tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/chicago-7991/articlesChicago – The Conversation2024-02-05T13:31:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212992024-02-05T13:31:04Z2024-02-05T13:31:04ZBlack communities are using mapping to document and restore a sense of place<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573098/original/file-20240202-25-m9rzc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C11%2C1856%2C1272&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">These highways displaced many Black communities. Some Black activists are using mapping to do the opposite: highlight hidden parts of history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2011593044/">Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When historian <a href="https://www.nps.gov/cawo/learn/carter-g-woodson-biography.htm">Carter Woodson</a> created “Negro History Week” in 1926, which became “<a href="https://guides.loc.gov/black-history-month-legal-resources/history-and-overview">Black History Month” in 1976</a>, he sought not to just celebrate prominent Black historical figures but to transform how white America saw and valued all African Americans. </p>
<p>However, many issues in the history of Black Americans can get lost in a focus on well-known historical figures or other important events.</p>
<p>Our research looks at how African American communities struggling for freedom have long used maps to protest and survive racism while affirming the value of Black life.</p>
<p>We have been working on the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00087041.2023.2256131">Living Black Atlas</a>,” an educational initiative that highlights the neglected history of Black mapmaking in America. It shows the <a href="https://mappingblackca.com/">creative ways</a> in which Black people have historically used mapping to document their stories. Today, communities are using “restorative mapping” as a way to tell stories of Black Americans.</p>
<h2>Maps as a visual storytelling technique</h2>
<p>While most people think of maps as a useful tool to get from point A to point B, or use maps to look up places or plan trips, the reality is all maps tell stories. Traditionally, most <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520292833/chocolate-cities">maps did not accurately</a> reflect the stories of Black people and places: Interstate highway maps, for example, do not reflect the realities that in most U.S. cities the building of major roads <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984784455/a-brief-history-of-how-racism-shaped-interstate-highways">was accompanied by the displacement</a> of thousands of Black people from cities. </p>
<p>Like many marginalized groups, Black people have used maps as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cart-2020-0011">visual story-telling technique</a> for “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44000276">talking back</a>” against their oppression. They have also used maps for enlivening and giving dignity to Black experiences and histories. </p>
<p>An example of this is the NAACP’s campaign to lobby for <a href="https://edsitement.neh.gov/curricula/naacps-anti-lynching-campaigns-quest-social-justice-interwar-years">anti-lynching federal legislation</a> in the early 20th century. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-black-cartographers-put-racism-on-the-map-of-america-155081">NAACP mapped</a> the <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore">location and frequency</a> of lynching to show how widespread racial terror was to the American public. </p>
<p>Another example is the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s efforts to document racism in the American South in the 1960s. The <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/sncc-national-office/research/">SNCC research department’s</a> maps and research on racism played a pivotal role in planning civil rights protests. SNCC produced conventional-looking county-level maps of income and education inequalities, which were issued to activists in the field. The organization also developed creative “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1631747">network maps</a>,” which exposed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718521000300">how power structures and institutions</a> supported racial discrimination in economic and political ways. These maps and reports could then identify urgent areas of protest. </p>
<p>More recently, artist-activist Tonika Lewis Johnson created the “<a href="https://www.foldedmapproject.com/interactive-maps">Folded Map Project</a>,” in which she brought together corresponding addresses on racially separated sides of the same street, to show how racism remade the city of Chicago. She photographed the “map twins” and interviewed individuals living at paired addresses to show the disparities. The project brought residents from north and south sides of Chicago to meet and talk to each other.</p>
<h2>Maps for restorative justice</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/carto.45.1.32">Restorative mapping</a> is an important part of the Living Black Atlas: It helps bring visibility to <a href="https://www.southerncultures.org/article/rooted/">Black experiences</a> that have been marginalized or forgotten. </p>
<p>An important example of restorative mapping work comes from the <a href="https://www.honeypotperformance.org">Honey Pot Performance, a collective</a> of Black feminists who helped create the <a href="https://www.honeypotperformance.org/about-the-cbscm">Chicago Black Social Culture Map, or the CBSCM</a>. This digital map traces Black Chicagoans’ experiences from <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration">the Great Migration</a> to the rise of electronic <a href="https://www.thedjrevolution.com/the-history-of-electronic-dance-music/#:%7E:text=The%20early%20forms%20of%20house%20music%20began%20in%20the%20early,with%20drum%20machines%20and%20synthesizers">dance music in the city</a>. The map includes historical records and music posters as well as descriptions of important people and venues for that music. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five Black young men, dressed in suits, sit atop a white car with an Illinois number plate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Millions of African Americans migrated from the Deep South to the industrial North between 1942 and 1970. In this photo, Black youngsters are dressed for Easter on the South Side of Chicago, April 13, 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TheGreatMigration/60132bf19f434519b6071ff3bb526a65/photo?Query=black%20history%20month%20chicago%20history%20music&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=817&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=14&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Library of Congress/FSA/Russell Lee</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While engaging Black Americans in the effort, the CBSCM map tells the story of Chicago through a series of artistic movements that highlight African Americans’ <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Chicago_Black_Renaissance_Literary_Movement_Report.pdf">connection with the city</a>.</p>
<p>After years of gentrification and urban renewal programs that displaced Black people <a href="https://www.beyondthewhitecity.org/urban-renewal-and-bronzeville">from the city</a>, this project is helping remember those neighborhoods digitally. It is also inviting a broader discussion about the history of Black Chicago. </p>
<h2>Restoring a sense of place</h2>
<p>An important idea behind restorative mapping is the act of returning something to a former owner or condition. This connects with the broader <a href="https://bjatta.bja.ojp.gov/media/blog/what-restorative-justice-and-how-does-it-impact-individuals-involved-crime">restorative justice</a> movement that seeks to address historic wrongs by documenting past and present injustices through perspectives that are often ignored or forgotten.</p>
<p>The CBSCM map is not a conventional paper map. While it includes many things you would find in such a map, such as road networks and political boundaries, the map also includes links to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12679">fiction writing</a> and <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Lorraine_Hansberry_House_Landmark_Report.pdf">the Chicago Renaissance</a>, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520292833/chocolate-cities">art and music</a>, as well as expressions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41279638">food</a>, family life, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2020.1784113">education</a> and politics that document a hidden history of Black life in the city. The map <a href="https://cbscmap.omeka.net/geolocation/map/browse">provides links to specific </a> historic documents, socially meaningful sites, and to the lives of people that tell the story of Black Chicago. </p>
<p>Thus, the map helps highlight how this geography is still present in Chicago in archives and people’s memories. Through this digital representation of Black Chicagoans’ deep cultural roots in the city, the mapping aims to restore a sense of place. Such work embodies what Black History Month is about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black activists have long used maps to help illustrate their communities’ history and to document historical injustices.Joshua F.J. Inwood, Professor of Geography and Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Penn StateDerek H. Alderman, Professor of Geography, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152202023-11-07T13:36:48Z2023-11-07T13:36:48ZYoung men in violent parts of Philadelphia, Chicago die from guns at a higher rate than US troops in the heat of battle<p>Mass shootings tend to dominate the debate over gun violence – but they accounted for <a href="https://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10-expanded.html">just 3% of all firearm homicides</a> in the United States in 2021.</p>
<p>The vast majority of gun homicides are murders that happen in an extremely concentrated number of neighborhoods – places where the rate of gun deaths rivals war zones.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mR-1XBIAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of gun violence and victimization</a> in the United States, I study and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2023.102068">publish research</a> on the geographic and demographic concentration of shootings, and I’m always searching for new perspectives to help people understand this crisis. </p>
<h2>Concentrated disadvantage</h2>
<p>Shootings happen over and over in the same locations. About <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2023.102068">half take place</a> in just 1% to 5% of the land area in U.S. cities – in other words, in a tiny percentage of the nation’s homes, stores, parks and street corners.</p>
<p>These same neighborhoods tend to suffer from what criminologists call <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/sites/scholar.harvard.edu/files/sampson/files/2006_takingstock_efficacy.pdf">concentrated disadvantage</a> – an unsavory mix of high crime rates, illegal drug markets, poverty, limited educational and economic opportunities, and residential instability. Cumulatively, these factors decrease the residents’ <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5328.918">ability to maintain</a> public order and safety in the ways that safer neighborhoods do informally by confronting violent behavior or supervising teenagers.</p>
<p>Kids who grow up in these neighborhoods suffer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092316">the long-lasting repercussions of exposure to violence</a>, such as high levels of stress and trauma that dampen educational attainment and result in decreased cognitive ability.</p>
<p>The demographics of these neighborhoods means that both victims and perpetrators of shootings are <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.44221">disproportionately young Black men</a>. Young Black men represented 93.9% of firearm-related homicide victims in Chicago and 79.3% of gun homicides in Philadelphia – where young Hispanic men make up another 12.9%. Homicides disproportionately affect the young largely because men ages 15 to 25 are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior, a phenomenon known as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.4.674">age-crime curve</a>. </p>
<p>How bad is it? For some young men, it can be safer to be in the U.S. military at war than living at home in the most violent neighborhoods of Philadelphia and Chicago.</p>
<h2>How we did this work</h2>
<p>This finding comes from a study my co-authors, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C7&q=Brandon+Del+Pozo&btnG=">Brandon Del Pozo</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wJJLcZoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Aaron Chalfin</a>, and I did to compare shooting rates in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles with casualty rates of U.S. military personnel during the recent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. </p>
<p>Our paper is published in JAMA Network Open, an open-source medical journal, and is <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.48132">freely available to read</a>.</p>
<p>We first collected all publicly available city-level data on shooting deaths, including the time, exact place and information about the victim. Our study focused on Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago because they were the largest American cities with public data available. However, <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-city-rankings/cities-with-most-murders">gun homicides happen everywhere</a>, with notable rates of gun homicides in St. Louis, Missouri; Baltimore; New Orleans; Detroit and Cleveland.</p>
<h2>In military zones</h2>
<p>For the military casualties, we relied on the estimates from studies of the mortality of U.S. soldiers at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2015.1129816">war in Afghanistan</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00185.x">Iraq</a>. </p>
<p>The Afghan War was deadlier, with 395 deaths of U.S. combatants per 100,000 people per year, compared with 330 in Iraq. We used the higher rate from the Afghan War as our reference, setting its value as 1 and expressing the homicide rate in other places in relationship to this benchmark.</p>
<h2>How places compare</h2>
<p>The most violent ZIP code in Philadelphia is 19132 in North Philadelphia, which includes parts of Strawberry Mansion and the blocks further north and east. The violence of these city streets was captured by sociologist Elijah Anderson in his ethnographic study “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Code-of-the-Street/">Code of the Street</a>,” published in 2000.</p>
<p>A young man living in this ZIP code had 1.91 times more annual risk of getting killed with a firearm than a U.S. soldier deployed to Afghanistan for a comparable amount of time. </p>
<p>During 2020 and 2021, this ZIP code was home to about 2,500 young men. Thirty-seven were killed in gun homicides. </p>
<p><iframe id="g54wt" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/g54wt/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>A similar calculation for the most violent neighborhood of Chicago, an area around Garfield Park with the ZIP code 60624, yields statistics that are even grimmer. Young men living there were 3.23 times more likely to die from a bullet than U.S. service members deployed to Afghanistan. Sixty-six young men were shot dead during 2020 and 2021.</p>
<p>Moreover, survivors of this violence bear the burden of it for the whole time they live in these neighborhoods. In contrast, <a href="https://www.uso.org/stories/2871-how-long-is-a-military-deployment">the average deployment</a> is less than 12 months.</p>
<h2>Complicating the narrative</h2>
<p>Research papers like ours can raise many “yeah but” questions. Answering them can better help us understand the limitations of our study.</p>
<p>For example, many service members do not engage in active combat. This fact made our research team wonder if the inclusion of data from personnel in safer support roles was skewing our data, so we specifically looked at the casualties of one U.S. brigade combat team that was heavily engaged during the Iraq War. </p>
<p>The brigade had a casualty rate 1.71 times higher than our benchmark. That means that members of the brigade were still safer than male youth in the most violent area of Philadelphia (with a casualty rate of 1.91 times higher) and Chicago (3.23 times higher).</p>
<p>It is also worth noting that we studied two particularly violent years in U.S. cities. 2020 saw <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/10/27/what-we-know-about-the-increase-in-u-s-murders-in-2020/">a record increase in homicide rates</a>. That number stayed high in 2021, before <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/31062/us-homicide-rate/">decreasing slightly in 2022</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, on a more positive note, gun mortality in New York and Los Angeles was significantly lower than in Philadelphia and Chicago, and much lower than the risks faced in war.</p>
<h2>Faster care could help</h2>
<p>Our research also showed that soldiers who are injured on the battlefield are less likely to die from their wounds than people shot in the American cities we studied.</p>
<p>Surviving a wound is more likely if medical help is immediate. This suggests two ideas to decrease shooting deaths: train more police officers to provide urgent basic <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716220904048">medical treatment to the victims of gun violence</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767920916900">add capacity to trauma centers near violent neighborhoods</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Knorre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mass shootings account for only about 3% of gun homicides in the U.S.Alex Knorre, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2126872023-10-24T12:22:19Z2023-10-24T12:22:19ZHow ‘La Catrina’ became the iconic symbol of Day of the Dead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552390/original/file-20231005-24-skza08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=191%2C191%2C5051%2C3450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A girl dressed as a 'catrina' takes part in the Catrinas Parade in Mexico City to celebrate Day of the Dead.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-dressed-as-catrina-walks-while-taking-part-in-the-news-photo/617638204?adppopup=true">Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On April 13, 1944, thousands of people clashed with police on the steps of <a href="https://www.artic.edu/about-us/mission-and-history/history">the Art Institute of Chicago</a>. </p>
<p>The melee was unrelated to U.S. participation in World War II, labor unrest or President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-seizes-control-of-montgomery-ward">controversial move to seize control</a> of local Chicago industries. </p>
<p>Rather, a massive, impatient art crowd overwhelmed the museum’s capacity, causing mayhem. That’s how desperately people wanted to see the U.S. premiere of an exhibition titled “Posada: Printmaker to the Mexican People.”</p>
<p>The exhibition featured the prints of <a href="https://www.posada-art-foundation.com/about-posada">José Guadalupe Posada</a>, a Mexican engraver who had died in 1913. On display were his calaveras, the satirical skull and skeleton illustrations he made for Day of the Dead, which he printed on cheap, single-sheet newspapers known as broadsides.</p>
<p>One specific calavera, or skull, attracted more attention than the others. </p>
<p>Known as La Catrina, she was a garish skeleton with a wide, toothy grin and an oversized feathered hat. A large print of her <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8528/gallery-of-art-interpretation-who-is-posada">hung on the museum’s wall</a>. Audiences saw her featured in the museum’s promotional materials. She was even the cover girl of <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8526/the-art-of-jose-guadalupe-posada-lent-by-the-department-of-fine-arts-of-mexico">the exhibition catalog</a>. Back in Mexico she’d been virtually unknown, but the U.S. exhibition made La Catrina an international sensation.</p>
<p>Today, La Catrina is Posada’s most recognizable creation. She’s the icon of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/top-ten-day-of-dead-mexico">Day of the Dead</a>, Mexico’s annual fiesta in honor of the deceased that takes place annually on Nov. 1 and 2. Her visage is endlessly reproduced during the holiday. Her idolization has made her Mexico’s unofficial national totem, perhaps second only to <a href="https://theconversation.com/warrior-servant-mother-unifier-the-virgin-mary-has-played-many-roles-through-the-centuries-165596">the Virgin of Guadalupe</a>. </p>
<p>While some people might presume it’s always been this way, La Catrina is actually a transcultural icon whose prestige and popularity are equal parts invention and accident.</p>
<h2>A life of obscurity</h2>
<p>When Posada first engraved her <a href="https://www.posada-art-foundation.com/posada-lacatrina">in 1912</a>, she wasn’t even called La Catrina. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Peach colored program cover featuring a print of a skeleton wearing a lavish hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The catalog cover for ‘Posada,’ a 1944 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, features what came to be known as La Catrina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8526/the-art-of-jose-guadalupe-posada-lent-by-the-department-of-fine-arts-of-mexico">The Art Institute of Chicago</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the original print, she’s Calavera Garbancera, a <a href="https://glasstire.com/2019/11/02/jose-guadalupe-posada-and-diego-rivera-fashion-catrina-from-sellout-to-national-icon-and-back-again/">title used</a> to refer to indigenous peasant women who sold garbanzo beans at the street markets.</p>
<p>Posada illustrated her in ostentatious attire to satirize the way the garbanceras attempted to pass as upper-class by powdering their faces and wearing fashionable French attire. So even from the beginning, La Catrina was transcultural – a rural indigenous woman adopting European customs to survive in Mexico’s urban, mixed-race society.</p>
<p>Like Posada’s other illustrations, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1360573">the 1912 broadside</a> was sold for a penny to primarily poor and working-class men throughout Mexico City and nearby areas. But there was nothing particularly significant about Calavera Garbancera. Like her creator, she remained obscure for many years.</p>
<p>Posada died <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guadalupe-Mexican-Broadside-Institute-Chicago/dp/0300121377">broke and unknown</a>, but his illustrations <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826319043/posadas-broadsheets/">had an afterlife</a>. His publisher reused them for other broadsides well into the 1920s. Calavera Garbancera got recycled as various other characters, none particularly noteworthy. Meanwhile, nobody really knew who made the calavera broadsides they saw around the capital every Day of the Dead.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Printed broadsheet featuring text and a drawing of a skeleton wearing a big hat on green paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Revolutionary Calavera,’ by José Guadalupe Posada, printed on a broadside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/revolutionary-calavera-c-1910-creator-josé-guadalupe-posada-news-photo/1447192444?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That changed in the mid-1920s when Posada’s work drew the attention of French artist Jean Charlot, a leading figure in the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Mexican_Mural_Renaissance_1920_1925.html?id=_g9ZAAAAMAAJ">Mexican Renaissance</a>, that creative outburst of nationalist murals and artworks that transpired in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.</p>
<p>Charlot was enamored of the calavera illustrations he saw around Mexico City, but he didn’t know who created them. He eventually tracked down Posada’s publisher and began researching the engraver. Charlot <a href="https://icaa.mfah.org/s/en/item/779806#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1673%2C0%2C5895%2C3299">published articles</a> about Posada and introduced the artist’s calaveras to other Mexican Renaissance artists and intellectuals. Among the most important were painter <a href="https://www.diegorivera.org/">Diego Rivera</a> and critic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1956/06/18/archives/frances-toor-66-wrote-on-mexico-author-of-books-on-folkways-and-of.html">Frances Toor</a>.</p>
<h2>From La Garbancera to La Catrina</h2>
<p>Rivera, of course, is arguably the greatest artist in Mexican history. <a href="https://theconversation.com/detroit-1932-when-diego-rivera-and-frida-kahlo-came-to-town-38884">His epic murals</a> remain internationally famous. </p>
<p>Frances Toor, on the other hand, was a modest Jewish intellectual who made her career writing about Mexican culture. In 1925 she started publishing <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43466157">Mexican Folkways</a>, a popular bilingual magazine distributed in Mexico and the U.S. With Diego Rivera as her art editor, she started using the magazine to promote Posada. In annual October-November issues, Toor and Rivera featured large reprints of Posada’s calaveras. </p>
<p>However, Calavera Garbancera was never among them. She wasn’t important enough to showcase.</p>
<p>In 1930, Toor and Rivera published <a href="https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/343276">the first book</a> of Posada’s engravings, which sold throughout Mexico and the U.S. In it, La Garbancera finally made an appearance. But she had a new name – Calavera Catrina. For reasons unknown, Toor and Rivera chose the honorific, which referred to her as a female dandy. The calavera was forevermore La Catrina.</p>
<p>Her fame, however, didn’t truly arrive until Posada’s riotous debut at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1944. The exhibition was a collaboration between the museum and the Mexican government. It was funded and facilitated by a special White House propaganda agency that used <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29923182/Jos%C3%A9_Guadalupe_Posada_Art_Institute_of_Chicago_1944_pdf?email_work_card=view-paper">cultural diplomacy</a> to fortify solidarity with Latin America during World War II. </p>
<p>This boosterism allowed the Posada exhibition to tour and give La Catrina wider exposure. She was seen and promoted in New York, Philadelphia, Mexico City and elsewhere in Mexico.</p>
<p>Perhaps more important was the exhibition catalog, which featured La Catrina as cover girl. It sold at each tour location. <a href="https://www.artic.edu/institutional-archives">Complimentary copies</a> were also distributed to prominent U.S. and Mexican authors and artists. They started writing about La Catrina and refashioning her in their artworks, popularizing her on both sides of the border.</p>
<h2>La Catrina goes global</h2>
<p>In 1947, Diego Rivera further immortalized La Catrina when he made her the focal point of one of his most famous murals, “<a href="https://www.diegorivera.org/dream-of-a-sunday-afternoon-in-alameda-park.jsp">Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park</a>.” </p>
<p>The mural portrays Mexican history from the Spanish conquest to the Mexican Revolution. La Catrina stands at the literal center of this history, where Rivera painted her holding hands with Posada on one side and a boyhood version of himself on the other.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of an elegantly dressed skeleton holding hands with a boy and a man wearing hats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail of Diego Rivera’s mural ‘Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park,’ which hangs at the Diego Rivera Mural Museum in Mexico City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksherman/4080802657">Nick Sherman/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rivera’s fame – and La Catrina’s newfound gravitas – inspired Mexican and Mexican American artists to incorporate her into their works, too. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/El_D%C3%ADa_de_Los_Muertos.html?id=BTNQAAAAMAAJ">Folk artists</a> in Mexico began fashioning her into ceramic toys, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/En_Calavera.html?id=3mJQAAAAMAAJ">papier-mâché figurines</a> and other crafts sold during Day of the Dead. Mexican Americans utilized La Catrina in their murals, paintings and political posters as part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-chicana-women-artists-have-often-used-the-figure-of-the-virgin-of-guadalupe-for-political-messages-213720">Chicano Movement</a>, which pushed for Mexican American civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Extravagent costume featuring a headdress, skull mask and red and black cloak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each year, Los Angeles native Christina Sanchez dresses as ‘Catrina Christina’ for Day of the Dead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mars Sandoval</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>La Catrina’s image is now used to sell anything <a href="https://tee-luv.com/products/victoria-beer-mexican-la-catrina-t-shirt-black">from beer</a> to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/01/us/day-of-the-dead-barbie-cultural-appropriation-trnd/index.html">Barbie dolls</a>. You can order La Catrina costumes from <a href="https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/catrina-costume">Walmart</a> and <a href="https://www.spirithalloween.com/product/adult-la-catrina-day-of-the-dead-trumpet-dress-costume/175819.uts">Spirit Halloween</a> stores.</p>
<p>In fact, La Catrina costume parades and contests are a relatively new Day of the Dead tradition in Mexico and the U.S. Participants span race, ethnicity and nationality. </p>
<p>Some people, such as “<a href="https://shoutoutla.com/meet-christina-sanchez-catrina-christina/">Catrina Christina</a>” in Los Angeles, don a costume each year as a way to honor the dearly departed on Día de los Muertos. Others dress as La Catrina to grow their <a href="https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2021/11/02/content-creators-use-their-platforms-to-celebrate-dia-de-los-muertos/">social media following</a>, or impersonate her to make money.</p>
<p>Posada probably never expected his female calavera to become so famous. He merely wanted to use traditional Day of the Dead humor to make fun of the flamboyantly dressed garbanceras he saw hanging around Mexico City’s central plaza. </p>
<p>Today, during Día de los Muertos, that same central plaza is filled with hundreds of La Catrina impersonators who, for a few dollars, will pose for photographs with tourists all too willing to pay for such a “traditional” cultural experience with an “authentic” Day of the Dead icon. </p>
<p>Posada, meanwhile, is likely laughing somewhere in the land of the dead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Sandoval does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An obscure Mexican engraver named José Guadalupe Posada created the satirical skull in the early 1900s and sold it for a penny. But after he died, it took on a life of its own.Mathew Sandoval, Associate Teaching Professor in Culture & Performance, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071892023-06-29T12:17:28Z2023-06-29T12:17:28ZThink being a NASCAR driver isn’t as physically demanding as other sports? Think again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534663/original/file-20230628-29-pxt28c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C17%2C2982%2C2056&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Race car drivers compete in full-body safety gear while sitting in a piping hot car, which puts tremendous strain on the heart.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/driver-michael-gallegos-climbs-behind-the-wheel-during-the-news-photo/77354033?adppopup=true">Grant Halverson/Getty Images for NASCAR</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine an NBA game played outdoors. In August. In Phoenix. Tip-off is at noon. There are no timeouts. There is no halftime. There are no substitutions. And players must wear snowsuits, gloves, and ski masks. </p>
<p>Sounds ridiculous, right? </p>
<p>Yet race car drivers routinely compete under similar conditions.</p>
<p>On July 1, 2023, for the first time in over 60 years, NASCAR, the nation’s premier stock car series, will hold a race on the streets of a U.S. city at the <a href="https://www.nascarchicago.com/racing/">Grant Park 220 in Chicago</a>.</p>
<p>The fans who attend are sure to appreciate the sound, speed and spectacle. But how many truly grasp the physical and mental strain placed on the drivers?</p>
<p>Our research team from the University of Florida and Michigan State University is collaborating with NASCAR to better understand the stressors drivers experience on the track.</p>
