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THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY! A
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF
COMMUNITY FORMATION

Thesis for the Degree of M. A.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
DALE JAGER
1976

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ABSTRACT
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY: A

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY
OF COMMUNITY FORMATION

BY

Dale Jager

This thesis proposes a methodological approach to
the understanding of the community formation process. Much
of the literature on communities is concerned with its
decline in importance as a social unit having relevance in
the everyday lives of urban residents. But the authors
ignore signs pointing to the desire by residents for a
local community which symbolizes shared values, autonomy,
and stability. A community is seen to emerge through the
relationship of the residents to the wider soc1ety. The
residents differentiate themselves from residents of other
areas in status terms based on a common life style; com-
munity status is part of the societal-wide stratification
system and helps determine the community's relation to the
political and economic processes. Four stages of community
formation are suggested: (1) a pre-community stage; (2) a
formation of communal sentiments stage; (3) a community vs

wider society stage, and (4) a community organization

Dale Jager

stage. Historical material, census data, community docu-
ments, maps, interviews, and personal observations by the
researcher were drawn on to illustrate how the formation
of the Bailey community in East Lansing, Michigan could be
analyzed in terms of the four stages. While it was felt
that this methodological approach was useful in under-
standing the particular case of the Bailey community,
further research was needed to identify the processes at
work in each stage and how they affected the community

which emerged.

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY: A
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY

OF COMMUNITY FORMATION

BY

Dale Jager

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Sociology

1976

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER

I 0 INTRODUCTION 0 O O O O O O O O O C O .

Theories of the Decline of American

Communities . . . . . . . . . .
Status Communities: A Weberian

Approach . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Stages of Community Formation

II. A CASE STUDY OF THE BAILEY COMMUNITY .

Data and Methods . . . . . . . . .
Pre-Community Stage . . . . . . .

Formation of Communal Sentiments Stage

The Bailey Community vs the Wider
Society Stage . . . . . . . . .
The Bailey Community Association's
Effect on the Community--The
Fourth Stage 0 O O O O O O O O 0
III. CONCLUSION AND REMARKS . . . . . . . .
APPENDIX
A. NOTES ON METHODOLOGY AND DATA . . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ii

Page
iii

iv

12
17

22
22
23
45

55

70

76

82
94

LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Percentage of renter units . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2. Percentage of persons in the same house
for the previous five years . . . . . . . . . 38

3. Percentage college enrollment . . . . . . . . . 39

4. Percentage single persons 14 years old
and over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

5. Median income of families . . . . . . . . . . . 42

6. Median value of owner-occupied housing
units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

iii

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. Census Tract, subdivision, Bailey neigh-
borhood area and Bailey Community Association
boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2. zoning: 1935 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 29
3. Zoning: 1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4. Zoning: 1960 . 31

5. Zoning: 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6. Percentage student DU's: 1960 . . . . . . . . . 33
7. Percentage student DU's: 1965 . . . . . . . . . 34
8. Percentage student DU's: 1970 . . . . . . . . . 35

9. Bailey neighborhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

iv

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The quest for local community control in recent
years indicates an increased awareness of the local com-
munity as an entity that symbolizes shared values, a sense
of belonging and stability. The increasing number of
community associations that have.emerged in inner-city as
well as in suburban areas to combat perceived threats to
the life styles of homogeneous residential areas support
such an argument. At the same time, people have turned to
communities without a locality (Rubin, 1972) which has
been argued to lead to a further decline of the territorial
community. As Suttles (1972:266) remarks:

Although this is a growing symbolic representation of
the local community, I suspect that it is poorly
realized in most actual communities. To a large extent
Americans still live where they have to and, in any
case, have to move so often the community of limited
liability is the most prevalent form. The coerciveness
of the work place and other institutions not only
creates a yearning for community but makes it difficult
to realize in the residential community. Thus people
seek for alternatives in other institutions: the
business community, the student community, the political
community, and so on. The extent to which these other
institutions can offer either communion or community

is limited by their institutional dependencies. They
cannot be fully liberated and continue to function.

The focus of the local community, then, will probably

continue to return to the local residential community,
and if people seem shallow and inauthentic elsewhere,
the pressure for a community of sentiment may increase.

Theories to explain the emergence of community are
conspicuously few. The decline of community is a theme
which dominates most studies of the local community. From
the early ecologists to the mass society theorists, the
emphasis has been on the failure of community as described
by Tonnies (1957) and Redfield (1947) to survive in our
modern rapidly changing society.

The cultural ecologists have addressed the question
of community formation and continuity. They have noted the
persistence of community as a product of peoples' senti-
ments. The symbolic representation of the local community
becomes a cultural movement in which residents of an area
are tied through shared values and sentiments. Suttles
(1972) is also interested in community formation and reminds
us that it is in their relations with the wider society that
communities emerge. The continued interest by individuals
toward community requires that social scientists turn their
energies to the development of community theory which
explains its emergence. Toward the development of a theory
of community, this paper will suggest a framework in which
to analyze the emergence of community within the context of

social historical processes.

Theories of the Decline of
American Communities

It is a curious irony that the man who has been
called the father of community was also the first to point
to its decline. This man, of course, was Ferdinand Tonnies.
It was Tonnies (1957) contention that society was moving
from one characterized by Gemeinschaft to one described
by Gesellschaft. Gemeinschaft represented traditional
society and characterized relationships which were intimate
and enduring. People were totally integrated into the
structure of the society. The intimacy of the social
relationships and the structure of the role relationships
provided for a homogeneous culture, the guardians of which
were the church and the family. Bell and Newby (1971:24)
describe Tannies' community thusly:

Community encourages immobility and makes it difficult
for men to achieve status and wealth on the basis of
their merits. Community makes for traditionalistic
ways and at the very core of the community concept is
the sentimental attachment to the conventions and mores
of a beloved place. Community will reinforce and
encapsulate a moral code, raising moral tensions and
rendering heterodoxy a serious crime, for in a com-
munity everyone is known and can be placed in the
social structure.

Gesellschaft represented everything that
Gemeinschaft was not. Relationships were impersonal and
contractual, the status of individuals was achieved rather
than ascribed. The mobility of the population was much

greater both from one location to another and from one

status level to another. All of this contributed to a

more heterogeneous culture and consequently to a weakening
of the family and church. This decline in the traditional
way of life, as T6nnies noted, was the product of increasing
industrialization of society and increasing complexity of
the division of labor under the new capitalist economy.

The primary group relations of individuals implicitly
associated with the term community were replaced with
rational, formalized, goal oriented behavior and secondary
group relationships characterizing the industrial and

urban society.

