More than Bricks and Mortar: Neighborhood Frames,Social Processes,and the Mixed–Income Redevelopment of a Public Housing Project

Abstract

Policy initiatives to deconcentrate poverty through mixed–income redevelopment were motivated in part by the desire to reduce social isolation and social disorganization in high–poverty neighborhoods. This article examines whether the presence of higher–income neighbors decreased social isolation or improved social organization in a Boston public housing project that was redeveloped into a HOPE VI mixed–income community. Based on in–depth interviews and neighborhood observation, I find that it was the lower–income former public housing residents who were primarily involved in creating neighborhood–based social ties, providing and receiving social support, and enforcing social control within the neighborhood, rather than the higher–income newcomers. This variation in neighborhood engagement stemmed from the different ways that long–term and newer residents perceived and interpreted their neighborhood surroundings. These differences were generated by residents’ comparisons of current and past neighborhood environments and by neighborhood reputations. Residents’ perceptions of place may thus influence whether mixed–income redevelopment can reduce social isolation and improve social organization in high–poverty neighborhoods and, more generally, whether changes in neighborhood structural characteristics translate into changes in social dynamics.