<p>We’ve learned that professional drivers need extraordinary physical and mental stamina to compete in major racing series such as NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula One. Our data shows the metabolic demands of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002070">auto racing and basketball are similar</a>. But unlike other athletes, race car drivers compete in full-body safety gear while sitting in a piping hot car for hours at a time.</p>
<h2>Not your mom’s minivan</h2>
<p>Race car drivers face unique challenges that require strength, endurance and hand-eye coordination.</p>
<p>First, the physical effort of driving a race car is much greater than that of driving your family car. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a18270/you-think-driving-an-indy-car-is-easy/">Turning and braking require more force</a> due to the high speeds and the unique engineering of race cars. Drivers control the vehicle <a href="https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2022-italian-grand-prix-williams-mechanics-help-exhausted-nyck-de-vries-out-of-the-car-after-his-points-scoring-f1-debut.1743691636627328562.html">by constantly engaging</a> the muscles of the arms, upper body and legs.</p>
<p>“There’s tremendous kick-back through the steering wheel,” IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti <a href="https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a18270/you-think-driving-an-indy-car-is-easy/">said in a 2012 interview</a>, “and there’s no power steering, so every movement of the wheel requires a lot of energy.”</p>
<p>After being hooked up to sensors to track the stresses and strains he endured a race, Franchitti learned he needed to generate 35 pounds of force just to steer, and 135 pounds of force to brake.</p>
<p>“Imagine a string tied to your hand where you have to pull that 35 pounds up or down constantly,” he added.</p>
<p>Also, fast turns and abrupt braking create accelerative forces, <a href="https://www.geotab.com/blog/what-is-g-force/">known as G-forces</a>. Like a jet fighter pilot in a dogfight, intense G-forces make it hard for racers to maintain their posture and promote muscle fatigue. It can even become <a href="https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/magnussen-says-his-neck-just-broke-in-q3-in-jeddah/9364564/">impossible to hold their heads up</a>. </p>
<p>For these reasons, drivers undergo rigorous training to <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001961">strengthen key muscle groups</a> in the neck, upper body and legs while working to improve their cardiovascular fitness. </p>
<p>Heat is also a major challenge for driver athletes. Like any exercise, the work of driving a race car causes the body to generate metabolic heat. In most sports, athletes wear lightweight clothes that promote cooling by convection and sweat evaporation. </p>
<p>Not so in auto racing. Driver body <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.06.001">heat is trapped by the safety gear</a> worn during competition to protect against fire in case of a crash. The gear includes long fireproof undershirt and underpants, full-body fire suit, socks and driving shoes, gloves, a fireproof balaclava, and a full-face helmet with closed eye shield.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6W6OswDJZJ8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Formula One driver Nigel Mansell faints at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, which was held on a day where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bodies pushed to the limit</h2>
<p>To make matters worse, drivers compete in what’s essentially a moving oven. </p>
<p>A massive amount of heat is generated by the race car engine, exhaust, brakes and tires. These sources heat the cockpit and the driver, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001997">especially in cars with roofs</a> like stock cars. In summer, cockpit temperatures can exceed 135 degrees Fahrenheit (57 Celsius), leading to profuse sweating, dehydration and <a href="https://f1i.com/images/350956-mansells-dallas-gp-push-and-coast.html">even heatstroke</a>. </p>
<p>Most race cars lack air conditioning. Instead, <a href="https://www.hendrickmotorsports.com/news/articles/100361/how-drivers-stay-cool-in-the-car-during-summer-months">technologies used to combat the heat</a> include hoses that bring fresh air into driver helmets and cool-shirts worn by drivers. <a href="https://www.formulasantander.com/how-formula-1-drivers-stay-hydrated-during-the-race/">In-car drink systems</a> can also provide fluids for re-hydration.</p>
<p>Drivers and other endurance athletes metabolize oxygen to power their muscles and regulate body temperature. Comparing data across sports, my colleague and I found that metabolic demands of auto racing are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002070">similar to basketball, soccer or boxing</a>.</p>
<p>Delivering more oxygen to the driver’s body puts stress on the heart. Drivers often <a href="https://doi.org/10.3357/asem.1483.2008">maintain near-maximal heart rates</a> while racing for hours at a time. </p>
<p>Beyond the heat, other aspects of racing also put demands on the heart. </p>
<p>First, there is speed. The <a href="https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2002/12000/Physiological_responses_to_high_speed,_open_wheel.33.aspx">faster a race car is driven</a> on a given track, the higher the driver’s heart rate due to greater physical and mental effort. Configuration of the race track is also important. Compared to oval tracks, heart rates are <a href="https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2002/12000/Physiological_responses_to_high_speed,_open_wheel.33.aspx">higher on road courses and street races</a>. This reflects the extra work required for hard braking and sharp turns.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fans watch from balconies as cars zip along a city street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534666/original/file-20230628-29-f5h5gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Street courses like the Monaco Grand Prix add extra strain on drivers due to the prevalence of sharp turns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/daniel-ricciardo-of-australia-driving-the-aston-martin-red-news-photo/962946726?adppopup=true">Dan Istitene/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014.977940">mental stress of competition</a>, compounded by the imminent risk of serious injury, can make the heart beat like a jackhammer. Weather can also play a role. This is especially true during the hot days of summer when the heart works harder to regulate driver body temperature. Even the race car contributes: Beyond the hot cabin environment, the car creates vibrations that also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1966.21.6.1725">stimulate the heart to beat faster</a>.</p>
<p>The race in Chicago will feature all of these challenges, putting extreme stress on drivers. Drivers will be racing closed-cockpit cars wheel-to-wheel through the twists and turns of an unfamiliar street course in the heat of midsummer. These athletes must endure all of these challenges for two hours or longer, while racing 220 miles (354 kilometers) at speeds exceeding 100 mph (161 kph). </p>
<p>While the outcome is unpredictable, the drivers will be pushing their bodies – in addition to their cars – to their limits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Reid receives funding from NASCAR to measure the physiological stresses experienced by race car drivers. NASCAR will have access to these findings, which are expected to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.</span></em></p>Imagine an NBA game played outdoors in August, with no substitutions and players wearing snowsuits, gloves and ski masks. Race car drivers routinely compete under similar conditions.Michael Reid, Professor of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2067212023-06-27T12:23:22Z2023-06-27T12:23:22ZRight-to-charge laws bring the promise of EVs to apartments, condos and rentals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533032/original/file-20230620-29-fy3zbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C50%2C5590%2C3682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charging at home is more convenient for apartment dwellers, too.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/charging-of-an-electric-car-royalty-free-image/1042703278">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than <a href="https://www.veloz.org/ev-market-report/">3.6 million electric cars</a> are driving around the U.S., but if you live in an apartment, finding an available charger isn’t always easy. Grocery stores and shopping centers might have a few, but charging takes time and the spaces may be taken or inconvenient.</p>
<p>Several states and cities, aiming to expand EV use, are now trying to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2016.03.011">lift that barrier to ownership</a> with “right to charge” laws.</p>
<p>Illinois’ governor signed the latest <a href="https://wtax.com/news/101101-pritzker-signs-electric-vehicle-charging-expansion-plan-into-law/">right-to-charge law</a> in June 2023, requiring that all parking spots at new homes and multiunit dwellings be wired so they’re ready for EV chargers to be installed. Colorado, Florida, New York and other states have passed similar laws in recent years.</p>
<p>But having wiring in place for charging is only the first step to expanding EV use. Apartment building managers, condo associations and residents are now trying to figure out how to make charging efficient, affordable and available to everyone who needs it when they need it.</p>
<h2>Electric cars can benefit urban dwellers</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MDz1iZAAAAAJ&hl=en">civil engineer</a> who focuses on transportation, I study ways to make the shift to electric vehicles equitable, and I believe that planning for multiunit dwelling charging and accessibility is smart policy for cities.</p>
<p>Transitioning away from fossil-fueled vehicles to electric vehicles has <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-help-to-tackle-climate-change/">benefits for the environment and the health</a> of urban residents. It reduces tailpipe emissions, which can cause respiratory problems and warm the climate; it mitigates noise; and it improves urban air quality and quality of life.</p>
<p>Surveys show most EV drivers charge at home, where electricity rates are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.06.042">lower than at public chargers</a> and there is less competition for charging spots. In <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/16/new-high-16-ev-adoption-in-california-in-2022/">California, the leading state for EVs</a>, 88% of early adopters of battery electric cars said they were able to charge at home, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2019.11.011">workplace and public charging represented</a> just 24% and 17% of their charging sessions, respectively. Nationwide, about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2018.04.002">50% to 80% of all battery electric car charging sessions</a> take place at home.</p>
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<p>Yet almost a quarter of all U.S. housing structures have more than one dwelling unit, according to the 2019 <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs.html">American Housing Survey</a>. In California, 32.5% of urban dwellings have multiple units, and only a third of those units include access to a personal garage where a charger could be installed.</p>
<p>Even if installing a personal charger is an option, it can be expensive in a multiunit dwelling if wiring isn’t already in place. And it often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2023.103776">comes with other obstacles</a>, including the potential need for electrical upgrades or challenges from homeowner association rules and restrictions. Installing chargers can involve numerous stakeholders who can impede the process – lot owners, tenants, homeowners associations, property managers, electric utilities and local governments.</p>
<p>However, if a 240-volt outlet is already available, basic charger installation <a href="https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-much-does-it-cost-to-install-an-ev-charger">drops to a few hundred dollars</a>.</p>
<h2>Right-to-charge laws aims for ubiquitous home charging</h2>
<p>Right-to-charge laws aim to streamline home charging access as new buildings go up.</p>
<p>Illinois’ new <a href="https://www.lplegal.com/content/electric-vehicle-charging-act-approved-illinois-legislature-what-illinois-community-associations-need-know/">Electric Vehicle Charging Act</a> requires that 100% of parking spaces at new homes and multiunit dwellings be ready for electric car charging, with a conduit and reserved capacity to easily install charging infrastructure. The new law also gives renters and condominium owners in new buildings a right to install chargers without unreasonable restriction from landlords and homeowner associations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman unloads a shopping cart in a parking lot and puts items into her EV, which is charging from a public charger." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533031/original/file-20230620-17-shtr8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public chargers typically aren’t as convenient as charging at home, and chargers aren’t always available.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/electric-vehicle-lifestyle-royalty-free-image/1465286722">martin-dm/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Virginia also have <a href="https://pluginsites.org/legislation-reference-recharging-equipment-at-multi-unit-housing/">right-to-charge laws</a> designed to make residential community charging deployment easier, as do <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_charging_home.html">several U.S. cities</a> including Seattle and Washington, D.C. Most apply only to owner-occupied buildings, but a few, including California’s and Colorado’s, also apply to rental buildings.</p>
<p>Chicago officials have considered an <a href="https://www.lplegal.com/content/proposed-electric-vehicle-charging-ordinance-chicago/">ordinance that would</a> include existing buildings, too.</p>
<h2>Sharing chargers can reduce the cost</h2>
<p>There are several steps communities can take to increase access to chargers and reduce the cost to residents.</p>
<p>In a new study, colleagues and I looked at how to design shared charging for an apartment building with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2023.103776">scheduling that works for everyone</a>. By sharing chargers, residential communities can reduce the costs associated with charger installation and use. </p>
<p>The biggest challenge to shared charging is often scheduling. We found that a centralized charging management system that suggests charging times for each electric car owner that aligns with the owner’s travel schedule and the amount of charge needed can work – with enough chargers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The view from high in an apartment building shows balconies below and the solar-panel covered roof over the parking area." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533034/original/file-20230620-21-rdga2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apartments in a tower in China look down on an EV charging station covered in solar panels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/looking-down-on-a-community-parking-lot-with-solar-royalty-free-image/1343714223">Zhihao/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a typical multiunit dwelling in Chicago – with an average of 14 cars in the parking lot – a small community charging hub with two <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_infrastructure.html">level 2 chargers</a>, the type common in homes and office buildings, can cover daily residential recharging demand at a cost of about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. But having only two chargers means residents are waiting on average 2.2 hours to charge.</p>
<p>A larger charging hub with eight level 2 chargers in the same city avoids the delay but increases the cost of charging to 21 cents per kWh because of upfront cost of purchasing and installing the chargers. To put that into context, the average electricity cost for Chicago residents is <a href="https://www.energysage.com/local-data/electricity-cost/il/cook-county/chicago/">16 cents per kWh</a>. </p>
<p>The future of charging management at multiunit dwellings <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.10.048">will be automated</a> for efficiency, with a computer or artificial intelligence determining the most efficient schedule for charging. Optimized scheduling can be responsive to the times renewable electricity generation sources are producing the most power – midday for solar energy, for example – and to dynamic electricity pricing. Automation can also eliminate delays for drivers while saving money and reducing the burden on the electric grid.</p>
<p>The current limited access to home charging in many cities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2016.03.011">constrains electric vehicle adoption</a>, slows down the decarbonization of U.S. transportation and <a href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1825510">exacerbates inequities</a> in electric vehicle ownership. I believe efforts to expand charging in multidwelling buildings can help lift some of the biggest barriers and help reduce noise and pollution in urban cores at the same time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleftheria Kontou receives funding from the Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office, the National Science Foundation, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, and the Office of Naval Research. </span></em></p>Illinois passed the latest law requiring new apartment buildings to be wired for EV chargers. Now apartment communities are figuring out the best ways to make shared charging work for everyone.Eleftheria Kontou, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2022302023-06-06T12:29:50Z2023-06-06T12:29:50ZA community can gentrify without losing its identity – examples from Pittsburgh, Boston and Newark of what works<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526633/original/file-20230516-23757-xm3dyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C16%2C3567%2C2549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A street mural by Manuel Acevedo at Halsey Place in Newark, N.J.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fourcornerspublicarts.org/projects#/the-gantalism-dedication-2019/ ">Anthony Alvarez</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How can neighborhoods gentrify without erasing their heart and voice?</p>
<p>It’s an important question to ask now, I’d suggest, since many communities across the U.S. are at risk of losing their historical identities as new people and businesses move in, displacing residents and affecting the fabric of the community. This <a href="https://www.pps.org/article/gentrification">process is known as gentrification</a>, and while a neighborhood “upgrade” can bring new vitality, diversity and opportunity, that is a win only if existing residents and businesses are not forced or priced out.</p>
<p>How to have the positive effects without the negatives isn’t obvious. President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget proposes a US$195 million increase in the Community Development Block Grant program that targets development in 100 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2022/03/30/president-bidens-fy-2023-budget-advances-equity/">underserved communities</a>. By creating infrastructure that attracts new development, some of these projects will likely support gentrification.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://sasn.rutgers.edu/about-us/faculty-staff/anthony-alvarez">educator</a>, arts administrator and public policy fellow who has worked with Fortune 500 companies and exhibited my own photography nationally. I teach fine arts classes at Rutgers in Newark, New Jersey, where I was raised.</p>
<p>As an artist, I believe that it is important to preserve diverse communities with unique characteristics. Public art is one way to highlight and honor our shared spaces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00492.x">even as we reshape them</a>. Art can help present the values that communities want to project and protect as a way of maintaining and creating great places to live.</p>
<h2>Defining spaces</h2>
<p>What makes a great place to live? </p>
<p>Or, as urban planner <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/artv.2017.0009">Maria Rosario Jackson</a> – now serving as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts – asks: What makes “a just place where people can thrive”? </p>
<p>The answer is, many elements working together. Accessible transportation, diverse housing stock, good schools and jobs, to name a few. Places and spaces in which visitors and residents can convene and connect, be entertained, engage creatively, and find experiences that expand and challenge imaginations. </p>
<p>Public art projects are at the center of many revitalization projects, and they are crucial to the fabric and vitality of their communities. Consider as just one example <a href="https://undergroundinkblock.com/about-2">Underground at Ink Block</a> in Boston, a project that transformed an ordinary underpass into a place where neighbors come together to honor shared histories and play, connect and create community surrounded by outstanding street art. </p>
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<p>Successful projects like this one don’t just happen. Rather, urban planners and community leaders rely on proven techniques that bring them together with community members to practice what urban planners call placemaking, creative placemaking and placekeeping.</p>
<h2>First came placemaking</h2>
<p>Placemaking entered into the urban planning vocabulary in a <a href="https://www.arts.gov/about/publications/creative-placemaking">2010 white paper</a> by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa for The Mayors’ Institute on City Design. </p>
<p>More recently, the Project for Public Spaces published a <a href="https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5810e16fbe876cec6bcbd86e/6335ddc88fbf7f29ec537d49_2022%20placemaking%20booklet.pdf">Primer on Placemaking</a> in 2022 titled “What if we build our cities around places?”</p>
<p>The paper argues that successful cities need destinations: strong communities with distinct identities to help attract new residents, businesses and investment. </p>
<p>Walkable, safe, comfortable and dynamic public spaces and buildings are key components to the creation of spaces where “people want to live, work, play and learn,” as Michigan State University <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/lpis_mark_wyckoff_authors_article_on_four_different_types_of_placemaking">urban planner Mark Wyckoff argues</a>.</p>
<p>Placemaking began as an economic development strategy focusing on “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-we-need-to-invest-in-transformative-placemaking/">economic districts</a>,” but recent shifts also call for thoughtful and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/about-the-bass-center/">sensitive social impact</a> focusing on what residents and commuters want, like cultural activities, accessible parks, and healthy and sustainable food sold at farmers markets.</p>
<h2>Harnessing creativity</h2>
<p>Creative placemaking connects traditional economic placemaking with arts and cultural strategies. Markusen and Gadwa explain that creative placemaking involves partnering with the community to re-imagine a neighborhood while maintaining its social and cultural character. </p>
<p>Movements such as <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/socially-engaged-practice">Socially Engaged Art</a> allow artists and community to come together in a public space that encourages conversation around a common goal. Rick Lowe’s <a href="https://projectrowhouses.org/">Project Row Houses</a> in Houston and the <a href="https://www.theastergates.com/project-items/dorchester-art-and-housing-collaborative-dahc">Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative</a>’s Theaster Gates in Chicago are just two of many examples of this blurring of the lines between art, activism and economic development.</p>
<h2>Placekeeping</h2>
<p>More recently, the idea of placekeeping expands on these earlier concepts by recognizing that having communities at the table when revitalization projects are being planned is key to growing urban environments that have a good chance of keeping displacement at bay. Placekeeping emphasizes learning what is important to the fabric of the community and how to weave that into revitalization projects.</p>
<p>A former mayor of Oakland, California, Libby Schaaf, said <a href="https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/11/12/toward-placekeeping-how-design-dialogue-can-make-cities-better-everyone">in 2019</a>: “Placekeeping is about engaging the residents who already live in a space and allowing them to preserve the stories and culture of where they live.” </p>
<p>Oakland was one of the participants of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ <a href="https://www.bloomberg.org/press/bloomberg-philanthropies-launches-asphalt-art-initiative-providing-cities-how-to-guidance-to-transform-streets-and-public-spaces-with-artwork/">Asphalt Art Initiative</a>. This <a href="https://asphaltart.bloomberg.org/projects/">64-city program</a> has the goal of assisting “cities looking to use art and design to improve street safety, revitalize public spaces, and engage their communities.” </p>
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<p>Here in Newark, New Jersey, <a href="https://www.audible.com/about">Audible</a>, an audiobook and podcasting subsidiary of Amazon, has led a dynamic partnership with local leaders, elected officials, stakeholders, residents and artists called the <a href="https://www.archpaper.com/2022/06/newark-artist-collaboration-honors-the-citys-history-and-residents-through-13-just-unveiled-art-installations/">Newark Arts Collaboration</a>. The installation takes the form of 13 murals reflecting the vibrancy and histories of the city’s neighborhoods and the people within them. </p>
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<h2>Avoiding gentrification</h2>
<p>The best way of knowing what a community values is to ask the people who live there. </p>
<p><a href="https://nlihc.org/resource/gentrification-and-neighborhood-revitalization-whats-difference">Community benefits agreements</a> are contracts that bring community groups and stakeholders to a shared planning table. These agreements provide negotiated, binding contracts that help leverage tools such as <a href="https://www.ura.org/pages/lower-hill-lerta-greater-hill-district-neighborhood-reinvestment-fund">tax assistance programs and reinvestment funds</a> with concrete community investment plans. </p>
<p>For example, in Pittsburgh, community benefits agreements provided an opportunity for the community and developers to co-shape major revitalization projects beginning with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9qqXHa3Gs0&list=PL45AA4AF0740EF212&index=1">PPG arena 2008</a> and expanding with the renovation of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/hill-district-ura-concert-venue-lower-hill-district/">the historic New Granda Theater in 2023</a>.</p>
<p>Any anti-gentrification effort begins with an inclusive process. Under Mayor Michelle Wu, the city of Boston <a href="https://www.boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/allston-brighton-arts-culture-and-placekeeping">provides another example</a> of placekeeping by promising to learn “what exists, what is treasured and what contributes to the unique characteristics of Allston-Brighton,” a quickly developing neighborhood within the city.</p>
<p>Embracing the heart of the community, honoring its artistic expression, and creating access for the community was key in the development of <a href="https://www.evartscollective.com/frogtown-artwalk">Frogtown Arts Walk</a> in Los Angeles. And keeping this regeneration equitable is center to Newark’s <a href="https://newarkarts.org/newark-creates/">cultural plan</a>. </p>
<p>To quote Newark Mayor Ras Baraka: “Newark should be the place to be for artists. And, I want Newarkers to benefit from their presence.”</p>
<p><em>This story was updated to correct the number of Asphalt Initiative grants.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Alvarez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Art can help anchor places even as they are reshaped.Anthony Alvarez, Lecturer of Arts, Culture & Media, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033072023-05-03T12:15:54Z2023-05-03T12:15:54ZBlack mothers trapped in unsafe neighborhoods signal the stressful health toll of gun violence in the U.S.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523312/original/file-20230427-18-2ufwkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The stress of experiencing high levels of community violence harms entire families.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-american-mother-consoling-her-sad-girl-at-royalty-free-image/1077179266">skynesher/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Black mothers are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the mental and physical harms of stress from living with gun violence in America.</p>
<p>In the U.S., Black people are likelier than white people to reside in impoverished, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-019-09280-1">racially segregated communities</a> with high levels of gun violence. Research has suggested that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21060558">living in</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-81232006000200007">violent and unsafe</a> environments can result in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032484">continuous traumatic stress</a>, a constant form of PTSD. Researchers have also linked experiences of violence and poverty to an increased risk of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102746">chronic disease</a> such as cancer and cardiovascular, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases.</p>
<p>We are Black women and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mrM-LJsAAAAJ&hl=en">public policy</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xIwwuN4AAAAJ&hl=en">sociology professors</a> who study health inequities and sustainable policy solutions. Our research has found that Black mothers who feel trapped in neighborhoods they perceived as unsafe because of high levels of community violence are more likely to report <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01432-1">elevated PTSD and depression symptoms</a>, as well as elevated stress hormone levels.</p>
<p>The trauma of gun violence and systemic racism isn’t simply a Black mother’s story – it’s an American story. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gun violence is an epidemic in the U.S.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Health effects of feeling trapped</h2>
<p>Our research team sought to understand <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01432-1">how stress from structural violence affects the body</a>, specifically the immune system. We talked to 68 low-income single Black mothers living on the South Side of Chicago about how they deal with gun violence in their communities and how it affects their health. </p>
<p>We asked these Black mothers to complete surveys that measured depression and PTSD symptoms. We also asked them to provide blood samples to examine the effects of stress at the cellular level, measuring the activity of genes that code for the receptors for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2007.11.071">stress hormone cortisol</a>. Looking at cortisol receptors offers a more cumulative measure of cortisol levels over time.</p>
<p>We found that about 65% of the mothers wanted to move out of their neighborhoods but could not afford to do so. These mothers felt trapped in areas with high levels of gun violence that fostered a sense of not feeling safe for adults and children. One mother in our study, whom we will call Ellan, described her neighborhood as dangerous and wanted to leave as soon as she could. “I’m very terrified of my kids going out to the park, playing in front of the house,” she said. “And I’m afraid that a car might come past shootin’ and one of my kids get hurt.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mother cradling child against chest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523308/original/file-20230427-2243-r895dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black mothers who feel trapped in their neighborhoods feel terrified for their children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mother-holding-sleeping-son-royalty-free-image/84910809">Jose Luis Pelaez/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another mother in our study, whom we will call Skylar, felt she couldn’t escape to a safer community. “I don’t really want to raise my kids there, but I don’t have a choice. You know, cause it’s what I can afford. But it’s real violent.”</p>