Tannies typology was subsequently used to character-
ize the differences in rural and urban life. Rural and
urban life styles were seen to be on two ends of a con-
tinuum. The rural or ”folk society" was seen as the
prototype of a "community." Folk society was characterized
by Redfield as small, isolated, non-literate and homo-
geneous with a strong sense of group solidarity (Redfield,
19472293). The characteristics of social relationships
in urban areas were seen through the lenses of the Eden
that was lost in the process of urbanization. The Chicago
school with sociologists such as Park, Burgess, and
Zorbaugh interpreted the way of life in urban areas as
something pathological from the small town life relation-
ships.

In l9lO-l930, the direction of social change in

the United States was toward urbanism. Urbanism was

symbolized by a decline in primary group relations and an
increase in impersonality, isolation and the dominance of
formal organizations. According to Wirth (l935:5) it
"referred to that cumulative accentuation of the character-
istics distinctive of the mode of life which is associated
with the growth of cities, and to the changes in the
direction of modes of life recognized as urban . . . ."
Urbanism, as manifested in the city was the very antithesis
of community. Urbanism, as well as industrialization and
bureaucratization were thought of as gradually resulting
in the "eclipse of community" (Stein, 1960).

For Nisbet, the loss of community was the
essential context within which.modern alienation had to be
considered. Community for him was characterized by "a
clear sense of cultural purpose, membership, status and
continuity" (Nisbet, 1962:73). Its existence and its
ability to provide members with a sense of belonging rested
on the twin supports of social function and authority.
But the social functions performed by the family, neighbor-
hood and friendship groups within a system of social
authority are being eroded away as the orientation of our
society shifts toward mass democracy and industrialism.
Power has replaced authority as the institutions of our
society have become larger and more impersonal. There is a
growing sense of alienation as ”the traditional primary

relationships of men have become functionally irrelevant to

the larger institutions of our society" (Nisbet, 1966:576)
and have been replaced by secondary relations. This loss
of community has led to its conscious quest by individuals
as they seek escape from the "freedom of impersonality,
secularism, and individualism" (Nisbet, 1962:31) which have
accompanied the rise of mass society. Individuals need a
set of social relationships which provide them with a sense
of status, membership and community and which can mediate
between themselves and their larger world. The large scale
economic and political organizations are too complex and
too bureaucratized to provide for this need. Referring to
this decline, Nisbet (1962:54) states:
Our present crisis lies in the fact that whereas the
small traditional associations are still expected to
communicate to individuals the principal moral ends and
psychological gratifications of society, they have
manifestly become detached from positions of functional
relevance to the larger economic and political decisions
of our society. Family, local, community, church and
the whole network of informal interpersonal relation-
ships have ceased to play a determining role in our
institutional systems of mutual aid, education, recre-
ation and economic production and distribution.

Many sociologists have taken exception to this mass
society theory. They argue that community is not declining,
but that the community as well as the larger society, is
going through a series of changes. Janowitz (1952:212) in
a study of the community press, notes that:

Despite the growth of mass communications and large-
scale organizations most individuals are not living in
a "mass society" in which they are directly linked to

the major agencies of concentrated social power.
Rather the growth of large-scale organizations has been

accompanied by a proliferation of intermediate

haphazard-like social arrangements and communication

patterns.
The effect on the community is seen in a lessening in
importance of the community's horizontal patterning and a
concurrent increase in importance of its vertical pattern-
ing. Horizontal patterning is defined by Warren (1972:13)
as ”the structural and functional reaction of the various
local units (individuals and social systems) to each other."
He defines vertical patterning (Warren, 1972:161) as "the
structural and functional relation of its various social
units and subsystems to extracommunity systems.” Much of
the decision-making prerogative concerning the structure
and function of the local community units have been taken
over by state and national systems. Thus, the effect of
the "great changes" on the community is to increase and
strengthen the ties which bind the local community to the
larger society.

Greer (1962:41) notes three important changes:

(1) the increasing use of nonhuman sources of energy,
translated through machines into human values; (2) the
increasing span of the organizational networks in which
men and machines are integrated for productive and dis-
tributive purposes; and (3) a resulting increase in the
amount of productivity for each human participant. These
changes result in a loss of autonomy by locality groups.

The groups are integrated into the larger social order as

functions are transferred to extra-local organizations.
They also result in the exposure of locality groups to
conflicting norms brought in by organizational networks or
the mass media. The consequence of the fragmentation of
the local normative order, is that individuals become
committed to groups centered outside the locality, and
thus, become to a degree independent of their neighbors.

Vidich and Bensman (1968), in a study of a small
town in-up-state New York, provide support for these argu-
ments. Springdale is connected with the mass society in a
variety of different forms. The cumulative effect of these
various connections make possible "the continuous trans-
mission of outside policies, programs, and trends into the
community . . ." (Vidich and Bensman, 1968:81). These
extra-community connections are imparted by formal organi-
zations, such as "the Farm and Home Bureaus, the 4-H Club,
the Future Farmers of America and the Boy and Girl Scouts,
as well as the Masons, Odd Fellows, American Legion, Grange
and other branches of national organizations and their
auxiliaries" (Vidich and Bensman, 1968:82-83). They as
well as the mass media (radio, television, and the large
daily newspapers), migration, and the economic system help
to introduce a different culture and to tie the community
to the larger society.

For the individual, these changes have resulted in

a decline in commitment. Greer (1962) feels that what local

community orientation there is centers on the family and
the local community organization if one exists. But even
these attachments are limited in the amount of social and
psychological investment they represent. Greer concludes
that similarity of interests rather than residential
propinquity have become the basis for the formation of
locality groups and thus too, mass society theorists con-
clude that the local community will decline in importance.
But this thesis has been challenged by cultural
ecologists. In a replication of Foley's study, "Neighbors
or Urbanites," Hunter (1975) found that use of local
facilities in a subcommunity of Rochester, New York, had
indeed declined over the twenty-five years since Foley did
his original study. But Hunter also found that informal
neighboring continued at the same rate found by Foley and
that actually an individual's sense of community had
increased. The results of Hunter's study indicated that
community as a unit of patterned social interaction and
community as a unit of collective identity still represented
a significant reality even though community as a spatial
unit meeting sustenance needs had apparently declined.
Hunter concludes with Foley (1952:57) that:
Contemporary city life, ecologically viewed, involves
an intricate balance between certain vestigial "local
community" patterns and an array of "metropolitan"
level functional-territorial relationships that have
been emerging as phases of the traditional norms by
which community life has been lived in the past. But

these are nevertheless very impelling features of the
urbanization process.

