Blog #8

The term “urban poverty” was coined by William Julius Wilson in New Work Disappears; The World of New Urban Poor where he analyzed demographic data from inner city neighbors in the Chicago area. He states that decline of labor in urban areas and migration of well workers to other areas leaves a concentration of unskilled, unemployed people. He then mentions that since so many poor people are concentrated in one area the schools, churches, and other social programs are weakened (Chaudry 128). What happens in these situations is that single women are stuck in these areas because they have no means of moving away. They are too poor to move to another neighborhood or to leave their current job, if they even have one. An important point about these concentrated areas of poverty is they become extremely unsafe and dangerous. Wilson mentions that drug dealing and other activity is prominent in these areas; which makes it unsafe to raise children in these areas. In one of the videos, the mother was aware that she could not let her children play outside because it was too dangerous. The middle class people who once lived in the area move away because the neighbor is getting bad, which means their vacancies invite more people to move in. Businesses are going to close down and new ones are not going to open in areas of little to no money which means no jobs for poor women. If these women lived in an area of mixed classes they could let their children play outside, rely on neighbors for childcare, and possibly have job opportunities. The neighborhood would be more inviting for new businesses and middle class people to move in. In urban poverty centers the concentration of poor gets higher and higher where as in mixed class areas, it stays the same.

This idea of “urban poverty” reminds me of a similar concept I learned about in Criminal Justice 350: Law and Social Control. This theory was called the “broken window” theory; it is said that if a window in an abandoned building was broken and left unfixed then the other windows in the building would be broken too. The other windows would be vandalized because one broken window means that no one cares about the building. Once all the windows are broken, maybe other vandalism starts to occur, groups of juveniles gather on corners, more people are drinking on the streets, and maybe more homeless come to the neighborhood. More homeless and increased crime on the streets make the neighborhood unsafe and affluent families move out so only the poor are left. In essence “urban poverty” and the “broken window” theory from James Wilson have the same agenda, small steps until the entire neighborhood is a concentration of poor, unskilled, and unemployed people. Overall, there seems to be a general consensus that living in urban areas that are going downhill is a dangerous place to raise a family.