Unequal Burdens: Cost Burdens in the New York Metropolitan Area, 2000-2017

Introduction: This report analyzes different demographic cross-sections for cost-burdened households at various times over the study period (2000, 2010, and 2017). Methods: The metro areas include the Public Use Micro Areas (PUMAs) associated with following counties for New York (Rockland, Orange, Westchester, Putnam, Duchess, Nassau, Suffolk, Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond), New Jersey, (Passaic, Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Union, and Middlesex), and Connecticut (Fairfield). Since counties are not identified in public-use microdata from 1950 onward and PUMAs change over time, we used consistent PUMA boundaries from 2000 to 2010 (https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/CPUMA0010#description_section). For more on this see a discussion here https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-can-see-couple-of-distinct-countyfips-whereas-the-rest-of-them-are-under-0-countyfips-for-minnesota/1585/4 and here https://forum.ipums.org/t/1990-or-2000-puma-equivalency-files/2842. Census microdata are used for both analyses; they include data from the Decennial 2000 5% sample, the 2006-2010 5-Year ACS estimates, and the 2013-2017 ACS 5-Year estimates, hereafter referred to as 2000, 2010, and 2017, respectively. The cross-sectional analysis reports summary statistics across the entire metro region with the individual household head as the unit of analysis. The spatial analysis collapses these observations into Public Use Micro Areas (PUMAs) and, using appropriate household weights, reports descriptive statistics for each geographic area. Data comes from Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, Erin Meyer, Jose Pacas, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 9.0. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2019. http://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V9.0. Discussion: All race and ethnic groups saw increasing levels of rent burden across the study period, with Latino households reporting the highest rates of rent burden compared to every other racial and ethnic group at every point over the study period. Latino households have consistently seen higher rates of rent burden than non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and non-Hispanic Asians—going from 40.3% in 2000 to 59.2% in 2017. While all Latino subgroups saw increases in rent burden over the study period, Mexican and Dominican-headed households saw the largest increases, moving from the lowest levels in 2000 to the highest levels in 2017. Homeowners saw increases in mortgage burden between 2000 and 2010 but decreases between 2010 and 2017. Non-Hispanic black and Latino populations saw the highest levels of mortgage burden at every point over the study period. While the Latino population reported the highest prevalence of mortgage burden in 2000 and 2010 (53.6% and 44.6% respectively), non-Hispanic black households experienced the highest rate in 2017 (45.2%). Asians and non-Hispanic white households saw the lowest rates among all four groups

New Frontiers of Integration: Convergent Pathways of Neighborhood Diversification in Metropolitan New York

This article examines the most recent trends on neighborhood racial integration in New York—the country’s largest metropolitan area in 2019 with a total population of 19.2 million. We ask how the suburbanization of both immigration and poverty have transformed suburbs over the last two decades. We highlight four findings. First, ethnoracial diversification has led to a significant decline in nonintegrated neighborhoods and a sharp rise in integrated neighborhoods, but such a decline is more dramatic in suburbs than in cities. Second, White-integrated neighborhoods remain the most prevalent form of neighborhood integration in both cities and suburbs. Third, immigrant neighborhoods are more likely to be integrated in both suburbs and cities, but immigration’s impact on neighborhood integration in suburbs was stronger in 2000 than in 2019. Finally, the impacts of concentrated immigration, affluence, and disadvantage on neighborhood integration are consistent across suburbs and cities, pointing to convergent processes over time

The Rent Is Too Damn High:the Spatial and Longitudinal Dimensions of Housing Affordability

As the housing affordability crisis intensifies, I content that the spatial and longitudinal aspects of housing affordability are important dimensions of affordability. While much has been written about the sources and drivers of this new housing crisis, I investigate the impact of space, gentrification, and the life course on affordability patterns. I specifically address questions about the (1) role of space in shaping affordability patterns, the (2) impact of gentrification on neighborhood and household affordability, and (3) the trajectory of affordability over the life course. Broadly, I find that neighborhoods that are gentrifying in 2013 see increased affordability in 2019, which can likely be attributed to higher income residents displacing lower incomes. Yet, I also find that after correcting for the effect of displacement and non-random treatment assignment bias, households living in gentrifying neighborhoods experience less affordability than would be expected. Finally, in tracing affordability trajectories over the life course, I find that although housing affordability increases as households age, income class moderates those effects: low and low-middle income households experience much less affordability, even across tenure status and ethnoracial identity

Not Just a Bookstore: La Casa Azul Against Neoliberal Habitus and Gentrification

This thesis is about the struggle between two competing visions for El Barrio, the well-known East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. As the neighborhood gentrifies, low-income and low-skilled residents are pushed out by the consumption patterns of better educated, higher-skilled gentrifiers. El Barrio loses its soul when gentrifiers are prioritized over low-income and low-skilled residents. In short, real estate developers, politicians, and neoliberal development policies remake the neighborhood for whomever can pay the highest rents. As this struggle continues, residents have found an ally in La Casa Azul Bookstore, a recently opened Latino/a themed-bookstore in the neighborhood. Not just a bookstore, my ethnographic analysis and evaluation of La Casa Azul specifically examines how programming, events, and activities function as valuable resources and opportunities for the community. While many residents are being displaced or excluded from El Barrio\u27s local economy, I argue that this bookstore: (1) provides the community with a counter logic to the neoliberal development and cultural policies that are working to restructure the neighborhood; (2) is a cultural fortification that intentionally includes local residents, artists, and authors in the production, consumption, and distribution of culture as a means to include them in the local economy of El Barrio; and (3) activates a public sphere that stimulates community opinions, cultural exchange, and social interaction. Working with and for local residents, La Casa Azul Bookstore empowers the community to demonstrate their right to the neighborhood and their right to culture as they participate in events, programming, and activities at the bookstore. As the neoliberal mechanisms of privatization and deregulation work to gentrify the neighborhood and push out local residents, La Casa Azul Bookstore\u27s mission promotes Latino/a literature, encourage Latino/a literacy, and preserve Latino/a culture. In so doing, the bookstore helps the Latino/a community resist El Barrio\u27s gentrification, refuse exclusionary development policies, and demonstrate its right to the city. La Casa Azul is helping El Barrio retain its Latino/a soul