10

This position is supported by Firey (1945) in his
study of land use in central Boston. He examined three
cases which showed that the local area still had significant
meaning for individuals: (1) an in-town upper class resi-
dential neighborhood known as Beacon Hill; (2) certain
sacred sites, notably the Boston Common and the colonial
burying grounds; and (3) a lower class Italian neighbor-
hood, known as the North End.

From the three case studies Firey concludes that
space has a symbolic quality representing certain cultural
values that have become associated with an area.

Locational activities could thus be seen as bearing senti-
ments which could significantly influence the locational
process.

Hunter meanwhile concluded that the social and
cultural sense of community had increased since Foley's
study because it was consciously sought after and because
it was consciously created. This is evidenced by the
reasons people gave for moving into the area and by the
formation of a community association. The reasons for the
conscious search for community and its conscious creation
Hunter felt lie in a particular set of values the residents
held and the community symbolized. Hunter (1975:550)
concludes:

It appears that we are dealing with individuals who are
attempting to live a community existence based upon

"transcendent values"; that is, values which are counter
to existing reality. While most Americans are choosing

11

to move from the city to relatively segregated suburban
communities with their home/work separation, these
individuals are espousing and living a counter set of
values. However, the result is not the creation of a
”utopian community" . . . for these residents are not
espousing a all encompassing belief system nor attempt-
ing to live in an autonomous and isolated social
system. Rather they have selected a limited set of
values which they are attempting to realize within the
context of ongoing American society . . . . We are
dealing here with a process which appears to be the
transformation of partial ideologies from social move-
ments to communities, or the "communalization of
ideology."

In short, both Hunter's and Firey's studies indicate
the persistence of a "vistigial" unit of community variously
termed a symbolic or constructed community. It is a com-
munity based on sentiment and the symbolic meaning of a
locale. But why does it persist, especially why does it
persist in a rapidly changing urban society. How does one
explain the emergence of local community phenomena observed
by Firey and Hunter.

Suttles (1972) argues that the emergence of com-
munity is not an indigenous process. Rather it is through
their interaction with the larger social environment that
communities emerge (Suttles, 19722257). For Suttles the
residential urban community is a response to the environment
by territorial populations. The actions of residents can
be seen as an attempt to sort one another out, to construct
a cognitive map of their city which "provide a set of social
categories for differentiating between those people with

whom one can or cannot safely associate and for defining

the concrete grouping within which certain levels of

12

social contact and social cohesion obtain" (Suttles, 1972:
22). The community is part of the mechanism for social
control, it is a way for residents to come to grips with
the situation they find themselves in. Residential aggre-
gation "inevitably produces proximity and the necessity

of establishing discrete areas as the basis for extending
trust, for sharing guilt by association, for swapping
gossip or private knowledge, and for mobilizing to meet
both the symbolic and material challenges brought on by the

environment" (Suttles, 1972:16).

Status Communities: A WeberianApproach

 

The ideas of Hunter, Firey and Suttles as well as
the early ecologists can be drawn on to construct an
analytic framework within which community formation can be
Cunderstood. Community sentiments are viewed as based on
status differentiation wherein "competition for economic,
political or social interests is viewed as the source of
community formation and communal relationships" (Neiwirth,
1969:148). This Weberian approach explains the emergence
of community in terms of the interactions of individuals
within and with respect to the social structure. It
emphasizes the historical development of community within
a framework of status relationships.

Weber (1968:306) defines status community as "a
plurality of persons, who, within a larger group, success-

fully claim: (a) a special social esteem, and possibly

13

also (b) status monOpolies.” The claim for special social
esteem is based on possession or control of ideal and
material goods and opportunities. Status and status dif~
ferentiations are a part of our everyday lives. We con-
stantly strive for social esteem based on our possession
of control of these privileges in the work setting and in
organizations, as well as, in the residential setting.

Communities emerge as individuals differentiate
between themselves and others with whom they interact on
the basis of status rankings. For residential communities,
these other individuals are other residents in the locale.
The sentiments then, which they attach to their place of
residence can be interpreted as resulting from the resi-
dents' claim to a special social esteem.

Residential status communities are composed of
residents who have a similar life style. A status community
based on style of life according to Collins (1971:1009)
"comprise all persons who share a sense of status equality
based on participation in a common culture, style of
language, taste in clothing and decor, manners and other
ritual Observances, and preferences in sports, arts, and
media.” He goes on to say that "subjectively status com-
munities distinguish themselves from others in terms of
categories of moral evaluations such as 'honor,‘ 'tastes,‘
'breeding,' 'respectability,‘ 'property,‘ 'cultivation,’

'good folks,’ 'plain folks,‘ etc." (Collins, 1971:1009).

14

The importance of such groupings for Collins lies in the
fact that "participation in such cultural groups give
individuals their fundamental sense of identity, especially
in contrast with members of other associational groups in
whose everyday culture they cannot participate comfortably"
(Collins, 1971:1009).

The life style of a residential status community is
reflected in the daily habits of the residents, familial
patterns, the type and level of activities the residents
engage in, their neighboring patterns, etc. Life style is
also reflected in the fact that the residents are home-
owners or renters, and in the quality of the neighborhood
as reflected in the appearance of the houses and the area
in which they are located. The societal-wide indicators of
status, race, ethnicity and income also enter the picture
and serve to differentiate among residential groups. Those
individuals who feel they share a life style with other
residents within the immediate area can be said to have a
sense of community.

Community members may strive to monopolize their
ideal and material goods and opportunities. The process
whereby such status monopolies are formed is called ”com-
munity closure." Closure as described by Neiwirth (1968:
150) "may be achieved to varying degrees ranging from the
total exclusion of outsiders to the admittance of certain

new members who fulfill specified conditions." Beacon

15

Hill studied by Firey (1945) may serve as an example. The
residents have considerable wealth and at the time of his
study possessed power enough to influence realtors and
commercial interests to keep "undesirables" out. They
developed a program in which residents would purchase old
houses, modernize the interiors and then sell the dwellings
to individual families for occupancy. Residents also
formed an association enabling them to present an organized
voice at hearings to rezone parts of Beacon Hill for
commercial development.

Another example of community closure is the attempt
by some residential groups to prevent racial or ethnic
persons from moving into their community. Molotch (1970)
provides another example in his study of Santa Barbarian
residents and their attempt to deal with governmental
agencies and oil interests after the Santa Barbara oil
spill in 1969. The successfulness of such an attempt
though depends on the level of influence the community has
with other interested parties such as realtors, bankers,
and city government officials.

