"gentrification"

Define “gentrification.” How did this come into play with the Near North Branch, Cabrini Green and the Gold Coast?

gentrification refers to when the government invests in a community to fix up deteriorating infrastructures, incentives for redevelopment, or improve rental properties.

This came into play when the government built the Near North Branch to accomplish one of their primary goals, and that was to encourage Cabrini Green to develop more established buildings in their area.

Midterm Review Sheet

Special features of the Near North Branch Library:
*serves as a bridge between an affluent community called the Gold Coast and a poverty-stricken neighborhood with the name Cabrini Green.
The two main goals of the branch library are to (1) encourage other improvements in Cabrini and (2) to bring together residents of the two neighborhoods who had previously had almost no contact with eachother.
The library intertwined itself with the local schools by offering several after school programs for kids that include play time to homework help. Also, they offer an extensive children's section that is often filled with up to 80 children after the school day is over!

Humbolt branch library is located in an area that is mainly hispanic. Because of this, Humbolt contains a huge selection of hispanic books, magazines, and dvds. The library director also combined the youth section with some adult books to cater to all levels of readers.

Uptown library- offers a diverse language section to cater to the diverse cultures that reside in the uptown area. Also, the library offers language programs to help those who speak English as a second language.

Why is this library a 3rd place- functions as a kind of community center by recognizing regulars and offering fishing poles, etc.

Midterm Response

Bowling Alone Response

• Social capital refers to the relationship between a community and its individuals, emphasizing on honesty. There can be good social capital networks, for example a neighborhood watch group; each neighbor contributes in order to make their neighborhood safe, and in response each household benefits. However, their could be a negative social capital like the KKK. This group is brought together to achieve a common goal with every members contributions, but the group is seen immoral to most people. (p.22)
• The problem of leisure is associated with the lack of participation is activities, clubs, etc. which arose after WWII. This is a problem because people are less involved and the quality of social capital decreases when the contributions of individuals to their community decrease. 
• The decrease of social interactions are due to a lack of involvement in the community because not many citizens are as concerned (p.25).
• Bridging social capital is inclusive and external because to bridge social capital means to reach outward to an external community, group, person, etc. in order to increase the benefits of another social capital network and inclusive to everyone. Bridging social capital generates border identities and reciprocity. Bonding social capital is exclusive and internal, referring to a specific social network improving. Bonding social capital is the "glue" whereas bridging social capital is the "WD-40." Bonding is very tight within a network and doesn't leave much room to add or build upon whereas bridging isn't as tight and leaves room for flexibility within the system.

Midterm: Questions from Chapter 2: "Branch Libraries-The Heart of the Community"

What are some special or innovative features of Chicago's Near North Branch library?

Page 36-37

-larger than previous neighborhood branches; parking lot

-"meeting rooms available for classes discussions and neighborhood groups"

-incorporates art by local artists 

-collections and services reflect the needs and interests of the community it serves, ad they change as that community changes

-"this new style of library is more comfortable and useful than the old one, a place to be known and get to know others, a source of services as well as of books and information" (pg. 37)

What were two goals local politicians and community leaders hoped to accomplish with its construction?

"It is meant to be a social force in the neighborhood, a 'community anchor.'" (pg. 38)

1. Encourage other improvements in Cabrini Green 

2. Bring together residents of two neighborhoods who had virtually no contact with one another.

How did location play a role in the creation of the library?

-"Choosing exactly the right location was critical. The site chosen was still in Cabrini, in a run-down neighborhood and adjacent to a liquor store that attracted a lot of daytime drinkers. she hoped, though, that it would be close enough to the Gold Coast to "feel" accessible" (pg. 38)

-The location was critical because they wanted to attract people from both communities

How did planners engage with schools in the area, and why?

-"Ayres met all of the school prinicpals and took photoraphs of the schools. On Dedication DAy, when Near North opened its doors for the first time, children found a map of the area surrounded by photographs of schools, including their own (plus a picture of Hogwarts to give young readers the thrill of imagining that Harry Potter's school might be hidden somewhere in Cabrini Green)." (pg. 39)

-Ayres also goes to the elementary schools to read stories; Then, when students come to the library she is recognizable and easier to approach.

Race and Place Yellow Palace Description

Describe Hall’s childhood local library, the “yellow palace.” What were its features and/or barriers? Where was it located within her community?

