Community in Cities and Small Towns Suburbs - Research Paper Example

Explore the idea of Community in Cities, Suburbs and Small Towns as it relates to the of Chicago.  The ic dis on cities ifies its kinds according to two different settlement types, community and association. In other body of literature - specifically, in the work of Alexis de Tocqueville - the former is called gemeinschaft, while the latter is known as gesselschaft. For this paper, I will be focusing on community as I examine its context in the city of Chicago, its suburbs and small towns. The Concept of Community According to Bridge (2005), community is the interaction of natural will and that, even though, it has been traditionally associated with village life and the continuity of contact and tradition that exists in such settlements, it can flourish in urban centers as well (67). However, the orientation may start to diversify. First, it may assume the traditional conception of community, which is to represent the collective values of its inhabitants. Secondly, the community in urban areas could emerge as a consequence of economic competition and the sorting of occupations into neighborhoods based on status instead of solidarity. However the case is, the definition of community has changed and broadened through the years. Initially, the idea of community pertained to the system of institutions occupying a territory. Today, the case is different: territory is no longer the primary consideration in a community as it has been relegated below the so-called “social space” variable. The modern community, hence, is seen as a system of common life which need not be restricted to a fixed geographical area (Iverson, 8). Understanding the dynamics behind the concept would enlighten one in regard to the viability of community in modern society. It could identify, for instance, the reasons why community could command such community ties from its members such as people’s feelings of attachment towards their community, their involvement in local affairs, their identification with their community, and the patterns of behavior that keep people in the locality. Shepherd and Rothenbuhler (2001) maintained that such ties evidenced the importance of communities and that they were, in fact, outcome variables that are predicted by such phenomena as dense local social networks, communication, dialogues about local affairs, time and attention given to the community and its activities, home ownership, length of residence, among others (155). Community in the City The central city - the metropolitan Chicago - falls under the newer definition of community within an urban center cited earlier. It is made up of six counties and hundreds of highly diversified, intensely competitive and fiercely independent communities that stretch approximately from the Wisconsin state line to northwestern Indiana. About 36 percent of the people living in the city of Chicago dwell in this area and that this is a significant drop in population considering the fact that in 1900s, 80 percent of residents of the entire city lived there (Cutler, 339). Again, the central city represents the community in urban America wherein people are scattered over a space of thirty miles, in myriads of streets and divided by many concerns, values and priorities, with some emphasizing the cultural, others the political, the social, the intellectual, among other social distinctions and differences. What this revealed was that the community in the central city faced separation, deteriorating relationship with others, division, dissolution, estrangement, routine, and so forth. The appearance, environment and the social space of the urban community is different. And, perhaps, this shapes the more economic and practical perspective on community and living within it in the area. Just like other large American metropolis, Chicago has ten to thirty urban cores or business districts and most of these contain humungous office buildings and commercial establishments. The central city is also prioritized in community-related policies that range from infrastructure development, renovation and public assistance on housing, and so forth. An underlying factor in this regard is that community transformation occurs faster in the central city, than in the suburbs or the towns. For instance, in the past Chicago’s development, industry and manufacturing has attracted the working class to form progressive communities. Then, the emergence of the suburban living sent many of its residents to the outskirts of the central city. After this, came the wave of urban pioneers and moneyed gentry who reinvested in central city living. According Koval (2006), the current social class shifts and attendant cultural lifestyle changes have infused the central area neighborhoods with younger, more educated, less family-oriented, upwardly mobile professionals who have come to almost stereotypically characterize the central area today (75). With all these community-related developments, it is obvious that the forces that control the community values and transformation are greatly impacted by and responsive to the needs, interests, and spending capital or the power of consumption of people who have come to inhabit the central city as the landscape of power (Koval, 75). The diversity, economic and social situation in Chicago makes any effort to build an integrated, coherent community in the central Chicago hard to achieve. The fact is that there are the different racial, ethnic, cultural and social class constituencies in the city and that these groups and constituencies are wary of the government and wary of each other. This and, with the addition of Chicago’s physical development, is the reason why striving for coherence, communality or social solidarity may be a daunting task. The Suburban Community From the 1960s until today, the suburban Chicago has attracted more residents than the central city or Chicago’s core business districts and that the residents therein have now more jobs, an immensely greater growth potential than the slowing but still powerful central city of Chicago. The decade between 1990 and 2000 saw the population of the suburbs gain 8 percent to the central city’s 4 percent. The remarkable expansion of Chicago’s suburbs has been closely related to the development of transportation facilities. According to Cutler, some early communities were established along the waterways; later ribbons of suburbs developed along the railroads and many settlements were recreation-resort communities (340). With the further development of the transportation network in Chicago and the sophistication of the new vehicles, the suburban communities became positively diffused. The relatively fast transportation such