In some instances communal relations are combined
with associative ones. In other words, the members form
interest associations and delegate the representation of
communal interests to their officers. Neighborhood
improvement associations are one example. The associ-

ations are formed to promote those aspects of the community

16

on which the members base their statuses. Another example
are community associations formed in response to perceived
threats to the status of the community. Firey (1945;143)
reports that the residents of Beacon Hill had formed such
an organization. Its purpose was to combat the "constant
menace to the character of Beacon Hill, in the form of
business encroachments, and apartment-hotel develOpments."
Hunter also reports on the formation of a "local community
organization." It was founded as "a community response to
the two pressing 'ecological' problems: (1) noise and air
pollution from the neighboring county airport, and (2)
'block busting' in the area by realtors . . ." (Hunter,
1975:547). In either case the purpose of the association
was to enhance or protect those characteristics which pro-
vide residents with a certain discernible and valued style
of life.

The clarity with which neighborhood boundaries are
defined are dependent on a number of considerations accord-
ing to Suttles (1972:240-242). First, some communities
have well defined boundaries as a result of all the adjacent
communities disclaiming their residents. Second, some
communities have well defined boundaries as a result of the
presence of conveniently available physical barriers such
as railroad tracks, expressways, parks, and blocks of
industry. Third, some will have well defined boundaries

as a result of the gradient of prices which are attached

17

to residential land usage. These price gradients reflect
the desirability of people as neighbors. Fourth, and
Suttles feels most importantly, some communities have well
defined boundaries as a result of enacted boundary lines
imposed on the urban landscape by organizational proclama-
tions.

Residents' perceptions of the boundaries of the
community and its associated neighborhood emerge within the
process of community formation. As people become familiar
with their city and their neighbors they reach decisions
concerning which of their neighbors share similar interests
and life styles and which not. These decisions lead to
the construction of cognitive maps with boundary lines

corresponding to features in their neighborhood.

The Stages of Community Formation

In their formation, communities can be seen to
progress through four stages. The first is a precommunity
stage in which the area is developed. A potential for
status differentiation is built into an area simply as the
result of the geographic features of the area, the types
of houses built, and their age relative to those in other
areas. These identifiable features are reflected in the
cost of the houses. Housing costs due to the gradient of
income which exists in society provides for the division
of residences and residential populations according to the

cost of housing. Builders and develOpers working within

18

the constraints of a societal stratification system where
rewards and resources are differentially allocated help
create through their individual decisions the potential
for status differentiations by residents who subsequently
occupy the housing.

The second stage, within which residents develop a
sense of community based on a common life style, may be
termed the formation of communal sentiment stage. Status
differentiation is not triggered by some specific event but
emerges as part of the dynamics of social life in the area.
The population of an area is in a continual state of change
as people move into and out of the area. Those people
looking for a house have an image of the type of house and
the kind of neighbors they would like. Realtors and housing
advertisements help these peOple to obtain as much of that
image in reality as they can. These images are in terms
of the ideal and material goods and Opportunities which
make up the new resident's style of life. The new resident
desires the residents of that area to which he is moving
to have a life style similar to his own. The old resident
in turn desires the new resident to have a life style similar
to his own. The new and old residents seek neighbors with
similar life styles thus contributing to a distinctive
neighborhood character.

Neighboring continues the formation process. The

effect of neighboring is to draw people together, clarifying

19

for them their common interests and providing a basis from
which they may recognize their common status relative to
residents in other areas.

The third stage is an extension of the second
stage, but the emphasis is on the community's interactions
with the wider society, especially governments and their
agencies and business interests. This stage is concerned
with the relation of the community to the structure of the
wider society and the community's ability to achieve closure
and/or to defend itself against encroachment by undesirable
persons or by undesirable living conditions such as, the
movement of blacks into an all-white neighborhood, on one
hand, and the development of commercial or rental property
in a homeowner area, on the other. Here the status of the
community and its relation to the power structure becomes
important. A community may possess enough power so that
the decisions by governments or realtors for instance may
never adversely affect their neighborhood. Other commun-
ities may not possess such power. They like the small
businessman in Trow's (1958) study of support for McCarty
find their lives subject to the concentrated power of
governments and business. Depending on a number of factors
including not only educational and occupational levels of
the residents, but the architectural design of the housing

units (Newman, 1973) the residents of these communities

20

will organize to combat unwanted changes in their neighbor-
hoods.

The fourth stage is obtained when residents organize
to protect or improve their neighborhood and their organizing
efforts work to enhance their sense of community. For
example, residents form an organization to combat threats
to the neighborhood but once formed the organization can
act back on the residents who formed it by enhancing their
sense of community. Working together to defend their
neighborhood draws people together. Interaction is
increased, individuals become familiar with their neighbors'
ideas about the area. The particular life style associated
with the neighborhood is articulated. As a result the
pride residents feel for their neighborhood increases and
their sense of community becomes stronger.

The Weberian approach to community formation pre-
sented here utilizes the ideas of the human and cultural
ecologists and of Suttles. It stresses the importance of
political and economic processes in the formation of
community as did the human ecoloqists and the importance of
communal sentiments as did the cultural ecologists. In the
Weberian approach communal sentiments are based on the
feelings by residents that they share a common style of
life. Community sentiments emerge within the context of
political and economic processes, the life style of the

community helps determine the relationship of the community

21

to the wider society. This idea is similar to that of
Suttles who concerns himself with "how aggregate population
characteristics along with more structural features are
included into community reputation and help determine its
relationship to its environment" (Suttles, 1972:14). This
paper goes beyond the human and cultural ecologists and
Suttles though in the introduction of the concept of stages
through which communities pass in the process of formation.
The four stages provide a methodological framework in which
to analyze the emergence of community within political and

historical processes.

CHAPTER II

A CASE STUDY OF THE BAILEY COMMUNITY

Data and Methods

 

The Bailey community located in East Lansing,
Michigan can be used to illustrate this approach to com-
munity. There are at least three reasons for its
selection. The first concerns its convenience, the com-
munity is located in the same city that the researcher
resides in. The second related reason concerns familiarity
with the community. The researcher has been a casual
observer of life in the city for nine years and consequently
has acquired much background knowledge about the milieu
within which communal relationships exist. In another
community a great deal of time would be spent learning
about that community, that is, all those features already
known about in Bailey. The third reason concerns the
presence of a strong community association which was formed
in response to a perceived threat to the community. This
enables us to illustrate the four stages of community
formation.

