There Goes the Neighborhood

Chapter One Race and Neighborhood  Social Organization This book is an investigation into ethnic, racial, and class dynamics in four neighborhoods in Chicago, a city that has experienced a steep drop in its white population and a sharp rise in Latino residents. Chicago s Latino population grew by nearly 38 percent between 1990 and 2000, while its white population declined by almost 15 percent (see Figure 1). Whites constituted just 31 percent of the population in 2000, down from 38 percent in 1990.1 African Americans remained Chicago s largest single group at 36 percent, but their share of the population had also dropped slightly by 1.9 percent after rising steadily through most of the twentieth century. To fully capture this ethnic diversity, we felt that the  most representative neighborhoods would be those that were neither poor nor affluent. We chose neighborhoods that  consisted mainly of the working and lower middle classes neighborhoods, in short, that best represented ordinary Americans and that were more likely to be the destination of outside racial and ethnic groups seeking desirable and affordable places to live. We selected areas that were populated by different ethnic groups to capture variations in responses to neighborhood change. In 1992, after much preliminary investigation, four were chosen Beltway, Dover, Archer Park, and Groveland on Chicago s south and west sides. Because some of the materials used in this study are quite sensitive, the names of these four neighborhoods are pseudonyms.2 Beltway was chosen as the white neighborhood, Dover as the white neighborhood in transition, Archer Park as the Latino neighborhood, and Groveland as the African American neighborhood. The choice of neighborhoods represents what sociologist David Willer calls theoretical sampling; that is, the selection of natural cases that include the necessary conditions for the application of theoretical assumptions, assumptions that steer the research and

William Julius Wilson is the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. He is also the author of Power, Racism, and Privilege; The Declining Significance of Race; The Truly Disadvantaged; and The Bridge over the Racial Divide. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Richard P. Taub is the Paul Klapper Professor of Social Sciences and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where he is also professor of sociology and human development. His previous books include Community Capitalism and Paths of Neighborhood Change.

Timely...Important and troubling.
Chicago Tribune

Improving conditions in America s urban neighborhoods will require a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics that divide residents along racial, ethnic and class lines. This compelling and exhaustively researched book makes an invaluable contribution to that endeavor. The focus is on Chicago, but policymakers and concerned citizens from every city in America will learn a great deal from Wilson and Taub s work.
Senator John Edwards

Profoundly sobering. . . . Careful and convincing.
The Washington Post Book World

Offers a dispassionate analysis of the facts. . . . Wilson and Taub bring the best of social science to bear on these issues; their call is for each of us to face up to what these facts mean for our country and for each of us as citizens.
Senator Bill Bradley