://cityobservatory.org/less-incommon. 182 Nicholas Dines and Vicky Cattell with Wil Gesler and Sarah Curtis (Queen Mary, University of London) (September 2006) Public spaces, social relations and wellbeing in East London. Published by The Policy Press for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Report and summary available from www.jrf.org.uk. 183 Zukin, Sharon, Valerie Trujillo, Peter Frase, Danielle Jackson, Tim Recuber, and Abraham Walker. “New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City.” City & Community 8, no. 1 (March 2009): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406040.2009.01269.x. 184 Zukin, Sharon, Valerie Trujillo, Peter Frase, Danielle Jackson, Tim Recuber, and Abraham Walker. “New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City.” City & Community 8, no. 1 (March 2009): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406040.2009.01269.x. 185 Olivia LaVecchia and Stacy Mitchell, “Affordable Space: How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, April 2016. 186 Tom Y. Chang and Mireille Jacobson, “Going to pot? The impact of dispensary closures on crime,” Journal of Urban Economics, vol 100 (July 2017): 120-136, https://www.sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S0094119017300281 187 McCollister, Kathryn E et al. “The cost of crime to society: new crime-specific estimates for policy and program evaluation.” Drug and alcohol dependencevol. 108,1-2 (2010): 98-109. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2009.12.002 188 “Women Are Leading the Rise of Black-Owned Businesses.” Accessed May 9, 2019. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2016/02/women-are-leading-therise-of-black-owned-businesses.html. 189 Morgan, Richard. “A Revival of Black Business, and Pride, in Brooklyn.” The New York Times, June 20, 2018, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/nyregion/ black-owned-brooklyn-businesses.html. 190 Talen, Emily. Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods. Routledge, 2008. 191 “Candy Chang » Work.” Accessed May 13, 2019. http://candychang.com/work/. 192 “Small Business Saturday® Results: Shoppers Provide Encouraging Start to the Holiday Shopping Season,” November 30, 2015. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151130005359/ en/Small-Business-Saturday%C2%AE-Results-Shoppers-Provide-Encouraging. 193 “What Happens When Two Immigrants, Five Liberals and a Trump Voter Sit down to Dinner - The Washington Post.” Accessed May 13, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/
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Sharing More Than Space lifestyle/style/what-happens-when-two-immigrants-five-liberals-and-a-trump-voter-sit-down-todinner/2017/03/17/3752355c-08da-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.29fb48cdd77d. 194 Blitz, Lisa V., and Benjamin G. Kohl Jr. “Addressing Racism in the Organization: The Role of White Racial Affinity Groups in Creating Change.” Administration in Social Work 36, no. 5 (November 1, 2012): 479–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/03643107.2011.624261. 195 “Storefront Vacancies Best Practices,” City of Cambridge Community Development Department by Larisa Ortiz Associates, June 2018. https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/ CDD/EconDev/retailstrategy/cambridgevacancystorefrontreport_6302018.pdf 196 “Storefront Vacancies Best Practices,” City of Cambridge Community Development Department by Larisa Ortiz Associates, June 2018. https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/ CDD/EconDev/retailstrategy/cambridgevacancystorefrontreport_6302018.pdf 197 “Can the Mission Save Itself from Commercial Gentrification? - February 13, 2019 - SF Weekly.” Accessed May 13, 2019. http://www.sfweekly.com/topstories/can-the-mission-save-itself-from-commercial-gentrification/. 198 “How Bed-Stuy’s Haitian-American Cafe Erzulie Combats Gentrification.” Edible Brooklyn (blog), August 17, 2017. https://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/2017/bed-stuys-haitian-american-cafe-erzulie-combats-gentrification/. 199 Poon, Linda. “MIT Puts Pedestrians at the Center of Urban Design.” CityLab. Accessed May 13, 2019. http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/08/mit-puts-pedestrians-at-the-center-of-urbandesign/401285/. 200 Poon, Linda. “MIT Puts Pedestrians at the Center of Urban Design.” CityLab. Accessed May 13, 2019. http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/08/mit-puts-pedestrians-at-the-center-of-urbandesign/401285/. 201 “All of Us: The Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration,” Greater London Authority, March 2018. 202 “Bedford Union Armory.” Bedford Union Armory. Accessed May 13, 2019. https://www. bedfordarmory.com/. 203 Kaplan, R., & Kaplan, Stephen. The experience of nature : A psychological perspective. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 204 Kim, Suntae, Matthew J. Karlesky, Christopher G. Myers, and Todd Schifeling. “Why Companies Are Becoming B Corporations.” Harvard Business Review, June 17, 2016. https://hbr. org/2016/06/why-companies-are-becoming-b-corporations. 205 Yeginsu, Ceylan. “U.K. Appoints a Minister for Loneliness.” The New York Times, November 28, 2018, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/europe/uk-britain-loneliness.html. 206 “All of Us: The Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration,” Greater London Authority, March 2018. 207 Zukin, Sharon, Valerie Trujillo, Peter Frase, Danielle Jackson, Tim Recuber, and Abraham Walker. “New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City.” City & Community 8, no. 1 (March 2009): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406040.2009.01269.x. 208 “New hope for bookshops.” Valeria Gaillard, Catalonia Today, Oct. 4, 2015. via Olivia LaVecchia and Stacy Mitchell, “Affordable Space: How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, April 2016. 209 Olivia LaVecchia and Stacy Mitchell, “Affordable Space: How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, April 2016. 210 Vianna, Carla. “New Bill Aims to Save Small NYC Businesses Facing Eviction, Including Restaurants.” Eater NY, March 13, 2019. https://ny.eater.com/2019/3/13/18263873/small-businessrestaurant-eviction-nyc-bill. 211 Vianna, Carla. “New Bill Aims to Save Small NYC Businesses Facing Eviction, Including Restaurants.” Eater NY, March 13, 2019. https://ny.eater.com/2019/3/13/18263873/small-businessrestaurant-eviction-nyc-bill.