Data for this study come from both primary and
secondary sources. Primary sources consist of interviews

22

23

and personal observations. Fourteen interviews were con-
ducted with members of the Bailey community using a snow-
ball technique. Interviews were also conducted with six

of the Bailey Community Association leaders. The researcher
has also informally observed the happenings in East Lansing
since 1966 and has more closely observed the actions within
the city in regards to the Bailey community since the

spring of 1975. Secondary sources consist of Bailey Com-
munity Association documents, various maps of the city
obtained from the city planner's office and from Charles
Ipcar's unpublished dissertation (1974), summary data from

a survey of the residents residing within the Bailey
Community Association boundaries conducted by Sue Allen
(1975) and included in an unpublished thesis, data from

the 1960 and 1970 United States Census, and the observations
of John Towar (1933) in a history of the city of East
Lansing. (Further comments on the data and methods

mentioned here can be found in Appendix A.)

Pre-Community Stage

 

East Lansing has always been a college town. In
1855 the state legislature passed a bill establishing and
endowing the Michigan Agricultural College to be located
just to the east of Lansing, capitol of the state. At the
time the college was formally opened, May 13, 1857, East
Lansing was still farm land except a small portion of land

east of Harrison Road between Michigan and Grand River

24

Avenues where a few faculty and staff employees of the
college lived (Figure l, Collegeville). Most of the
faculty lived on campus along West Circle Drive.
In 1887 the Hatch Act was passed appropriating
$15,000 annually for agricultural experiments. Many new
employees were added to the college payroll as a result and
new courses were added to the curriculum. With the expansion
of the college came the increased demand for housing. More
homes were built in Collegeville and to the east of it.
John Towar (1933:41) describes the beginnings of the city:
In 1898 new homes began to appear on College Delta.
In 1899 building began on Oakwood and in that year the
first boarding houses, apart from the college clubs,
began serving meals off the campus. The campus belt
had burst, and an embryo city was in its first stages
of development (Figure 1, College Delta).

In 1908 East Lansing became an incorporated city.

Two things should be noted from what has been said
so far. The first, of course, is that East Lansing is a
very young city, owing its existence to the college. This
is true yet today. A large number of the residents of
East Lansing are affiliated with the university as students,
faculty or staff. Their patronage keeps the retail
businesses in the city solvent. Some people have gone so
far as to argue that the city would not exist today if the
legislature had not located the college where it did.

The second thing to note is that boarding houses

have always been a part of East Lansing's history. With

the existence of a relatively young, transient population

25

cnv or
EAST LANSING

Michigan

39. OI

Subdivisions
Tract boundaries . Avondon

————— Subdivision boundaries - 509”“ WWW

-._._,_ Bailey neighborhood boundaries .gmuorhgjmmlls
_.._.._ Bailey Community Association . conga".
baundarios . Fairviow
. Glancarin
. Lantern Hills
. Oakwood
IQ PinocrosI
II. SIraImoro
l2. Touroino
I3. Walnut Height;
I4. White Hills

 

Figure 1. —Census Tract, subdivision, Bailey neighborhood area and

Bailey Carmmity Association boundaries .

26

there is a need for suitable housing. Boarding houses and
rooming houses existed to fill this need. Not only students
but single faculty and staff members had a need for such
housing since they could not afford to buy or build a house
or did not plan on settling permanently in the area.
Rental housing has since taken over the function of the
boarding houses, although a few remain, and has had a direct
effect on the city's development and on the character of
its neighborhoods.

East Lansing grew slowly until after World War II
and the influx of a large number of 61's taking advantage
of the GI Bill. The area that is now considered the Bailey
neighborhood (Figure 1) was platted in two parts. The
part below Ann Street was platted as Fairview in 1904.
The part between Ann Street and Burcham Drive was platted
as Stratmore in 1925. These areas were not immediately
developed, instead houses were built gradually as individual
lots were sold. By 1940 there were a number of vacant lots
in the Fairview plat while much of Stratmore was open
fields. One resident of Bailey who moved there in the late
1930s can remember hunting pheasants in the fields above.
Ann Street. During World War II parts of Stratmore were
planted in Victory gardens as was all the area in what now
is Lantern Hills subdivision (Figure l, Lantern Hills).
Stratmore, as one can see from Figure 1, broke from the

tradition of laying out streets in a north and south and

27

east and west pattern. To John Towar (1933:50), "Stratmore
carried out the graceful curving of streets with a view to
economy of travel, converging to its natural outlets as
well as displaying a certain beauty of design." While
Towar's description reads like a realtor's advertisement,
it does draw attention to the fact that the distinct
street pattern was a readily recognizable characteristic
of the area which gave it a particular style and made it
appealing to certain sets of perspective buyers.

East Lansing's population had expanded to the
point in 1922 where a second school was called for. The
first school was built in 1901 on the site of the present
Central School. The additional school was built on the
corner of Bailey and Ann streets and was called the Liberty
Hyde Bailey School after Dr. Bailey an internationally
known graduate of Michigan Agricultural College. The
community thus derives its name from the neighborhood
school.

After 1950 the college grew tremendously, from
16,111 students in 1950 to 44,580 in 1975 (Office of the
Registrar, 1951, 1975) and East Lansing grew with it.
Vacant lots became sites for houses, the pheasants moved
out of Stratmore and were replaced by people. Large tracts
of land were annexed to the city as the tax base was
expanded and as the desire for services by nonresidents

increased. As the college grew and life styles changed the

28

demand for housing by single, transient, students increased.
Many houses were bought up by realtors and other entre-
preneurs and converted to rental housing.

During the 19608 there was a great increase in the
number of apartment buildings built. In 1960, 51.1 percent
of the housing units in East Lansing were renter occupied
(Table l), by 1970 these had increased to 63.4 percent of
the housing units, an absolute increase of about 4,000
units.

East Lansing passed its first zoning ordinance in
1926 with the intent of regulating land use and providing
for orderly growth. The occupants of rental housing were
recognized as distinctly different from homeowners. As a
result the number of unrelated persons residing in the
same housing unit was restricted to certain maximum levels
in the different zones. A glance at the zoning maps for
1935, 1953, 1960, and 1970 (Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5) makes
it clear that zones in which rental housing were allowed
has been limited to areas in older parts of the city close
to the university. Figures 6, 7, and 8 show the distribu-
tion of student housing in 1960, 1965, and 1970 respectively
as a percentage of the total dwelling units. As one can see
in a comparison of these maps with the zoning maps for 1963
and 1975 that the distribution of rental housing (Ipcar's
student dwelling units) has indeed followed the pattern

intended by city planners.