Tracie Hall's description of the yellow palace begins on page two of the article. She describes anti-theft bars on every possible point of entry. It contained two reading areas, each quite small, that separated children from adults. It was in good company what with being adjacent to the police station and neighborhood jail. It was painted a drab yellow, thus the 'yellow palace'.

The neighborhood of the yellow palace was poverty stricken and dysfunctional. There were no grocery stores, the hospital had closed and was replaced by a smaller health clinic. The ambulances were very far away and so was the 'real' hospital they would take you to. There were plenty of churches in the neighborhood, but the author considered the library dearer to her than the churches.

The only key features of the library were that it provided the impoverished community a library. It was very dear to the author, and possibly other children. The grandmother in the story has said she never had anything like it when she was young. The barriers of the library far outweigh the features. Drawbacks like the location near the jail and the community itself being without a hospital or grocery store and people like the author's grandparents who did not receive much education are far more prevalent than the few 'features'.

Midterm: CARI model

What is the 'CARI model'?

According to Community analysis: Research that matters to a north-central Denver community, the article by Sarling, J.H., & Van Tassel, D.S. (1999):

"The Community Analysis Research Institute (CARI) model begins with a focus on the community from four perspectives--individuals, groups, agencies and lifestyles--and incorporates both quantitative and qualitative research methods to collect a variety of data including demographic characteristics, history of the community, topographical features, transportation routes and traffic patterns, commercial activities, communication patterns, housing, education, cultural activities, health facilities, employment, recreation, entertainment, and the characteristic lifestyles of the community and its sub-cultures" (pg 8-9).

Basically, the method emphasizes the need for the library to understand what the community needs. The library should be molded to fit the community around it. For example, in the library that this study covered they recommended areas for children to study since they might not have the space at home. They also recommended a large video selection, since there was no nearby video rental store. And because the surrounding community was diverse, they knew that the library needed to be very bilingual. The researchers found this all out by using various methods--such as conducting interviews, driving around, and consulting Census data--and seeing what the community had and what it needed.

Midterm: The problem of leisure and bridging and bonding social capital.

What is the "problem of leisure"? Why is it a problem? When did it arise? (Bowling Alone)

Leisure is quoted as being the "most dangerous threat hanging over American society..."(16).  Similarly, leisure is a problem because it makes community members complacent and uninterested in the overall well being of the community, and it also lessens the impact of social capital. On page 25 of Putnam's "Bowling Alone," some statistics are given about how individuals believe leisure has damaged their society (interviewed in 1987)...

• "53% thought that their parents' generation was better in terms of 'being a concerned citizen, involved in helping others with the community...'"
• "Fully 77% said the nation was worse off because of less involvement in community activities..."

Interviewed in 1996

• "Only 8% of all Americans said that 'the honesty and integrity of the average American' were improving, as compared with 50% of us who though were were becoming less trustworthy..."

Leisure is a problem because it results in the breakdown of social capital, which further results in the breakdown of "good will, fellowship, sympathy and social intercourse..." (Bowling Alone, 19). 

Putnam does not put an exact date on when the problem of leisure arose, but he estimates that it is around the last few decades where leisure has taken a toll on Americans...

"For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago- silently, without warning- that tide reversed and were were overtaken by a treacherous rip current. Without at first noticing, we have been pulled apart from one another and from our communities over the last third of the century" (Bowling Alone, 27).

Give an example of both bridging and bonding social capital. Which one is inclusive and external, and which one is exclusive and internal? Which one is "glue" and which one is "WD-40"?

 

Bridging social capital is inclusive and external and examples include the civil rights movement, many youth service groups, and ecumenical religious organizations (Bowling Alone, 22). On the other hand bonding social capital is exclusive and internal and examples include ethnic fraternal organizations, church-based women's reading groups, and fashionable country clubs (22). 

Furthermore, "bonding social capital is good for undergirding specific reciprocity and mobilizing solidarity," while "bridging networks... are better for linkage to external assets and for information diffusion" (22). Similarly, Xavier de Souza Briggs states that bonding social capital is good for "getting by," while bridging social capital is crucial for "getting ahead" (23). 

While both are important for building social capital, "Bonding social capital constitutes a kind of sociological superglue, whereas bridging social capital provides a sociological WD-40" (23).