<p>Mothers who felt trapped reported more symptoms of PTSD, like disturbing memories and dreams and reliving stressful experiences, than mothers who did not feel trapped. They also reported more depressive symptoms, such as feeling down and hopeless, taking little pleasure in doing things and having trouble sleeping. </p>
<p>Mothers unable to afford the move to safer neighborhoods had lower levels of glucocorticoid receptors. Having fewer glucocorticoid receptors helped protect their bodies from being overwhelmed by high cortisol levels caused by stress. Nevertheless, high cortisol levels from chronic stress are linked to a number of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/racism-stress-covid-allostatic-load/">negative mental and physical health outcomes</a>.</p>
<h2>Environment determines health</h2>
<p>Where someone lives, learns, works, plays and worships can <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28845341">determine their health</a> and has the power to make them sick and cause premature death.</p>
<p>Researchers have estimated that around <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.24.2.459">83,570 Black people die prematurely</a> each year in the U.S. because of health disparities, using 2002 data. Some scholars have previously described this as equivalent to a <a href="https://unnaturalcauses.org/amazing_facts.php">plane full of Black passengers</a> falling out the sky every day every year.</p>
<p>It is important to note that it is not the racial makeup of where a person lives that shapes the significant disparities they face, but exposure to violence, poverty and lack of resources as a result of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112305">structural racism</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497358/">Redlining</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2020.0019">environmental contamination</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12846">food deserts</a> and gun violence are a part of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1090198120922942">racial capitalism</a>, or exploitation of marginalized communities, that affect the health of Black women.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Black people face systemic economic and health disparities in the U.S.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What we are learning about the constant threats to the safety of Black mothers and their families also applies to the general American public. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/">rate of mass shootings</a> is increasing. Firearm fatalities are a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2201761">leading cause of death among children</a> ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. Gun violence has harmed people while they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/scapegoating-rap-hits-new-low-after-july-fourth-mass-shooting-186443">watching a parade</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/rampage-at-virginia-walmart-follows-upward-trend-in-supermarket-gun-attacks-heres-what-we-know-about-retail-mass-shooters-195241">shopping at a store</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fueled-by-virtually-unrestricted-social-media-access-white-nationalism-is-on-the-rise-and-attracting-violent-young-white-men-186896">worshipping</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-years-after-parkland-school-shootings-havent-stopped-and-kill-more-people-198224">attending school</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-crimes-against-lgbtq-people-are-a-public-health-issue-61186">other</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/stand-your-ground-laws-empower-armed-citizens-to-defend-property-with-violence-a-simple-mistake-can-get-you-shot-or-killed-204012">ordinary</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/monterey-park-a-pioneering-asian-american-suburb-shaken-by-the-tragedy-of-a-mass-shooting-198373">events</a>.</p>
<h2>Increasing access to wellness</h2>
<p>Understanding the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00648">complexity of the exposome</a> – the word researchers use for environmental factors like gun violence that affect an individual’s health and well-being – can help extend the <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-a-rapid-ager-biological-age-is-a-better-health-indicator-than-the-number-of-years-youve-lived-but-its-tricky-to-measure-198849">years of healthy life</a> of groups who typically experience premature death. Building this knowledge requires input from people of color and others who have traditionally been pushed to the margins of society.</p>
<p>We are currently creating a “<a href="https://www.youthwellnessproject.com/wellness-store">wellness store</a>” that places wellness tools and health knowledge at the fingertips of individuals, especially for those experiencing interlocking traumas such as racism, sexism, classism, incarceration, racial segregation and rural geographic isolation. These tools, co-created with community health workers and citizen scientists, range from phone apps to public policy designed to get stress “out from under the skin.” Our goal is to work with clinics, hospitals and community organizations to provide accessible tools to prevent illness.</p>
<p>Black communities are filled with resilient and vulnerable individuals who deserve urgent policy solutions that lead to societal change. We believe that more investment in disease prevention and health equity can help the U.S. use the knowledge, technology and finances that it already has to help people access its most precious resource: a healthy life and the ability to pursue wellness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Loren Henderson is affiliated with Association of Black Sociologists. I am the Executive Officer of the Association of Black Sociologists.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruby Mendenhall receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</span></em></p>Chronic stress from living with systemic racism and gun violence can lead to increased symptoms of PTSD and depression as well as elevated cortisol levels.Loren Henderson, Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyRuby Mendenhall, Associate Professor in Sociology, African American Studies, Urban and Regional Planning and Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1830092022-10-25T12:28:44Z2022-10-25T12:28:44ZBuilding subsidized low-income housing actually lifts property values in a neighborhood, contradicting NIMBY concerns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490439/original/file-20221018-18-wz0tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C139%2C5406%2C3497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Today's low-income housing developments, like this one in St. Louis, are of a much higher quality than those of the past. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpInfrastructure/fa82e8e2392a48ec96740b431dba44f3/photo?Query=Low-Income%20Housing%20Tax%20Credit&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Jeff Roberson</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Building multiple publicly subsidized low-income housing developments in a neighborhood doesn’t lower the value of other homes in the area – and in fact can even increase their worth, according to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101838">new peer-reviewed study I co-authored</a>. </p>
<p>For the study, we looked at 508 developments financed through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and built in the Chicago area from 1997 to 2016. We then examined their influence on more than 600,000 nearby residential sales, using data from local property assessments and tax records. We chose Chicago because of its size, well-established neighborhoods, substantial amount of subsidized housing developments, well-documented <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-American-City-Enduring-Neighborhood/dp/022605568X">racial and ethnic segregation</a>, pockets of persistent and concentrated poverty and excellent data coverage. While some readers may have pictures of dilapidated buildings in their minds, the projects we looked at were generally well built and well maintained.</p>
<p>We found that, relative to comparable homes in other neighborhoods, average home prices jumped by 10% within a quarter-mile of the first affordable housing development that was built in a neighborhood and 2% within a quarter-mile over a 15-year period or through 2016. To ensure we were isolating the effect of the low-income housing program, we also looked at preexisting market trends to make sure neighborhoods that showed the faster price growth weren’t already growing at a faster rate before the low-income housing.</p>
<p>What was more striking to us, however, is that additional developments in the same area generally further increased housing prices. Building two more developments increased prices by a total of 3 additional percentage points, on average, within a quarter-mile and 4 percentage points over the next quarter-mile. In other words, a neighborhood within a quarter-mile of all three developments saw gains of 13% on average over the period.</p>
<p>These additional effects are important because low-income housing projects are disproportionately concentrated geographically, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Keeping-Races-in-Their-Places-The-Dividing-Lines-That-Shaped-the-American/Orlando/p/book/9780367680374">especially in lower-income areas</a>. </p>
<p>We also found that these effects occurred regardless of whether it was a low- or high-income neighborhood and no matter its racial composition. </p>
<p>While <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pam.20247">other studies</a> have previously shown Low-Income Housing Tax Credit developments typically have positive effects on surrounding property values, ours was the first to look at the impact of several projects in one neighborhood. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Homeowners are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/us/affordable-housing-suburbs.html">often worried</a> that the development of publicly subsidized housing in their neighborhoods will lower the value of their homes.</p>
<p>The primary concerns seem to be that such housing developments <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087412469341">will lead to higher levels</a> of crime and poverty, as well as requiring wealthier residents to pay higher costs for services and education, according to a 2012 study of “not in my back yard,” or NYMBY, opposition. These concerns are particularly acute when multiple projects are clustered closely together, reminding many Americans of public housing projects that <a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/2014-economic-commentaries/ec-201419-public-housing-concentrated-poverty-and-crime.aspx">concentrated poverty and crime</a> in the mid-20th century.</p>
<p>But today’s affordable housing developments are different than those of the past, which were often <a href="https://homesnow.org/short-history-of-public-housing-in-the-us-1930s-present/">cheaply built and poorly maintained</a>. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program supports private developers who have an incentive to build high-quality buildings and implement good property management. </p>
<p>Although local homeowners <a href="https://shelterforce.org/2014/04/23/who_why_and_how_communities_oppose_affordable_housing/">often oppose</a> these buildings, our results show that they are less cause for concern than people may think.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>We didn’t measure the effects of the new developments on area rental prices, so we don’t know how the subsidized rental units affected rents in unsubsidized properties nearby. That is a subject for future research. Similarly, while we demonstrated statistically that the developments themselves catalyzed the positive changes in values, we did not examine which particular aspects of the developments were the primary drivers of that change.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We’re currently finishing up our follow-up study in Los Angeles – another large city but with very different dynamics from Chicago’s. Our findings, which are currently undergoing peer review, show markedly similar effects, though we found the biggest gains in property values after multiple projects in a neighborhood.</p>
<p>We also are examining whether the observed property value effects differ when factoring in the size of the building, the presence of market-rate units and the type of developer.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=4506231">Sean Zielenbach</a>, president of SZ Consulting and a co-author of the study, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded in part by a generous grant from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation to Enterprise Community Partners, and we gratefully acknowledge their support, as well as the University of Southern California’s Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise. The funders played no role in the research itself.</span></em></p>The concentration of subsidized low-income housing developments isn’t as bad as residents fear: It actually increases property values – at a faster rate than other neighborhoods.Anthony W. Orlando, Assistant Professor of Finance, Real Estate and Law, California State Polytechnic University, PomonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1915542022-10-14T12:19:29Z2022-10-14T12:19:29ZWith the movie ‘Till,’ Mamie Till-Mobley’s quest to educate the world about her son’s lynching marches on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489653/original/file-20221013-25-jqluuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C229%2C3654%2C2675&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Till-Mobley watches the body of her son, Emmett, being lowered into his grave.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mrs-mamie-bradley-reacts-as-the-body-of-her-son-emmett-till-news-photo/109429921?phrase=mamie till-mobley&adppopup=true">Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped, severely beaten and killed in the Mississippi Delta on Aug. 28, 1955, his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the courageous decision <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/12/emmett-tills-mother-opened-his-casket-and-sparked-the-civil-rights-movement/">to reveal her son’s corpse for all to see</a>. </p>
<p>Till-Mobley’s choice allowed audiences to bear witness to an act of racial violence, and the new film “<a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/news/till-trailer-emmett-till-movie-1235324562/">Till</a>” promises to unveil the complete story of how she responded to her son’s brutal death.</p>
<p>However, when a theatrical poster for “Till” was released in the summer of 2022, some people immediately denounced the film on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/207108197412/posts/pfbid02XRvo42DjrKVnhH5bUA4GctEBqCJHEZaRpaSXxQG8exuub58sBvqvWQnnteKRL5dQl/?d=n">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/tillmovie/status/1550148603477254151?s=61&t=ELFF2jnC1hoNGXKeeU723g">Twitter</a>. Critics accused the project of profiting off Black pain and argued that there were other accounts of the Black experience worthy of cinematic representation.</p>
<p>“I’m tired of seeing award winning movies about our people being torn apart,” one commenter wrote.</p>
<p>Others questioned the purpose of television shows and movies about Emmett Till when people were still trying – <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/justice-department-officially-closes-emmett-till-investigation-180979205/">and</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/us/emmett-till-murder-grand-jury.html">failing</a> – to secure justice for his death. </p>
<p>Yet these reactions insinuate that Till’s story is significant only because of the horror and trauma attached to it: the gruesome death of a Black teenager, the public grief of a Black mother and the unsettling <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/189491">images</a> of a <a href="https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/L/Lynching">lynched Black body</a>. </p>
<p>I understand why there is some skepticism about the intent of “Till,” which comes on the heels of ABC’s miniseries “<a href="https://abc.com/shows/women-of-the-movement">Women of the Movement</a>,” the docuseries “<a href="https://abc.com/shows/let-the-world-see">Let the World See</a>” and the podcast series “<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/mamie-till-mobleys-life-advocacy-son-emmetts-murder/story?id=85107166">Reclaimed</a>,” all of which were released in 2022 and explore the legacies of Emmett Till and his mother. </p>
<p>But those who presume that projects like these are pointless or redundant have likely never contemplated the wishes – nor followed the career – of Mamie Till-Mobley. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for ‘Till.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A keeper of history</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://wrd.as.uky.edu/users/bmer226">scholar of writing, rhetoric and digital studies</a> who <a href="https://twitter.com/brandonerbyphd/status/1453422481734356996?s=61&t=77zUF_pGgDdMExpj9sN2fg">teaches courses about the Emmett Till case</a> and writes about <a href="https://www.emmetttillproject.com/brandon-erby">Mamie Till-Mobley’s activism and legacy</a>, I believe that she wanted as many people as possible to know her son’s tragic story and <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/emmett-till-movie-will-be-necessary-viewing-country-running-its-n1297662">learn from his death</a>. </p>
<p>When Till-Mobley <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/emmett-tills-open-casket-funeral-reignited-the-civil-rights-movement-180956483/">famously decided to exhibit Till’s corpse</a> by holding an open-casket funeral, she did so not only to expose racial hatred in the U.S. but also to persuade and empower Americans to do something about it. </p>
<p>Although her response to Till’s death should not solely define her role as a civil rights icon, it did play a major part in motivating her to become a teacher. </p>
<p>A critical component of <a href="https://emmetttilllegacyfoundation.com/">Till-Mobley’s legacy</a> is how she produced and circulated information about her son’s life and death, inside and outside the classroom.</p>
<p>As the poet and literary scholar <a href="https://mellon.org/news-blog/articles/let-people-see-what-they-did-my-boy-commemorating-emmett-till-future-generations/">Elizabeth Alexander notes</a>, Mamie Till-Mobley was both “a history maker and history keeper.” She welcomed occasions to speak about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26878003.2021.1881308">how she raised her son</a>, correct misconceptions about his character and preserve his memory to advance her educational goals. </p>
<h2>Bringing Till to the classroom</h2>
<p>Till-Mobley’s activism didn’t end with her son’s funeral.</p>
<p>In the fall of 1955, Till-Mobley partnered with the NAACP, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/the-civil-rights-era.html">becoming the headline speaker</a> for several political rallies across the U.S. </p>
<p>She spread the word about her son’s appalling murder and explained her rationale to inspect and display his body. She also detailed her encounters in Jim Crow Mississippi during the murder trial and situated her son’s story within a larger struggle for racial equality. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Till-Mobley wanted ‘to let the world see what is happening in the United States of America.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>She ultimately determined that she could have an even greater impact in the classroom, where she could teach generations of young people.</p>
<p>Till-Mobley entered Chicago Teachers College in 1956 and graduated with honors in 1960. As a student, she devised ways to commemorate her son in various assignments in an era when Black educators in Mississippi <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469627809/a-chance-for-change/">were being fired for discussing the Till case</a> in their classrooms. For instance, when she had to compose and narrate a eulogy for an assignment in a speech course, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178832/death-of-innocence-by-mamie-till-mobley-and-christopher-benson/">she chose to eulogize her son</a>.</p>
<p>Once Till-Mobley became a public school teacher on <a href="https://interactive.wttw.com/dusable-to-obama/bronzeville">the South Side of Chicago</a>, she encouraged her students to achieve their goals by becoming astute historians and critical thinkers. She sought to use Black history in creative ways.</p>
<p>For example, when Till-Mobley founded a youth drama troupe in 1973, she named it the “<a href="https://twitter.com/brandonerbyphd/status/1463179155726549000?s=61&t=8n8pIsvO0H-zjJvk4_FZpA">Emmett Till Players</a>.” The players were tasked with <a href="https://youtu.be/3nHbfLF9Ts0">memorizing and reciting speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.</a>, and they <a href="https://youtu.be/nTbNZG5WVz4">performed in churches and other community venues across the nation</a>.</p>
<p>For nearly five decades, Till-Mobley fashioned opportunities for her students and others to learn about her son and understand his importance to U.S. history and culture. </p>
<p>As former student <a href="https://medium.com/s/story/for-emmett-till-on-the-anniversary-of-his-murder-c0eecccc382a">Cynthia Dagnal-Myron recalled</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Mamie Till Mobley lost a son to hatred, but inspired hundreds of children to strive for excellence. In fact, she demanded that we do so. … She taught us we could do anything. … I went on to become all the things I’d dreamt, largely because of that remarkable woman. She invited me to dream as big as I wanted. To do all the things she’d hoped her son might do someday.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>“The thing that has come out of Emmett’s death,” <a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813145365/in-remembrance-of-emmett-till/">Till-Mobley once declared</a>, “is to push education to the limit. I mean learn all you can learn.”</p>
<h2>Taking the baton from Till-Mobley</h2>
<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/map-anti-critical-race-theory-efforts-reached/story?id=83619715">Recent calls</a> to prohibit the study of race and racism in public schools under the guise of “critical race theory” <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/map-where-critical-race-theory-is-under-attack/2021/06">bans</a> probably would have dismayed Till-Mobley, <a href="https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/cold-war-beginnings/mamie-till-mobley/">who died in 2003</a>.</p>
<p>It’s more reason to remember her bravery and her insistence that Till’s story be used <a href="https://www.thetillinstitute.org">to educate</a>, even when some consider it controversial to do so. </p>
<p>“She was a teacher, and she thought methodically and scientifically,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-01-07-0301070060-story.html">proclaimed after Till-Mobley’s death</a>. “She had a sharp mind and a compassionate heart. And she really sensed the place of her son in American history and her responsibility to keep that legacy alive.”</p>
<p>“Till” is the latest example of Mamie Till-Mobley’s call to action being realized – and the film fulfills her mandate that Americans never forget what happened to her boy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandon M. Erby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>She eventually decided to become a public school teacher so she could influence a new generation of Americans.Brandon M. Erby, Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, University of KentuckyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1846822022-07-25T16:03:40Z2022-07-25T16:03:40ZHow COVID-19 lockdown measures — and their outcomes — varied in cities around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472884/original/file-20220706-21-970rb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C5375%2C3607&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Toronto, lockdown measures asked residents to remain at home.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese cities have repeatedly imposed lockdowns following their <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202205/1266838.shtml">central government’s stubborn pursuit of Zero-COVID</a>. But lockdowns weren’t limited to authoritarian regimes such as China. Many democracies also imposed some form of lockdowns to curb the virus transmission. </p>
<p>How effective were they? Was it worth it? And who was the most adversely affected? </p>
<p>These are meaningful questions to reflect on, especially as drastic COVID-19 measures <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/01/covid-pandemic-end-vaccinated-countries-disease">have been lifted as the severity</a> of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00396-2">virus’s impact has waned</a>.</p>
<p>We’ve been studying the disparate responses to COVID-19 undertaken by three major cities: <a href="https://euc.yorku.ca/research-project/the-city-after-covid-19-comparing-vulnerability-and-urban-governance-in-chicago-toronto-and-johannesburg/">Johannesburg, Toronto and Chicago</a>.</p>
<p>We examined the nature and impact of public health measures on various populations in these cities. We found “lockdown” to be an imprecise description for the range of restrictions put in place. Lockdown meant different things in different places, but regardless of the context, they disproportionately afflicted those who are and the disadvantaged.</p>
<h2>Johannesburg: Traumatic impact</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.gcro.ac.za/outputs/occasional-papers/detail/johannesburg-and-its-epidemics-can-we-learn-from-history/">South Africa’s hard lockdown in 2020</a> — lasting from March 27 to April 30 — was modelled on Wuhan’s. Strictly enforced by the announcement of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safricas-covid-state-disaster-end-midnight-president-ramaphosa-2022-04-04/">a National State of Disaster, which gave government extraordinary powers</a>, it banned all outdoor activities except for essential services. It was a blunt instrument applied uniformly across the country, although patterns of infection varied widely by region and locality. </p>
<p>The lockdown had a devastating impact on the economy, people’s livelihoods and <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15273">food security</a>. On May 1, 2020, South Africa introduced a <a href="https://sacoronavirus.co.za/covid-19-risk-adjusted-strategy/">five-level risk-adjusted strategy</a>. The response remained national in scope, with the <a href="https://www.gtac.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/SA-COVID-19-Report_Final_Online.pdf">National Coronavirus Command Council</a> issuing directives to the provincial governments, which manage health care, and local governments, which provide services in distressed communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two armed soldiers patrolling a dusty street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473029/original/file-20220707-18-f598gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Soldiers patrol the streets of Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, during a lockdown instated to combat the spread of the coronavirus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The lockdown may have delayed the first wave by a month or so, but its <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-03-28-its-such-a-botch-sas-vaccine-delays-and-covid-lockdown-proved-deadly-prof-alex-van-den-heever/">economic impact was more traumatic</a> than the impact of the illness. This was especially so for those who did not have the option of <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2.-Benhura-M.-_-Magejo-P.-2021-Who-cannot-work-from-home-in-South-Africa_-Evidence-from-wave-4-of-NIDSCRAM..pdf">home-based work</a>. There was a <a href="https://citylockdowndiaries.wordpress.com/publications/">difference between how the lockdown was experienced</a> by, for example, households in informal settlements and middle-class households in the suburbs. </p>
<p>Social disparity in South Africa, one of the world’s most unequal societies, increased throughout the pandemic. There was a shadow pandemic of violence against women, with South African police reporting a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-01146-w">37 per cent increase in gender-based crime</a>. Children in poor communities <a href="https://resep.sun.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Van-der-Berg-Spaull-2020-Counting-the-Cost-COVID-19-Children-and-Schooling-15-June-2020-1.pdf">lost more than a year of schooling</a>, while those from affluent communities moved online. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lockdown-didnt-work-in-south-africa-why-it-shouldnt-happen-again-147682">Lockdown didn't work in South Africa: why it shouldn't happen again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Toronto: Swift and decisive</h2>
<p>Toronto’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07078552.2022.2047483">early response to COVID-19</a> was swift and decisive, but not as restrictive as in Johannesburg. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac022">Subject mostly to provincial oversight in public health management</a>, the city <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/11/timeline-a-year-of-pandemic-life/">closed schools and restaurants, cancelled professional sporting events and restricted most public life</a>, leaving intact only emergency and essential services. </p>
<p>Throughout subsequent waves of surges, Toronto oscillated between opening up and shutting down. This gave the city a reputation of imposing lockdowns that were <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57079577">longer and stricter than most</a>.</p>
<p>The lockdown had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac022">uneven impacts across Toronto</a>. There were <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/news/researchers-probe-covid-19-s-uneven-impact-racialized-and-immigrant-communities-peel-region">significant differences</a> between rich and poor, office and essential workers, households saddled with caregiving responsibilities and those without. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17579759211038258">Community responses</a> varied across the region as the <a href="https://blackhealthalliance.ca/wp-content/uploads/Perspectives-on-Health-Well-Being-in-Black-Communities-in-Toronto-Experiences-through-COVID-19.pdf">impact of the pandemic intensified</a> in <a href="https://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Impact-of-COVID-19-on-Mental-Health-and-Well-being-A-Focus-on-Racialized-Communities-in-the-GTA.pdf">health and economic terms</a>.</p>
<p>There was a visible <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-the-pandemic-is-highlighting-canadas-class-divide/">class divide</a> in Canada’s urban communities. <a href="https://www.vawlearningnetwork.ca/docs/Systemic-Racism-Covid-19-Backgrounder.pdf">Racialized and lower-income people</a> experienced the lockdown measures as an additional, often existential, burden, while residents in higher-income households experienced temporary inconvenience.</p>
<p>Eventually, restrictive measures were enacted across all three levels of government. These restrictions contributed to the so-called “freedom convoy,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/20/canadian-police-ottawa-truckers-protest">which occupied parts of Ottawa in protest in 2022</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-vax-protest-or-insurrection-making-sense-of-the-freedom-convoy-protest-176524">Anti-vax protest or insurrection? Making sense of the 'freedom convoy' protest</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Chicago: Softer measures</h2>
<p>Comparatively, Chicago had a soft lockdown. The city issued a stay-at-home order from March 20 to April 30, 2020, but exempted many essential activities, including exercising outdoors and shopping for groceries. It closed restaurants, offices and public schools, <a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/crains-content-studio/lessons-learned-private-schools-adopt-best-practices-stay-open-during">but many resource-rich private schools remained open and offered in-person instruction</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two people stand behind a podium, in the background a graph titled FLATTEN THE CURVE" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473034/original/file-20220707-24-ngb99k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a shelter-in-place order to combat the spread of COVID-19 on March 20, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The stay-at-home order had a devastating impact on the economy (especially the service sector) and on <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/869074151/chicago-tackles-covid-19-disparities-in-hard-hit-black-and-latino-neighborhoods">Black and Latino neighbourhoods</a>, where many residents who worked in essential services lived. For higher-income households, the stay-at-home order brought some inconvenience, but many also enjoyed the benefit of working from home — a trend that continued even after the city lifted all restrictions in 2022.</p>