29

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EAST LANSING

 

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36

Rental housing in East Lansing is generally occupied
by young, single university affiliated persons in contrast
to the slightly older, married, less transient persons,
i.e., families, who reside in owner occupied housing. A
comparison of Tables 1 through 4 bear out this statement.

Table 1 shows rental units as a proportion of total
housing units in selected Census Tracts (see Figure 1 for
Census Tract locations) in East Lansing. In 1960 Tract 39
which includes the Bailey neighborhood fell in the middle
range along with Tracts 40 and 43, two other homeowner
areas. It had a higher density of rental units than did

Tract 38 which had recently been developed and a lower

Table 1.--Percentage of renter units.

 

 

1960 (%) 1970 (%)

East Lansing 51.1 63.41
Tract 38 7.69 42.68
Tract 39 18.4 39.81
Tract 39.01 . 23.0
Tract 39.02 43.09
Bailey blocks 19.41

Tract 40 22.0 35.28
Tract 41 59.12 75.57
Tract 43 25.02 62.11

 

Source: United States Census 1960, 1970a, b.

37

density than Tract 41 within which a large number of single
college students resided.

By 1970, the density of rental units had increased
in all Tracts shown. Tract 38's density of rental units
was now more in line with that of Tracts 39 and 40. The
number of rental units in Tract 43 had increased to such an
extent that levels of density in this Tract approached
those of Tract 41. The breakdown of Tract 39 though, shows
that the increase in the number of rental units was not
uniformly distributed over the entire Tract. Tract 39.01
did not develop as high a density of rental units as did
Tract 39.02. Also, within Tract 39.02 the Bailey blocks
had not developed rental housing to the degree the rest of
Tract 39.02 had. In fact there had been almost no develop-
ment of rental housing in the Bailey blocks in the ten years
from 1960 to 1970. This conclusionagrees with the findings
of Ipcar (1974) as presented in Figures 7 and 8.

Table 2 indicates the stability of residency in
the Tracts shown. The figures represent the percentage of
persons who have lived in the same house for the previous
five years. In 1960, Tract 39 again fell in the middle
range. It showed more stable tendencies than did Tract 41,
containing large numbers of college students, or Tract 43'
but less stable tendencies than Tract 40 which included

the more exclusive residential areas of the city.

38

Table 2.--Percentage of persons in the same house for the
previous five years.

 

 

1960 (%) 1970 (%)

East Lansing 22.38 16.49
Tract 38 41.4 23.54
Tract 39 43.72 40.28

Tract 39.01 34.67

Tract 39.02 41.6
Tract 40 52.45 51.64
Tract 41 23.71 14.74
Tract 43 34.67 23.31

 

Source: United States Census 1960, 1970a.

By 1970 the percentages had decreased for each
Tract but not uniformly. Tracts 41 and 43 had even less
stable populations than in 1960 due to the increased
numbers of college students residing in these areas. Tract
40 had remained relatively the same while Tract 39 had
decreased slightly. The figures show that Tract 38 had a
decreasingly stable population butsolid conclusions cannot
be drawn since this area was under development in the 19608.
The same is true about Tract 39.01 since much of it was
developed in the 19603 also. Tract 39.02 containing the
Bailey neighborhood showed a slight decrease in stability

of its population.

39

Table 3 represents college enrollment as a percent-
age of each tract's total school enrollment. In 1960 only
the newly developed Tract 38 had a lower percentage of
college student residents than Tract 39. Even Tract 40
containing the rather exclusive neighborhoods of East
Lansing had a higher percentage. The percentage of college
‘students in each Tract increased between 1960 and 1970 due
to the increase in college enrollments, the lack of avail-
able housing on campus, and the desire by students to move
out of the dorms. Tract 39 again falls in the middle range
having a higher percentage of college students than Tract
38, a comparative percentage to Tract 40 and a much lower

percentage than Tracts 41 and 43. The 1970 Census figures

Table 3.--Percentage college enrollment.

 

 

 

1960 (%) 1970 (%)
East Lansing 76.98 81.99
Tract 38 10.11 22.17
Tract 39 26.25 42.16
Tract 39.01 3.63
Tract 39.02 49.14
Tract 40 38.56 42.47
Tract 41 84.53 93.78
Tract 43 46.0 73.63
Source: United States Census 1960,

40

also show that the college students in Tract 39 are con-
centrated in Tract 39.02 which includes the Bailey neighbor-
hood rather than in Tract 39.01 which includes the exclusive
subdivision, White Hills.

Table 4 represents the percentage of single per-
sons in each Tract. Again, in 1960, Tract 39 fell in the
middle range having a higher percentage of single persons
than Tract 38, a comparable percentage to Tracts 40 and 43,
and a lower percentage than Tract 41 in which large numbers
of college students resided. The percentage of single
persons had increased in each Tract from 1960 to 1970
corresponding to the increase in college students, the

increase in rental units to house these students, and the

Table 4.--Percentage single persons 14 years old and over.

 

 

1960 (%) 1970 (%)
East Lansing 47.91 63.03
Tract 38 17.41 24.86
Tract 39 28.58 40.65
Tract 39.01 24.32
Tract 39.02 44.41
Tract 40 30.68 34.18
Tract 41 64.36 78.01
Tract 43 31.96 62.27

 

Source: United States Census 1960, 1970a.

41

subsequent decrease in stability of each Tract's population.
In 1970, Tract 39 had a higher percentage of single persons
than Tracts 38 and 40 and a lower percentage than Tracts 41
and 43. Again Tract 39.02 had a dispr0portionately higher
percentage of single persons than Tract 39.01.

It can be seen from Table 1 and Figures 6, 7, and
8, the Bailey neighborhood has been predominantly a homeowner
area and, as can be implied from Tables 2 through 4, has had
a more stable, older, family oriented population than those
areas which surround it, i.e., Tracts 41 and 43. But this
is not the only development which distinguishes the Bailey
residents from those around them.

In 1916, Chesterfield Hills No. 1 (Figure l,
Chesterfield Hills) was platted. This was the first
exclusive section of East Lansing with large homes situated
on large lots. Glencarin (Figure l, Glencarin), platted
in 1926, was also built for more well-to-do families as
was Touraine (Figure l, Touraine) platted in 1927. In
1933, Towar (1933:50) wrote about Touraine:

Touraine, platted by Plummer Snyder in 1927, carries
out the modern idea of winding streets and large lots
of irregular size. The plat is designed as a
restricted, high class residential section, and the
character of the houses already constructed carry out
most pleasingly the plan of the promoter. Bordered by
two gold (sic) courses, with distant views to the
west and south, and located at the intersection of two

prominent state highways, Touraine is destined for
many years to be a desirable place in which to live.

