Mixed-Income, Mixed Motivations: Drivers of Socioeconomic Diversity in Rogers Park, Chicago and North Hollywood, Los Ángeles

In Chicago and Los Ángeles— and just about every pre-war American city— deep socioeconomic inequality often takes the form of residential income segregation. Yet, in these two deeply unequal cities, income-diverse areas exist— large, contiguous, and stable neighborhoods where residents of all income brackets live amongst each other. Though their effects have been overstated in the past, research consistently shows that mixed-income neighborhoods offer consequential economic and social benefits for low-income residents. By comparing two long-standing income-diverse neighborhoods— Chicago's Rogers Park and Los Ángeles' North Hollywood— this paper seeks to better understand how neighborhood income diversity arises. To make the comparison, I look at two potential spatial and demographic motivators of income diversity in the two neighborhoods (and their accompanying metropolises when possible): 1) multi-ethnic enclavism and 2) inner-ring attraction to the central city. Using a mixed methods approach that includes data analysis, mapping, and questionnaire responses, this paper demonstrates the unique ability of "inner-ring" areas, transition zones between the city center and suburbs, to attract ethnically and socioeconomically diverse movers. Multi-ethnic enclavism positively influences clustered income diversity in both cities, though the effect is stronger in Chicago than in Los Ángeles. These results emphasize that while cities can lay bare striking inequality, they are also often optimal spaces for organic social cohesion.