Displacing Democracy: Economic Segregation in America by Amy Widestrom

Author:Amy Widestrom [Widestrom, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Urban & Regional, Political Science, Civil Rights, Public Policy, Social Policy
ISBN: 9780812246599
Google: 4nNaBQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 22260025
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

Open and Accessible Public Space

If stable families and communities and social and economic assets are to promote healthy civic environments and civic engagement, there must be space for these neighborhood features to coalesce and converge in public. In other words, there needs to be open, accessible, and safe public spaces where neighborhood residents can come together—to socialize, to talk, to air grievances, and to develop action plans to address those grievances. This space can come in many forms, from buildings that house civic organizations and churches to sidewalks and street corners, parks and playgrounds, and other aspects of the physical neighborhood environment. Accessible, open, and above all safe public spaces are crucial if organizations and associations are able to develop, grow, and thrive.

Indeed, while the presence of organizations is important in promoting an active civic environment, the physical environment itself is also crucial. The streets must be safe enough so residents actually go to or engage with neighborhood organizations. Of course, as Jane Jacobs said, “A city sidewalk by itself is nothing. It is an abstraction. It means something only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses that border it.”70 And yet, as Jacobs also notes, city sidewalks are the primary landscape of spontaneous urban interaction, including nefarious or at least threatening acts. The task of creating safe city or safe neighborhood sidewalks and other public spaces falls to community police, individual neighborhood residents, and in some neighborhoods neighborhood watch groups.

Because of the nature of urban living and the spontaneous interaction that occurs on city streets, a safe neighborhood environment is a key aspect of civic environments identified by residents of the case-study communities as necessary for promoting and maintaining civic engagement. The importance of safe neighborhoods for strong civic environments and voluntary associations may seem obvious at first. However, it is important to examine how safety is understood by residents of neighborhoods and what it means for voluntary associations, particularly in segregated, impoverished areas, as neighborhood safety is generally not a concern among those organizing in the prosperous communities. The role that economic segregation and public policy play in promoting safe neighborhoods makes the story even more complicated.

In the case of Thomasville Heights in Atlanta, for instance, the 1980s was a particularly bad decade for the neighborhood: “What really give the community a hard time was drugs in the community.” The “drugs, dope dealers coming and going,” all of this “really took its toll. . . . That’s when it got out of control and it was, ooh, it got rough.”71 After that, many residents in the neighborhood grew afraid to even leave their homes. When residents are fearful to leave their homes and they do not feel as though the city is responding to their concerns, it is difficult to socialize or organize for civic or political action.

When discussing neighborhood safety, Gloria Miller, executive director of the Ivanhoe Community Organization, made the connection between policy and safety; she pointed out that transportation policy in Kansas City dictated property acquisition and land clearance for the South Midtown Freeway–Bruce R.

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