‘Borchert Field,’ Riverwest stories.
Sociologist spent 3 years in diverse neighborhood
Milwaukee is often cited nationally as an intensely segregated city. But sociologist Evelyn M. Perry spent three years here studying a neighborhood famous locally for its diversity.
Perry’s new book, “Live and Let Live: Diversity, Conflict, and Community in an Integrated Neighborhood,” considers Riverwest as a racially and economically mixed community. Her research goal was to increase “understanding of how residents of stably mixed neighborhoods manage to live with diversity.”
She will talk about the book and her research at 7 p.m. March 31 at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., a cultural fixture in Riverwest. Admission is free.
Perry, an assistant professor of sociology at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., grew up in Whitefish Bay. To research this participant-observer study, she lived in Riverwest from 2007-’10, attending meetings, chatting with neighbors, hoisting beverages in neighborhood bars and conducting 60 in-depth, open-ended interviews with Riverwest residents, with help from research assistant Jenny Urbanek. Those interviewees, equally divided between men and women, included 30 white people, 15 AfricanAmericans, 10 Latinas and Latinos, two Asian-Americans, two biracial people and one Arab-American — a mix that Perry reports roughly coincided with Riverwest’s population.
Over the years, people have predicted that the neighborhood would either “be swallowed by the ghetto one day” or else gentrified by an influx of the more affluent. “Yet Riverwest has neither tipped nor flipped,” she writes in the book’s first chapter. Sifting her interviews and observations through a grid of sociological literature and concepts, her explanation of how Riverwest has maintained its mix is detailed and nuanced.
But at the risk of oversimplifying her work, it might be boiled down to this statement: “In Riverwest, stability is produced through the constant negotiation of small instabilities.” In other words, working out small conflicts over noise, culture and personal differences is what makes the neighborhood work.
“Local clashes are sometimes costly, but they can be constructive,” Perry wrote in an email responding to my questions. “Conflicts can inspire collaboration or reveal who has your back. They can force residents to reconsider what they deem problematic or modify how they interact with neighbors.”
She identifies the “face block” (incorporating all buildings facing the same block-length section of a street) as the primary location for both bonding and conflict. “Face-block neighbors feel a sense of collective ownership of their shared sidewalks, corners, and streets,” she writes.
Perry sees two significant frames of reference among Riverwest residents. The “diversity is our strength” people are the “live and let live” crew, preferring informal and direct strategies to differences and conflicts. These folks don’t want police to ticket a person looking for cans and bottles in the garbage but will organize neighbors to battle a drug house. They tend to be wary of development projects. In contrast, “the neighborhood has potential” people tend to be pro-development and support “a higher standard,” i.e. white middle-class values. They are more likely to call police about smaller quality-of-life issues.
Her book’s title suggests that Perry is among the strength-in-diversity crowd. “What might look like a chaotic mess to outsiders can feel relatively safe and steady to insiders,” she wrote in her email. “If you stick around Riverwest long enough, you start to feel the rhythm of the place.”
When Perry returns here to visit family, at least twice a year, she spends time in her old Riverwest neighborhood. Making a Milwaukee visitor’s guide for a friend, her essential itinerary for Riverwest included “a coffee at Fuel Café, a Riverwest Stein at the Uptowner, good eats at the Corazon Café, and a bartender-recommended bourbon (neat) at Nessun Dorma.”
On a more sober note, Perry writes in her email that 2010 census data has her concerned. “For the first time since 1960, the neighborhood saw an increase in the number of white residents and a decrease in the number of black and Latinx residents. If this turns out to be indicative of a new trend, then the era of a racially diverse Riverwest may be coming to a close. While I accept that neighborhoods change, I worry about our segregated city losing one of its few integrated communities.”