42

In recent years, White Hills (Figure 1, White Hills) has
become the most exclusive section of East Lansing favored
as a place of residence by many of the Lansing metropolitan
areas business elite and local physicians.
Table 5 shows the median income of families in

1960 and 1970. In 1960, Tract 39 had slightly lower median
income than Tract 40 which includes Glencarin and a much
higher median income than Tracts 38, 41, and 43. Incomes
increased during the 19608, Tract 39.02 had a higher median
income than Tracts 41 and 43 but comparative to Tracts 38
and 40. Table 5 also shows that White Hills subdivision,

in Tract 39.01, is indeed an exclusive neighborhood having

Table 5.--Median income of families.

 

 

1960 1970
East Lansing $ 7,152 $11,630
Tract 38 8,243 16,470
Tract 39 11,970 24,034
Tract 39.01 . 33,381
Tract 39.02 16,912
Tract 40 12,277 17,138
Tract 41 7,945 11,714
Tract 43 8,365 13,353

 

Source: United States Census 1960, 1970a.

43

a considerably higher median income figure than the rest
of the city.

The figures for the median value of owner occupied
housing units in 1960 and 1970 are shown in Table 6.
Tracts 39 and 40 were at the high end of the range in 1960
with less expensive housing being available in Tracts 38,
41, and 43. The estimated value of owner occupied units
increased in the 19603 with the student/renter areas,
Tracts 41 and 43, having substantially lower valued units.
Table 6 shows that the Bailey blocks have housing whose
value is comparable to but slightly lower than the rest of

Tract 39.02 and Tracts 38 and 40.

Table 6.--Median value of owner-occupied housing units.

 

 

1960 1970

East Lansing $21,200 $29,300
Tract 38 18,900 30,400
Tract 39 25,200 34,900
Tract 39.01 50,000+
Tract 39.02 31,000
Bailey blocks 29,300
Tract 40 25,000 30,500
Tract 41 17,200 21,800
Tract 43 16,700 23,400

 

Source: United States Census 1960, 1970a, b.

 

44

The Bailey neighborhood lying for the most part in
Tract 39.02 (Tract 39 in 1960) generally falls in the middle
irange of values in each of the tables. It has a lower
percentage of college students and a lower density of rental
units than do the student/renter areas in Tracts 41 and 43
and correspondingly it has a higher median income level,
higher property values, proportionately more married persons
‘who tend to move less. Meanwhile, the Bailey neighborhood
has characteristics relatively similar to family oriented
neighborhoods in Tracts 38, 39.01 and 40 in terms of
stability, percentage of college students and percentage of
single persons. The median family income and the median
property values in the Bailey neighborhood are less than in
White Hills.

In describing the neighborhood one would say that
the houses are generally two story frame structures, like
those in Tract 41, possibly with brick or stone facade as
compared to the newer ranch styles and tri- and bi-levels
in White Hills, Lantern Hills and Walnut Heights (Figure 1,
Walnut Heights) subdivisions. Lots are smaller than those
in the Chesterfield Hills and Glencarin subdivisions as
well as in the three subdivisions previously named but
slightly larger than those in the Oakhill (Figure 1, Oak-
hill) area and other older parts of the city. The streets
of the Bailey neighborhood curve gently and are lined with

large mature trees. This is in sharp contrast to the

45

Avondon subdivision (Figure l, Avondon) to the east and the
White Hills, Lantern Hills, and Walnut Heights subdivisions
where the trees are still young. The houses and the quiet
streets give the Bailey neighborhood a pleasant quality
which is reflected in the pride residents express in their
area.

Summarizing the pre-community stage, as East
Lansing developed, social processes have Operated to give
the Bailey neighborhood and other areas in the city the
characteristics which are observable today. The physical
features of an area, the need for rental housing and the
willingness to provide it, the decisions by builders con-
cerning how to develop a lot or a subdivision, and the
decisions by persons to reside in a specific house and their
particular life situation have operated to give different
areas of East Lansing distinctive characteristics by which

they can be distinguished.

Formation of Communal Sentiments Stage

When asked why they moved into the Bailey neighbor-
hood, residents responded with reasons similar to those
given to Hunter (1975) in his study: it has a good school,
it is close to the university and the central business
district, the value of the houses fitted a family's budget,
etc. For some of the older residents Bailey was one of
the new areas of develoPment in the city. Many lots were

available in the late 19303 when one couple desired to

46

build. For other residents, houses had already been con-
structed and they bought a house which suited their needs.
For some residents the house they purchased was one of the
few houses suitable for their needs on the market. And
for some residents, they chose the Bailey neighborhood
because they were aware of and appreciated the community
which existed in Bailey.

The residents generally like living in the Bailey
neighborhood. Those interviewed said they liked living
there because it is close to the university and the central
business district and well served by the buses; people can
ride the bus to work or can walk if they work on campus.
Being able to walk and not being dependent on autos for
transportation is considered a big plus by the residents.
Entire families enjoy bike riding or walking along the quiet
tree lined streets. The people the researcher spoke with
did not feel this was true about other areas. People in
Okemos are more car oriented one older woman felt, and
expressed her displeasure with the thought of driving to
where she wanted to go. Another woman felt that those who
live in other parts of East Lansing such as Glencarin,
Pinecrest (Figure l, Pinecrest) and White Hills were too
far away from the university and the stores to be able to
walk.

The area is not seen as pretentious as one woman

phrased it. People interviewed felt that the homes were

47

moderately priced, the neighborhood relatively safe, and
the people friendly and well-educated. It was considered

a nice place for families. There is little attempt to keep
up with the Jones which some people felt was the case in
Glencarin. People habitually compared the Bailey neighbor-
hood to the admittedly higher status neighborhoods of
Glencarin and White Hills in terms which devalued the
characteristics of the latter two. This supports what
Suttles (1972) found in his study of Hyde Park. Hyde
Parkers contrasting themselves with North side Chicago
residents included in their self-descriptions the "rejection
of wealth alone as a criteria for residential selection and
an emphasis on counter themes: sentimental loyalties, anti-
snobbism, and cosmopolitanism of race and income groups"
(Suttles, 1972:249). "People do not lavish money on houses
here as in Glencarin or White Hills," one young woman

said, "they spend it on travel instead," clearly implying
that the Bailey neighborhood was qualitatively better than
the other two.

