Metropolitics

Before Redlining and Beyond

Alex B. Hill — 2021-11-02T06:00:00Z

There is a larger story of spatial racism in cities before and beyond redlining. Spatial racism was not limited to a single set of maps, but is embedded within institutions. The long history of spatial racism must be teased out and examined as new data-driven practices generate inequitable opportunity in cities.
Over the past decade, “redlining” has received increasing attention in the popular press and across academic disciplines. Redlining, or the discriminatory practice of denying

- Essays / redlining, racism, spatial racism, neighborhood, residential segregation, segregation, housing, cartography, mapping

Confronting Police Violence and an Unjust Justice System

Michele Graham — 2020-05-19T05:00:00Z

We publish Michele Graham's review of the 2018 book The War on Neighborhoods: Policing, Prison, and Punishment in a Divided City as Black people in the US again endure the trauma of a murder in their community at the hands of police officers. Graham's reflections on the authors' findings (drawn from a neighborhood study in Chicago) emphasize the continuing legacies of historically racist policing, racist prosecution practices and racist incarceration patterns in the United States. The review

- Reviews / police violence, United States, Chicago, incarceration, prison, Black neighborhoods, neighborhood, justice, discriminatory policing, brutality

Saving Ivy Island: A Civil War in North Portland

Lauren Everett — 2019-01-15T08:13:58Z

Lauren Everett examines two different approaches by community activists confronting change in a tight-knit Portland neighborhood, and the struggle that ensued. She considers how official decision-making processes may or may not include mechanisms for considering community input, and the challenges of working with a community plan that leaves room for interpretation.
The community plan for the neighborhood of St Johns in the north of Portland, Oregon, prioritizes both neighborhood

- From the Field / participation, public space, United States, neighborhood, consultation, community, Portland (Oregon), neighborhood preservation

Backpedaling in Birmingham

William Grady Holt — 2018-11-20T06:00:00Z

Despite the 2017 election of progressive, black mayors in major southern US cities, citizens who supported these candidates quickly learned that the new mayoral agendas looked very similar to the old ones. In Birmingham, Alabama, the election of Randall Woodfin resulted in city funds being utilized for business interests, such as helping a tech company lure talent to the city. When Woodfin backed a proposal for a $2.5 million four-block bike trail while local potholes were being filled with red

- From the Field / United States, neighborhood, progressive urban politics, civil rights, mayors, progressive mayors, Birmingham (Alabama)

Migrants' Occupation of Lycée Jean Quarré: The Refugee Cause and the Cause of a Neighborhood

Isabelle Coutant & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-16T06:00:00Z

The flows of migrants seeking refuge in Europe since the summer of 2015 have led to temporary settlements—legal or otherwise—in various urban locations. What is the impact of their presence on individual neighborhoods and relations with local communities? A study by Isabelle Coutant on the occupation of a disused high school in northeastern Paris sheds light on these impacts and the associated expressions of solidarity, engagement and tension that emerge.
In the summer of 2015, the

- Essays / France, immigration, refugees, public space, working-class neighborhoods, collective action, Paris, proximity, neighborhood, migration, sociabilities, RESF, hospitality, politics, school, migrants, engagement, occupation, local action, asylum

Filming Ethnic Diversity in New York

Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2016-10-21T08:23:11Z

Frederick Wiseman's fortieth documentary film, In Jackson Heights (2015), returns to an urban theme explored in previous films such as Central Park (1989) and Public Housing (1997). This time he chose an entire New York City neighborhood characterized by great racial and ethnic diversity.
Frederick Wiseman's latest documentary, In Jackson Heights, plunges us into a three-hour uninterrupted exploration of the institutions, the streets, and the concerns of the inhabitants of a multiethnic

- Reviews / immigration, gentrification, ethnicity, New York, neighborhood, community, Queens, institution, street, film, documentary, diversity, Featured

Parallel Lives? Elena Ferrante's Naples and My West New Rochelle

Bella Mirabella — 2016-01-26T06:00:00Z

Elena Ferrante's acclaimed Neapolitan novels, which trace the lives of two girls born in a working class district in Naples, Italy in 1944, can be read as a meditation on the role of the neighborhood in shaping class, gender and ethnic identity. In this essay, Italian-American scholar Bella Mirabella reflects on her own community of origin, West New Rochelle, New York, in light of the resonances she encountered reading Ferrante's books.
Elena Ferrante's four Neapolitan novels (My Brilliant

- Essays / United States, Italy, New York, neighborhood, working classes, working-class identity, Ferrante, Neapolitan novels

“Grands Ensembles”: Retracing a History of Rejection

Stéphane Füzesséry & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-01-15T05:55:00Z

From its very beginnings, the urban model of the “grand ensemble” – the large-scale high-rise housing estate – has appealed to film-makers. For half a century, these films have not only recorded and established image-types but also changed people's representations of these neighbourhoods – and, more generally, their rejection of them.
Reflections – and doubts – concerning urban policy in France currently abound, particularly on the direction that should be taken by the second phase of the

- Reviews / Île-de-France, Paris region, housing projects, urban policy, urban renewal, housing estates, suburbs, neighborhood, representations, cinema

Social Diversity in Gentrified Neighborhoods: Child's Play?

Jean-Yves Authier & Sonia Lehman-Frisch & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2015-12-04T05:55:00Z

How do children develop relationships? Do they meet children from socio-economic backgrounds other than their own? What are the effects of (much sought-after) social diversity among adults on the younger generation? This study of children's social relations in a gentrified neighborhood in Paris sheds light on these questions.
---- Series: Children in the City Since the 1980s, many large European and North American cities have been affected by gentrification: upper-middle-class households

- From the Field / gentrification, social diversity, Paris, children, neighborhood, sociabilities, parenting practices

All the Gayborhoods are White

Marcus Anthony Hunter — 2015-05-19T05:00:00Z

The urban “gayborhood,” the place where gay men and women found refuge for their sexuality from bigotry, is gradually changing demographically and culturally in today's “post-gay” era. In his review of Amin Ghaziani's book about the implications behind this transition, sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter considers the omission of race from our understanding of the traditional gayborhood, and reflects on the role of social exclusion in urban spaces characterized by their inclusion of marginalized

- Reviews / gentrification, Chicago, gender, United States, homosexuality, exclusion, neighborhood, race, gay, LGBTQ+, gay flight, gayborhood