Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Revitalization and Race Relations in Northwest Detroit

该项目将分析在西北地区，一个贫穷，人口稀少，黑人底特律社区的包容性社区振兴的挑战。在过去的五年里，西北地区已经成为白色城市农民的一个令人惊讶的目的地，他们买了便宜的房子来装修，并将空地改造成花园、公园和农场。最近研究社区贫困问题的学者大多研究了用补贴住房券将贫困家庭从贫困社区迁出的好处--将穷人转移到机会中。相比之下，该项目将突出向贫困居民提供机会的承诺和挑战。它探讨了在美国最困难的社区之一，绿色中产阶级化，结合联邦，城市和慈善投资，是否以及如何可以帮助改善社区条件和生活的贫困居民谁留在原地。为了回答这个问题，本文将借鉴多年的民族志田野调查，深入访谈居民，前居民和社区领导人，历史和定量数据。研究人员还将在底特律土地银行进行实地考察，这是一家拥有底特律四分之一财产的城市机构。以前大多数关于中产阶级化的研究都集中在位于人口稠密城市市中心附近的出租公寓比例很高的工人阶级社区。这些研究表明，中产阶级化对社区有着变革性的影响，但却拒绝将其作为包容性社区振兴的可行机制。相比之下，西北部是一个不同类型的社区，而不是那些绅士化已经研究过的社区。它远离市中心，人口稀少，贫穷，房主比例很高。到2016年，该社区一半的房产都是空地，三分之一的房屋被遗弃。如果中产阶级化是一个如此强大的邻里变化机制，如何以及在多大程度上可以用来扭转弱势，挣扎的社区？论文章节将借鉴西北民族志案例研究，揭示种族居民融合和社会隔离在公共和组织生活在附近的紧张局势。章节还将研究“绿化”扭转枯萎病的潜力，税收止赎如何塑造低收入居民的持续流离失所，以及城市如何帮助塑造社区土地分配的未来。同时，这些论文章节描述了包容性的邻里振兴，以及“农业希望”带来的潜力，底特律西北部的干扰，组织和结构的挑战。根据这项研究，研究人员将就如何将机会转移到全国人口减少的贫困社区提出政策建议。

This project will analyze the challenges of inclusive neighborhood revitalization in Northwest, a poor, depopulated, Black Detroit neighborhood. In the last five years Northwest has become a surprising destination for white urban farmers, who have bought cheap homes to fix up, and have converted vacant lots into gardens, parks and farms. Most recent scholars of neighborhood poverty have studied the benefits of moving disadvantaged families out of poor neighborhoods with subsidized housing vouchers - of moving the poor to opportunity. This project, by contrast, will highlight the promises and challenges of moving opportunity to poor residents. It examines whether and how green gentrification in one of the nation's most struggling neighborhoods, combined with federal, city, and philanthropic investments, can help improve neighborhood conditions and the lives of poor residents who remain in place. To answer this question, this dissertation will draw on multiyear ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews with residents, former residents and community leaders, and historical and quantitative data. The researcher will also conduct fieldwork at the Detroit Land Bank, a city institution that owns a quarter of all property in Detroit. Most previous research on gentrification has focused on working class neighborhoods with a high percentage of rental apartments, located near downtown in densely populated cities. Such research has shown that gentrification has a transforming impact on neighborhoods, but has rejected it as a viable mechanism for inclusive neighborhood revitalization. Northwest, by contrast, is a different kind of neighborhood than those in which gentrification has been studied. It is far from downtown, depopulated, and poor, with a high percentage of homeowners. By 2016 half of all properties in the neighborhood were vacant lots, and one third of remaining houses stood abandoned. If gentrification is such a powerful mechanism for neighborhood change, how and to what extent can this potentially be used to turn around disadvantaged, struggling neighborhoods? Dissertation chapters will draw on the ethnographic case study of Northwest to uncover the tensions between racial residential integration and social segregation in public and organizational life in the neighborhood. Chapters will also examine the potential of "greening" to turn around blight, how tax foreclosures shape ongoing displacements of low-income residents, and how the city helps shape the future of land distribution in the neighborhood. In conjunction, these dissertation chapters describe the interactional, organizational and structural challenges to inclusive neighborhood revitalization, as well as the potential that "farming hope" brings to Northwest Detroit. Drawing on this study, the researcher will make policy recommendations on how to move opportunity to depopulated, poor neighborhoods across the country.