Lectures
Family-Centered Neighborhoods: The Building Blocks of Vibrant Towns and Cities
Synopsis
Neighboring is the social vector that mediates between the lives of families and the dynamics of a city. A century ago, new immigrants from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe created remarkably coherent neighborhoods in American cities, where families, parishes, schools, and shops blended into potent communities providing residents with protection, identity, and spiritual meaning. However, the end of mass immigration in the early 1920’s, “Americanization drives,” public policy shifts in favor of the suburbs, and urban renewal led to crisis. Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) documented the devastating effects of city planning and urban freeways on neighborhood life. As incoherence and violence spread, families fled the old places. Jacobs called for the protection and rebuilding of dense, mixed-use neighborhoods, with New York’s Greenwich Village as her model. Now, in the early 21st Century, many urban neighborhoods do seem to enjoy a true renewal. Some of this change represents “gentrification,” a return by young professionals and the upper middle class to the cities. In other neighborhoods, meanwhile, the change comes from the influx of new immigrants, notably Hispanics and Asians. In this lecture, Dr. Carlson will address questions including: Are these trends friendly to children? What are the components of a family-friendly neighborhood? What failures of suburbia contribute to this migration? How can religious faith again play a role in building neighborhoods?
