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

该项目将分析西北地区包容性社区振兴的挑战，这是一个贫穷、人口减少的底特律黑人社区。在过去的五年里，西北已经成为城市白人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，并把空地变成了花园、公园和农场。最近，大多数研究社区贫困的学者都研究了用住房补贴券将贫困家庭迁出贫困社区的好处——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迁移机会的承诺和挑战。它考察了在美国最困难的社区之一进行绿色高档化，并结合联邦、城市和慈善投资，是否以及如何帮助改善社区条件和贫困居民的生活。为了回答这个问题，本论文将利用多年的民族志田野调查，对居民，前居民和社区领导人的深入访谈，以及历史和定量数据。研究人员还将在底特律土地银行（Detroit Land Bank）进行实地考察，这是一家拥有底特律四分之一房产的城市机构。以前大多数关于中产阶级化的研究都集中在工人阶级社区，这些社区的出租公寓比例很高，位于人口密集城市的市中心附近。这类研究表明，中产阶级化对社区产生了转型影响，但却拒绝将其作为包容性社区振兴的可行机制。相比之下，西北是一个不同于那些研究中产阶级化的社区。它远离市中心，人口稀少，贫穷，拥有房屋的比例很高。到2016年，该社区一半的房产都是空置的，剩下的房屋中有三分之一被遗弃。如果士绅化是改变社区的强大机制，那么如何以及在多大程度上利用它来扭转弱势、挣扎的社区呢？论文章节将借鉴西北地区的民族志案例研究，揭示社区公共和组织生活中种族居住融合与社会隔离之间的紧张关系。章节还将研究“绿化”扭转枯萎的潜力，税收止赎如何影响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社区振兴的互动、组织和结构挑战，以及“农业希望”给底特律西北部带来的潜力。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.