Just so y'all know what has come out of this project...

The product that has emerged from Part I is a detailed Google Map of Northside property ownership as it currently stands. Overlaid on top of a satellite image of the Northside Neighborhood is a set of icons, each of which represents the property on top of which the icon is located. The houses represent instances of homeownership, the blue flags denote rental by an individual owner rather than a development company, and the dollar signs represent ownership by rental companies. When the icons are clicked on, a text bubble appears, within which further information is provided, including owner names, owner address in the case of rental properties, previous owners, property value, and other anecdotes of relevance. In collaboration with the Jackson Center for Saving and Making History at St. Joseph CME Church in the Northside, we hope to continue expanding and adding details to this map as the neighborhood continues to change, and as more interviews are conducted. The above image is just a small portion of the larger map.

The research conducted in Part II has resulted in two very complex flow charts. The first one, Potential Paths for Property Transfer in the Northside, examines all the different paths that a property owned by “traditional” residents can take as ownership is transferred. Between each potential transfer, there is a brief explanation of why that particular path is chosen.

The second flowchart, Real Estate Market Forces, takes all of the why’s from the previous flowchart and examines their causes, effects, and, ultimately, the complex and very interconnected ways that they reinforce each other—resulting in a visual explanation of the overall rise in housing prices and an overall decrease in traditional families and low-income residents within the neighborhood.

Finally, I compiled these into an animated powerpoint (complete with a detailed script) that puts the flowcharts under a microscope so to speak and examines the inevitability of each “node” in the charts. Through this exercise, it is possible to identify the steps within the cycle of gentrification that are not inevitable and thus provide a potential point of entry for intervention. The powerpoints ends with a set of proposed solutions and suggestions for future research and action. Hopefully this powerpoint can be used to provide wider understanding of the issue, but also to explore and gather support for political action.

August Post

Has your involvement in community-based research impacted your motivation to engage in community issues, research or service?

My involvement this summer in a community-based research project has certainly increased my interest in the issue I have been studying, and has also prompted me to see the act of research as an obligation rather than just an intellectual folly. This sense of responsibility I feel for my research means also that it does not end here with this final blog post or with my SURF final packet. I intend to continue following up on the results I have come to this summer throughout the year until something comes of them one way or another. In this way, the community-based element of the issue has really grounded the research I have been doing and not let me forget the ultimate goal.

On the other hand, the community-based element of the research process--that is to say the interviews and meetings, did not go as well as I planned. I did not know it at the time, but this neighborhood has been what someone might call "over-interviewed," which one resident finally told me months into the project. As I think I already blogged about, she advised me to go to the planning department to read the reports that had "already been written." In this way, I think I would have done better to begin with more scholarly research before beginning my interviews. Also, as much as we must be careful not to under-privilege community knowledge, we also should not over-privilege it. I was expecting the interviews to bring more discoveries and more clarity than they actually did. It was not until I began looking at the Orange County GIS land records that I really got a full sense of the phenomenon.

What assistance will be most helpful to you in the fall semester in wrapping up your CBR project?

I can not think of any specific assistance I need from the APPLES office in wrapping up my project. What I will most need is help from the Jackson Center for Saving and Making History at St. Joseph Church as well as the student organization UNC-NOW (United With the Northside Community NOW), both of which will hopefully be able to take on more permanent roles in the research process as I step back and reduce my own role. The Jackson Center will be integral in making sure that the map of Northside properties is kept up and added on to with stories and pictures of the properties as they change. Hopefully the Jackson Scholars, youth from the community who intern at the Jackson Center, will be able to fill this role. UNC NOW will serve a more political purpose, as the group will hopefully take the findings from the research and take appropriate political action (ie: meeting with town officials to propose and even demand that certain policies be implemented with regard to the Northside.

Please share recommendations you would have for future Fellows knowing what you know now

I would recommend that future fellows that they have good sense of the background of the research BEFORE beginning. This may come from a class, from scholarly articles, from speaking with professors, etc. The should also be familiar with RESEARCH METHODS. This is what I feel I was most lacking, and I think the CRB program would benefit from hosting several classes on research methods and interview techniques.