Group project- low income area (Lacy- Santa Ana)
This is the group project. I will be researching part III- which is opportunities or barriers for residents within the area.
City:Santa Ana
Direction: focus on how rent (mainly, since we will try to find research for the methods section
about rent in santa ana) and maybe income, taxes, and crime rates influence/contribute to the
composition of neighborhoods; specifically in what kind of school programs they have in regards
to funding and maybe scholarships, as well as the amounts of parks and public services like
libraries or even buses. We’ll describe the history from 1980-2018 of how the certain area of
Santa Ana surrounding the cross streets of W Santa Ana Blvd. and Main St. has remained
persistently poor (and further north of this area is becoming poor), and we can try to tie it into
rent levels or gentrification of other areas pushing lower-income families to form these
communities. We’ll describe the racial and ethnic make-up of the area, and maybe try to link the
way Orange County distributes funding to different cities. We can try to elaborate on the findings
of high school dropout rate, teen pregnancy rate, crime rates, unemployment/jobless rate, and
see how that affects the availability of jobs with upward mobility and the access to college and
public parks. Maybe we can try to focus on how crime rates or the perspective of viewing the
city as dangerous negates the need for parks.
Low Income Neighborhood: Lacy
· Provide a brief history of the broader area within which the neighborhood is located.
· Provide a descriptive profile of the neighborhood. This should include the income of residents
and the racial and ethnic make-up of the neighborhood.
· Provide a description of opportunities in the neighborhood. This can include occupations of
residents, average commute of residents, housing affordability and rent, incarceration rates,
quality of schools, among other important information. How do these attributes present
opportunities or barriers for residents within these areas?
· Explain for some of the possible causes for the composition of the neighborhood and the
challenges and opportunities facing residents.
History: Samantha
Descriptive profile: Chelsea
Opportunities/Barriers: Leena and Tsun
Intro & Conclusion: Leena
Lit Review (1 pg.)/Methods Section (½ pg.): Jacqueline
Findings/Disc Section (3 pg.): Everyone
Bibliography: Everyone
History:
Lacy is a neighborhood located in the city of Santa Ana. In a broader discussion, the
history of Santa Ana started when William H. Spurgeon purchased 74.2 acres of land and built
the city in 1869.
● Santa ana has always been a poorer community
● Was first explored in 1769 by Spanish expedition, was named Rancho Santiago de
Santa Ava
○ Ground was fertile for crops and cattle grazing so more settlers were drawn to
the area
● Bought from Jacob Ross, Sr $595
● Spurgeon became the first mayor of the city at the time when the population was only
2,000
● Public transportation during this time was built where horse carriages were still used
○ Freeways opened in 1953
● First school started in 1870
● Used to have vast acres of land like ranches, filled with fruits and trees
● 1980, apartment houses
○ Became more crowded, population expanded and organizations began
■ Goodwill, Salvation Army, LULAC,YMCA
● By 1980, areas were citifies were business areas grew
○ Redevelopment program brought back lost businesses
■ New mall was built
● Known as “the golden city”
Descriptive Profile:
Opportunities/Barriers:
● Household income (2014-2015): $26K
● Median rent 2012-2016: $973
● Female teen birth rate (ages 13-19): 28%
○ Hispanic: 34%
● Single parents: 22%
● Poverty rates: 37% (2012-2016); 35.3% (2018)
● Non-white population: 94%
● Foreign-born: 54% (in the higher percentile)
● Incarceration rate:
Lit Review (1 pg.)/Methods Section (½ pg.): jacqueline
Lacy, a neighborhood in Santa Ana, has turned from a poor community into a gentrified urban
area with coffee shops and Instagram worthy restaurants. It is inhabited with 5,000 people who
have faced negative experiences from the attraction of new businesses which have begun to push
them out. Wirth mentioned in his journal, “Similarly, persons of homogeneous status and needs
unwittingly drift into, consciously select, or are forced by circumstances into, the same area”.
