Please sit with your group

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Please sit with your group
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Correction to Activity Sheet 7(Crowding)
2 pm
11 am

• There is an error on the website address I gave
  for 5 Housing Density
• www.census.gov/population/censnusdata/ . . .
• should be www.census.gov/population/censusdata
  /. .

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Urban Environments
Exploring person-environment relations in cities,
neighborhoods, and public places
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LIFE IN THE BIG CITY
Is it good? . . . or bad?
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Growth in population in New York City

• 1800 79,000
• 1820 152,000
• 1840 391,000
• 1860 1,175,000
• 1880 1,912,000
• 1900 3,437,000
• 1920 5,621,000

• 1940 7,455,000
• 1960 7,782,000
• 1980 7,072,000
• 2000 8,008,000

Growth 1800-1900 4250
1900-2000 133
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Imagine that youre part of the great migration
from small towns/villages in Europe or the rural
south to NYC.
What are the psychological adjustments youd need
to make?
Anonymity
Less consensus about social norms
Stimulus overload
Rate of change
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LIFE IN THE BIG CITY

• Positives
• Its a carnival!
• More resources (cultural, educational, leisure,
  etc)
• More job opportunities

• Negatives
• Loosening of social norms (crime, etc)
• Problems from higher density (traffic, noise,
  pollution)

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Neighborhoods - the building blocks of cities

• In urban areas, residents sense of attachment is
  usually to a smaller area a neighborhood.
• Neighborhood is a psychological concept.
• Residents conception of their neighborhood may
  not match legal or political boundaries.

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What is a neighborhood?

• Many attempts at definition
• Ask residents to draw neighborhood boundaries
  on town map consensus?
• use of arbitrary divisions

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Hartfords 17 Neighborhoods
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Census Maps

• Blocks (individual blocks 101, 102, etc.)
• Block Groups (combinations of blocks 100s,
  200s, etc.)
• Tract (combinations of block groups)

You can get maps with census tract boundaries,
etc. at tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapsurfer
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Neighborhood as an elementary school district
(Warren Warren, 1977)

• chose elementary school district as definition of
  neighborhood
• clear boundaries
• walkable
• usually 2500-5000 persons

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Classification of Neighborhoods

• Warren Warren used 3 dimensions
• Identity area had clear sense of identity as
  a neighborhood (name).
• Interaction amount of face-to-face
  interaction between neighbors.
• Linkages connection of individuals to others
  beyond the neighborhood.

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Neighborhood Type Identity
Interaction Linkages
Integral
Parochial
- Diffuse -
- Stepping Stone -
Transitory - -
Anomic - - -
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Group Discussion Questions

• Identify the types of neighborhoods described in
  the vignettes.
• What kind of neighborhood do you think you live
  in? Why?

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Neighborhood Types
Vignette Integral Parochial Diffuse
Stepping-Stone Transitory Anomic
1 2 3 4 5
?
?
?
?
?
Your Neighbor- hood?
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Neighborhood satisfaction has been linked to . .
.

• Satisfaction with the community as a whole
• Psychological well-being
• Life satisfaction

Urban Neighborhoods and Mental Health1
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What contributes to neighborhood satisfaction?

• Personal factors
• Physical influences
• Social Influences

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Personal Factors

• People need to adapt to stimulation level of the
  neighborhood.
• Property ownership people who own property are
  generally more satisfied than those who rent.

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Physical Influences

• Aesthetics
• -- building mix (mix of residential
  commercial)
• -- green space (trees, lawns, places to walk)
• -- open views
• -- physically well-maintained (lawns cut, no
  trash)
• Noise (unwanted sound)
• -- particularly annoying to suburban residents

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Social Influences
Social Interaction
social interaction
neighborhood satisfaction
physical features

• Safety concerns/crime
• children traffic
• fear of crime (not closely related to
  actual crime rate)

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Thought question

• Are streets empty because they are dangerous?
• or . . .

Are they dangerous because they are empty?
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Defensible Space proponents would say

• Streets are dangerous because they are empty! (no
  natural surveillance from neighbors, etc.)
• Make physical changes that
• reduce through traffic by strangers
• increase social interaction natural
  surveillance by residents

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How we create defensible space an example
Gates turn through roads into cul-de-sacs Entry
Portal alerts people they are entering a distinct
neighborhood
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Urban Neighborhoods and Mental Health1
1From required reading Urban Neighborhoods and
Mental Health by Abraham Wandersman Maury
Nation.
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Urban Neighborhoods and Mental Health

• Epidemiological evidence of higher rates of
  mental illness/social pathology in urban areas
• Most research suggests that these higher rates
  are not due simply to urban residence (density)
  per se, but involve economic and social
  correlates of urban living
• Wandersman Nation present 3 models that explore
  the neighborhood characteristics gt pathology
  link

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Neighborhood Structural Characteristics and
Mental Health
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Structural Model