<h2>Weighing the pros and cons</h2>
<p>Our preliminary research suggests that the experience of COVID-19 should at least give authorities pause before introducing lockdowns as a blanket strategy. We accept that they were generally intended to “flatten the curve,” providing time to prepare for the anticipated waves of infection. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 lockdowns were understandable as a public health measure in a time of insecurity and ignorance of the emerging disease threat. But we now know that they most deeply affected the poor and other vulnerable groups, worsening social inequalities. They were often a blunt measures, relying on quickly dated information on virus transmission and implemented at geographic scales that didn’t account for how the disease spread. </p>
<p>The negative impacts of hard lockdowns may have exceeded their benefits. They intensified social conflict, eroded democratic practice and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07078552.2021.2000210">undermined trust in politics and governance</a> at a time when they were most needed. </p>
<p>Lockdowns should be a measure of last resort but, if they are unavoidable in future pandemics, governments must consider more targeted approaches, put in place a support system to cushion the impact on vulnerable citizens and keep democratic ground rules in place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Keil receives funding from the Urban Studies Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Harrison receives funding from the Urban Studies Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xuefei Ren receives funding from the Urban Studies Foundation. </span></em></p>Examining how COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were implemented in Toronto, Johannesburg and Chicago reveals the impact they had on vulnerable communities.Roger Keil, Professor, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, CanadaPhilip Harrison, Professor School of Architecture and Planning, University of the WitwatersrandXuefei Ren, Professor, Sociology and Global Urban Studies, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1771362022-04-29T12:18:24Z2022-04-29T12:18:24ZI’m a Black sociologist, and a mom – by listening to other Black mothers, I’ve learned about their pandemic struggles and strengths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459562/original/file-20220425-24059-4ezr5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=221%2C8%2C5086%2C3587&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When schools shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19, moms took on the burden of supporting students at home.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PicturesoftheWeekPhotoGallery-NorthAmerica/91f236f0ee234a3cbe723889ef6bb1e3/photo?boardId=d7f2514f50804466b15dfb81ed00d9cd&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=61&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I spent the 2020 spring break week setting up to teach my college courses online while helping to care for my 14-month-old grandchild, whose daycare had closed. At the same time, I couldn’t help thinking, <a href="https://saph.umbc.edu/ftfaculty/person/qd36810/">being the sociologist I am</a>, of the devastating consequences of COVID-19 I saw for women like me, Black mothers, whom I have studied for over a decade.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570902966056">Social science research</a> <a href="https://www.whysocialscience.com/blog/2017/6/20/because-social-science-drives-smart-investments-in-public-safety">can influence policy</a>. Sharing Black mothers’ stories in their own voices may ultimately lead to more compassionate policies. My work is part of a small body of descriptive research, mostly by researchers of color, countering negativity and victim-blaming in earlier studies of Black families.</p>
<p>My research partner, sociologist <a href="https://www.neiu.edu/faculty/barbara-scott">BarBara Scott</a>, lives in Chicago, where I grew up. In our studies of Black mothers there, we’ve explored <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=mrM-LJsAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=mrM-LJsAAAAJ:w1MjKQ0l0TYC">parenting in violent communities</a> and living with <a href="https://doi.org/10.29011/2688-7460.100048">inadequate health care</a>. In 2019, before COVID-19 hit, we were preparing to study parenting practices.</p>
<p>But when lab conditions change, scientists need to reorganize their work. I am a social scientist and society is my lab, where the pandemic dramatically altered the conditions of my research. </p>
<p>We adjusted, preparing to interview remotely instead of in person. We added new questions to investigate, like: How were Black mothers coping with pandemic conditions? How did the murder of George Floyd and the resulting protests affect them? Our research would now include the pandemic and the country’s racial upheaval, highly unusual factors complicating Black mothers’ already challenging lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="masked Black woman hugs masked elementary school girl" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460413/original/file-20220428-9919-b9c38b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parenting didn’t stop when the pandemic started.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mothers-with-children-back-to-school-during-covid-royalty-free-image/1278438579">kali9/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Researching with rapport</h2>
<p>The first challenge was finding participants. We put up fliers in and around schools, churches, the YWCA and other places Black moms go when not at work. Even in the best of times, though, they face practical barriers to joining a research project. Child care responsibilities might be theirs alone. Taking time off from work means their paychecks take a hit not nearly covered by the $25 gift cards we offered. </p>
<p>But they called. Some just wanted to sign up after looking me up on their phones. Others, who may have known that the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/institutional-review-boards-irbs-and-protection-human-subjects-clinical-trials">federal government oversees</a> studies involving people, asked why I was studying them and what I would do with their information. I knew that if any of the women thought talking with me might bring embarrassment or other trouble, they might be less forthcoming or decide not to participate. My findings would be much less credible.</p>
<p>I assured the moms that I would keep their responses confidential and that they had a right to leave the study whenever they wanted to.</p>
<p>None of them did. We signed up enough moms for two focus groups of five to seven participants each. I ran group meetings and conducted 12 one-on-one interviews via video conferencing. </p>
<p>To start our 60- to 90-minute sessions, I introduced myself and got the mothers talking with an ice breaker question like, “What is the farthest place from your current neighborhood that you’ve been?” </p>
<p>I also tell them that I have a Black mom, and that I am one. And then, because my skin tone is fair, I mention that I have an Italian father. I didn’t want to be mistaken for white; the moms might feel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F004912418000800403">less comfortable discussing certain topics with me</a>. But after realizing that I’m Black too, a few of them said things like, “I knew there was something about you!”</p>
<p>I share my belief in centering – and that’s the word I use – Black mothers’ lived experiences and exploring their parenting from a strength perspective. That’s when I got a lot of smiling and nodding.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black woman wearing a mask marked #StayHome" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459563/original/file-20220425-26-57or0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many Black mothers were front-line workers who couldn’t heed the message on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s mask in the early days of the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChicagoMayor/bef1b02bd98146d58fe3dcf8fb1a089b/photo?boardId=d7f2514f50804466b15dfb81ed00d9cd&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=61&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No time for racism</h2>
<p>Black mothers don’t need a pandemic to face impossible choices. But it took a pandemic for others to see that. As nearly everyone else <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2020/march/StayAtHomeOrder.html">stayed home</a> to stop the spread of COVID-19, it became obvious that Black women were more likely <a href="https://www.niussp.org/education-work-economy/frontline-workers-in-the-u-s-race-ethnicity/">than any one else</a> to be <a href="https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2020/article/essential-work.htm">essential workers</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s11369-021-00230-7">front-line jobs</a>. And despite risking COVID-19 infection to keep their jobs, Black workers were more likely to <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/07/how-pandemic-affected-black-and-white-households.html">lose them anyway</a> during the pandemic.</p>
<p>I asked the mothers about the pandemic’s effect on their lives. They talked about the trickiness of trying to isolate or distance in small or crowded homes. They hated being unable to get masks and hand sanitizer when stores closed during the George Floyd protests, which none of them attended.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people including some holding signs and some shouting, face police officers on bicycles at a large protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458971/original/file-20220420-20-vcz8q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">None of the Black moms in the study went to the protests George Floyd’s death spurred in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-and-chicago-police-clash-during-protests-news-photo">Natasha Moustache/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I asked why they didn’t go, given their stated frustrations with racism affecting their lives. Some didn’t want to risk getting sick. But most of these Black mothers told me they don’t dwell on racism, saying things like, “Yeah, racism is bad, but I got things to do.” </p>
<p>And so they did those things. While at work, they sent their kids text reminders to go to remote school if it was available, or if it was not, to study. The moms came home from long shifts and helped with homework, worrying about their kids falling behind academically. The mothers worried about getting COVID-19 and losing custody of kids if they became too sick to parent well.</p>
<h2>Keeping the conversation flowing</h2>
<p>The qualitative research I do is about words and meanings, not just numbers and statistics. It allows me to explore the lives of Black moms in depth.</p>
<p>In my interviews, I don’t ask closed-ended questions – the kind where the answer is simply yes or no, true or false, or limited to a set of multiple-choice answers. For example, if a participant can only respond to the question, “How safe is your community?” with the options “very safe,” “somewhat safe,” or “not safe,” that’s a closed-ended question. </p>
<p>In qualitative research, however, questions are often open-ended. Participants decide what a question means to them, then answer in any way they choose. I’ve been asking the Black mothers questions like: “How do you feel about Chicago as a place to live and raise your children? How do you feel about working and raising your children during the COVID-19 pandemic?” </p>
<p>Reading the transcribed interviews later, I look for general thoughts, or themes, in the mothers’ collective responses. For example, when I asked about violence, the overall sentiment was that it was around, but avoidable. One participant told me, “You have to know where [to go] and where not to go, when to go and when not to go.” And she called Chicago “a great place,” with “great opportunities” for anyone who wanted to be there. </p>
<p>This response was common: The moms know that Chicago can be violent, but many focus on the positive aspects of the city. My theory is that this is their conscious or unconscious way of explaining why they stay in a violent community. That question has come often enough – usually from those with far more options – to hang over the heads of these Black moms, even if no one asks them directly.</p>
<p>A related sentiment the moms had was that moving away is pointless since violence “is everywhere.” They may simply want to stay close to the generations of family and community ties they have. But it’s also true that moving isn’t affordable for many of these mothers. </p>
<p>Identifying these themes helps me present a picture of Black mothers’ lives as a corrective to the earlier research. Documenting their experiences as the center of my research gives them a voice and validates their lives as worthy of exploration.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Loren Henderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the world locked down and a country’s racial reckoning heated up, this social scientist refined her approach to studying the lives of Black moms.Loren Henderson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1745172022-01-07T13:29:51Z2022-01-07T13:29:51ZSchool closure debates put teachers unions front and center<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439748/original/file-20220106-21-y2pwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C2991%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Schools in Chicago have suffered days of disruption.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sign-on-the-fence-outside-of-lowell-elementary-school-asks-news-photo/1362924321?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Classes in Chicago were <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-public-schools-covid-teachers-union-20220106-7fttwx7zbzb2hfvsaefg2nxn7m-story.html">canceled for a third day</a> on Jan. 7, 2022, amid a bitter standoff between the teachers union and public school leaders over in-person instruction during a spike in COVID-19 infections.</em></p>
<p><em>The dispute echoes those that <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/new-york-city-teachers-union-threatens-strike-over-school-reopenings/2020/08">occurred earlier in the pandemic</a> when some of the nation’s biggest school districts battled unions over school reopening plans and safety precautions in classrooms.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked Katharine Strunk, a <a href="https://education.msu.edu/people/strunk-katharine-o/">professor of education policy at Michigan State University</a>, to help explain the union’s concerns about in-person lessons and what power teachers unions have to force a district to go remote.</em></p>
<h2>1. Why do some teachers unions want to go remote?</h2>
<p>Teachers unions, such as the Chicago Teachers Union, are saying that given the spike in COVID-19 infections, schools represent an <a href="https://www.ctulocal1.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Resolution-re-Remote-Work-Action.pdf">unsafe work environment for their members</a> and the students they teach. The omicron variant is <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/12/31/1067702355/omicron-is-spreading-like-wildfire-scientists-are-trying-to-figure-out-why">very contagious</a> and although symptoms <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-sees-more-evidence-that-omicron-affects-upper-respiratory-tract-2022-01-04/">appear to be milder</a> than earlier variants, the sheer number of people getting infected will lead to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/health/omicron-variant-mild-alarming/index.html">more illnesses, deaths and stress</a> on on the health care system.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2022/01/04/thousands-of-teachers-students-absent-as-omicron-ravages-florida-1403882">Across</a> <a href="https://ktla.com/news/california/schools-across-california-fight-to-stay-open-amid-omicron-surge/">the U.S.</a>, districts have been hit by staff shortages during the omicron wave as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/boston-teachers-call-sick-omicron-surge">more teachers call out sick</a>, and that has led to disruption of classes. </p>
<p>The experience of teachers during the pandemic has shown that teaching a hybrid model, in which some students attend class in person while others learn remotely, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2021/12/29/teachers-districts-hybrid-education-526214">makes their job far harder</a>. It is, for example, much harder to teach some students to read in person while also helping students who are having difficulties learning via Zoom. It also increases the workload, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2021/12/29/teachers-districts-hybrid-education-526214">teachers have reported</a>, because they are expected to prepare in-person instruction and then record the lesson and include web-friendly resources for a second set of home-bound students. </p>
<p>Having <a href="https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/01/03/covid-surge-has-hundreds-of-south-florida-teachers-calling-out-sick/">so many</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/01/03/students-return-from-break-to-find-teachers-out-over-covid/">teachers out sick</a> puts added pressure on the public school system. On top of that, districts are having problems finding substitute teachers. For instance, in an October 2021 survey, <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/how-bad-are-school-staffing-shortages-what-we-learned-by-asking-administrators/2021/10">3 out of 4 school leaders said</a> there were not enough substitute teachers to cover absences.</p>
<p>In Chicago, the union is saying that the district’s current COVID-19 testing policy does <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070700649/chicagos-mayor-has-called-off-school-as-teachers-demand-more-covid-19-testing">not make schools safe enough</a>. The union wants initial testing before students return to classrooms and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070700649/chicagos-mayor-has-called-off-school-as-teachers-demand-more-covid-19-testing">more regular testing for all students</a>. Unions are asking for clear guidance on when classes should be in-person or remote.</p>
<h2>2. What are the arguments for in-person lessons now?</h2>
<p>Those in favor of in-person learning generally accept that there is a trade-off. There are risks associated with in-person instruction during a pandemic. You can’t go into a school building and hang COVID-19 on coat rack and then forget about it. It will spread.</p>
<p>But research shows that spread in schools and to the larger community from schools has been pretty low. In early 2021, my colleagues and I <a href="https://epicedpolicy.org/does-in-person-schooling-contribute-to-the-spread-of-covid-19/">published a study</a> looking at how in-person instruction affected COVID-19 case rates in Michigan and Washington state. We concluded that hybrid or fully in-person instruction was not significantly contributing to the spread of the virus in areas with low or modest case rates, although it was spreading in areas that already had high amounts of COVID-19 in the community.</p>
<p>But most of the research available is pre-omicron. We simply don’t have good data yet from the latest variant’s wave. The data were also gathered before vaccinations were widely available, and about <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid19-vaccine/home/vaccination-data-at-a-glance.html">75% of all adult Chicagoans</a> and <a href="https://www.cps.edu/services-and-supports/covid-19-resources/covid-19-readiness-data/">91% of Chicago Public School teachers</a> are now fully vaccinated. It is unclear what would happen now in schools – if students and teachers would get COVID-19 and how dangerous it would be.</p>
<p>And there are major costs to going remote. Not least, the academic impact on children. I have seen this in my research in <a href="https://epicedpolicy.org/michigans-2020-21-benchmark-assessments/">Michigan</a>: Students had less opportunity to learn when they were remote. This is especially true when it comes to traditionally disadvantaged students, such as those with disabilities or students from lower-income communities.</p>
<p>There is also <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6945a3.htm?s_cid=mm6945a3_w">evidence of a mental health impact</a> on students when schools go remote. Kids need structure, the support of peers and teachers, as well as the support structure that school provides, such as breakfasts and lunches and a safe environment to learn.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, parents need to work – and that can be hard when kids are at home, especially for low-income families that may have less-than-ideal learning spaces and inadequate access to the internet.</p>
<p>This leads to an economic impact, and not just for parents. Researchers from the University of Washington, Harvard University and the nonprofit NWEA <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-pandemic-learning-loss-could-cost-u-s-students-2-trillion-in-lifetime-earnings-what-states-schools-can-do-to-avert-this-crisis/">recently estimated</a> that interrupted learning during the pandemic equates to a US$2 trillion hit on earnings over their lifetime for American students. This won’t just affect parents and kids – the larger economy will suffer, as well.</p>
<h2>3. How much power do teachers unions have over a district’s pandemic plan?</h2>
<p>The vast majority of states leave decisions on whether to have in-person or remote learning to individual school districts. This gives teachers unions quite a bit of power.</p>
<p>Unions bargain with districts at a local level. And in places like New York City and Chicago, unions have a lot of sway – you can’t run a school without teachers, so the threat of a strike or a sick-out carries a lot of weight.</p>
<p>My colleagues from Michigan State University and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211048840">published a study in September 2021</a> showing that initial school reopening plans during the pandemic were tied to local politics. Republican-leaning districts tended to favor reopening and in-person learning more than Democratic-leaning ones. When you control for this partisanship, union strength – as measured by the strength of their negotiated collective bargaining agreements – was also found to be a major factor. Districts with stronger unions were more likely to go remote.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, pandemic plans introduced by school districts often broke with collective bargaining agreements – leading to renegotiations with unions that led to changes in pay, non-teaching duties and teacher workload. Research released in January 2021 found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00326">a quarter of urban school districts</a> had to return to the bargaining table with their teachers unions as a result of districts’ pandemic plans.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine O. Strunk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A dispute between the Chicago Teachers Union and the school district over in-person learning has resulted in classes being canceled. An education policy expert explains what is at stake.Katharine O. Strunk, Professor of Education Policy and Economics, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701722021-11-12T13:35:31Z2021-11-12T13:35:31ZChief Keef changed the music industry – and it’s time he gets the credit he deserves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431127/original/file-20211109-21-5daqkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=309%2C0%2C2685%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It’s been 10 years since Chief Keef became an internet famous rapper with the song 'Bang.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chief-keef-performs-at-irving-plaza-on-october-30-2018-in-news-photo/1055746054?adppopup=true">Johnny Nunez/WireImage via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before he was arrested in December 2011, Chief Keef was a 16-year-old budding rap star. He’d released a song, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEoDSTBY_Y4">Bang</a>,” which had more than 400,000 views on YouTube, along with a mixtape that he’d recorded in a friend’s bedroom. He also had a dedicated Twitter following among Chicago high school students. </p>
<p>The track displayed a rawness unlike anything else that was released at the time, and you couldn’t stroll down the streets of Chicago’s South Side without hearing Bang’s lyrics pulsing from the stereos of cars rolling by:</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> Choppers gettin' let off
Now, they don't want no war
30 clips and them .45's, gotta go back to the sto'
And that Kush gettin' smoked, gotta go back to the sto'
Cock back 'cause there's trouble, my mans gon' blow
</code></pre>
<p>Yet he was almost completely unknown outside of Chicago. His Facebook profile had less than 2,000 followers, he claimed his occupation was “smokin’ dope” and he still lived with his grandmother. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the verses written and hastily disseminated on social media by Chief Keef and his peers were fast becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/rap-musics-path-from-pariah-to-pulitzer-95283">a unique sort of news ticker</a> for low-income communities of color in Chicago, detailing the turf wars, rivalries and hassles of everyday life as a Black kid growing up in the city.</p>
<p>The songs became known as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210607-the-controversial-music-that-is-the-sound-of-global-youth">drill music</a>, a genre characterized by its dark synths, booming 808 drums, seemingly off-beat, mumbled verses and war-cry choral chants. Its vanguards – artists like Chief Keef, King Louie, G Herbo and Lil Durk – emerged as local heroes by staying tethered to the blocks and neighborhoods they rapped about on SoundCloud and YouTube. Eventually, the national press caught on. The coverage was often less than flattering.</p>
<p>At the time, I was entrenched in my own hip-hop music career, rapping under the moniker Naledge in the duo <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1045164/kidz-in-the-hall-hope-to-move-the-crowd">Kidz in the Hall</a>. As I was touring the country, I noticed that everyone from back home in Chicago was asking me if I’d heard of this kid Keef who was from Washington Park. </p>
<p>I knew that if a 16-year-old kid had the city buzzing, it would only be a matter of time before he was famous. What I didn’t know is that five years later, the drill subculture would be the subject of my field work <a href="https://chicagoreader.com/music/naledge-brings-his-rappers-brain-back-to-academia/">as a doctoral student at Northwestern</a> and that it would inspire me to write about the ways in which the city’s Black youth dealt with cultural, racial, economic and political oppression through inventive <a href="https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/11910">media production</a>.</p>
<p>I started to argue, to anyone that would listen, that drill music was more than shock value or a new spin on gangsta rap. The scene planted the seeds for hip-hop’s ascendancy in music’s digital economy.</p>
<h2>Drill goes viral</h2>
<p>When Chief Keef’s house arrest ended, on Jan. 2, 2012, WorldStarHipHop <a href="https://worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhfL989vmcpWdpq7CE">posted a video</a> of a young child in a hysterical fit of excitement, bounding around a room and rapping along to “Bang.” </p>
<p>The video of the boy went viral in the hip-hop community, and curious viewers furiously searched YouTube for more Chief Keef content.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy yelling into camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431594/original/file-20211111-25-6j75kr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A video of one of Chief Keef’s young fans celebrating his release from prison went viral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhfL989vmcpWdpq7CE">WorldStarHipHop</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later that year, Chief Keef cemented his national reputation with the commercial success of his song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WcRXJ4piHg">I Don’t Like</a>.” As the lead single for Chief Keef’s debut album, “Finally Rich,” “I Don’t Like” <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chief-keef/chart-history/RPT/song/759040">charted on the Billboard Hot 100</a>, accumulated tens of millions of listens online and helped drill break into the nation’s musical mainstream. </p>
<p>Within months of the song’s release, drill was seemingly everywhere. Hip-hop icons like <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/1709056/kanye-west-yeezus-track-king-louie/">Kanye West</a> and <a href="https://audibletreats.com/600breezy_pr7/">Drake</a> began co-signing drill rappers, while record labels instigated bidding wars over the South Side of Chicago’s budding rap talent.</p>
<p>At the time, drill music was still one of the only music scenes to exist almost exclusively on YouTube and free streaming sites like SoundCloud and DatPiff.com – a form of DIY distribution that circumvented the traditional gatekeepers of the rap music industry. Songs were churned out via singles, curated playlists, snippets and low-budget music videos that could be edited and released instantly by artists direct to their audiences via social media.</p>
<p>The most popular YouTube videos for drill songs were often shot <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyHZNBz6FE">in low-income apartments</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hxN7HXsSGk">on street corners</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu8PtiN0Ce8">with the local crews standing behind the artist performing</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_edyRETJWdw">pointing weapons at the camera</a> and rapping about the recent events of ongoing street wars. </p>
<p>Initially, many journalists and researchers focused almost exclusively on how youth in the drill scene used their songs to perform “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.035">internet banging</a>,” or threatening rival gang members and planning crimes over social media. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SR1vGzEiv90?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">FBG Duck’s music video for ‘Exposing Me’ featuring Rooga directed threats at the O-Block street gang.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Media outlets like the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, <a href="https://youtu.be/TybFtK6VTVo">Noisey</a>, <a href="https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/211-chicago-rap-documentary-the-field-investigates-the-origins-of-drill/">Pitchfork</a>, <a href="https://www.spin.com/2012/06/chicago-rap-blazes-streets/">Spin</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/arts/music/chicago-hip-hops-raw-burst-of-change.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">The New York Times</a> and WorldStar Hip Hop extensively covered the rise of Chief Keef and the drill scene, pointing to <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/09/gangs-of-social-media/">the violence inspired by the lyrics and the gang affiliations of the artists</a> as the source of their viral appeal.</p>
<p>Police not only <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-lori-lightfoot-public-safety-plan-news-conference-20200814-uw36wzrezjeu7h4wjjccbvvupy-story.html">started monitoring</a> the social media accounts of drill rappers, but also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/arts/music/hologram-performance-by-chief-keef-is-shut-down-by-police.html">effectively banned Chief Keef from performing in his hometown</a> by encouraging venues not to book drill rappers and telling promoters that they’d shut down drill shows.</p>
<p>The drill scene did incite violence. For example, in August 2020, drill rapper FBG Duck was murdered in the upscale Gold Coast neighborhood a year-and-a-half after threatening the O-Block street gang <a href="https://youtu.be/SR1vGzEiv90">in a music video</a>. In October 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s office for Northern Illinois indicted five members of the O-Block street gang for the murder, pointing out that the gang has “publicly claimed responsibility for acts of violence in Chicago” and “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/5-alleged-gang-members-charged-murder-chicago-rapper-fbg-duck-n1281536">used social media and music</a> to increase their criminal enterprise.”</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Rethinking the legacy of the drill scene</h2>
