Yes, there are good things happening in even some of the poorest neighborhoods in urban America.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are ways to use data, research, and good policy decisions to strengthen the quality of life in such neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
No, it\u2019s not easy and there are no quick solutions.<\/p>\n
That can be seen as a summary of a two-day visit to Marquette Law School by one of the most influential figures in America in urban research, Robert Sampson, who is Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and director of the Boston Area Research Initiative. Sampson\u2019s 2012 book, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect<\/em>, is playing a significant \u00a0role in a surge of big-data projects aimed at thoroughly assessing the strengths and weakness of neighborhoods in cities and using that knowledge to shape more effective ways of preserving and improving neighborhoods. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sampson delivered the Law School\u2019s annual Boden Lecture on Wednesday and took part, along with Professor Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, in an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d program on Thursday. Sampson also met during his visit with faculty members from Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and with community leaders.<\/p>\n Sampson \u00a0took a two-hour driving tour of Milwaukee, including some of the city\u2019s least affluent neighborhoods. Inn important ways, he liked what he saw. He also examined \u00a0data about Milwaukee\u2019s strengths and weaknesses. The result was a generally optimistic message about Milwaukee\u2019s potential to improve both overall and in individual neighborhoods.<\/p>\n There is no minimizing Milwaukee\u2019s problems, including high poverty and a high degree of segregation by both race and income, Sampson said. But he pointed to some of the things he saw in the data, including an increase in the city of Milwaukee\u2019s population since 2000; things he heard from people involved in efforts to improve life in Milwaukee neighborhood\u2019s; and things he saw with his own eyes, including low-income neighborhoods that had affordable, generally good housing stock.<\/p>\n One of Sampson\u2019s most influential conclusions has been that, even in areas with high poverty and crime, there is variation from one neighborhood to another in the \u201ccollective efficacy\u201d of people in the neighborhood in maintaining quality of life and helping meet neighborhood needs. \u00a0There are lessons to be learned from neighborhoods that are doing better, and there are policies, ranging from large-scale initiatives by the federal government or state governments down to nitty-gritty work on policing and \u00a0neighborhood-specific disputes and nuisances, \u00a0that can help improve life in neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Sampson\u2019s conclusions are based on work including a multi-year study that tracked the lives of 6,200 children in Chicago and an analysis of huge amounts of data about Chicago neighborhoods. But the work also included an unusual experiment in which stamped, addressed letters were dropped in neighborhoods, with the goal of seeing how many were picked up by someone and dropped in mail boxes. The rates of returned envelopes varied widely by neighborhood and correlated with other indications of neighborhood strengths or weaknesses, Sampson said. The envelope test was a good indicator of how much people in a neighborhood were willing to help others.<\/p>\n Sampson moved to Harvard and Boston several years ago and is enthusiastic about a project using mountains of data to look at life in neighborhoods, in hopes of addressing problems effectively. The effort has drawn wide support and involvement.<\/p>\n Sampson said the White House announced an initiative this week to provide funding to 20 cities that are partnering with local universities to conduct work similar to the Boston project. Milwaukee is not among those cities \u2013 but Sampson said he couldn\u2019t see any reason why such partnerships couldn\u2019t be launched in Milwaukee and couldn\u2019t have benefit here.<\/p>\n After listing some of the difficult problems facing Milwaukee \u2013 poverty, segregation, lack of jobs, high rates of incarceration of black males — Sampson struck an overall positive note in the session with Gousha, the Law School\u2019s distinguished fellow in law and public policy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not here just to be a counsel of despair,\u201d he said. \u201dThere are problems. But as I drive around Milwaukee I see lots of potential. And, frankly, maybe it\u2019s just because I lived in Chicago and saw so many disadvantaged neighborhoods, it doesn\u2019t seem that bad to me\u201d in Milwaukee. He said there are many physical assets in neighborhoods and good support for budding initiatives. And there is a context of a national renaissance for urban centers across the United States that Milwaukee can capitalize on.<\/p>\n In the Boden Lecture, he said, \u201cThe outside view is that Milwaukee is going down the tubes. I don\u2019t see it. . . . . I have no doubt you can take the city to a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n