Interesting account of change and stability in four Chicago neighborhoods. Is it possible to have a neighborhood that people care enough to fight for, that is stable and is still racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse? This book provides no examples of it, if it is. A pretty sobering account of neighborhood life in Chicago.

Fascinating read - I have guesses for the neighborhoods, but since all of these studies took place when I was in elementary school, I'm not quite sure. Fellow Chicagoans - read it and confirm!

A field study about the racial demographics of four neighborhoods in Chicago. Although the study was completed in the late 1990s, many of the research cited in the book is outdated. Interesting parallels like social programs needed to support lower end communities still sadly apply today.

You gotta love Wilson. This books describes 4 neighborhoods in Chicago with different racial make-ups and different levels of resident turnover. The book focuses on how residents choose to react to neighborhood change in terms of two options- voice or escape.

I wish I could say I was surprised by anything in this book, but our country's attitude toward race appears to be the same as it has been for decades. But it's always good to check in with the individuals who make this country, just to see if anything is changing. The book includes lots of quotes from residents, providing a look at their perspective in their words. It brings the situation to an individual level that reveals much about race relations and why there are so few racially integrated neighborhoods.

The authors are particularly focused on what causes a neighborhood to reach the "tipping point" of racial turnover. An interesting study, but unfortunately they have little to say about what conditions might lead to successful integration and coexistence (and, in fact, are somewhat pessimistic about it). Please write more about how to achieve my NPR-listening latte liberal fantasies next time.

Interesting study of changing neighborhoods in Chicago - not exactly riveting, but defintely worth reading if you live in Chicago & social issues are important to you.

It skimmed the major generalities but didn't really dive deep. It all boils down to this... people want to be around like minded people.

This is a quick, reasonably well-written, often very disheartening read about well, racial and class tensions in four (Southwest Side) Chicago neighborhoods. I definitely want to read Wilson's other works, but my rating of this one may be unduly harsh because I truly don't understand why it took the researchers so long to publish this work. I've lived in Chicago a long time (12+ years) and many areas (South Loop, Maxwell Street, much of East Village/West Town) are incredibly, almost unrecognizably different from when I moved here. Yet the research for this book was done before that (1993-95), and several of the researchers had long-ago published their own books based on this research by the time this one came out in 2006. I'm used to sociological books being based on work done years before publication, but it just seems so extreme in this case. The SW and NW sides of Chicago tend to change more slowly than the North Side and central areas, but still...

I'm also someone who gets extremely cranky with the convention among some sociologists of giving neighborhoods/cities fake names. It's not too hard to figure out these four, but I still found it an unnecessary contrivance. So many works of sociology/history/oral history don't change names: Black on the Block (Oakland-Kenwood); The South Side (Calumet Heights); The Near Northwest Side Story (Humboldt & Wicker Park); Back of the Yards (uh...).

Forgive me if these complaints are petty, but I couldn't get past them. There's real value to this work; I'd just like a comparison of what these neighborhoods are like NOW, 10+ years later.

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything in this book very surprising. Some people in Chicago can get along with each other, but many others only want to live by people just like themselves. Many old people are suspicious of young people, many Polish people are angry about Mexican people, many Puerto Rican people are afraid of black people. Sad, but a fairly obvious situation if you've ever walked around in any neighborhood of Chicago. I wish they had studied at least one neighborhood that was gentrifying instead of just focusing on ones with increased lower-income/minority residents. I'd like to hear how locals deal with wealthier people buying up space and changing things. One encouraging factor was the increased comfort people had with each other when they were involved in groups together - PTA, etc. If only the churches in Chicago could serve as unifying areas more often.

Very interesting insight into changing neighborhoods and racism and classism. Two things would have made it better- one to know the neighborhoods and 2 to have cho send at least one neighborhood on the north side. Otherwise worth reading

An easily digestible and timeless account of white flight and ethnic enclaves. Nothing particularly "shocking" or new though, as the summary suggests.

Quick to read and somewhat superficial. But still good.