COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

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visible in the neighborhood at all times of the day and night. Liquor stores have many visitors, bus stops are always occupied, and the front yards of homes are often filled with people hanging out on couches. Because some people do not own cars or cannot afford gas, the streets are busy with those who walk to their next destination or ride bikes and the bus to destinations outside the neighborhood. Although many individuals in the neighborhood are poor, barbecues are plentiful. People have outdoor parties, and the parks are always filled with men playing basketball. The low-income in the neighborhood often share rides, visit each other in their homes, and invite neighbors to block parties. Residents are creative, using whatever means necessary to sustain themselves. Poor residents share babysitters, food, and cars and utilize available social services in the neighborhood, such as clothing provided by churches and canned food provided by non-profit organizations. Families rely on each other for shelter and many people have strong ties to their churches, which always seem to be full on Sundays. The relationships formed by lower-income residents can be presumed to be caused by “a lack of opportunity within disadvantaged areas” and therefore “have resulted in a sort of adaptive strategy on the part of its inhabitants” (Kubrin et al. 2006:1563). Baptist, Catholic, and Presbyterian Churches, and a Muslim Mosque punctuate the Oak Park landscape. These places of worship are consistent gathering places for residents and their very presence provides a community backbone for the neighborhood poor. Neighborhood churches often engage in their own forms of community action and provide resources and services which the poor rely on for basic needs. Further, recent 30
studies have demonstrated that religious congregations are already an essential part of the social welfare net, providing services such as food and clothing pantries, limited financial aid, job referrals, tutoring, child care, English language classes and self-help programs (Pipes and Ebaugh 2002:50). Community clinics, soul food restaurants, and thrift stores also add special character to neighborhood streets. The environment of Oak Park can be described as having a Bohemian essence that is conducive to a type of American culture characterized by racial politics. Historically, “consciousness-raising” groups, such as the Black Panthers, have had roots in the neighborhood and have provided community services for low-income residents. Oak Park is home to a heterogeneous group of people. Historical Overview Sacramento represents a type of city with recent rapid growth and employment heavily concentrated in the services sector. It does not have tenements, massive public- housing projects, or row houses, or other attributes of ethnic ghettoization (Ford 1995:562). “Focused policies such as open-housing laws, anti-redlining regulations, and affirmative action have saved Sacramento from some of the worst excesses of ethnic ghettoization” (Ford 1995:563). Although Sacramento does not suffer from extreme ghettoization, 13 there are a number of people living below the poverty level. But the city of Sacramento also has many social service programs to aid the poor and help them attain a healthy standard of living. The presence of these programs provides relief to many people living in poverty and many residents in Oak Park utilize social service programs that are available in the neighborhood and throughout the city. 31
Page 1 and 2: COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COM
Page 3 and 4: COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COM
Page 5 and 6: Abstract of COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN O
Page 7 and 8: DEDICATION For my parents Joe and I
Page 9 and 10: I would also like to thank Joyce Bi
Page 11 and 12: Neighborhood Association ..........
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: STUDYING TH
Page 15 and 16: different from themselves, they dis
Page 17 and 18: known about the residents who are l
Page 19 and 20: contested racialized images of thei
Page 21 and 22: Although the anthropological litera
Page 23 and 24: Research Focus The research site of
Page 25 and 26: Association was also gaining attent
Page 27 and 28: in city environments is exposed in
Page 29 and 30: Moffat (1992:217) states, “if man
Page 31 and 32: Choldin and Hanson (1981:562) defin
Page 33 and 34: neighborhood. The neighborhood thus
Page 35 and 36: the various definitions of “commu
Page 37 and 38: The City Chapter 3 SETTING The city
Page 39 and 40: stratified, selective, and distance
Page 41: people living outside the neighborh
Page 45 and 46: In 1889, the Oak Park Association s
Page 47 and 48: edevelopment projects elsewhere in
Page 49 and 50: een lured to Arts and Crafts style
Page 51 and 52: ig black sunglasses, khakis, and a
Page 53 and 54: poverty. They and their comrades wo
Page 55 and 56: undesirable consequences; it can pr
Page 57 and 58: aiding in the dilapidation of the c
Page 59 and 60: Different types of social change in
Page 61 and 62: groups that are political and produ
Page 63 and 64: problems, events, and initiatives.
Page 65 and 66: Pertinent to the Neighborhood Assoc
Page 67 and 68: were to be the main participants in
Page 69 and 70: members, students, and sympathetic
Page 71 and 72: evitalization projects in the commu
Page 73 and 74: 1990:138). Likewise, “The mission
Page 75 and 76: eports of residents marching down t
Page 77 and 78: Altheide and Michalowski (1999:476)
Page 79 and 80: organizations is part of a broader
Page 81 and 82: hours of the day and night and resi
Page 83 and 84: At a particular Neighborhood Associ
Page 85 and 86: I think the city is trying to make
Page 87 and 88: community they began an onslaught o
Page 89 and 90: Rehabilitation programs would do a
Page 91 and 92: “neighborhood” as one where the
Page 93 and 94:
were being made by middle-class res
Page 95 and 96:
efreshments and appetizers and maki
Page 97 and 98:
For three months I performed a vari
Page 99 and 100:
and spent their time trying to recr
Page 101 and 102:
Convention Center in downtown Sacra
Page 103 and 104:
more than two decades we have oppos
Page 105 and 106:
The surveys for the Women’s Needs
Page 107 and 108:
these residents were also affected
Page 109 and 110:
professor, who was also a Neighborh
Page 111 and 112:
twenty other residents in May to ma
Page 113 and 114:
Most community members felt the sch
Page 115 and 116:
coordinated with community revitali
Page 117 and 118:
you sure you want to live here? Jus
Page 119 and 120:
the community but are able to view
Page 121 and 122:
esidents have “rights to the city
Page 123 and 124:
are activists and non-activists in
Page 125 and 126:
Ethnic entrepreneurs in American so
Page 127 and 128:
such as milk, eggs, and toiletries,
Page 129 and 130:
presence that would produce long-te
Page 131 and 132:
eneficial to one group may not be b
Page 133 and 134:
organizations conflict and tried to
Page 135 and 136:
social stratification in the commun
Page 137 and 138:
class does not view the lifeways of
Page 139 and 140:
them. And the middle-class don’t
Page 141 and 142:
in low-income neighborhoods. Among
Page 143 and 144:
improve the quality of life for res
Page 145 and 146:
NOTES 1 Neighborhood “revitalizat
Page 147 and 148:
20 The National Labor Federation (1
Page 149 and 150:
Altheide, L. David and Michalowski,
Page 151 and 152:
Boyd, Michelle Bridge, Gary 2005.
Page 153 and 154:
Ertll, J. Randy 2008. “Celebratin
Page 155 and 156:
Gupta, Akhil and Ferguson, James 19
Page 157 and 158:
Jenkins, Timothy 1994. “Fieldwork
Page 159 and 160:
Lee, A. Barrett, Spain, Daphne, and
Page 161 and 162:
Marwell, P. Nicole 2004. “Privati
Page 163 and 164:
Nylund, Katarina Oropesa, S. R 2001
Page 165 and 166:
Rosenhall, Laurel 2005. “Charter
Page 167 and 168:
Simpson, M.A. Lee 2004. Images of A
Page 169 and 170:
Thacher, David 2001. “Conflicting
Page 171:
Wolch, R. Jennifer 1980. “Residen
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