Predicting Sense Of Community in a Historic Latino/Latina Neighborhood Undergoing Gentrification

Neighborhoods with generational Mexican American populations may have high levels of block Social Cohesion and neighborhood Sense of Community. Streetcar-focused development via federal and local investment often spurs gentrification in neighborhoods with ethnic concentrations, which shifts neighborhood demographics towards more White and higher income households. The new residential and business investment in the neighborhood often has an impact on existing neighborhood social dynamics. This study includes mixed methods resident survey data of long term and newer residents. The qualitative data analysis informs quantitative data analysis in order to better understand resident descriptions of the impact of neighborhood streetcar focused gentrification on social factors in a generational Latino/Latina neighborhood at one point in time just before the streetcar opening. Specifically the study seeks to: (a) provide a description of generational and new resident experiences with block Social Cohesion and neighborhood Sense of Community; (b) determine differences (between Latino/Latina households and those with children present and other study participants) in block Social Cohesion, neighborhood Sense of Community, and Involvement in Neighborhood and Voluntary Associations; and (c) determine what factors predict neighborhood Sense of Community. The study highlights the Latino/Latina residents’ maintenance of a strong ethnic identity, generational neighborhood based social ties, and ongoing involvement in neighborhood schools and religious traditions that contribute to a strong neighborhood Sense of Community. Newer residents report being drawn to and supporting the maintenance of the neighborhood Sense of Community

Employing community data to investigate social and structural dimensions of urban neighborhoods: An early childhood education example

The present study sought to define neighborhood context by examining relationships among data from city-level administrative databases at the level of the census block group. The present neighborhood investigation included 1,801 block groups comprising a large, northeastern metropolitan area. Common factor analyses and multistage, hierarchical cluster analyses yielded two dimensions (i.e., Social Stress, Structural Danger) and two typologies (i.e., Racial Composition, Property Structure Composition) of neighborhood context. Simultaneous multiple regression analyses revealed small but statistically significant associations between neighborhood variables and academic outcomes for public school kindergarten children

Neighborhood income inequality

This paper offers a descriptive empirical analysis of the geographic pattern of income inequality within a sample of 359 US metropolitan areas between 1980 and 2000. Specifically, we decompose the variance of metropolitan area-level household income into two parts: one associated with the degree of variation among household incomes within neighborhoods - defined by block groups and tracts - and the other associated with the extent of variation among households in different neighborhoods. Consistent with previous work, the results reveal that the vast majority of a city’s overall income inequality - at least three quarters - is driven by within-neighborhood variation rather than between-neighborhood variation, although we find that the latter rose significantly during the 1980s, especially between block groups. We then identify a number of metropolitan area-level characteristics that are associated with both levels of and changes in the degree of each type of residential income inequality.Income distribution ; Income

Block Clubs and Social Action: A Case Study in Community Conflict

A Block Club may be defined as a group of citizens in a neighborhood who get together and work together to improve their neighborhood. Kahn defines block organizing as a highly manageable technique, usually an urban technique (1970:36). In this context, organizing may be viewed as a means of achieving and guiding local control over problems that orginate elsewhere in society (Ecklein & Lauffer 1972:11). shereas services focus on individual needs, organizing focuses on the location of common problems and joint efforts aimed at their solution. Community organizers have generally used a natural leader-informal association approach to organizing Block Clubs and their main concern seems to be the enhancement of social relationships in order to bring about a greater capacity on the part of some target population to deal with common problems. This article illustrates the dilemmas, contradictions and tensions underlying the work of Block Clubs in a neighborhood during 1970-71; a neighborhood in which the residents felt completely powerless to deal with the consequences of a neighborhood bar. The Community Organization effort initiated with the assistance of the author resulted in the closure of the neighborhood bar. The material for this article was developed from the author\u27s personal knowledge

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Variations in Blood Pressure

Purpose: To examine the extent to which neighborhood disadvantage accounts for variation in blood pressure. Methods: Demographic, biometric, and self-reported data from 19 261 health screenings were used. Addresses of participants were geocoded and located within census block groups (n= 14 510, 75.3%). Three hierarchical linear models were formulated to identify individual and census block group risk factors for hypertension. Neighborhood-level deprivation was determined using the Townsend Deprivation Index. Results: Of the 14 510 participants, 24% had a systolic blood pressure (SBP) of = 140 mmHg, and 15% had a diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of = 90 mmHg, indicating hypertension. At the neighborhood level, significant variation in average SBP and DBP across census block groups (P P P= .009). Discussion: The findings highlight the role of individual and neighborhood characteristics on blood pressure, specifically SBP. Modifying neighborhood contexts may help reduce environmental risks of hypertension. Translation to Health Education Practice: Educating officials about health risks for residents associated with neighborhood resources is essential in changing policies and reallocating resources

Coalescence, genetic diversity in sexual populations under selection

In sexual populations, selection operates neither on the whole genome, which is repeatedly taken apart and reassembled by recombination, nor on individual alleles that are tightly linked to the chromosomal neighborhood. The resulting interference between linked alleles reduces the efficiency of selection and distorts patterns of genetic diversity. Inference of evolutionary history from diversity shaped by linked selection requires an understanding of these patterns. Here, we present a simple but powerful scaling analysis identifying the unit of selection as the genomic "linkage block" with a characteristic length determined in a self-consistent manner by the condition that the rate of recombination within the block is comparable to the fitness differences between different alleles of the block. We find that an asexual model with the strength of selection tuned to that of the linkage block provides an excellent description of genetic diversity and the site frequency spectra when compared to computer simulations. This linkage block approximation is accurate for the entire spectrum of strength of selection and is particularly powerful in scenarios with many weakly selected loci. The latter limit allows us to characterize coalescence, genetic diversity, and the speed of adaptation in the infinitesimal model of quantitative genetics

Empowerment Zones, Neighborhood Change and Owner Occupied Housing

This paper examines the effects of a generous, spatially-targeted economic development policy (the federal Empowerment Zone program) on local neighborhood characteristics and on the neighborhood quality of life, taking into account the interactions amongst the policy, changes in neighborhood demographics and neighborhood housing stock. Urban economic theory posits that housing prices in a small area should increase as quality of life increases, because people will be more willing to pay to live in the area, but these changes in prices and quality of life will also affect the demographics of the population through sorting and the housing stock through reinvestment. Using census block-group-level data, we examine how housing prices respond to the Empowerment Zone policy intervention. Changes in the other dimensions of neighborhood quality (demographics and housing stock characteristics) will also help determine the total, or full effect on housing values of the policy intervention. This paper estimates these direct and indirect effects in a simultaneous equations setting, compares indirect and full effects, and examines the robustness of the effects to alternate estimation strategies. We find strong evidence for substantively large and highly significant direct price effects, while results suggest that the indirect effects are substantively small or even negative.economic development, empowerment zones, porperty values, household mobility, sorting