‘Ain't nothin' here in Buffalo’: Residents' perceptions about living in a racially isolated, high-poverty neighborhood

Abstract

Research documents how spatial location in American metropolitan areas influences individuals' and families' life chances due to differential access to opportunity. Racial residential segregation and concentrated poverty interact to create an especially vulnerable population within American cities. Less research has been performed about the detailed perceptions of residents who live in spatially isolated neighborhoods with high levels of poverty. Using in-depth interviews in a Buffalo, New York, neighborhood, we develop a better understanding of how geographic isolation influences individuals' attitudes about and perceptions of their lives. Respondents discuss subjects ranging from transportation to employment and outline the ways in which concentrated disadvantage impacts their daily lives.

Keywords:

• urban poverty
• concentrated disadvantage
• residential segregation
• racial inequality
• Buffalo
• in-depth interviews

Acknowledgment

We thank the University at Buffalo Honors College and Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program for their generous support and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable input.

Notes on contributors

William Jamal Richardson is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University. With broad interests in urban sociology and the sociology of racial domination, Richardson is interested in social understandings of public space, the role of racial residential segregation in structuring collective action in urban communities, and how identity and knowledge are understood and interacted with by various African diaspora communities.

Lori Glantz is currently a Licensed Master of Social Work. She attended the University at Buffalo Honors College and received an undergraduate degree in Sociology. Glantz focuses her study and direct practice on issues related to urban inequality, poverty, and education systems.

Robert Adelman is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. An urban sociologist studying social stratification in the USA, Adelman analyzes patterns, trends, and processes related to residential segregation and neighborhood inequality, immigration, internal migration, and labor force differences by race, ethnicity, and nativity.

Notes

1. Although the ‘East Side’ crosses a number of zip codes and census tracts, most of our respondents came from one zip code (14215) and these figures reflect that area. These are American Community Survey data collected by the US Census Bureau from 2008 to 2012 (for brevity, we refer to them as 2012 data).

2. To illustrate with an extreme example from Buffalo: In 1995, a woman from the East Side was killed as she tried to cross a major thoroughfare on her way to work at a suburban mall that would not allow city buses to drop off riders on its property (Chen 1999).

3. Most (12) respondents talked about their own educational experiences, though six parents described only their children's, while the other three parents discussed their kids' and their own experiences in combination.

4. Two respondents attended private schools, with one other respondent graduating from an alternative high school in Buffalo. Everyone else – or their children – attended public schools.