as the streetcar lines and railroads, allowed Chicago residents to build houses several miles away and commute to the central city for work. Here, the suburban concept of community seeks to reconcile the beauty of provincial community living to the importance of living and working near an urban area. The explosion of migrants to the suburbs demonstrates a problem in regard to building ideal communities. The fact is that the Chicago suburbs are starting to suffer the predicaments that ailed the central city itself when one talks about community in its most fundamental sense. The people living in the suburbs today are rich and poor, new and old, planned and unplanned, white-collar and blue-collar, industrial and dormitory, black and white, young and old, successful and unsuccessful. As a result, there are many instances wherein communities lacked tradition and homogeneity. One of the positive sides in suburban community living, however, is the physical part. The population density in the suburbs is lower than the central city and the homes generally occupy larger acreage and that they decrease as the distance from Chicago increases (Cutler, 344). Again, this underscores the difference between communities found in the central city to those found in the suburbs. Then, there is also the trend of the development of planned, highly self-sufficient communities that embody separate compatible locations for residential, commercial, industrial and recreational functions such as Elk Grove Village and the University Park. There are also communities that screen potential homeowners in order to preserve core community values. Small Town Community and Chicago The small town community closely resembled the previously mentioned concept of gemeinschaft. Because it is not characterized by a humungous population, the diversity found in metropolitan cities such as Chicago, there is more opportunity for the realization of the provincial or old village community wherein there is more opportunity for homogenization, interdependence and unity as opposed to the big city’s impersonal, alienated, mobile and modern society. In Chicago, particularly in the central city, one sees the decline of community that has been made possible because of the emergence of urbanization and modernization. Blakely and Snyder added that increasing mobility, industrialization, the separation of home from work, and the rise of mass culture attenuate kinship, undermines social solidarity and that secondary social contacts, those based on economic and contractual ties, had become more important than primary social contacts based on kinship, culture, and community(31-32). Case Study: Housing Projects and Mixed Income Neighborhoods Chicago has implemented several urban transformation programs in an effort to improve the quality of life of its residents and address problems that stem from the decline of communal values. One of the most important of these is the 10-year Plan for Transformation, wherein thousands of public housing units are being demolished to make way for the development of mixed-income communities. During these dramatic changes, observed Turner, Popkin and Rawlings (2009), thousands of families have moved from public housing into the private market with a voucher and that as a result, the agency handling this initiative has tremendously grown in size today (116). The plan intends to construct or rehabilitate about 25,000 public housing units by 2009 and about 6,000 of these units will be integrated into mixed-income developments that will consist of one-third public housing, one third other subsidized housing and one third market-rate rental and/or homeowner housing (Schwartz 2006, 123). The rationality for this urban renewal is for the city to create ideal communities and halt their demise in the city by attracting people – good and able people –, by supporting the middle-income workers by helping them achieve a better living conditions; by developing the very kinds of environment in which families can thrive; and by achieving a degree of social cohesion that foster relationship between individuals. In the past, the Chicago public housing areas were notorious for its concentration, poor design and construction, horrendous management, as well as the discriminatory practices of authorities in screening for tenants. According to Pattillo-McCoy (2000), Chicago neighborhoods experienced some kind of racial or ethnic change during its unstable period and each community employed specific ways of addressing such changes, including violence (32). These adverse circumstances were what the transformation initiative specifically wants to address. Conclusion pointed out by this paper, the emergence of cities has posed a severe threat on the community. This is particularly disturbing because the community provides the social space that allows an individual to better himself. In the experience of the city of Chicago, one sees how the survival of the community is founded upon its ability to offer a total way of life and that in the event that it fails to meet and address the institutional completeness necessary in order to provide imperatives, then its existence is imperiled. Fortunately, policymakers in the city recognize the need for transformation, because, indeed, the slow descent of the community to its demise is hurting Chicago as its citizens are migrating away. Meanwhile, achieving or implementing pure gemeinschaft in Chicago may be difficult and daunting, it is not entirely impossible. Along with the exigencies brought about by modernity, there are also developments that empower people to achieve a degree of cohesion and solidarity that is akin to the ideal conception of community. Works Cited Blakely, Edward and Snyder, May Gail. Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States. Brookings Institution Press, 1999. Bridge, Gary. Reason in the city of difference: pragmatism, communicative action and contemporary urbanism. London: Routledge, 2005. Cutler, Irving. Housing policy in the United States: an introduction. SIU Press, 2006. Iverson, Noel. Germania, U.S.A.: social change in New Ulm, Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press, 1966. Koval, John Patrick. The new Chicago: a social and cultural analysis. Temple University, 2006. Pattillo-McCoy, Patricia. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class. University of Chicago Press, 2000. Schwartz, Alex. Housing policy in the United States: an introduction. CRC Press, 2006. Shepherd, Gregory and Rothenbuhler, Eric. Communication and community. London: Routledge, 2001. Turner, Margery, Popkin, Susan and Rawlings, Lynette. Public housing and the legacy of segregation. Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute, 2009. Read More