<p>Though deaths like FBG Duck’s make headlines, my interviews with those affiliated with artists like Chief Keef have shown me that the gang violence associated with drill is hardly the reason these artists found success. </p>
<p>Instead, they wrote a blueprint for artists in hip-hop’s streaming era. </p>
<p>In the decade since Chief Keef became an “internet famous” rapper with the song “Bang,” a lot has changed in the music industry. <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/ditto-music-lee-parsons-interview-749510/">There’s now no real demarcation</a> between being a famous musician online and one who’s been elevated by the industry’s power brokers. Tekashi 69, Lil Yachty, 21 Savage, Juice WRLD and Lil Uzi Vert are just a few of the artists that built on the swagger, style, aesthetic and internet distribution model pioneered by Chief Keef.</p>
<p>Chief Keef was among the first to broadcast everyday life in Chicago’s gang territories to the world. His “<a href="https://youtu.be/UaJupVcjS4E">stream of consciousness</a>” style – saturating his YouTube channel videos of himself hanging out with his friends, meeting up with female fans, smoking marijuana and recording songs in his home studio – was a window into everyday life that’s been emulated by pretty much every pop star since.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man raps into microphone in front of a few friends." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431595/original/file-20211111-36844-uewflq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chief Keef takes fans into a recording studio he set up in his cousin’s apartment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaJupVcjS4E">DGainz/YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, his willingness to give away music for free also paved the way for the “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/how-raps-soundcloud-generation-changed-the-music-business-forever/">SoundCloud era</a>,” in which artists like Chance the Rapper, Lil Pump and Doja Cat gained huge followings not through record deals, but through releasing tracks on SoundCloud. </p>
<p>Chief Keef’s unique slang and mumbled, melodic rapping style have also sparked drill youth movements in places as far away as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Dxs4nEY84">Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210607-the-controversial-music-that-is-the-sound-of-global-youth">London</a> and <a href="https://www.complex.com/music/2020/10/inside-ghana-asakaa-drill-scene/">Ghana</a>.</p>
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<p>Yes, Chief Keef’s story is out-of-the-ordinary: Getting in a shootout with police at the age of 15 and filming videos while on house arrest aren’t exactly common adolescent experiences. But his ability to present that story to the world and brand his style within a larger movement speaks to his genius. </p>
<p>In my forthcoming book project, I nod to the drill subculture that he spearheaded as reflecting the potential of Chicago’s Black youth. Denied full access to resources that might have helped them overcome their trauma and avoid gang lifestyles, Chief Keef and his peers used social media to persevere and make careers for themselves in music.</p>
<p>A lot that could be gained by not overlooking the creativity and ingenuity of teens and young adults like Chief Keef. He’s a perfect example of the ways in which young Black kids are unintentionally innovating within social media while simply navigating violence and poverty. </p>
<p>What if the violence that accompanied his work were seen as a bug, not a feature? How might his creative output been harnessed to bolster – rather than vilify – the impoverished communities he rapped about?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jabari M. Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The police, the media and politicians have long objected Chief Keef’s ties to gang violence. But the rapper wrote the playbook for using social media to make a career out of music.Jabari M. Evans, Assistant Professor of Race and Media, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603272021-07-27T12:02:24Z2021-07-27T12:02:24ZDomestic violence 911 calls increased during lockdown, but official police reports and arrests declined<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412928/original/file-20210723-19-14dllt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4256%2C2803&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shelter-in-place measures have made it more difficult for victims of domestic violence to escape from their abusers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/silhouette-of-woman-by-window-royalty-free-image/535164224">Elizabeth Livermore/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 stay-at-home orders surely <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00719">saved many lives</a>, but a growing number of studies document that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104241">lockdowns led to more reports of domestic violence</a>. </p>
<p>Even as 911 calls for police help increased, official reports and arrests for domestic crimes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/713787">fell by 6.8% and 26.4%</a>, respectively, in the first two months of lockdown in Chicago.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V7XY764AAAAJ&hl=en">I study the economics of crime and poverty</a>. My colleagues, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wXzyv3oAAAAJ&hl=en">Lindsey Rose Bullinger</a> of Georgia Institute of Technology and <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=_qinZ-sAAAAJ&hl=en">Analisa Packham</a> of Vanderbilt University and the National Bureau of Economic Research, and I found this puzzling. How could 911 calls reporting domestic incidents increase without an accompanying increase in police reports of domestic violence?</p>
<p>Our research suggests that this discrepancy is due to pandemic-related changes in how third-party witnesses, law enforcement and victims respond to domestic violence. These changes, compounded by strained social services, have led to a systemic failure to protect victims of domestic abuse.</p>
<h2>Witnesses are calling more</h2>
<p>Third-party witnesses play an important role in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00720">reporting crime</a>. Even if the same number of crimes occur, changing reporting volumes could artificially inflate or deflate crime rates. For example, child maltreatment allegations in March and April 2020 were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104258">27% lower than expected</a> in Florida because schools, where teachers and staff are <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/educator/">mandatory reporters</a> of child abuse, were closed due to COVID-19. At the same time, reports of child abuse and neglect that did come in were more likely to be <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3674064">confirmed with evidence</a> in areas with greater stay-at-home compliance.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PGdID_ICFII?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Domestic violence is an ongoing pandemic that has been exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A similar trend can be seen with domestic violence reporting. Prior to the pandemic, domestic violence victims were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00156.x">twice as likely</a> to report abuse to police compared to witnesses. Since lockdown, however, third-party reporting has increased while victim reporting decreased. One study found <a href="https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1729">third-party domestic abuse reporting went up</a> by 35% in Greater London. Other studies suggest that victim-reporting declined because victims were spending most of their time <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3688384">at home with their abusers</a>, making it harder for them to call for help. </p>
<p>Third-party reporting rates were also higher for residents of higher-density housing, like apartments and townhouses. In residences where neighbors are nearby, stay-at-home orders increased the number of witnesses in close proximity to domestic disturbances. This is reflected by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/713787">10.3% increase</a> in 911 calls made from areas in Chicago with more renters, compared to the 7.4% call increase for the city overall. Neighbors who would have otherwise been at work, restaurants and gyms were now more likely to be at home and within earshot of abuse behavior.</p>
<h2>Law enforcement are arresting less</h2>
<p>Not all 911 calls related to domestic violence lead to an official crime report. In our domestic violence data, the number of official reports is around one-fourth the number of 911 calls.</p>
<p>Compared to before the pandemic, there was an estimated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/713787">11.2% decline</a> in this ratio of domestic incidence-related crime reports to 911 calls for police service from March to April in Chicago. This meant that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/713787">600 fewer domestic crimes</a> were officially documented by law enforcement than would have been expected over a five-week period. </p>
<p>Changes to how police interact with citizens may explain this decline. In the early days of the pandemic, officers were told to <a href="https://www.npr.org/local/309/2020/03/25/821358187/chicago-police-are-reducing-stops-during-c-o-v-i-d-19-activists-want-even-fewer">limit their contact</a> with residents in nonemergency situations in order to minimize their own exposure to the virus. This may have led to reduced law enforcement response to domestic disturbances deemed less serious by police officers. While officers still responded to all 911 calls related to domestic issues, they may have not pursued official action if the situation had already defused before their arrival.</p>
<p><iframe id="WYgTv" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WYgTv/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Victims are facing new obstacles</h2>
<p>Victims had fewer options for escaping abusive situations during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Fear of COVID-19 exposure may have made victims less likely to file an official domestic violence report. Given that the Chicago Cook County Jail experienced a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00652">COVID-19 outbreak in late March and April</a>, victims may have wanted to avoid getting their partner arrested. Furthermore, because many defendants are <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/aer.20161503">released before they are tried</a> and not all arrestees will face charges, jail stays are often short-term. Individuals cycling in and out of Cook County Jail have been linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00652">accelerating the spread of COVID-19 in Chicago</a>.</p>
<p>The pandemic also put the squeeze on personal and public resources across the board. Not only did women <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.3386/w26947">lose jobs at a higher rate</a> than men during the pandemic, they also make up the <a href="https://icjia.illinois.gov/researchhub/articles/domestic-violence-trends-in-illinois-victimization-characteristics-help-seeking-and-service-utilization">majority of domestic abuse victims</a>. Many shelters had to <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/15/domestic-violence-shelters-losing-beds-for-social-distancing-but-demand-is-spiking/">operate at limited capacity while demand for their services increased</a>. This loss of financial and housing support may have made victims less confident that they could successfully leave an abusive household.</p>
<h2>Better protections are needed for victims</h2>
<p>Our research shows that stay-at-home orders have disrupted traditional abuse-detection processes and support systems in multiple ways. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104350">real increase in domestic violence</a> indicates that this disruption occurred at a particularly damaging time. Better measures need to be put in place in order to protect victims during future outbreaks and keep everyone safe during lockdowns.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jillian B. Carr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A change in how witnesses, victims and authorities respond to domestic violence reports paired with limited social services placed victims in a vulnerable position during the pandemic.Jillian B. Carr, Assistant Professor of Economics, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1318802020-04-22T11:49:01Z2020-04-22T11:49:01ZTo protect people in the Great Lakes region from climate extremes, weatherize their homes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327482/original/file-20200413-155610-1jg5b0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1597%2C1039&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Air conditioning cools city residents during heat waves, but also strains the power grid and fuels climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/8Egug2">Joanna Poe/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This story is part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide <a href="https://pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines-initiative">Connected Coastlines reporting initiative</a>.</em></p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329831/original/file-20200422-47794-lc4g5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Summer temperatures in Chicago normally peak in the low 80s, but in mid-July 1995 they <a href="https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2015/1995-Chicago-heat-wave/">topped 100 F with excessive humidity</a> for three days straight. Emergency rooms were overwhelmed with cases of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, especially in urban, low-income and minority communities. By the time the heat wave receded, more than 700 people had died.</p>
<p>The Chicago heat wave spurred some cities to start providing free air conditioning for at-risk populations. But in <a href="https://resilientbuildings.org/">my lab</a> at the <a href="http://ap.buffalo.edu/">University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning</a>, which focuses on reducing climate change impacts on cities and buildings, we have found that air conditioning and other fossil fuel cooling systems can create long-term risks even as they solve short-term problems. As climate change makes heat waves <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0659-2">more frequent across the region and the nation</a>, cities will need more tools to protect their residents. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324700/original/file-20200401-23121-1lnixno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health workers remove the body of a Chicago resident who died in a major heat wave in July 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Illinois-/34e569a512cf421dbf9aeb6ed4d798a9/2/0">AP Photo/Mike Fisher</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An imperfect solution</h2>
<p>In the years following Chicago’s 1995 extreme heat event, researchers tried to understand what had caused so many excessive illnesses and deaths. Some experts argued that Chicago’s 700 deaths were a symptom of <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo20809880.html">ongoing neglect and isolation</a> of vulnerable residents in American cities. Others took an <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199607113350203">epidemiological approach</a>, focusing on preexisting health conditions and demographic factors such as advanced age.</p>
<p>Many studies agreed that access to air conditioning had helped to protect people from temperature-related illness and death. In response, some municipalities began to provide free air conditioning systems to high-risk populations. This step helped lower-income residents, although many struggled to pay the higher electricity bills associated with keeping a house cool.</p>
<p>But there’s a larger conundrum: Air conditioning cools people during heat waves, but wherever fossil fuels provide electricity, running air conditioners contributes to global warming. Cooling systems also strain the electrical grid, potentially causing brownouts and blackouts during periods of high demand.</p>
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<h2>Great Lakes residents at risk</h2>
<p>In the Great Lakes region, climate change models anticipate that global warming will increase the risk, intensity and duration of temperature extremes. This forecast presents a challenge for cities like Rochester, New York, which typically only experience about 12 days over 90 F in the summer. By the end of the century, <a href="http://ap.buffalo.edu/content/dam/ap/PDFs/NYSERDA/New-York-State-Climate-Hazards-Profile.pdf">over 70 days in summer could be in that temperature range</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, cities including Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo have <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/older-population/Figure%201%20Population%20Aged%2065%20and%20Over.pdf">aging populations</a> and <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019/acs/acsbr18-02.pdf">high rates of poverty</a>. Both of these factors increase vulnerability.</p>
<p>Before the advent of air conditioning, “passive” cooling systems were the norm in building design. Window shades, light-colored materials and coatings, insulation and natural ventilation all reduce temperatures indoors. Recently, researchers have renewed their interest in “<a href="https://www.buildinggreen.com/op-ed/passive-survivability">passive survivability</a>,” or systems that don’t require electricity but still protect people during a brownout or blackout. </p>
<p>Passive systems are easily incorporated by architects into the design of new buildings, but existing houses need retrofits. Since the 1970s, the federally funded <a href="https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/580">Weatherization Assistance Program</a> has provided billions of dollars to help low-income households protect themselves from winter weather and save money by making their homes more energy efficient. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these programs typically do not invest in cooling strategies in cold-climate cities because these measures don’t meet their cost effectiveness tests. This represents a missed opportunity to protect residents from summertime heat waves.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qGOwR2jKDpA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Weatherization Assistance Program is designed to help vulnerable households save money and protect themselves from the elements.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making homes safer through weatherization</h2>
<p>As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, access to safe housing is a critical resource. A national evaluation of the Weatherization Assistance Program indicates that weatherized homes may be <a href="https://weatherization.ornl.gov/wap-retrospective/">better equipped to provide safe, healthy environments</a> in times of need.</p>
<p>For example, programs like the “Warm and Dry” effort from <a href="https://www.pushbuffalo.org/push-green/">People United for Sustainable Housing</a> in Buffalo <a href="https://youtu.be/Zy5DK7hmIYY?t=287">provide basic repairs</a> that can stop the growth of mold indoors. Other weatherization providers give advice on cleaning and maintenance that can reduce the number of asthma attacks.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, due to funding constraints, weatherization programs can’t ensure necessary repairs in every household that qualifies. And taking on simple home repairs can be surprisingly difficult, especially for households with limited financial resources. </p>
<p>For example, opening windows is critical in heat waves, but in many older homes windows may have been painted over several times. In cities like Buffalo, which has one of the oldest housing stocks in the country, cracking a window may require several steps.</p>
<p>Once windows are freed, damaged locks or balancing mechanisms often need to be repaired. Screens should be installed, since open windows can allow insects or other pests into the house. And any lead paint on windows needs to be removed safely. Old windows contain high concentrations of lead-based paints and coatings and can contribute to lead poisoning.</p>
<p>Given the challenge of weatherizing a home, I believe that federal and state governments should begin to examine ways in which weatherization can help prepare our communities to shelter in place in the future from heat waves, extreme precipitation and other forms of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6RkdaEqgRVKi3AzidF4ow">climate weirding</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326683/original/file-20200408-86439-1lisa30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Weatherization is mainly about energy benefits, but can yield other household health and non-energy benefits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/3-health-benefits-weatherizing-your-home">DOE</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A weatherization stimulus</h2>
<p>In 2009 Congress passed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act</a> in response to the ongoing financial crisis. The law authorized a one-time US$5 billion increase in weatherization funding. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/08/f25/WAP_NationalEvaluation_WxWorks_v14_blue_8%205%2015.pdf">Department of Energy analysis</a> shows that this program saved households an average of $3,190, reduced carbon dioxide emissions by over 7.3 million metric tons and created 28,000 jobs. In 2019, the agency reported that every dollar invested in weatherization <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/07/f64/WAP-Fact-Sheet-2019.pdf">returned $1.72 in energy savings and $2.78 in other benefits to the economy.</a></p>
<p>Congress has already passed a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/stimulus-package-details-coronavirus/index.html">$2 trillion federal stimulus package</a> to help the U.S. economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/senate-democrats-pay-workers-coronavirus-171948">more rescue packages are expected</a>, possibly including <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/coronavirus-stimulus-trump-calls-for-2-trillion-infrastructure-plan.html">infrastructure investments</a>. In my view, expanding the Weatherization Assistance Program could put unemployed people back to work, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help our cities prepare for an uncertain climate future. </p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Rajkovich received support from The Kresge Foundation and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for research related to this article.</span></em></p>Climate change is making extreme weather events, both hot and cold, more frequent across the Great Lakes region. Weatherizing low-income residents’ homes is an important way to prepare.Nicholas Rajkovich, Assistant Professor of Architecture, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1257032019-10-31T12:53:40Z2019-10-31T12:53:40ZHow much of a difference does the number of kids in a classroom make?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299335/original/file-20191029-183116-1rop417.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chicago's teachers say they are seeking a better deal for their students too.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Schools-Strike-City-Budget/d5439ebd493b43d29eee99a833636a3b/8/0">AP Photo/Teresa Crawford</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://apnews.com/702bf38168404d30a703eb357a8fb9de">Chicago’s teachers went on strike</a> in October, suspending instruction for the city’s public school students for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/us/chicago-teacher-strike-thursday-makeup-days/index.html">11 days</a>.</p>
<p>Educators in the nation’s third-largest school district were seeking higher pay and improved benefits. But they also wanted to <a href="https://www.npr.org/local/309/2019/10/10/768891230/how-class-size-demands-could-trigger-a-chicago-teachers-strike">reduce the number of classrooms with large numbers of students</a>.</p>
<p>The deal the union representing Chicago’s teachers struck with the city calls for enforcing limits on class size that are in place but not always heeded. It also commits the authorities to spend <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/chicago/2019/10/30/heres-the-full-tentative-agreement-that-chicagos-union-delegates-will-weigh-tonight/">US$35 million a year</a> to cover the cost of hiring more teacher’s aides to relieve teachers responsible for 32 or more kids in kindergarten through third grade.</p>
<p>Such a change would require more teachers. </p>
<p>Would it also make a difference for kids?</p>
<p>I’ve studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=XneK_7sAAAAJ">how schools can boost student achievement</a> for more than two decades and I’ve found that smaller classes are better for students. This is especially the case in the early grades and for students from low-income families. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, though, it is impossible to say <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/685116971/the-los-angeles-teacher-strikes-class-size-conundrum">what class size</a> between 15 and 40 is ideal. However, the evidence suggests that every decline in class size within this range leads to kids learning more.</p>
<h2>Reviewing the research</h2>
<p>Many factors influence educational outcomes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20160567">Total spending</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556052">class size</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr041">teacher quality</a> are important. So is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13603120701576241">school’s culture</a>, including how school staff work together and learn from each other, and how they respond to student needs. The characteristics of a student’s classmates matter, as does the fit between the student and her teacher. </p>
<p>A randomized study conducted by researcher <a href="http://lilysblackboard.org/2015/12/former-nea-preain-dies-at-91/">Helen Pate Bain</a> and her colleagues in Tennessee in the mid-1980s, called <a href="https://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/STAR-Technical-Report-Part-I.pdf">Project STAR</a>, provided the strongest evidence to date that children learn more when they are in smaller classes.</p>
<p>The researchers randomly assigned nearly 12,000 students and their teachers in kindergarten through third grade in 79 schools to classes with 13-17 students or 22-25 students.</p>
<p>The results were clear: students in the smaller classes performed significantly better on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F01623737021002097">math and reading tests</a>, with a gain of 4 percentile points or more. The benefits of smaller classes were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556052">even larger in schools with low-income students</a>.</p>
<p>More recent research indicates that the benefits of being taught in smaller classes persist long after students have moved on to the next grade. They become more likely to complete <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.97.2.214">high school</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21715">go to college</a> and less likely to end up <a href="https://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01w66343627">becoming parents in their teens</a>, to name some of the most compelling examples.</p>
<p>Many other researchers who have studied the impact of smaller classes in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F01623737021002165">Wisconsin</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjs048">Sweden</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556061">Israel</a> have found similar connections.</p>
<p>But the evidence is not entirely clear cut. Although most research points to students faring better when they’re taught in small classes, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.01.004">some</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300555060">studies</a> have not found any benefits.</p>
<p>And there’s a big gap in this research. Most studies have looked into how class size affects learning in elementary school, providing <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0162373710392370">little insight</a> when administrators and policymakers make decisions about class sizes for middle and high school students.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299336/original/file-20191029-183147-3z4dzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With 30 students or more in a class, it’s hard for everyone to get their turn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/high-school-kids-raise-hands-teacher-735905167?src=5dKLbz3ym9XlbAmUUhrnRQ-1-8">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Comparing ideals and reality</h2>
<p>In theory, <a href="https://b5.caspio.com/dp.asp?AppKey=b7f93000695b3d0d5abb4b68bd14&id=a0y70000000CbsLAAS">at least 19 state governments</a> have imposed class-size mandates based on classroom averages, and another 10 have binding ones that require schools or districts to maintain a set average.</p>
<p>In reality, these rules vary widely in terms of funding, enforcement and how the authorities measure class size.</p>
<p>For example, in theory, Texas has a maximum class size of 22 for kindergarten through fourth grade, but <a href="https://tea.texas.gov/Texas_Schools/Waivers/State_Waivers/Maximum_Class_Size_Exceptions">waivers that allow classes to have larger numbers of students</a> are easy to obtain. Delaware requires a ratio of 22 students per teacher, <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/achievement_Delaware.html">but it counts classroom instructional aides as half a teacher</a>.</p>
<p>Reducing the number of students in each classroom requires employing more teachers, which in turn, means spending more money on salaries and benefits. In some cases, the additional teachers hired may not be as effective as those already in the building. Strictly limiting class size can also drive up school construction costs when there aren’t enough classrooms to accommodate students being split into more groups.</p>
<p>It’s also impossible to maintain consistent sizes in classes, especially in the early grades, since elementary schools tend to be relatively smaller.</p>
<p>Say a school had 71 first-graders, with a class size cap of 24. They could group them into two classrooms of 24 students and another with 23. But if the next year a family with twins moves into a nearby neighborhood, raising the number of second-graders to 73 students, the school would wind up with three second-grade classrooms with 18 students and another with 19.</p>
<p>Taking that step instead of splitting them into two classrooms of 24 students and another with 25 could require hiring a new teacher. School administrators might argue in this situation – correctly – that one additional student would not make much of a difference in terms of what those second-graders would be learning that year. At the same time, those students could wind up benefiting from having fewer classmates. </p>
<p>My example assumes that an additional classroom is available, and an additional qualified teacher can be hired. That’s not always the case.</p>
<h2>Heeding the California precedent</h2>
<p><a href="https://edsource.org/2018/in-push-to-expand-universal-preschool-lessons-to-be-learned-from-californias-class-size-reduction-program/605911">California</a> enacted a voluntary class-size reduction program in 1996 that dramatically reduced class sizes in kindergarten through third grade statewide. To adhere to the new rules capping those classes at 20 students, schools had to <a href="https://www.cta.org/oralhistory">hire 30,000 new teachers</a>.</p>
<p>Many of those new hires lacked experience and standard teaching credentials. Kids, at least initially, didn’t gain as much as expected from being in smaller classes because some of new <a href="https://www.ppic.org/publication/class-size-reduction-teacher-quality-and-academic-achievement-in-california-public-elementary-schools/">teachers weren’t as good</a> as the ones hired before the rules changed.</p>
