COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

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community differently than many middle-class residents. Many poor residents walk, ride their bike to visit family, neighbors, grocery stores, and community clinics, or get rides from friends when traveling through and outside Oak Park. Often times the very poor do not leave the neighborhood regularly, as do the middle-class. In contrast, the middle- class own cars and do not usually use public transit to travel within or outside the neighborhood. If the middle-class does use public transit, it is usually to travel to and from work. Likewise, the middle-class is usually employed and can afford to travel outside the neighborhood to go shopping, eat out at restaurants, and take vacations. They rarely explore their lower-income neighborhood. The poor often do not have steady jobs, and if they do, they are usually “service sector” jobs, involving restaurants, retail outlets, and construction companies. The poor thus often make a very low income and do not receive health benefits. They, therefore, utilize the free clinics, food closets, and other social services in the community to supplement their income. Without the provision of social services the poor would rarely be able to visit a doctor and they would not be able to sustain their household. Many of the poor in Oak Park have come to depend on social service agencies in their neighborhood to provide them a quality of life. A neighborhood’s social life and the quality of the neighborhood’s living environment are improved by the availability of public, private, and non-profit services within a neighborhood (Ahlbrandt 1986:122). Government Code defines non-profit organizations as charitable based-organizations that serve religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary or educational purposes (DiMaggio and Anheier 60
1990:138). Likewise, “The mission of community-based non-profit organizations is to increase attention to the needs of disadvantaged residents of their geographic place (i.e. “community members”), who are thought to be receiving insufficient resources and consideration from government and market entities (Marwell 2004:270). This increased interest takes the form of service provision to, and/or advocacy work on behalf of “the community.” Non-profit organizations 21 strive to help the poor by providing social and human services programs and are often operated by people with academic degrees, who conceive of their social service programs as logical and pragmatic efforts to help the poor. In this way, non-profit organizations can also be labeled as “human service facilities.” Human service facilities provide public or ‘merit goods’ to the poor (Wolch 1980:332). The social service programs that are implemented by non-profits, are perceived by many people as being beneficial to the poor because they provide resources and services over long periods of time and help individuals acquire social mobility. Non-profit organizations and employees ask, What services do the poor need? What social service programs are in place to help the poor? What new programs can be implemented to help benefit the poor? And What government funds are available to help finance new programs? Many non-profit workers focus on how to implement on-going programs to help the poor, instead of asking how the poor have historically come to depend on social services. 61
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COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COM
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COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COM
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Abstract of COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN O
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DEDICATION For my parents Joe and I
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I would also like to thank Joyce Bi
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Neighborhood Association ..........
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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: STUDYING TH
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different from themselves, they dis
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known about the residents who are l
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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 and 42: people living outside the neighborh
Page 43 and 44: studies have demonstrated that reli
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: evitalization projects in the commu
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,
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presence that would produce long-te
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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
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class does not view the lifeways of
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them. And the middle-class don’t
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in low-income neighborhoods. Among
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improve the quality of life for res
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NOTES 1 Neighborhood “revitalizat
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20 The National Labor Federation (1
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Altheide, L. David and Michalowski,
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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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