Katherine Rowell

Partial Transcript: Why are you interested in this question of residential segregation in Dayton?

Segment Synopsis: Katherine talks about how she became interested in the topic of residential segregation. She discusses how important the topic is to her field, sociology. She goes on to talk about her background in working with urban and suburban homeless populations in the Miami Valley region.

Keywords: American Apartheid; Dayton; Douglas Massey; Montgomery County; Nancy Denton; hyper-segregation; residential segregation; urban sociology

Subjects: Homelessness; Poverty; Segregation; Social stratification; Sociology

Partial Transcript: How did this come to be?

Segment Synopsis: Katherine discusses the processes by which residential segregation was created in Dayton and in other Northern cities. She says that segregation in Northern and Rust Belt cities stems from the Great Migration,when African Americans began moving northward in large numbers, and were forced to live in designated areas of the cities. She says that these original policies were later enforced by practices of redlining, which continued into the era of suburbanization. She goes on to talk about the studies that have been done on this forced segregation. rShe discusses a study that stated that relocating Black people from low-income neighborhoods to suburbs was not beneficial, and that that study was recently disproven, and that moving people from low-income neighborhoods to high-income suburbs is over all beneficial to residents. Then, she talks about how African Americans were denied the ability to suburbanized along with white Americans, through practices like redlining, which led to the hyper-segregation which exists today.

Keywords: Great Migration; Redlining; Rust Belt; White Flight; hyper-segregation; neighborhood stabilization; relocation

Subjects: Segregation; Suburbs

Partial Transcript: I'm wondering, in your research, if you've found that there are particular reasons that suburbanites will cite as being the reasons that they don't want to have low-income housing in their neighborhoods?

Segment Synopsis: Katherine talks about the reasons that people in high income suburbs do not want low-income housing projects in their areas. She says that many suburbanites cite property value issues and crime explicitly as reasons to reject affordable housing initiatives. More implicitly, she discusses racism in suburbs as a reason for people to be against low income housing. She also says that there are some communities who have accepted low-income housing projects, and that the results in those areas have been beneficial to residents.

Keywords: Crime; Property value; Xenia; policy; racialized society

Subjects: Low-income housing; Racism; Suburbs

Partial Transcript: Are there any specific policies that have either been complicit or have been the leading force in creating urban segregation, suburbanization, disinvestment, things like this?

Segment Synopsis: Katherine cites zoning laws as a primary force in creating the conditions for urban segregation in Dayton. She also says that there are problems with absentee landlords, and a lack of enforcement on the policies set forth for absentee landlords to abide by. She goes on to discuss the effects of the housing crisis on low income neighborhoods, because so many people who were already impoverished were given large loans, and then many properties were foreclosed upon. She says there has been a lot of disinvestment in communities as well. Federally, she says, insurance companies have refused to give coverage to people living in low-income communities.

Keywords: Absentee landlords; enforcement; sub-prime housing crisis

Subjects: Disinvestment; Foreclosure; Segregation; Zoning

Partial Transcript: What do you think it is about the Rust Belt? Is there a nexus of the economy and the social landscape that 's particular to the Rust Belt?

Segment Synopsis: Katherine talks about high levels of segregation throughout the Rust Belt region, and specifically Ohio. She says that a lot of this is because of the recent movement in the area from an industrial economy to a service economy. She says that Ohio had been very dependent on the automobile industry, and when the industry failed, there was not enough diversity in the economy to maintain the job market. Additionally she says, this was intensified by the housing market crisis. She suggests that perhaps with these colossal changes to the economy, the US staple of homeownership as a creator of wealth will cease to me a major component of American life.

Keywords: Rust Belt; automobile industry; economy; education; home ownership; industrial economy; service economy; social landscape; wages

Subjects: Home ownership; Segregation

Partial Transcript: If we are moving away from a home-owning society, then where is the wealth going to be generated?

Segment Synopsis: Katherine says that in the future home ownership may not as be as big of a factor in building wealth in the US. However, she does say that more people of color are moving into the suburbs and buying homes than in the past, while what she calls the "urban underclass" has been left behind in this process.

Keywords: Fair housing; equity; home ownership; urban underclass; wealth building

Subjects: Home ownership

Partial Transcript: I am looking for a neighborhood in Dayton, probably on the West Side, and then a suburb, either the Fairborn area or the Kettering area, that may have experienced urban renewal and the subset of urban renewal

Segment Synopsis: Katherine discusses various neighborhoods and areas of the Miami Valley region that would be beneficial to study for information about segregation. She says that Kettering would be informative in terms of the suburbanization of industry. She goes on to say that places like Fairborn and Beavercreek may prove less beneficial, due to their low levels of racial integration, as well as their proximity to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. She also suggests that in addition to looking at areas with high levels of segregation, it may be useful to study areas with high integration, such as Huber Heights. She goes on to discuss attempts at the revitalization of certain areas that faced severe disinvestment following suburbanization, and how that initial disinvest created a major barrier to improving conditions.

Keywords: Beavercreek; Carillon; Dayton; Fairborn; Huber Heights; Kettering; Roosevelt; Wright-Dunbar; industry suburbanization; integration; military base; segregation; slum clearance; urban renewal

Subjects: Disinvestment; Segregation; Suburbs