<p>And because there weren’t enough classrooms to accommodate them, many schools made do with the portable structures sometimes called “<a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/apr/20/portable-classrooms-not-always-right-answer-school/">relocatables</a>” or <a href="https://www.princewilliamtimes.com/news/back-to-school-back-to-trailers/article_5eda0b7a-c437-11e9-a1bb-4f9a532904ee.html">trailers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://edsource.org/2012/class-size-reduction-program-continues-to-unravel/8730">California rolled back this requirement</a> during the Great Recession. By 2012, many schools had <a href="https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/cefcsp.asp">30 or more children</a> in a classroom. <a href="https://edu.wyoming.gov/data/161-waiver/">Wyoming</a>, likewise, has pared back its ambitious goal of having no more than <a href="https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/wyoming-school-facilities-commission-returns-to-smaller-class-sizes/article_bab7ee92-be31-11e8-9348-433fe5c30702.html">16 children</a> in its kindergarten through third-grade classrooms to <a href="https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/who-decides-when-classroom-holds-too-many-students#stream/0">save money</a>.</p>
<p>Without question, class size matters. But when faced with constraints such as building sizes and tight budgets, the choice to reduce class size can be hard to sustain.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend.</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach has received grant funding from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the Spencer Foundation to study the impacts of school finance reforms. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, serves on the Advisory Council of the Hamilton Project, and is a board member of Chicago HOPES for Kids and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.</span></em></p>Research suggests that kids benefit when there are fewer of them in a classroom. But quickly reducing class size can cause new problems as schools scramble to hire new teachers.Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Professor of Education and Social Policy; Director of the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1232542019-10-16T11:27:14Z2019-10-16T11:27:14ZHow gambling built baseball – and then almost destroyed it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296947/original/file-20191014-135509-y6fct2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A team photograph of the 1919 Chicago White Sox squad, many of whom would be implicated in throwing that year's World Series.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/1919_Chicago_White_Sox.jpg">Heritage Auctions</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine if, after watching the thrilling victory of the Chicago Cubs in <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=361102105">Game 7 of the 2016 World Series</a> over the Cleveland Indians – a game in which the Cubs won their first championship in over a century – you learned that the Indians had collaborated with gamblers to intentionally throw the series.</p>
<p>Would you trust the game, its umpires and its players, ever again?</p>
<p>That was the scope of the crisis that enveloped baseball a century ago, when key members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, including pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude “Lefty” Williams, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Betrayal.html?id=O511CgAAQBAJ">conspired to throw the series to their opponents</a>, the Cincinnati Reds.</p>
<p>What became known as the “Black Sox Scandal” rocked professional baseball. But it wasn’t an aberration in a sport that was otherwise clean.</p>
<p>Baseball became America’s national pastime because of – and not in spite of – gambling.</p>
<h2>Gambling fuels baseball’s rise</h2>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Baseball_in_the_Garden_of_Eden.html?id=hh_ZK-b24C0C">Baseball in the Garden of Eden</a>,” historian John Thorn explains how gambling was far from an “impediment to the game’s flowering”; instead, it was “the vital fertilizer.”</p>
<p>In baseball’s infancy, the sport was thought of as a boy’s game. But over the course of the 19th century, gambling deepened adult interest and investment in the sport, attracting cohorts of older fans.</p>
<p>Gambling’s popularity was helped along by the spread of statistics, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=mTvDDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=history+of+baseball+and+statistics&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidhvuDjZzlAhUImeAKHa7jC5gQ6AEwBHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">that particular lifeblood of baseball that still keeps fans hooked today</a>. Developed initially to allow the results of a game to be printed onto the page <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312322236">in the form of box scores</a>, statistics also created a pool of data that gamblers could use to inform their bets – many of which were made from the stands, in the middle of games.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCo95RGsyo0C&pg=PA122&dq=fenway+1912+rabid+contingent&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiMkKftjZzlAhXnYN8KHUjCCkIQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=fenway%201912%20rabid%20contingent&f=false">In his history of Fenway Park</a>, Glenn Stout describes how, in the ballpark’s early years, “the best seats were quickly taken over by a rabid contingent of gamblers who bet on absolute everything imaginable, ranging from the eventual winner … to ball and strike calls” and “even such arcane issues as whether the wind would change direction.” Fans waving dollar bills and barking out bets resembled “brokers on the floor of the stock exchange.”</p>
<p>This kind of gambling was so common in the stands that Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s iconic 1888 poem, “<a href="https://poets.org/poem/casey-bat">Casey at the Bat</a>,” captured such a moment in one of its stanzas: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.</p>
<p>The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;</p>
<p>They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that –</p>
<p>We’d put up even money now with Casey at the bat.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Playing to lose</h2>
<p>Some players also sought to get in on the action.</p>
<p>In 1919, <a href="https://sabr.org/research/mlbs-annual-salary-leaders-1874-2012">the highest-paid player</a> was Detroit Tigers outfielder Ty Cobb, who earned US$20,000 – which equates to roughly $300,000 today, or less than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/256187/minimum-salary-of-players-in-major-league-baseball/">Major League Baseball’s current minimum salary</a>.</p>
<p>Most of Cobb’s peers earned far less than the future Hall of Famer. Working with gamblers was an attractive way to supplement their incomes – and many of them did.</p>
<p>One of the most notorious was first baseman Hal Chase. Dubbed the “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xjp8DAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=black+prince+of+baseball&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiEv8KskZzlAhXjRt8KHUHGAx4Q6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=black%20prince%20of%20baseball&f=false">Black Prince of Baseball</a>” by baseball historians Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella, Chase made a veritable career out of throwing games. Playing mostly with the New York Highlanders, Chase, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Betrayal.html?id=O511CgAAQBAJ">as Charles Fountain noted</a>, “threw games for money, he threw games for spite, he threw games as a favor for friends, he threw games apparently for no reason at all other than to stay in practice.” </p>
<p>But this wasn’t the kind of gambling that brought baseball to the brink of disaster in 1919. That scandal saw the players themselves – working in tandem with professional gamblers and gangsters – fix the World Series. </p>
<p>The 1919 World Series <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Betrayal.html?id=O511CgAAQBAJ">was the best-attended Series</a> at that point in the game’s history, but the play of the White Sox turned the games into elaborate theatrical performances.</p>
<p>Those in on it had to play to lose, <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1919_WS.shtml">and the statistics are telling</a>. </p>
<p>Shortstop Swede Risberg hit .080 – not a typo – while committing four fielding errors. Outfielder Happy Felsch didn’t do much better, hitting .192, with just five hits in 26 at-bats. He also committed two errors. Pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams surrendered 12 runs in 16.1 innings of work.</p>
<p>While the players tried to pull off authentic performances for fans, they weren’t always successful. Felsch <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Betrayal.html?id=O511CgAAQBAJ">was chided by his fellow cheaters</a> for his blunders in center, which they deemed too obvious. </p>
<p>Fundamentally, however, the games lacked the core drama and appeal of sports: the uncertainty of the outcome. </p>
<p>Sportswriters took notice. Rumors were already flying in the press box before the World Series’ conclusion that something was wrong. Sports journalist Hugh Fullerton had heard these rumors when he arrived to cover the series, though he tried to convince himself – and his readers – that the story couldn’t be true. Still, once the series ended, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vqbROoIZmJsC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=%22Yesterday%27s,+in+all+probability,+is+the+last+game+that+will+be+played+in+any+World+Series.%22&source=bl&ots=uFbmG3GEqH&sig=ACfU3U0AN9Ms1uO0eUiq7eFhvtYtA5HWZw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFlo_3lZzlAhXMm-AKHeBAA4UQ6AEwAHoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Yesterday's%2C%20in%20all%20probability%2C%20is%20the%20last%20game%20that%20will%20be%20played%20in%20any%20World%20Series.%22&f=false">Fullerton wrote worriedly</a> in the Chicago Herald and Examiner that “Yesterday’s, in all probability, is the last game that will be played in any World Series.”</p>
<p>Fullerton kept pursuing the story and became the first sportswriter to break the details to the public in December 1919, with an article in the New York World entitled, “<a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Uncovering+the+Fix+of+the+1919+World+Series%3A+the+role+of+Hugh...-a0127279569">Is Big League Baseball Being Run for Gamblers, with Players In on the Deal?</a>” </p>
<p>As more details emerged, the scandal overwhelmed the sport and threatened to destroy it. If the World Series itself, baseball’s premier event, could not be trusted, how would the sport survive? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296967/original/file-20191014-135495-1uy58cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kenesaw_Mountain_Landis_Portrait.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new baseball commissioner, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kenesaw-Mountain-Landis">Kenesaw Mountain Landis</a>, acted decisively and independently of the courts. Even after the players were acquitted in a trial that ended on Aug. 2, 1921, Landis – a former federal judge – had already made his decision.</p>
<p>“Regardless of the verdict of juries,” <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-flashback-buck-weaver-black-sox-spt-0705-20150703-story.html">he announced, on the morning of Aug. 3, 1921</a>, “no player that throws a ball game; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ball game; no player that sits in a conference … where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.” </p>
<p>The stunned White Sox players – including stars like “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who had hit .375 in the series but was nonetheless aware of what his teammates were up to – were banned from baseball for life. </p>
<h2>The specter of 1919</h2>
<p>Seventy years later, commissioner Bart Giamatti acted in a similarly swift and punitive manner when he banned all-time hits leader Pete Rose from baseball in 1989.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/41spT5xklx4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bart Giamatti calls the banishment of Pete Rose ‘the sad end to a sorry episode’ in a 1989 news conference.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rose had admitted to gambling on his own games, even as a manager. <a href="https://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140827/sports/140829828">Some thought Giamatti overreacted</a>, given that Rose never bet against his own team.</p>
<p>That argument, as historian Bruce Kuklick wrote <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vl_fP1CoYBoC&pg=PA176&lpg=PA176&dq=%22Writing+the+History+of+Practice:+The+Humanities+and+Baseball,+with+a+Nod+to+Wrestling%22&source=bl&ots=LTrMM1MzjG&sig=ACfU3U29aCUv984TqdSA959MrqPgw-VKUg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiv_euimpzlAhVJn-AKHSA8CrwQ6AEwAHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Writing%20the%20History%20of%20Practice%3A%20The%20Humanities%20and%20Baseball%2C%20with%20a%20Nod%20to%20Wrestling%22&f=false">in a 1999 essay</a>, doesn’t hold up. Rose, he points out, didn’t bet on every game. It’s not inconceivable, then, that he would make decisions during games in which he didn’t place bets – say, not bringing in his best relief pitcher – to make sure that reliever would be available for the games he did bet on. </p>
<p>Giamatti surely had 1919 on his mind when he meted out Rose’s punishment. With the game having barely escaped death once, Giamatti knew that organized baseball couldn’t risk skating too close to that edge again. </p>
<p>And yet in August of this year, Major League Baseball made FanDuel – a daily fantasy sports gambling service – <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/15/major-league-baseball-and-fanduel-strike-sports-betting-deal.html">its official gambling partner</a>.</p>
<p>It may be that baseball hopes that gambling will bring more adults back to the sport, just as it did in its early days. After all, <a href="https://www.ticketnews.com/2019/10/mlb-attendance-drops-to-16-year-attendance-low-this-season/">attendance at games is down</a>. Football, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-ratings-most-watched-sports-events-2018-2019-1">has become the most watched sport on television</a> in the U.S. <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001028939/article/record-nashville-crowd-hosts-mostwatched-draft">Six million viewers</a> even tuned in for the 2019 NFL Draft.</p>
<p>Gambling may fuel more interest in the sport. But throwing on more fuel can result in a fire that burns out of control. In 1919, baseball came close to burning its own house down. One hundred years later, journalist Hugh Fullerton would surely be stunned to know that big league baseball has once again made a contract with gamblers, in full view of both players and fans.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the story doesn’t end in scandal this time around.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Up until the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, gambling and baseball had a marriage of convenience. A century later, gambling is again being seen as a solution to the sport’s woes.Rebecca Edwards, Professor of History, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1229972019-09-11T12:19:26Z2019-09-11T12:19:26ZWhy community-owned grocery stores like co-ops are the best recipe for revitalizing food deserts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291808/original/file-20190910-190044-cpinfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detroit People's Food Co-op, opening later this year in a food desert, is an example of a community-driven project.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DPFC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tens of millions of Americans <a href="https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us">go to bed hungry</a> at some point every year. While poverty is the primary culprit, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722409/">some blame food insecurity</a> on the lack of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods.</p>
<p>That’s why <a href="https://www.ccachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Chicago-2011-Transition-Report.pdf">cities</a>, <a href="http://thefoodtrust.org/what-we-do/supermarkets">states</a> and national leaders including former first lady <a href="https://foodinsight.org/first-lady-michelle-obamas-healthy-food-financing-initiative-announcement-highlights-the-importance-of-affordable-healthful-foods-in-underserved-communities/">Michelle Obama</a> made eliminating so-called “food deserts” a priority in recent years. This prompted some of the biggest U.S. retailers, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/retailers-seek-answers-to-food-desert-problem-2016-11-10">such as Walmart, SuperValu and Walgreens</a>, to <a href="https://apnews.com/8bfc99c7c99646008acf25e674e378cf">promise to open or expand</a> stores in underserved areas. </p>
<p>One problem is that many neighborhoods in inner cities <a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/usp_fac/191/">fear gentrification</a>, when big corporations swoop in with development plans. As a result, some new supermarkets never <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/12/23/philadelphia-artist-defeats-eminent-domain-land-grab-will-keep-his-studio/#7cf79659591e">got past the planning stage</a> or <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/8/3325">closed within a few months of opening</a> because residents did not shop at the new store. </p>
<p>To find out why some succeeded while others failed, three colleagues and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1863">performed an exhaustive search</a> for every supermarket that had plans to open in a food desert since 2000 and what happened to each. </p>
<h2>What’s a food desert?</h2>
<p>I’m actually rather skeptical that food deserts have a significant impact on whether Americans go hungry.</p>
<p>In previous research with urban planners <a href="https://www.pdx.edu/profile/meet-professor-megan-horst">Megan Horst</a> and <a href="http://foodsystemsplanning.ap.buffalo.edu/raj/">Subhashni Raj</a>, we found that diet-related health <a href="https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.43.3.328">more closely correlates with household income</a> than with access to a supermarket. One can be poor, live near a grocery store and still be unable to afford a healthy diet.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the lack of one, particularly in urban neighborhoods, is often a broader sign of disinvestment. In addition to selling food, supermarkets act as <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedfcr/y2009p75-87nv.5no.3.html">economic generators</a> by providing local jobs and offering the convenience of neighborhood services, such as pharmacies and banks. </p>
<p>I believe every neighborhood should have these amenities. But how should we define them?</p>
<p>U.K.-based public health researchers Steven Cummins and Sally Macintyre coined the term in the 1990s and described food deserts as low-income communities whose residents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098022000011399">didn’t have the purchasing power</a> to support supermarkets. </p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture began looking at these areas in <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-environment-atlas/">2008</a>, when it officially defined food deserts as communities with either 500 residents or 33% of the population living more than a mile from a supermarket in urban areas. The distance jumps to 10 miles away in rural areas. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291841/original/file-20190910-190002-ujn60d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The map shows how many people in different counties across the country lived in food deserts in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-environment-atlas/go-to-the-atlas/">USDA ERS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the agency has created <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/documentation/">three other ways</a> to measure food deserts, we stuck with the original 2008 definition for our study. By that measure, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/82101/eib-165.pdf?v=0">about 38% of U.S. Census tracts</a> were food deserts in 2015, the latest data available, slightly down from 39.4% in 2010. </p>
<p>That means about 19 million people, or 6.2% of the U.S. population, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/documentation/">lived in a food desert in 2015</a>.</p>
<h2>Michelle Obama makes it a priority</h2>
<p><a href="http://thefoodtrust.org/what-we-do/supermarkets">The Food Trust</a> was among the first to tackle the problem. In 2004, the Philadelphia-based nonprofit used US$30 million in state seed money to help finance 88 supermarket projects throughout Pennsylvania, which helped make healthy food available to about 400,000 underserved residents. </p>
<p>Our research followed the success as it drew attention nationally. Rahm Emanuel <a href="https://www.ccachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Chicago-2011-Transition-Report.pdf">made eliminating food deserts in Chicago a top initiative</a> when he became the city’s mayor in 2011. And Michelle Obama <a href="https://foodinsight.org/first-lady-michelle-obamas-healthy-food-financing-initiative-announcement-highlights-the-importance-of-affordable-healthful-foods-in-underserved-communities/">helped launch</a> the <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/community-economic-development/healthy-food-financing">Healthy Food Financing Initiative</a> in 2010 to encourage supermarkets to open in food deserts across the country. The following year major food retailers promised to open or expand 1,500 <a href="http://get-hwhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Partnership-for-a-Healthier-America.pdf">supermarket or convenience stores</a> in and around food desert neighborhoods by 2016.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/files/supermarkets-in-food-deserts-development-financing-health-promotion.pdf">receiving generous federal financial support</a>, retailers <a href="https://apnews.com/8bfc99c7c99646008acf25e674e378cf">managed to open or expand just 250 stores</a> in food deserts during the period. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291648/original/file-20190909-109952-1j1a1zm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The food trust financed dozens of supermarket projects in Pennsylvania in 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Healthy-Corner-Stores-/75483a880946408da27cd14c0fd03293/2/0">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to grow in a food desert</h2>
<p>We wanted to dig deeper and see just how many of the new stores were actually supermarkets and how they’ve fared. </p>
<p>I teamed up with <a href="https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-benjamin-chrisinger">Benjamin Chrisinger</a>, <a href="https://humanecology.ucdavis.edu/student-spotlight">Jose Flores</a> and <a href="https://sociology.ucdavis.edu/people/cglennie">Charlotte Glennie</a> and examined press releases, website listings and scholarly studies to assemble a database of supermarkets that had announced plans to open new locations in food deserts since 2000. </p>
<p>We were particularly interested in the driving forces behind each project. </p>
<p>We identified only 71 supermarket plans that met our criteria. Of those, 21 were driven by government, 18 by community leaders, 12 by nonprofits and eight by commercial interests. Another dozen were driven by a combination of government initiative with community involvement.</p>
<p>Then we looked at how many actually stuck around. We found that all 22 of the supermarkets opened by community or nonprofits are still open today. Two were canceled, while six are in progress. </p>
<p>In contrast, nearly half of the commercial stores and a third of the government developments have closed or didn’t it make it past planning. Five of the government/community projects also failed or were canceled.</p>
<p><iframe id="QNZor" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QNZor/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>A shuttered supermarket is more than just a business failure. It <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40499246/how-closing-grocery-stores-perpetuate-food-deserts-long-after-theyre-gone">can perpetuate the food desert problem</a> for years and prevent new stores from opening in the same location, <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/01/10/louisville-food-deserts-how-grocery-stores-closing-hurt-community/1944809002/">worsening a neighborhood’s blight</a>. </p>
<h2>Why co-ops succeeded</h2>
<p>So why did the community-driven supermarkets survive and thrive? </p>
<p>Importantly, 16 of the 18 community-driven cases were structured as cooperatives, which are rooted in their communities through customer ownership, democratic governance and shared social values. </p>
<p>Community engagement is vital to opening and sustaining a new store in neighborhoods where residents are understandably skeptical of outside developers and worry about <a href="https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/attom-data-solutions-2019-grocery-store-battle/">gentrification and rising rents</a>. Cooperatives often adopt local hiring practices, <a href="https://cdi.coop/coop-cathy-coops-benefit-communities/">pay living wages</a> and help residents counteract <a href="https://civileats.com/2019/01/25/new-research-explores-the-ongoing-impact-of-racism-on-the-u-s-farming-landscape">inequities in the food system</a>. <a href="https://www.fci.coop/sites/default/files/Startup%20guide-02.2017.pdf">Their model</a>, in which a third of the cost of opening typically comes from member loans, ensures communities are literally invested in their new stores and their use. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mandelagrocery.coop/">Mandela Co-op</a>, which opened in a West Oakland, California, food desert in 2009, is a great example of this. The worker-owned grocery store focuses on purchasing from farmers and food entrepreneurs of color. As a result of its success, the Mandela Co-op <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Mandela-Grocery-Cooperative-marks-10-years-in-13959570.php?psid=mc7QM">is expanding</a> and supporting the local economy at the same time many commercial supermarkets are closing locations as the <a href="https://www.grocerydive.com/news/why-grocery-consolidation/535608/">grocery industry consolidates</a>.</p>
<p>Our study suggests policymakers and <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/action/doSearch?AllField=food+desert&ConceptID=">public health officials interested</a> in improving wellness in food deserts should take community ownership and involvement into account. </p>
<p>The success of a supermarket intervention is predicated on use, which may not happen without community buy-in. Supporting cooperatives is one way to ensure that shoppers show up.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Brinkley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prodded by Michelle Obama and other government leaders, Walmart and other major US retailers vowed to build hundreds of stores in food deserts. What happened?Catherine Brinkley, Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Development, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1183222019-06-25T17:09:17Z2019-06-25T17:09:17ZCan parks help cities fight crime?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280773/original/file-20190621-61775-184czxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Contact with nature reduces stress and aggression, one reason scholars say urban green space may reduce violence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1080405476?src=H6ab9pfB-lqRbGEBlEdC7A-1-6&studio=1&size=vector_eps">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The relationship between parks and crime remains the subject of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1524838015576412">debate</a>.</p>
<p>Some scholars say parks and other urban green spaces prevent violence. When vacant lots and deteriorating urban spaces are <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-fight-crime-plant-some-flowers-with-your-neighbor-91804">transformed into more appealing and useful places</a> for residents, violence and crime typically <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/12/2946.short">decline</a> in the immediate vicinity.</p>
<p>In a study of public housing developments in Chicago, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916501333002">researchers</a> found 52% fewer crimes reported near buildings surrounded by trees and other vegetation. In New York City, neighborhoods with higher investment in public green space see an average of <a href="https://www.planetizen.com/features/103315-preventing-crime-one-park-time">213 fewer felonies</a> per year.</p>
<p>Similar relationships between green space and crime have been observed in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204612000977">Baltimore</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204617301743">Chicago</a>, <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/19/3/198.short">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013916510383238">Portland</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/6/3/74">in cities outside</a> the U.S.</p>
<p>In many cities, however, people see parks as <a href="https://popcenter.asu.edu/content/dealing-crime-and-disorder-urban-parks-0">dangerous</a> – magnets for illicit activities like drug dealing and places for criminals to access potential victims who, while engaged in recreation, may be less vigilant about their belongings and personal safety. </p>
<p>Research supports this idea, too. One 2015 study of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/sj.2015.11">multiple U.S. cities</a> found that property crime rates are two to four times higher in neighborhoods near parks. Violent crimes rates were up to 11 times worse. </p>
<p>So do parks make cities safer or more dangerous? The short answer is: It depends on the park.</p>
<h2>Green space leads to lower crime</h2>
<p>One reason that evidence on the relationship between parks and crime is so mixed is that most studies on this subject have focused on a single city or location.</p>
<p>In an effort to identify nationwide trends, our team of researchers at <a href="https://www.clemson.edu/cbshs/centers-institutes/institute-for-parks/index.html">Clemson</a> and <a href="https://faculty.cnr.ncsu.edu/lincolnlarson/">North Carolina State</a> universities in 2017 began gathering information on crime, green space and parks in the 300 largest cities in the United States.</p>
<p>Unlike many studies that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204616302146">use the terms “parks” and “green space” interchangeably</a>, our analysis distinguished between these two urban environments. </p>
<p>Green space was measured by the amount of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225119/pdf/nihms324515.pdf">grass, plants, tree canopy cover and other greenery</a> on the landscape. We defined <a href="http://dev.tplgis.org/ParkScore/methodology.php">urban parks</a> as designated open spaces managed by a public agency – a subset of green space.</p>
<p>To distinguish the impact of green spaces from social factors <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/073401680402900103">typically linked to crime</a> – population density, income, education, diversity and social disadvantage – we controlled for those factors when evaluating crime data.</p>
<p>We learned that more green space was associated with lower <a href="https://doc.arcgis.com/en/esri-demographics/data/crime-indexes.htm">risk of crime</a> across neighborhoods in all 300 cities we studied. </p>
<p>Burglaries, larceny, auto theft and other property crimes occur less often in greener neighborhoods in every city in our sample. Violent crimes like murder, assault and armed robbery were also less common in greener neighborhoods in nearly all the cities we studied.</p>
<p>Only three cities in our sample did not benefit from green space. In Chicago, Detroit and Newark – all places with notoriously high and stubborn <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/home">crime rates</a> – more green space was associated with higher levels of violent crime.</p>
<p>Scholars have identified several reasons why the presence of green space may lead to lower crime. </p>
<p><a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP1663">Contact with nature</a> reduces precursors to crime like stress and aggression, making people feel happier and less inclined to engage in criminal acts. By giving people a place to participate in outdoor activities together, parks also promote positive social interactions and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013916513518064">neighborly connections</a> within diverse urban communities. </p>
<p>And when people gather in parks and other green spaces, it puts more “<a href="https://thecityfix.com/blog/how-eyes-on-the-street-contribute-public-safety-nossa-cidade-priscila-pacheco-kichler/">eyes on the streets</a>,” exposing criminals to constant community surveillance. </p>
