Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 2013 Sustainable Diverse Communities: A Comparison of Hammond, Indiana and Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood Teresa Neumann Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Neumann, Teresa, "Sustainable Diverse Communities: A Comparison of Hammond, Indiana and Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood" (2013). Master's Theses. 1820. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/1820 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2013 Teresa Neumann LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SUSTAINABLE DIVERSE COMMUNITIES: A COMPARISON OF HAMMOND, INDIANA AND CHICAGO’S UPTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM IN SOCIOLOGY BY TERESA E. NEUMANN CHICAGO, IL AUGUST 2013 Copyright by Teresa E. Neumann, 2013 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all of the people who made this thesis possible, starting with all the staff within the Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL). Dr. Phil Nyden, my thesis director, gave me the opportunity to become involved with the project of better understanding the sustained diversity of Hammond, IN. With the support of CURL I was able to travel to conduct many of my interviews and also have a sounding board for data collection and analysis. I must also thank Dr. Peter Rosenblatt of the Sociology Department who helped me frame the information I received in interviews within the wider view of housing, especially public housing and its demolition as part of HOPE VI. This key insight might have been easily overlooked without his help. To both Phil and Peter, I am very thankful for their constant encouragement and help whenever I was in need of new ideas, reassurance and just general academic support. To all the leaders I had the pleasure and honor to speak with in both Hammond and Uptown, I am very thankful. Without the generosity of their time, energy and very thoughtful responses, I would have nothing to write. It is their words, their experiences and their communities that I hope to bring to the forefront of a discussion of the potential for sustained racial, ethnic and economic diversities in our communities. Finally, I must thank all my friends and family who humored me and found a way to support me in my moments of doubt, moments of procrastination and many iii discussions of everything I was learning as part of this thesis. Without the support, encouragement and generosity of each of these people, this thesis would not be possible. To each of them I am eternally grateful. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 Literature Review ............................................................................................................ 5 Previous Understandings of Neighborhood Change ................................................... 6 Current Definition of Sustainable Diversity ................................................................ 7 Types of Diverse Communities ................................................................................... 8 Current Challenges ...................................................................................................... 9 Public Sociology, Engaged Research ........................................................................ 11 Methods ......................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER THREE: HISTORIES OF HAMMOND AND UPTOWN ........................... 20 Hammond ...................................................................................................................... 20 Uptown .......................................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER FOUR: POLITICAL CONTEXT, CIVIC PARTICIPATION, AND COMMUNITY CULTURE .............................................................................................. 32 Hammond ...................................................................................................................... 32 Cooperative Spirit ...................................................................................................... 35 Civic Institutions........................................................................................................ 36 Clash of Culture ......................................................................................................... 38 Uptown .......................................................................................................................... 40 Political structures and civic institutions ................................................................... 40 Clash of Cultures ....................................................................................................... 45 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER FIVE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES ......................................... 49 Hammond ...................................................................................................................... 49 What Sustains Hammond’s Diversity? ...................................................................... 49 What Challenges the Stability of the Community ..................................................... 51 Factors with Ambiguous Affect ................................................................................ 57 Hammond, Indiana’s Potential .................................................................................. 58 Uptown .......................................................................................................................... 60 What Sustains Uptown’s Diversity ............................................................................ 61 What Challenges Uptown’s Diversity ....................................................................... 63 Factors of Ambiguous Effect ..................................................................................... 66 v Uptown’s Future ........................................................................................................ 68 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION ....................................................................................... 70 Best Practices and Future Action .................................................................................. 72 Beware of the Mythology of the Past ............................................................................ 73 Beware of Vilifying the Poor ........................................................................................ 73 Celebrate, Embrace and Support Diversity. .................................................................. 74 Sociological Implications .............................................................................................. 76 APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................... 81 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 83 VITA ................................................................................................................................. 87 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Hammond Poverty Rate 1970-2010……………………………………………25 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Hammond 2000 Census Population by Race…………………………………24 Figure 2. Hammond 2010 Census Population by Race…………………………………25 Figure 3. Uptown 2000 Census Population by Race……………………………………30 Figure 4. Uptown 2010 Census Population by Race…………………………………….31 viii ABSTRACT According to US Census data Hammond, IN – a midsized American City – and Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood both have census tracts that have been racially, ethnically and economically diverse over the past 20-30 years. Utilizing the engaged methodology of community-based research this project uses the voice of community leaders from both Hammond and Uptown to inform and illustrate what is happening behind the Census data. This includes the role of civic institutions, local government and local business. Through long form structured interviews individuals offered their perspectives, concerns and ideas about how this diversity came about and what challenges and opportunities Hammond and Uptown face in the present