• Links area (census tract, zip code)
  characteristics to rates of mental health
  problems.
• Early studies did not study mediating processes
  more recent studies have begun to do this.
• Example Child Maltreatment

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Neighborhood Disorder Model and Mental Health
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Neighborhood Disorder Model

• Links mental health to the presence of physical
  and social signs of neighborhood decline
• Presence of incivilities challenges publics
  belief that there are shared norms of appropriate
  social and public behavior
• Breakdown of such norms leads to increased
  anxiety, heightened fear of crime, etc. on part
  of residents
• Lack of clear norms may also reinforce continued
  negative behavior by perpetrators

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Environmental Stressors and Mental Health
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Environmental Stress Model

• Examines the relationship between elements of the
  ambient and built environment and mental health
• Ambient stressors relatively stable
  environmental conditions (noise, crowding, etc.)
  which can be stressful by interfering with
  important goals or physical or psychological
  health
• Chronic stressors eventually deplete residents
  coping resources which may result in
  psychological problems
• Some evidence that these effects are most severe
  in children (who have fewer coping resources than
  adults)

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Environmental Stress Model Some sample findings

• Damons (1977) study of traffic noise in low
  income neighborhoods found residents in
  high-noise areas had more arrests and took less
  care of their properties than residents in
  quieter areas.
• Baum, Davis Aiello (1978) found that residents
  living on busy streets had less social
  interaction with neighbors (compared to residents
  on less busy streets).
• Saegert (1982) compared students living in
  high-density, high rise buildings with students
  living in low-density, low rise buildings and
  found more behavioral problems and lower reading
  scores in the first group.

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Temperature and Social Disorder

• 1960s urban riots
• U.S. Riot Commission noted correlation between
  temperature and riots
• FBI lists climate as a variable in explaining
  incidence of crime

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Temperature and Social Disorder

• Lots of studies on violent crime rates
  temperature
• Most find a positive correlation between
  aggression temperature
• Some other findings
• More baseball players hit with wild pitches
  as temperature increases
• Drivers blow their horns more often at
  temperatures above 85o F

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Walking in urban environments

• Do people stroll in small towns and march in the
  metropolis??
• Yes! Walking speed (on average) appears to be
  related to the size of the community
• Velocity (in feet/second) .86 log P
  (population) .05 New Britain population
  70,010
• V .86 (4.845) .05 3.907 feet/sec 2.66 mph

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What Makes a Good Neighborhood?

• Sidney Browerinterested in what residents felt
  made a good neighborhood
• Current nostalgia for 19th century-like small
  town neighborhood is misguidedthere is clearly
  more than one type of good neighborhood
  Celebration, FL

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Brower conceptualized 3 places where lifestyle
and neighborhood form came together

• Ambience kinds of land uses and the spatial and
  formal arrangement of the physical environment
  which influences neighborhood activity and gives
  a place a look and feel.
• Engagement the way that residents engage and
  avoid engagement with one another and how this is
  facilitated or obstructed by the physical and
  social features of the neighborhood.
• Choicefulness the extent to which residents are
  able to choose where, how and with whom they will
  live.

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Brower identified 33 characteristics of good
neighborhoods

• He grouped them under the 3 dimensions previously
  identified (see handout)
• Brower hypothesized 4 types of neighborhoods
• Center
• Small Town
• Residential partnerships
• Retreats

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Type 1 - Center

• A part of the city that is lively and busy, with
  lots to see and do, It has a mix of many
  different people and uses, and it attracts
  visitors from other parts of the city and beyond.

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Type 2 - Small Town

• A place in the city that has the feeling of a
  small town, with its own institutions and meeting
  places. People who live here know one another and
  are able to recognize those who do not live here.

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Type 3 - Residential Partnerships

• A separate residential part of the city, a place
  for family and home life. Residents go to other
  parts of the city for work, shopping and
  entertainment.

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Type 4 - Retreats

• A part of the city where one feels removed from
  other people and their activities. People who
  live here tend to be independent and go their
  separate ways.

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Brower asked Baltimore residents to rate the 33
characteristics as they applied to the 4 types

• He found particular characteristics associated
  with each hypothesized type of neighborhood
• Respondents were able to identify a particular
  neighborhoods in Baltimore that fit these 4 types

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Who prefers these neighborhood types?

• Centers
• Yuppies, newly marrieds, young adults just out
  of school or home, adults in their 20s and 30s
• Small town
• People who want to settle down, stable,
  homebodies, established, have a secure job,
  prefer routine to surprises
• Residential partnerships
• married families with children
• Retreats
• people who like privacy and quiet, being
  alone, independent, anti-social, out of the
  mainstream

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You are where you live Activity Sheet

• Based on extensive market research, marketing
  companies have developed lifestyle profiles of
  every zip code area.
• PRIZM 62 clusters
• MicroVision 48 segments
• http//cluster2.claritas.com/YAWYL/Default.wjsp?Sy
  stemWL