<p>Finally, there’s some evidence that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204614000310">more green space</a> makes nearby areas safer simply by <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013916517690197">pushing crime</a> into nearby neighborhoods – not outright eliminating it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280780/original/file-20190621-61729-qti66f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chicago is one of three U.S. cities where more green space does not necessarily reduce violence in nearby neighborhoods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Violence/9ca61cb2da5249a482a849320660fc0e/114/0">AP Photo/Paul Beaty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Parks: Crime hot spots or safe havens?</h2>
<p>In the second step of our study, we narrowed the focus of our analysis to just <a href="https://www.tpl.org/parkserve">urban parks</a>. The results were less positive. </p>
<p>Examining four cities in different U.S. regions – Austin, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Francisco – we found that violent crime was 28% to 64% higher in neighborhoods adjacent to parks than in neighborhoods located a mile from the same parks. Property crime was 38% to 63% higher in areas close to parks. </p>
<p>The only exception was Phoenix, where proximity to parks had no impact on property crime. </p>
<p>Zooming out from our four-city sample, we found <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022427816666309">evidence</a> that some parks actually do a good job of deterring crime. Design and maintenance are critical if parks are to reduce, rather than attract, crime.</p>
<p>New York’s <a href="https://www.pps.org/projects/bryantpark">Bryant Park</a>, in Midtown Manhattan, was once a notorious haven for criminal activity – a place office workers avoided walking through after dark. In 1985 Bryant Park was closed for a massive renovation effort that included the addition of activities and events there. When it reopened in 1992, police reported a <a href="https://umusama2015.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/case-study-bryant-park-new-york-city/">92% decrease</a> in local crime.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280779/original/file-20190621-61756-187wo4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On sunny days, New York’s Bryant Park is full morning to night with office workers, tourists and local residents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTU2MTE2NTMyOCwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTE1OTkyNzA5MyIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMTU5OTI3MDkzL2h1Z2UuanBnIiwibSI6MSwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJtdHFyOTNHeHlaSEhQYlg4NmVNWTRrQXAvcjQiXQ%2Fshutterstock_1159927093.jpg&pi=33421636&m=1159927093&src=etLyJKLYoS-ffJ5gksrZpA-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Los Angeles, a citywide <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-oct-31-la-me-summer-night-20101030-story.html">Summer Night Lights</a> program started in 2007 to promote positive activities in parks after dark is credited with reducing crime in nearby neighborhoods by 40% over three years. </p>
<p>And construction of a new elevated trail in Chicago seems to have made the neighborhoods it runs through safer. Between 2011 and 2015, areas on The 606 trail saw <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013916517690197">2.8 times less violent crime and 1.6 times less property crime</a> than comparable low-income Chicago neighborhoods over the same period.</p>
<p>Parks that are <a href="https://www.pps.org/article/what-role-can-design-play-in-creating-safer-parks">designed for safety</a>, heavily programmed on an ongoing basis and well maintained tend to attract residents whose presence serves as a crime deterrent. </p>
<p>That means not just amenities like ball fields and cultural facilities but also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1090198114558590">the active involvement of the local community</a> and sources of <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/10.1123/jpah.2013-0165">sustainable, ongoing funding</a>. When parks are allowed to deteriorate, the decaying infrastructure and bad reputation of parks can turn them into magnets for crime.</p>
<p>Critically, both program and landscape design must also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X18301303">reflect</a> the broader community in which a park sits, creating public spaces where everyone from office workers to local teens can appreciate and enjoy the entire range of social, economic and health benefits that parks offer. </p>
<p>More legitimate park users means increased monitoring and sense of ownership over a public space. This process known as “territorial reinforcement” is a key tenet of <a href="https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2016/march/using-design-to-reduce-crime/">crime prevention through environmental design</a>. </p>
<p>Urban parks and green space enhance the <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153211">well-being</a> of city residents, promoting <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379704003046">physical activity</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797612464659">mental health</a> and a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1023/A:1022294028903">sense of community</a>. </p>
<p>Whether they also reduce crime depends on the park, city, the neighborhood and, critically, how well an urban green space is managed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some parks reduce violence in the local vicinity. Other parks attract crime. The difference has to do with how these urban green spaces are designed, programmed and managed, experts say.Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State UniversityS. Scott Ogletree, PhD Candidate and Researcher in Parks and Conservation, Clemson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1163242019-05-24T10:43:24Z2019-05-24T10:43:24ZAs Airbnb grows, this is exactly how much it’s bringing down hotel prices and occupancy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276198/original/file-20190523-187165-nvs9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Airbnb is a growing threat to the major hotel chains. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/indianapolis-circa-march-2018-indy-downtown-1052905802?src=sXQZjdKt6mHixDuufMBzBA-1-17">Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Airbnb has grown exponentially since its founding in 2008 and is expected to soon go public in an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-airbnb-ipo/airbnb-ceo-says-co-will-be-ready-for-ipo-later-this-year-cnbc-idUSKCN1S51M9">initial public offering</a> that would rank it among the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18272274/airbnb-valuation-common-stock-hoteltonight">world’s most valuable hotel companies</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/25/18276296/airbnb-hotels-hilton-marriott-us-spending">U.S. consumers spent more money on Airbnb</a> last year than they did on Hilton and its subsidiaries, the second-biggest hotel chain in the world, which was founded a century ago. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MXFcg7EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">an expert in hospitality management</a>, I was curious to know precisely how all this growth has affected the hotel industry – and just how scared hotels should be.</p>
<p><iframe id="AR5CS" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AR5CS/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Exponential growth</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.11.008">Research I recently conducted</a> with colleagues Makarand Mody and Courtney C. Suess studied Airbnb’s impact on hotels’ performance in 10 major U.S. cities to determine how the fast-growing company has influenced three key metrics: room prices, hotel revenues and occupancy rates. Our research included data from 2008 to 2017 in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.</p>
<p>In those cities, the number of properties on Airbnb – from room shares to entire houses – surged from just 51 in its first year of operation to more to 50,000 five years later and to over half a million in 2017.</p>
<p><iframe id="cvpQX" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cvpQX/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Some of this growth can be attributed to consumers’ <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312046857_The_Role_of_Authenticity_in_Airbnb_Experiences">increasing demand</a> for authentic lodging experiences – in people’s real homes – at affordable prices. </p>
<p>But another important factor is the <a href="https://www.frmjournal.com/news/news_detail.airbnb-lets-may-be-unsafe-due-to-lack-of-regulation.html">lack of regulation</a> Airbnb faced during its first decades, which gave it more flexibility and made it easier to add new properties to its inventory. </p>
<p>While this is now changing as <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/galleries/2016-06-22/places-with-strict-airbnb-laws">cities clamp down</a>, this provided Airbnb with a significant competitive advantage against the hotel industry. Indeed, the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/112414/airbnb-brings-sharing-economy-hotels.asp">typical regulatory framework</a> in cities across America means it can take several years to add a new hotel to the market and requires permits, adherence to safety codes and more tax collection. </p>
<h2>A significant impact</h2>
<p>And our study showed that these advantages translated into a significant impact on the hotel industry in terms of revenues, prices and occupancy rates. </p>
<p>Specifically, we found that every 1% increase in the number of Airbnb properties decreased the average revenue per room by 0.02%. Although this impact seems small, consider Airbnb’s phenomenal year-over-year growth rate when measuring the company’s impact on hotel room revenues. Accordingly, every time Airbnb’s supply doubles – which is its average yearly pace since inception – hotel revenues fall 2%. </p>
<p>While it’s hard to convert this into dollar amounts given the statistical nature of our analysis, we crunched the data on New York City and found that total potential hotel revenue lost to Airbnb may have totaled US$365 million in 2016 alone. </p>
<p>The impact on average room prices and occupancy rates was similar but smaller. Room prices fell 0.003% to 0.03% for every 1% increase in Airbnb supply, while hotel occupancy declined by 0.008% to 0.1%. </p>
<h2>Bearing down on luxury</h2>
<p>Although Airbnb was initially perceived to be a potential threat to economy hotels – defined as the bottom 20% in terms of average price – we found that Airbnb also had a significant impact on the luxury segment – or the top 15%. </p>
<p>That suggests the company has successfully pushed to provide more unique experiences across the spectrum, and now there’s a large inventory of more <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-29/airbnb-to-offer-200-new-luxury-suites-at-rockefeller-plaza">“luxury” experiences on the platform</a> where one can rent designer homes and unique accommodations like cabins, boats and even treehouses – all of which tend to be in the higher price range. </p>
<p>Our findings also showed that midscale and independent hotels were the least hurt by Airbnb’s increasing supply, probably because both have very similar price points. Another possible reason is that people who chose independent hotels perceived those properties to be more authentic compared to chain hotels, and so those consumers were less motivated to switch from independent hotels to Airbnb.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276201/original/file-20190523-187172-16ktaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Airbnb’s luxury offerings – including treehouses – have manage to snag significant revenue from hotels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Airbnb-Renovations/93d0ba1b77cc4815a61446ffe5e595d2/7/0">AP Photo/Eric Risberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Airbnb’s continuing threat</h2>
<p>These results collectively suggest that Airbnb appears to have taken a slice of the pie from the hotel industry. </p>
<p>The question now is will that phenomenal growth continue? </p>
<p>Airbnb <a href="https://www.arabianbusiness.com/travel-hospitality/420624-airbnb-launches-arabic-website-amid-63-growth-in-uae-visitors">continues</a> to grow its <a href="https://www.travelpulse.com/news/hotels-and-resorts/airbnbs-growth-worries-mexico-hoteliers.html">supply of properties</a> <a href="https://www.eturbonews.com/251935/off-the-beaten-track-thai-destinations-experiencing-explosive-airbnb-growth/">around the world</a>, and it is clear to me that the company represents a permanent challenge to hotel chains. </p>
<p>While there are efforts to regulate the home rentals that makes up the Airbnb properties and other sharing platforms – which could curb its growth – decisions on how to regulate these platforms <a href="https://skift.com/2019/02/12/airbnb-isnt-going-anywhere-so-why-arent-cities-regulating-it-more/">have not been straightforward</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, hoteliers should continue to fear Airbnb.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tarik Dogru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The number of Airbnb properties has exploded since its founding in 2008. A hospitality management expert looked at how this has hurt hotels.Tarik Dogru, Assistant Professor of Hospitality Management, Florida State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1085702019-05-23T12:40:21Z2019-05-23T12:40:21ZChicago’s Urban Prep Academy – known for 100% college acceptance rates – put reputation ahead of results<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250416/original/file-20181213-178552-yfeeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite being known for high college acceptance rates, Urban Prep Academies recently lost a charter to operate a school on Chicago's west side.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/The-100-Percenters/ed393e83bd2b47d3900580d0bf2e342d/18/0">Charles Rex Arbogast/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I joined <a href="http://www.urbanprep.org/">Urban Prep Academies</a> in 2006 as the founding math teacher at what was to become the nation’s first all-boys public charter high school, the school’s faculty and staff had one central goal.</p>
<p>We were on a mission to get black boys from Englewood – a racially segregated and economically distressed neighborhood in Chicago, and a community described in the media as one of the city’s <a href="https://wgntv.com/2013/08/25/its-englewood-12-hours-in-one-of-chicagos-most-dangerous-neighborhoods/">most dangerous</a> – to and through college.</p>
<p>Each spring, Urban Prep Academies boasts that <a href="http://www.urbanprep.org/about/100-percent/class-2019">100%</a> of seniors graduating from each of its three campuses gains admission to a four-year college or university. But if you look beneath the 100% college acceptance claim – which sometimes gets <a href="https://www.bet.com/news/national/2013/04/01/100-percent-of-urban-prep-academy-students-going-to-college.html">misinterpreted as 100% actually going to college</a> – you may find results that raise serious questions about the quality of education at the school. </p>
<h2>College acceptance versus college readiness</h2>
<p>For starters, the reality is only <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">12.8%</a> of Urban Prep students at the West campus met Illinois’ college readiness benchmarks. Further, only about <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">two-thirds</a> of the class of 2017 at Urban Prep’s West campus actually enrolled in college. A little less than <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">44%</a> of the school’s 2016 graduates were <a href="https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/02/three-keys-college-persistence/">persisting</a> in college based on the latest report. </p>
<p>In a statement to The Conversation, school officials maintained that a major reason its graduates don’t persist in college is due to lack of money.</p>
<p>“The number one reason we are given as why Urban Prep graduates choose not to continue pursuing their degree is a lack of financial resources and proper supports at the colleges they attend,” Dennis Lacewell, chief academic officer at Urban Prep Academies, wrote in an e-mail to The Conversation. “This is consistent with national data related to first-generation and black male students going to college.”</p>
<p>However, in my own and <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED531591">other higher education scholarship</a>, lack of money is sometimes related to students’ <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qqxn5B4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate#d=gs_md_cita-d&u=%2Fcitations%3Fview_op%3Dview_citation%26hl%3Den%26user%3Dqqxn5B4AAAAJ%26sortby%3Dpubdate%26citation_for_view%3Dqqxn5B4AAAAJ%3AWqliGbK-hY8C%26tzom%3D300">lack of academic preparation</a> for college. For instance, at least two young men who participated in my <a href="http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/urban-preparation">study of Urban Prep’s graduates</a> revealed that they lost an academic scholarship because of low GPAs. </p>
<h2>West campus recommended for closure</h2>
<p>The future of one of the school’s campuses – Urban Prep West – became imperiled in December 2018 when officials at Chicago Public Schools <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/cps-chicago-public-schools-closing-charters-urban-prep-west-kwame-nkrumah/">recommended shutting it down</a>. That decision was later <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/chicago/2019/03/20/overturning-chicagos-denial-illinois-charter-commission-approves-two-schools/">overturned by the Illinois State Charter School Commission</a>.</p>
<p>When the school was in danger of closing, “<a href="http://thechicagocitizen.com/news/2018/dec/19/not-everyone-sad-see-urban-prep-closing/">some students stated</a>” that they “didn’t care” if the school closed down or that it was “good” that it was closing. </p>
<p>One student spoke about how the <a href="http://thechicagocitizen.com/news/2018/dec/19/not-everyone-sad-see-urban-prep-closing/">“teachers put on a show”</a> for parents, but treat students badly “behind closed doors.”</p>
<h2>Reflections from Urban Prep graduates</h2>
<p>Urban Prep graduates expressed similar sentiments when <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pl1lWckAAAAJ&hl=en">sociologist Derrick Brooms</a> and I originally set out to conduct the research that led to my book – <a href="http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/urban-preparation">“Urban Preparation: Young Black Men from Chicago’s South Side to Success in Higher Education.”</a> Our aim was to describe how students at Urban Prep saw the school in terms of helping them complete college.</p>
<p>Two of the young men shared how they felt like “commodities” and “caged in” at Urban Prep. Another young man revealed that “there was more time being put into the look of the school than the actual students.”</p>
<p>These young men admitted they did not want to let the school’s supporters down. They said they did whatever was asked of them to gain admission to college, which they knew would reflect well on the school. The young men’s comments point to pressure they felt to “look” the part of being college-ready, despite feeling as if they may not have initially had the necessary academic tools to succeed in college.</p>
<p>Several of the young men reported that they rarely felt academically “challenged” during their four years at the high school. Those who got to take an Advanced Placement course tended to agree these courses made them feel most prepared for college. Still, these young men’s broader reflections on their academic preparation, transition to college, as well as data from the <a href="https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?schoolId=15016299025010C">Illinois Report Card</a>, reveal that Urban Prep may have invested more in a portrait of academic success than they did in providing high quality educational experiences.</p>
<h2>New lease on life</h2>
<p>These criticisms aside, for other students and officials at Urban Prep, the March decision to allow the school to stay open is – as founder and CEO Tim King stated in a recent letter to supporters – a “major triumph.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275982/original/file-20190522-187147-nb3zhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tim King, head of Urban Prep Academies, speaks during an interview in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Mayor-Challenges/dad7a23f97574f0eb8cc3c2b24f43b3f/9/0">M. Spencer Green/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Publicly available data show that the school’s <a href="https://schoolreports.cps.edu/SQRP_2018/HS_SQRP_ReportSY18-19_CHARTER_400102.pdf">SAT scores and other indicators of college and career readiness</a> remain a troubling reality. For instance, Urban Prep West students averaged scores in the 31st percentile on the SAT, which is considered “<a href="https://www.collegesimply.com/guides/950-on-the-sat/maryland/">pretty low</a>.” </p>
<p>Lacewell, the chief academic officer at Urban Prep, told The Conversation that Urban Prep students “outperform their peer groups on myriad metrics including high school graduation rates, daily attendance rates, standardized test growth.” Technically, that is <a href="https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/AdvancedCompareSchools.aspx?source=environment&source2=financeprofile&Schoolid=15016299025016C,150162990250844,150162990250841,150162990250831,150162990250616&sourceid=15016299025016C">true</a>.</p>
<p>However, not everyone is convinced that Urban Prep West deserves to stay open.</p>
<p>“The school is not set up to be successful, and we are potentially just delaying a school closure because they’re not going to be able to do the turnaround that needs to happen,” Bill Farmer, one of two members of the Illinois State Charter School Commission who voted against keeping the school open, <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/chicago/2019/03/20/overturning-chicagos-denial-illinois-charter-commission-approves-two-schools/">stated at a hearing</a> in March. “There needs to be a bigger systemic approach to infuse areas with the appropriate resources they need.”</p>
<h2>Race at the center: Looking beyond 100% college acceptance</h2>
<p>Much of what the public knows about Urban Prep is based on images of clean cut young black men doning black blazers, button-down shirts and red ties, <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/education/urban-prep-holds-annual-college-signing-day-event-at-daley-plaza-/3478004/">sporting the baseball cap of the college</a> they intend to enroll. But that is where the cameras stop rolling. And this is precisely where the public must continue to ask probing questions such as: Do they enroll college, do they persist and do they complete? And most importantly, do these young black men feel prepared to pursue their own dreams despite being confronted by “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852?casa_token=0aoxpRO9Cq8AAAAA:_YG0y1L2_A_q9zeVdz9BmCxr1NvhfrP7KxdL33vtjazJhNPe-IaVXEtN-gAx4U5epS0_cuUgOMo">antiblack racism</a>?”</p>
<p>Boasting about 100% college acceptance rates claiming to “change the narrative” about young black men and boys does very little to answer these questions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chezare A. Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Urban Prep Academy in Chicago made a name by boasting about its 100% college acceptance rates for graduating seniors. A founding teacher at Urban Prep explains why that statistic is misleading.Chezare A. Warren, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1074262019-01-14T11:40:48Z2019-01-14T11:40:48ZChicago, New York discounted most public input in expanding bike systems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253331/original/file-20190110-43541-sdpb5z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public bikes are meant to complement a city's existing mass transit network, so the location of docking stations is critical.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Entrance_to_Fulton_Center_through_135_William_St.JPG">MusikAnimal/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When <a href="https://nyti.ms/1GLVWVI">New York</a> and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-red-1113-divvy-headquarters-20131112-story.html">Chicago</a> decided to expand their public bike share systems a few years back, city officials tried to go about it democratically. Using community meetings, workshops and interactive maps, they asked the public where they wanted new bike stations to be built. </p>
<p>“I have consistently found that local neighborhoods know their area better than anyone,” Joseph R. Lentol, a New York State assemblyman from Brooklyn, said after city officials in 2014 <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2014/pr14-087.shtml">announced a major expansion of New York’s year-old Citi Bike system</a>.</p>
<p>The Chicago Department of Transportation also thanked residents for their input in locating the 175 new bike stations it added in 2015.</p>
<p>“Chicagoans gave great suggestions for the locations of new stations, and we look forward to placing them where they were requested,” Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld <a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/bike/news/2014/aug/DivvyExpansion.html">said</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, though, just a fraction of the docking stations were built in the places recommended by the public, according to our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2018.1476174">new research on participatory bike share planning in Chicago and New York</a>.</p>
<h2>Demands ignored</h2>
<p>New Yorkers suggested 2,000 sites as locations for new bike stations in their city, using <a href="http://nycbikeshare.herokuapp.com/page/about">the transportation department’s interactive online map</a>. But our study, published in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpa20/current">Journal of the American Planning Association</a>, shows that just 5 percent of bike docks built during the 2014-2015 expansion are located within 100 feet of suggested sites. </p>
<p>Chicago was slightly more responsive. Ten percent of docking stations built through 2015 were located at or near the spots residents identified on the <a href="http://suggest.divvybikes.com/page/about">interactive map</a>. </p>
<p>Our findings don’t imply that city officials weren’t listening. There are practical reasons why they weren’t able to put most bike stations where people asked.</p>
<p>Public bikes – a quick, green way of getting around town – are designed to complement buses and subways. So enlarging bike systems in New York and Chicago meant assessing gaps in each city’s transportation network. The results of that analysis may conflict with people’s desires about where new docks should be installed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253338/original/file-20190110-43514-k339dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Yorkers can ask for more Citi Bikes using an interactive online map – but they won’t necessarily get their wish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://nycbikeshare.herokuapp.com">NYC Dept. of Transportation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Transit planners would also have disregarded suggested dock locations that lacked sidewalk space, or were too close to fire hydrants or utility services. </p>
<p>Cities often face resistance when building bike stations, too. Docks can take away coveted parking space, <a href="https://www.6sqft.com/nyc-lost-thousands-of-parking-spots-as-daily-bike-ridership-increased-80-percent-in-five-years/">outraging drivers</a>. In some historic districts, residents and planners see bike docks as <a href="https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/39/36/dtg-boerum-hill-surprise-citibike-station-2016-09-02-bk.html">incompatible with the atmosphere</a>. </p>
<p>Despite these challenges, officials tried to ensure equal access to the new bikes. </p>
<p>“What I’m shooting for is uniformity across every neighborhood,” New York’s bike share director, John Frost, <a href="https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2015/05/13/upper-west-siders-worry-about-big-gaps-between-planned-citi-bike-stations/">told residents at a community meeting in 2015</a>. </p>
<h2>Differences between neighborhoods</h2>
<p>Perfect uniformity is impossible, though. In both cities, we found that the government’s responsiveness to public input varied by neighborhood.</p>
<p>New bike stations in and around downtown Chicago were far more likely to be sited where suggested than those in more suburban areas: 12 percent versus 6 percent. This could be because stations on the outskirts of a system generally are used less, and so are not built as densely as cyclists might like.</p>
<p>The National Association of City Transportation Officials guidelines say that residents of a neighborhood served by bike share should live within a <a href="https://nacto.org/publication/bike-share-station-siting-guide/">five-minute walk</a> of a docking station.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253337/original/file-20190110-43510-bngxeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chicago’s Divvy bikes were more likely to be placed where cyclists wanted in downtown than in more suburban areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Closed_Divvy_Bike_Station_%2811809023254%29.jpg">Edward Stojakovic/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In New York, 9 percent of new docks in outerlying boroughs were built where residents asked. In the city’s financial core of Manhattan, just 3 percent of new docks were – likely because people requested more docks in areas of Manhattan already served by bikes, while city officials wanted to expand into new neighborhoods. </p>
<p>Neither city offered much guidance on these issues for people who went online to suggest locations for new bike stations. So residents just dropped their pin where they thought a dock would make most sense.</p>
<p>New York and Chicago are not the only cities to ask people for input in creating or expanding bike share only to end up with final plans that don’t necessarily reflect it. </p>
<p>Cincinnati, Ohio, used an interactive online map as part of a <a href="https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/bikes/linkservid/241025ED-EFF8-8292-8C6AC74C67C3F7FA/showMeta/0/">feasibility study</a> in 2012 to guide the launch of its bike share. Planners got way more information than they could use: People suggested 330 sites for bike docks throughout the city, across the Ohio River and even into Kentucky. </p>
<p>The launch called for <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/up.v2i3.1013">just 29 stations</a>.</p>
<h2>Lessons for democracy</h2>
<p>The implications of our study go well beyond bike sharing. </p>
<p>Cities must frequently decide how to distribute scarce public resources like low-income housing, transit stations and parks. The experiences of New York, Chicago and Cincinnati offer useful lessons for cities hoping to engage residents in decisions that affect their neighborhoods. </p>
<p>All three made great efforts to gather input on locating new bike docks. But it might not appear so, given that just 5 or 10 percent of suggestions were implemented in the end. </p>
<p>With trust in government at <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2017/12/14/public-trust-in-government-1958-2017/">historic lows</a>, that could make people even more cynical. They don’t know whether requests for public input are genuine or just a show of democratic process – and a waste of time.</p>
<p>But our study found some positive results from the consultation process around bike shares in New York and Chicago, too. </p>
<p>The online maps enabled residents to take direct action in planning their cities, rather than just commenting on the ideas of planners – or waking up to discover a docking station had been built outside their door. </p>
<p>As recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0265813515610337">urban planning research</a> confirms, this kind of transparency – the online maps, community meetings, workshops and the like – also gives decisions more legitimacy. </p>
<p>It also leaves a record, allowing researchers like us to measure and evaluate the results. Understanding where and why people’s ideas were disregarded can be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2015.1104203">learning experience for residents and governments alike</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately, our study finds that cities wanting public input on big decisions must not only engage residents effectively – they must also explain the constraints they face. That helps residents make informed recommendations that are more likely to be implemented. </p>
<p>Locals know their neighborhoods best. We believe cities that really listen will find the best solutions to urban problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Griffin receives funding from the United States Department of Transportation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Junfeng Jiao receives funding from the Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2) University Transportation Center funded by USDOT.