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We know what a more socially integrated Crown Heights might look like. Neighbors of different races and classes would not just know each other, but would show up for one another — from buying local at the corner store, to being vocal in civic life. Small businesses would offer accessible products, priced affordably, served by the familiar face from around the corner. There would be ample venues to engage regularly with neighbors — in an authentic, human way. Thriving spaces would animate life on the corridor — from storefronts that don’t just give smiles and nods, but that were created with all residents’ needs in mind. And policymakers would not just listen to neighborhood concerns, but would actively sustain the community — ensuring access to a healthy mix of neighborhood-serving businesses, stable housing, and quality education. But how Crown Heights and Nostrand Avenue stack up to this ideal — and what it will take for similar communities to reach it — is a whole other matter altogether. This thesis revealed the ways that both our bonding ties — those that bind us by identity — and our bridging ties — those that bridge identities — are under threat. And neighborhoods like Crown Heights — with their shifting demographics and power dynamics shaped by gentrification — are ground zero for this challenge. Bonding ties that have long sustained a historically West Indian and African-American community are being disrupted by the arrival of newcomer, predominantly White residents who are not just buying up an outsized share of residential real estate, but who are shaping new spaces on the corridor that risk displacing culturally essential enclaves. Even still, a wave of new, Black-owned businesses and a strong community organizing contingent indicate the community may be resisting the wholesale erasure that other communities of color have experienced in New York City and beyond. Amid these shifting demographics and power dynamics, the barriers to fostering interracial bridging ties will only grow. Cited by the most respondents as a preferred place to socialize, Nostrand Avenue was also a space where divisions along race and class lines visibly played out. The commercial spine constituted “a dividing line between different segments of the population that all live here,” in the words of one interviewee. Despite relatively high volume of activity, low levels of social interaction among those of different races in the public realm, and moderate levels of interracial social interaction within the corridor’s storefronts, confirmed this may be the case. But field work also presented a set of conditions — behavioral, programmatic, spatial, and policy-led — that might start to promote more meaningful engagement across race in this neighborhood. These conditions were gleaned from missteps and model
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cases in equal measure. From them, we might begin to understand what makes or breaks not just social interaction across race, but the deeper engagement that sustains communities, cities, and democracies like our own. And the possibilities presented in the previous chapter — though no prescription — present seeds of ideas for community members to consider. As they’re floated with members of the Crown Heights community, it’s likely that they will see some mix of adoption, adaptation, and the garbage bin. And rightfully so — because Crown Heights’ future must depend on the choices of those who make decisions from the top and on the ground. From the top down, officials must demonstrate a commitment to promoting fairness, access, and opportunity for a community threatened by, in the words of one interviewee, the “insidious violence of economic displacement.” But given this thesis focused on interracial dynamics at the scale of the sidewalk and storefront, I will close on the importance of choices by those who move through this neighborhood's spaces, day in and day out. Longtime residents, businesses, and community organizations engaged for this project are actively working to build power, to preserve community, to prevent displacement, and to build bridges to newcomers. But will newer, predominantly White arrivals choose to meet them on the bridge? Will they choose to understand the history, people, and causes that animate the neighborhood they’ve arrived in? Will they choose to actively build relationships with their neighbors of different races than their own? Will they not just say hello to — but go to bat for — their neighbors threatened by rising rents and cultural erasure? Beverly Daniel Tatum offers wise advice for such residents as they move through life in Crown Heights. “I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt. Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along to the same destination as those who are actively walking. Some of the bystanders may feel the motion of the conveyor belt, see the active racists ahead of them, and choose to turn around. But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt – unless they are actively antiracist — they will find themselves carried along with the others.”212 Whether the proverbial path is a walkway at an airport or a sidewalk on Nostrand Avenue, Crown Heights’ White residents have a choice to walk in the opposite direction. If the neighborhood is to build not just relationships — but justice and power — across racial divides, then its future depends on this choice.
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ENDNOTES 212 Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race. Third trade paperback edition., Twentieth anniversary edition. New York: Basic Books, 2017.
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