You see a lot of the same people in this area. This neighborhood is saturated with individuals
from the Latinx community who face financial issues, many of which came to the United States
for opportunity to work but lack the resources to earn a high paying job. Like Stein mentions,
“Around the country, rent burdens in…Latino neighborhoods, it’s 48 percent.” People in these
areas constantly carry the worry of not having enough money to pay for rent. Because of this it is
common to see multiple families living together to make ends meet, making the overcrowding of
the city an issue. On top of the cost of the apartment, a survey made by the OC Register showed
that 63% of the people interviewed in Lacy dealt with housing violations such as “such as
infestations, mold, damp walls, defective plumbing and electrical work, and walls, ceilings, and
floors in need of repair”. Many landlords of these low income neighborhoods do not care to take
care of the issues going on in the property they own simply because they do not have the money
for a work order. Desmond highlights that society has, “…focused on jobs, public assistance,
parenting, and mass incarceration as the central problems faced by the American poor,
overlooking just how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty”. Society associates
poverty with drugs, domestic violence, mental issues, and incarceration. Most of the time,
poverty just reflects on the neighbourhood conditions. Despite people already struggling with
rent in Lacy, many housing communities choose to raise the cost of rent and displace families
with no remorse, therefore increasing the numbers of homelessness in the area. Overall my
research was consistent with the general message of each piece of literature I chose to speak
upon. This shows that gentrification and inequality occurs in many places besides Lacy.
Methods Section:
· Introduction (half paragraph): Papers need a short introduction describing the project, main
argument, and important findings.
· Literature Review (one page): A literature review describes how other scholars have studied
the issue being researched. In this case, your group is expected to use at least three assigned
class readings from the class to discuss how other scholars have examined low-income
neighborhoods and poverty. What are some common factors causing urban inequalities? How is
your research consistent with the scholarly literature? Does your research depart from the
scholarly literature? How might your research add something new to this literature?
· Methods Section (half page paragraph): A methods section describes how a researcher
actually performed the research. For this section, you are expected to provide a general
description of all the resources used to construct the profile of the low-income neighborhood.
Provide a detailed description of how your group used this information to address specific
issues (e.g. changes in rent, displacement, etc.).
· Findings and Discussion Section (three pages, excluding illustrations): In this section,
describe your findings on the basic issues listed above. The findings section can include maps,
illustrations, and graphs. If you choose to include visuals, do not include more than three.
Please note that illustrations do not count for total page number.
· Appendix: Include an appendix where students explicitly state their exact contribution to the
group. If a student failed to contribute to the project, she or he will receive a lower grade. The
appendix does not count for minimum page number.
· Bibliography: Provide a complete bibliography of the sources used in the paper. The
bibliography does not count for minimum page number
· Conclusion (half page): The conclusion needs to include a summary of your findings and a
discussion of what these findings mean for our general understandings of urban inequalities in
the United States.
General Information and Maps
ArcGIS:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f12cfa18f8e442b88d42696c0c6716
3 (Links to an external site.)
US Census Quick Facts:
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescountycalifornia/IPE120219 (Links to an
external site.)
Opportunity Atlas
https://www.opportunityatlas.org (Links to an external site.)
News Sources
Nexis Uni (search newspapers):
https://guides.lib.uci.edu/business/databasesLinks to an external site.
Orange County Register
ocregister.com
Historical Data
Legacy of Redlining:
http://www.wenfeixu.com/redliningmap/ (Links to an external site.)
Mapping Inequality:
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/39.1/-94.58&text=intro (Links to an external
site.)
Gentrification Information
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project:
www.antievictionmap.com (Links to an external site.)
Urban Displacement Project:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f12cfa18f8e442b88d42696c0c67163
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f12cfa18f8e442b88d42696c0c67163
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescountycalifornia/IPE120219
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescountycalifornia/IPE120219
https://www.opportunityatlas.org/
https://guides.lib.uci.edu/business/databases
http://www.wenfeixu.com/redliningmap/
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/39.1/-94.58&text=intro
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/39.1/-94.58&text=intro
http://www.antievictionmap.com/
https://www.santa-ana.org/lacy
https://www.santa-ana.org/lacy
http://www.city-data.com/income/income-Santa-Ana-California.html
Bibliography
1. Wirth, Louis. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 44, no. 1,
1938, pp. 1–24. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2768119. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.
2. “Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State by Samuel Stein.” Goodreads,
Goodreads, 12 Mar. 2019, www.goodreads.com/book/show/40363341-capital-city.
3. Desmond, Matthew, et al. “The Eviction Epidemic.” The New Yorker,
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/forced-out.
4. Kelsen, D. “Report: Santa Ana’s Lacy Barrio ‘In Crisis’ Due to Mega-Overcrowding,
Gentrification.” OC Weekly, 16 Mar. 2016,
www.ocweekly.com/report-santa-anas-lacy-barrio-in-crisis-due-to-mega-overcrowding-
gentrification-7044588/.
http://www.city-data.com/income/income-Santa-Ana-California.html
5. Goddard, Francelia B., and Allen W. Goddard. “The History of Santa Ana.” Santa Ana
History – Featuring Historical Information of Santa Ana,
www.santaanahistory.com/local_history.html.
6. Spooner, Alicia, et al. History of Santa Ana, California,
u-s-history.com/pages/h2784.html.