COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...
COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...
COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...
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Chapter 1<br />
<strong>IN</strong>TRODUCTION: STUDY<strong>IN</strong>G THE URBAN<br />
Located in Sacramento, California, the working-class neighborhood of Oak Park<br />
has undergone urban development and has been an object of “revitalization” 1 projects<br />
over the past several years. Gentrification 2<br />
has brought increasing attention to the<br />
neighborhood as community groups have worked to facilitate social change through<br />
various forms of neighborhood activism. These community groups are trying to<br />
accomplish neighborhood change, but they vary in their agendas and strategies for<br />
change. Newly arrived middle-class residents participate in revitalization projects to rid<br />
the neighborhood of “blight” and improve what they consider the quality of the<br />
neighborhood; others create grassroots projects to provide resources for the poor; and yet<br />
others organize and educate the poor about issues of importance. Through an<br />
ethnographic analysis of neighborhood activism, this study explores conflict in the ways<br />
community groups and other community-based organizations define social change and<br />
reveals how different notions of “change” and competing strategies of neighborhood<br />
improvement help shape claims to the city.<br />
In this chapter, I provide the background information that will help us appreciate<br />
the questions addressed in this thesis. I will describe the process of gentrification in Oak<br />
Park from an economic, political, and social perspective and explain its relation to<br />
neighborhood activism. Finally, I introduce readers to the research site where this study<br />
took place.<br />
1