</span></em></p>Under 10 percent of new Citi Bike and Divvy bike docks are sited where residents suggested using interactive online maps, a new study shows. But that doesn’t mean city officials weren’t listening.Greg P. Griffin, PhD candidate, The University of Texas at AustinJunfeng Jiao, Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning and Director, Urban Information Lab, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1077752018-12-05T11:39:49Z2018-12-05T11:39:49ZChicago’s Safe Passage program costs a lot, but it may provide students safer routes to school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248560/original/file-20181203-194938-ewz7uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A safety guard watches as parents walk with their children along a safe passage route on the first day of school in Chicago in 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Schools-Safe-Passage/eed2faf99a364dcbba7e587b756fc9f9/8/0">Spencer Green/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While walking to school last month, a 15-year-old Chicago girl was confronted by two masked men in a van with tinted windows in <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/attempted-kidnappers-tried-to-force-15-year-old-girl-into-van-in-roseland/">an attempted kidnapping</a>. Fortunately, the girl escaped and ran to a nearby adult. The men drove off.</p>
<p>As it turns out, the presence of this adult was more than a fortunate coincidence. For the past decade, Chicago Public Schools has been placing hundreds of adult monitors on streets around schools as part of a program called <a href="https://cps.edu/safepassage">Safe Passage</a>.</p>
<p>Every morning and afternoon, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/28/us/chicago-violence-walking-to-school-a-bullet-could-hit-me-and-my-kids-anytime.html">Safe Passage monitors take up position</a> along designated routes near a quarter of Chicago’s schools in neighborhoods with some of the highest rates of crime.</p>
<p>Chicago is not alone in this approach. Philadelphia has a similar program called <a href="https://www.phila.gov/townwatch/WalkSafePHL/Pages/default.aspx">WalkSafePHL</a>. Los Angeles has a program called <a href="https://www.urbanpeaceinstitute.org/safe-passages/">Safe Passage</a> for children who live in gang violence “hot zones.” Other cities, such as <a href="https://dme.dc.gov/safepassage">Washington D.C.</a>, where at least two high school students were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/dc-police-arrest-two-suspects-in-fatal-stabbing-of-high-school-honor-roll-student/2018/05/23/c658b6fe-5e97-11e8-9ee3-49d6d4814c4c_story.html">stabbed to death</a> in separate incidents <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Woman-Stabbed-Killed-in-Northwest-Washington-397390331.html">in recent years</a> on the way home from school, are in the midst of scaling up such efforts.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MTcxlxMAAAAJ&hl=en">researcher</a> who studies school safety, I recently examined whether the Safe Passage program in Chicago is making a difference and worth the cost. But first, a little history.</p>
<h2>Began after fatal beating</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248562/original/file-20181203-194941-aomtue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nadashia Thomas, 6, a cousin of Derrion Albert, holds a sign beside a poster of her slain cousin at Fenger High School in Chicago in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chicago-Beating-Death-Vigil/59eff3e45a7e45a29622a76ec2bc1293/25/0">Nam Y. Huh/AP</a></span>
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<p>Chicago’s Safe Passage program began in 2009 after a 16-year-old student, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/derrion-albert-the-death-that-riled-the-nation/">Derrion Albert</a>, was beaten to death with a railroad tie after leaving his high school on the city’s south side. The fatal beating was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/29/chicago-derrion-albert-beating-video">captured on cellphone video</a> that was shown worldwide and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2011-08-30-ct-met-derrion-albert-murder-sentencing-20110830-story.html">prompted then-President Barack Obama</a> to dispatch top cabinet officials to the city to find ways to end such violence. Albert – an honor roll student – had been an <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/derrion-albert-the-death-that-riled-the-nation/">innocent bystander</a> caught in the fight between two rival gangs.</p>
<p>Enter Chicago’s Safe Passage program. Wearing yellow vests and carrying radios to connect them to emergency personnel, the street monitors who work for the program seek to provide safe routes for students to commute to and from school. Safe Passage workers are stationed on designated routes where they work to be a friendly face to students, engage in conflict deescalation, and, if needed, report instances of crime to authorities. </p>
<p>The attempted kidnapping of the 15-year-old female student represents a prime example of Safe Passage in action.</p>
<p>Having so many monitors on the streets of Chicago, however, comes at no small <a href="https://southsideweekly.com/is-safe-passage-safe-from-budget-cuts/">cost</a>. Workers are paid US$10.50 an hour and work for 5 hours per day. With <a href="https://cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/PR1_08_30_2018.aspx">1,350 workers deployed</a> at the start of this school year, the program costs about $354,000 dollars per week in workers’ wages alone, a cost that has been covered by the <a href="https://cps.edu/fy18budget/documents/FY18_BudgetBook_approved_amended.pdf">school district</a>, <a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/fss/provdrs/policy_and_advocacy/news/2018/october/mayor-emanuel-releases-2019-budget-proposal.html">city</a> and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-state-announces-10-million-for-cps-safe-passage-program-20140828-story.html">state</a>. </p>
<p>Given the cost, it is important to know the impacts of Safe Passage.</p>
<p>Chicago Public Schools has <a href="https://cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/PR1_01_21_2018.aspx">touted</a> that Safe Passage routes have experienced a 32 percent decline in crime since 2012. Yet, over the same years, crime across Chicago as a whole <a href="https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2017-Annual-Report.pdf">has declined</a>, dropping by 15 percent from 2012 to 2017.</p>
<p>In examining Safe Passage, one of the things I sought to do was figure out the impacts of Safe Passage in isolation from other crime trends occurring at the same time. I recently published <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403418812125">the first peer-reviewed study</a> that examines Safe Passage’s impact on crime. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403418812125">The study</a> drew on three years of crime data from Chicago along with detailed mappings of Safe Passage routes and nearby streets. It examines what happened to reported crime when Chicago Public Schools expanded the Safe Passage program to 53 schools in 2013 in the wake of a number of school closures. Given concerns at the time about displaced students having to travel through unfamiliar neighborhoods to new schools, Safe Passage was implemented at a number of “welcoming schools.” These schools were designated to receive students from schools that were closed.</p>
<h2>Gauging the impact</h2>
<p>The findings of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403418812125">my study</a> suggest that Safe Passage reduced reported crime on the Safe Passage routes. Safe Passage appears to have contributed to 6 to 17 percent less reported crime relative to other nearby streets. The biggest reductions in crime appeared for crimes occurring outdoors and during school hours. This suggests that the program has increased the safety of students’ routes to school.</p>
<p>Unpublished work by <a href="https://www.sites.google.com/site/sarahkomisarow/research">other researchers</a> has found similar results. Some of that work <a href="https://ignaciomsarmiento.github.io/assets/Safe_Passage_WP.pdf">suggests</a> that impacts may be bigger around high schools.</p>
<p>Interestingly, however, I found that crime was also reduced on these streets on weekends, suggesting that Safe Passage may deter crime even when workers are not present, perhaps through other aspects of the program that involved addressing vacant homes, graffiti and other signs of neglect. Alternatively, it could be that some of the effect is attributable to changing patterns of crime that would have occurred regardless of Safe Passage.</p>
<p>Despite apparent impacts on the routes themselves, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403418812125">my study</a> did not find impacts on the areas around the schools more broadly. For schools that were designated to receive students from the schools that were closed in 2013, Safe Passage did not reduce reported crime in the quarter mile around the schools as a whole.</p>
<h2>Is Safe Passage worth the cost?</h2>
<p>The Safe Passage program is expensive, but so is crime. The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20071107">cost of crimes</a> such as robbery and assault can range from $42,000 to over $100,000 per incident. These costs include lost property or earnings by the victim, court and corrections costs, as well as pain and suffering on the part of the victim. Of course, when the crime is a homicide, as it was in the fatal beating of Derrion Albert, the cost is exponentially more. No dollar amount can be placed on a human life.</p>
<p>But speaking strictly in terms of dollars and cents, if Safe Passage was to reduce crime on routes by about 6 percent, a conservative estimate in my study, then each crime deterred would need to save about $23,000 to cover the costs of the program. This is because a 6 percent reduction in crime on Safe Passage routes in 2013 equated to 6.5 fewer reported crimes per week across Safe Passage routes in the city. At the 2013 staffing cost of $150,000 per week, each deterred crime needed to save, on average, $23,000 – a figure derived from $150,000 divided by 6.5 crimes. Covering the costs of the program, then, is certainly possible if the crimes prevented are of a serious or violent nature.</p>
<p>The benefits of Safe Passage may extend well beyond deterred crime. Some <a href="https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/school-closings-chicago-staff-and-student-experiences-and-academic-outcomes">qualitative research</a> suggests that teachers and students view Safe Passage favorably. A <a href="https://ignaciomsarmiento.github.io/assets/Safe_Passage_WP.pdf">working paper</a> by other researchers finds that the program may reduce student absenteeism. If students feel safer, attend school more and perform better academically as a result of Safe Passage, the program’s costs may well be justified for reasons beyond crime reduction. If this is the case, efforts by other cities to implement and expand Safe Passage programs could be worthwhile.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>F. Chris Curran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Following a fatal beating of a student, Chicago started a Safe Passage program in 2009 to ensure students get to and from school safely. Nine years on, how is it working?F. Chris Curran, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1047312018-10-12T10:44:36Z2018-10-12T10:44:36ZWhy the US needs better crime reporting statistics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240131/original/file-20181010-72127-1ujwr2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chicago is often invoked in political debates on crime.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chicago-il-march-19-police-vehicle-1051613657?src=2bdsp1nrDMSrc4PtxWnOlg-1-0">Scott Cornell/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump has long focused on Chicago as a hotbed for American crime. This came up yet again on Oct. 8, when he said that he had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-chicago-police-should-use-stop-and-frisk-tactics-to-curb-shootings/2018/10/08/a4afaaa0-cb0f-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html">directed the Justice Department</a> to work with local officials in Chicago to stem violence in a city overwhelmed by its high rate of violent crime. </p>
<p>With 24.1 homicides per 100,000 people – more than four times the overall U.S. rate – Chicago certainly suffers from serious problems. But, as of a Sept. 25, St. Louis, my hometown, is called by the FBI the most dangerous city in America with over 6,461 violent crimes reported in the city limits in 2017. That’s an increase of more than 7 percent from the previous year. </p>
<p>St. Louis only ranks third for homicides in the U.S. by rate, but it’s the No. 1 most dangerous city. So by what metric does the government measure “most dangerous” – and why is Trump’s focus concentrated on Chicago and not St. Louis? As a statistician studying how people can manipulate numbers, particularly crime data, it is clear to me that the way crimes are currently counted in the U.S. can easily confuse and mislead. </p>
<h2>Crime statistics</h2>
<p>Since 1929, the FBI has managed the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr">Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)</a>, a project that compiles official data on crime across the U.S., provided by smaller law enforcement agencies. For example, in Missouri, data is provided directly to the state by both the county police departments and the smaller municipalities. This information is then sent to the FBI. </p>
<p>With 18,000 different law enforcement agencies providing crime data to the FBI, there must be a standard metric of reporting. So all crimes are classified into only two categories: Part 1 and Part 2. </p>
<p>Part 1 crimes include murder, rape, robbery, larceny-theft and arson – the serious crimes. Part 2 crimes include simple assault, loitering, embezzlement, DUI’s and prostitution – the less serious crimes. </p>
<p>Okay, makes sense. But here’s the catch: None of these crimes are weighted. When a <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-who-killed--year-old-girl-in-ferguson-as/article_1621ebc8-0e59-5367-87a3-eac77b73cc61.html">“beautiful, innocent 9-year-old child who was laying on the bed doing her homework”</a> is murdered in Ferguson as a retaliation killing, it counts just the same as when an individual is arrested for shoplifting US$50 or more from the Dollar Store. This flawed metric allows for incredible confusion.</p>
<p>Take this example. You live in a nice neighborhood with a Kmart on the edge of it. “Serious” crime includes all the shoplifting from the Kmart; let’s say 150 incidents in a year. It also includes all the murders and rapes; call it 20 incidents in a year. The Kmart closes. All of a sudden, your crime rate has gone from 170 to 20: an 88 percent decrease in crime.</p>
<p>Chicago mayoral spokesman Matt McGrath <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-chicago-police-should-use-stop-and-frisk-tactics-to-curb-shootings/2018/10/08/a4afaaa0-cb0f-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html">criticized Trump’s comments</a> to The Washington Post, saying, “Just last week, [the Chicago Police Department] reported there have been 100 fewer murders and 500 fewer shooting victims in Chicago this year, the second straight year of declines.” And really, I crunched the numbers; all serious crimes are only up 6.88 percent since 2014. </p>
<p>But it isn’t the serious crimes that make me look under my bed before I go to sleep at night. It’s the violent crimes. Those are up 24.27 percent in Chicago between 2014 and 2017. Murder is up 59.53 percent. (Researchers <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/chicago-homicide-spike-2016/514331/">are still trying to figure out</a> what’s caused the spike.)</p>
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<p>This metric can be misleading. Former St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay touts <a href="http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st-louis-mayor-police-chief-tout-small-gains-overall-crime-numbers-drop-assaults-increase#stream/0">“small gains”</a> as overall crime numbers drop. Sure, the number of Part 1 crimes has actually dropped by 0.4 percent since 2014. But violent crimes in the city of St. Louis have increased 24.04 percent. </p>
<p>People can also get confused by the way crimes are sliced geographically. For example, in 2016, the city of St. Louis had a homicide rate of 59.8 per 100,000 people, while St. Louis County, which is separated from the city by a street, had a homicide rate of about 3.2 per 100,000. What combination of the two making up greater St. Louis gets reported in the news? Depends on the day. </p>
<h2>New measures</h2>
<p>Here’s what I know: The U.S. needs a better metric. How we measure crime has been contentious since the original FBI crime reporting document was released in 1929. </p>
<p>There are even issues with the counting itself. The FBI website <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-8/table-8-state-cuts/table_8_offenses_known_to_law_enforcement_illinois_by_city_2013.xls">removed data</a> from Chicago’s crime statistics in 2013, because the FBI deemed it to be underreported.</p>
<p>Hopefully, a more accurate metric comes in with the FBI’s <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs-overview">National Incident-Based Reporting System</a>, scheduled to roll out in 2020. For example, if a criminal assaults someone in their home and steals jewelry as well, that’s only counted as an assault under the UCR system. Under NIBRS, both the assault and theft would be counted. </p>
<p>But this system doesn’t seem to address the key issue: weights. Murdering a child cannot possibly count the same as stealing from the Dollar Store. It is inconceivable that raping someone can count the same as illegal gambling. You serve different amounts of jail time based on the severity of the crime – why wouldn’t crimes also be weighted? </p>
<p>Cities like Chicago and St. Louis most certainly have issues with crime. But how the U.S. measures “dangerous” must be made clearer. It does a disservice to our police and our communities by allowing this misrepresentation of the facts. Until then, politicians will be able to use this confusion to confuse the public, intentionally or unintentionally.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liberty Vittert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What’s really the most dangerous American city? The way crimes are currently counted in the US can easily confuse and mislead.Liberty Vittert, Visiting Assistant Professor in Statistics, Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1022342018-09-06T17:42:55Z2018-09-06T17:42:55ZLow-income neighborhoods would gain the most from green roofs in cities like Chicago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235070/original/file-20180905-45169-pgfw1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Morris Inn on the University of Notre Dame campus has had a green roof since 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ashish Sharma</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Heat waves aren’t just a source of discomfort. They’re the nation’s deadliest weather hazard, accounting for <a href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml">a fifth of all deaths caused by natural hazards in the U.S.</a> </p>
<p>Most of the time, low-income people who live in cities face the biggest risks tied to extreme heat. That’s because <a href="https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/ua/urban-rural-2010.html">urban areas</a>, especially neighborhoods with few parks or yards, absorb high amounts of solar radiation during the day – keeping night temperatures higher than in suburbs and rural areas.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JlSZCaoAAAAJ">atmospheric scientist</a> who studies urban environments in an <a href="https://environmentalchange.nd.edu/">interdisciplinary way</a> that combines science, engineering and social sciences. I belong to a team of researchers and other professionals that’s looking into one solution we believe will help cool off homes, businesses and other structures all summer long: green roofs.</p>
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<h2>Urban ecosystems</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/what-green-infrastructure">Green infrastructure</a> encompasses a range of methods to manage weather impacts, providing many community benefits in cost-effective ways.</p>
<p>For example, using <a href="https://www.go-gba.org/resources/green-building-methods/permeable-pavements/">permeable pavement</a>, <a href="https://www.cwp.org/urban-tree-canopy/">planting and preserving trees and other green spaces</a>, establishing <a href="https://www.dwell.com/article/living-green-walls-101-their-benefits-and-how-theyre-made-350955f3">vertical gardens</a> on a building’s exterior and making <a href="https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/energy-efficient-home-design/cool-roofs">rooftops white</a> can all help moderate urban temperatures, cut utility bills and make neighborhoods nicer places to live.</p>
<p>Many cities are also experimenting with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/6/064004">green roofs</a>, rooftops that are partially or completely covered in <a href="http://myplantconnection.com/green-roofs-maintenance.php">drought-resistant</a> plants with drainage and leak detection systems, to see if they can cool off urban heat.</p>
<p>These roofs can serve as a source of insulation or shade, cut electricity consumption, add green space and reduce air pollution. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-and-cool-roofs-provide-relief-for-hot-cities-but-should-be-sited-carefully-60766">bunching too many of them</a> together in large areas could actually reduce air quality by increasing humidity and pollution.</p>
<p>I led a recent study that used an interdisciplinary approach to see where it would make the most sense to install green roofs to cool off homes in hot neighborhoods. As we explained in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad93c">Environmental Research Letters</a>, an academic journal, we identified Chicago’s most vulnerable, heat-stressed neighborhoods – communities that would benefit most from <a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/chicago_green_roofs.html">this amenity</a>.</p>
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<h2>Straining utilities and burdening the poor</h2>
<p>When temperature spike in cities, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands/heat-island-impacts#energy">electricity use rises sharply</a> making it hard for utilities susceptible to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130719103146.htm">power outages</a>. When the lights go out, critical services such as drinking water, transportation and health care can be jeopardized. And poorer people, whose neighborhoods tend to be the hottest, can be the most at risk.</p>
<p>Some of the <a href="https://states.aarp.org/cooling-assistance-available-low-income-seniors-individuals-medical-needs/">poorest Americans</a>, of course, do not even have air conditioning. In other cases, they may have it installed but face so much economic hardship that they can’t afford to use it. </p>
<p>Chicago is most vulnerable to outages in July, when temperatures tend to peak. Electricity usage gets nearly as high in December due to the widespread use of <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-10-27/business/0610270271_1_holiday-lights-outdoor-bulbs-holiday-season">Christmas lights</a> throughout the <a href="http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/media/enews/2006/2006-07_Holiday-Energy.htm#lights">holiday season</a>, the <a href="https://www.4abc.com/blog/household-heating-statistics/">electric heat</a> consumed by 20 percent of local residents and the incidence of many of the year’s longest nights.</p>
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<p>Green roofs can help avoid outages by lowering rooftop surface temperatures. In turn, residents may consume less air conditioning and ease the strain on the grid when it matters most. But how green roofs should be deployed to maximize these benefits remains an open question.</p>
<h2>Where to invest</h2>
<p>My team identified neighborhoods that had the most to gain from green roofs by figuring out which neighborhoods had the most <a href="https://ahs-vt.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=5bfd71bdeff242d4a8f0d2780369807a">heat vulnerability</a>, and the greatest potential <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/6/064004/meta">reductions in rooftop temperatures with green roofs</a>, and <a href="https://data.cityofchicago.org/Environment-Sustainable-Development/Energy-Usage-2010/8yq3-m6wp">used the most electricity</a> for air conditioning.</p>
<p>People who reside in poor vulnerable neighborhoods consistently use relatively little air conditioning. However, businesses located in vulnerable neighborhoods do use more energy than enterprises located in more affluent areas because <a href="https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands">temperatures tend to get and stay higher</a> in poorer neighborhoods, requiring more energy to cool down interiors.</p>
<p>We designed steps for urban planners and city officials to scientifically set priorities for a public effort to install green roofs, neighborhood by neighborhood. </p>
<p>Most of the communities we determined would get the biggest benefits from green roofs are located on Chicago’s South Side and West Side. Given that between 1986 and 2015, an average of <a href="https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/weather-event-fatalities-heat">130 people lost their lives across U.S.</a> every year due to heat stress, for many of these residents it could be a matter of life and death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102234/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashish Sharma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Taking this step may improve the quality of life for vulnerable people and reduce the amount of air conditioning they use, making their neighborhoods less prone to power outages.Ashish Sharma, Research Assistant Professor, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.