Understanding Urban Sociology: Lessons on Residential Segregation, Gentrification, Transportation, and Education

1. Research and Teaching in Urban Sociology Shelley McDonough Kimelberg Assistant Professor of Sociology Northeastern University s.kimelberg@neu.edu ASA High School Symposium NCSS Annual Conference, Boston MA November 21, 2014

2. Five Lessons in Urban Sociology • What do we mean by ‘urban’? • Urban issue #1: Residential segregation • Urban issue #2: Gentrification • Urban issue #3: Transportation • Urban issue #4: Education

3. What do we mean by ‘urban’? Write down 5 words or phrases that convey what ‘urban’ means. How does the experience of living in an urban place differ from the experience of living in a rural place?

4. What do we mean by ‘urban’? • …the number of people in the place? • …the physical size of the place? • …the density of the place? • …the kinds of buildings that populate the space? • …certain types of people? • …certain types of activities, amenities, behaviors? • …certain pace or nature of life?

7. What do we mean by ‘urban’? Anchorage, AK is 1,700 square miles Cambridge, MA is 6 square miles Charleston, SC has a population of roughly 100,000 New York City has a population of roughly 8 million 7% of Memphis residents speak a language other than English at home 71% of El Paso residents speak a language other than English at home

8. What do we mean by ‘urban’? 9% of the residents of San Jose, CA are poor 30% of the residents of Buffalo are poor 95% of the residents in Portland, ME are non-Hispanic whites 20% of the residents of Miami, FL are non-Hispanic whites The median value of a house in San Francisco is $780,000 The median value of a house in Detroit is $82,000

9. Issue #1: Residential segregation Degree of physical separation of different social groups in a given geographic area (e.g., city, metropolitan area, etc.) INCOME/CLASS RACE

10. Residential segregation HIGH LOW

11. Residential segregation US Census; Salon

12. Residential segregation US Census; Salon

13. Residential segregation US Census; Salon

17. Redlining (Philadelphia, 1936)

18. Residential segregation Logan (2011); US 2010

19. Residential segregation Farley-Schuman; MCSUI; Charles

20. Residential segregation Farley-Schuman; MCSUI; Charles

21. Residential segregation Percentage of applicants who were denied a mortgage (1991) Federal Reserve Board, 1991

22. Residential segregation Access to high quality schools Effects on race relations Access to jobs and labor markets Residential segregation Health Effect on financial assets (home) Exposure to poverty

23. Issue #2: Gentrification

26. Issue #2: Gentrification

27. Issue #2: Gentrification

28. Issue #2: Gentrification

29. Issue #2: Gentrification • $186,000 (1989) • $629,000 (2008) • $259,000 (2001) • $675,000 (2005) • $305,000 (1998) • $679,000 (2008) • $400,000 (1999) • $1,025,000 (2009) #4 #6 #8 #2 XYZ Street, Charlestown MA #1 #3 #5 #7 • $60,000 (1992) • $715,000 (2010) • $395,000 (1999) • $685,000 (2002) • $180,000 (1994) • $930,000 (2006) • $245,000 (1994) • $705,000 (2005)

31. Issue #3: Transportation

32. Issue #3: Transportation Car ownership Suburbanization ‘transportation disadvantaged’

34. Issue #3: Transportation

35. Issue #3: Transportation Leadership Conference Education Fund, March 2011

36. Issue #4: Education Pass rate (levels 3-4) for 4th grade NYS exams (2010)

37. Issue #4: Education 4-year high school graduation rates (2012)

40. Issue #4: Education % of schools that are high poverty Orfield & Lee (2005)

41. Issue #4: Education % of students attending high poverty schools Orfield & Lee (2005)

42. Issue #4: Education Duncan & Murnane (2011)

43. Sample research project: Middle-class parents and urban public schools

44. In the beginning … + Boston Public Schools ? + =

45. Departure of middle class (especially whites) from urban public schools well established in the literature Concerns about attendant loss of resources – financial, social, cultural capital – from urban schools Easy to assume that all parents with the financial means to do so reflexively opt out of urban school districts (move to the suburbs, private school) Little research to date on families who make the opposite choice -> to stay in the city and utilize public schools So what?

46. Research setting • Boston infamous for highly contentious school desegregation efforts in 1970s • Court-ordered busing of white and black students met with fierce resistance • School population fell by dramatically by the time the order was lifted in late 1980s

47. Research setting Racial/ethnic composition of Boston Public Schools percent

48. Data • 32 in-depth interviews (60-90 min. each) with middle-class parents (mothers) living in Boston • Semi-structured interview protocol with focus on how they made residential and schooling decisions • Respondents recruited from four local parenting discussion boards • Respondents have chosen to enroll children in Boston Public Schools (BPS), or plan to do so

49. Sample characteristics

50. School assignment in BPS (then) • BPS divided into three zones, drawn to include both predominantly black and predominantly white neighborhoods • Families can list any school in their zone, as well as in their “walk zone” (1 mile for elementary) • Priority: • Siblings • 50% reserved for walk zone • Remainder based on lottery “Walk Zone” Source: Boston Public Schools. “Student Assignment Policy.”