Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Neighborhoods at the urban core of US cities have contended with destabilizing conditions: from the economic blight of “community burn” (Fulilove, 2004, 128) to gentrification in concentrated areas of poverty among the “truly disadvantaged” (Wilson, 1990, 2010). Recent $1 purchases of hundreds of vacant spaces in Chicago, Illinois’s Large Lot Program is showing promise for local residential property owners to reestablish stable dwelling grounds. What voice does social capital have when downtown policy meets local organized citizens? This ethnographic case study shares local place-keeping stories from three inner-city neighborhoods, where thousands of vacant lots are continuing to be purchased. Our findings support social capital theory: when socioeconomic crisis persist, communities come together (Putnam, 2000), using open space for fostering a more sustainable and healthy community (Hou, Johnson, and Lawson, 2009, 3) and social-cultural relationships of claiming open space (Allen, 2001; Finney, 2014; Glave, 2010) are values expressed by new owners.