Some people interviewed would have liked to live in
Glencarin, the lots were larger and the income of the
residents was higher, but the houses cost more than they
could afford. But for most people interviewed, Bailey was
considered a highly desirable neighborhood to live in. One
woman even claimed that some prospective homeowners refused

to consider moving to any other area than Bailey.

48

Many people especially like the age mix of the
area. Almost everyone one asks mentions this fact. They
feel there is a nice mixture of younger families, older
families, retired persons and university students. They
do not feel this is as true in the Okemos suburbs or in
Pinecrest which one woman characterized as being "over-run
by kids." Census Tract figures appear to bear out her
statement. The Pinecrest area, Tract 38, has had a large
percentage of its school aged population enrolled at the
elementary level; 56.55 percent in 1960 and 46.88 percent
in 1970 while the tract in which the Bailey neighborhood
lies had percentages of 44.44 in 1960 and 27.53 in 1970
(United States Census, 1960, 1970a). People interviewed
said they did not prefer extremes in age groups whether of
college student-aged persons in the areas which border
Bailey or of young families who dominate in some subdivi-
sions. In general, then, when asked what they liked about
the Bailey neighborhood, people gave positive responses.
They liked the neighborhood and its residents. Even
though they felt they were a heterogeneous group they still
felt they had something in common.

There is general agreement among the residents
interviewed that Burcham Drive (see Figure 9 for street
locations) forms the northern boundary of the neighborhood.
Throughout the history of East Lansing Burcham Drive has

been an important street. As a section line road it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

50

predates both the city and the university. Around the turn
of the century and through the 19203 the street car line
connecting Lansing, East Lansing, Haslett, and, by way of
the interurban railroad, Owosso, turned off M.A.C. Avenue
and ran east along Burcham Drive. Until 1958 Burcham

Drive was the northern boundary of the city and for years
there was very little development on the north side of the
street. Eventually St. Thomas Aquinas School was built to
the north of Burcham and Alton Park, just east of the
school, was deve10ped.

In the 19603 a number of apartment complexes were
built on the north side of Burcham Drive. These complexes
and their youthful residents contrasted sharply with the
single family structures and their residents across the
street. When Lantern Hills subdivision was developed
northeast of Bailey the residents did not feel that their
northern boundary had changed. Nor did Lantern Hills
residents feel they were a part of the Bailey neighborhood,
their focus was elsewhere. Sue Allen stated (personal
interview) that when she conducted her interviews, resi-
dents of Lantern Hills had said that they did not feel they
shared the problems of the Bailey community. A woman
resident of Bailey remarked to the researcher that they,
the Lantern Hills residents, did not have the same interests
as the Bailey residents, they did not want any college

students living there, and that their area was different,

51

having no sidewalks. Thus Burcham Drive, now four lanes
wide, remains an effective "physical barrier."

Bailey's other three boundaries are not nearly as
well defined. To the east the boundary is Gunson Street
for some persons interviewed and Hagadorn Road for a few
others. Until 1958 the upper part of Gunson Street was
the eastern boundary of the city. In addition the area
between Gunson and Hagadorn Road was developed later than
the Bailey area. The houses were more cheaply constructed
and as a consequence many were converted to rental property
or since lots were still available in the 19603, were
specifically developed as rental prOperty. The differential
land use has been aided by the zoning of the area east of
Gunson Street "single family and duplex use" whereas most
of Bailey has continued to be zoned "single family use"
(Figures 4 and 5). As the rental housing has increased so
has the number of young transient college students as
Tables 1 through 4 indicate. Thus the difference in land
use, the price gradient, and the difference in life styles
of the residents serves to make Gunson Street the boundary
for certain residents. Hagadorn Road is like Burcham Drive
a major thoroughfare and thus serves as a physical barrier
for other people.

Below Beech Street and east of Gunson Street are
situated some of the few vacant lots remaining inside the

city limits. While there are some residents east of Gunson

52

Street they are below Albert Street which for peOple
approximates the neighborhood's southern boundary because
so many of the houses below Albert are occupied by students/
renters. The failure of Ann Street, Short Street, and Frye
Street to run through, each ending at the pre-1958 city
limits, has effectively cut the residents on either side
of the line off from each other. One can easily demon-
strate to oneself how these deadend streets have such an
effect if one walks these streets to their ends. There is
no way to get from one side of the boundary line to the
other without taking a round-about route, since bushes and
fences block a more.direct route.

In regards to the southern boundary, East Grand
River Avenue has been a major thoroughfare linking Detroit
and Lansing since before the turn of the century. To the
south is the university campus. In 1905 a subdivision east
of Bogue Street was platted as Bogue's Addition to Fairview
(Figure l, Bogue's Addition) but in the 19603 after the
area was rezoned "multiple density residential" most of
the area was redeveloped into apartment complexes as
increasing numbers of students sought to live off-campus.
People see this area now as a student area so that East
Grand River Avenue has become the ultimate southern boun-
dary of the Bailey neighborhood.

East Grand River Avenue is not the choice of all

residents interviewed though. Since at least 1935 the

53

blocks below Ann Street have been zoned differently from
those above it. Due to the distinctive nature of the
housing market in East Lansing this has resulted in a
developmental history of the area between Ann Street and
East Grand River Avenue which differs from that of the
area above Ann Street. This leads those interviewed who
live above Ann Street, seeing the difference between them-
selves and the residents who live below Ann and Albert
Streets, to designate either of these two streets as the
southern boundary of Bailey, while those residents inter-
viewed living below Ann and Albert Streets seeing the
similarity of interests they have with those residents to
the north draw the boundary line to the south of them-
selves.

The western boundary is not definitive in a way
which is similar to the eastern and southern boundaries.
Abbott Road having been a major north-south thoroughfare
for a good number of years serves as the ultimate western
boundary. But since the area between Abbott and Bailey
Street is much older than that to the east and since the
area has become almost totally student dominated some
people interviewed consider Bailey Street the western
boundary of the neighborhood.

Over the years zoning for the area west of Bailey
Street has changed to reflect different land use. The

result of the interplay between the zoning ordinances,

54

realtor interests and the demand for rental housing has
been that as one moves on a line from the corner of Abbott
Road and East Grand River Avenue toward the corner of
Burcham Drive and Bailey Street one encounters newer,
better constructed housing which is owner occupied or, if
rental property, occupied by older couples and single
persons. These develOpments have led some people inter-
viewed to designate Division Street or Charles Street as
the western boundary. Again though, as in the case of the
southern boundary, those persons living on a street excluded
by some Bailey residents, feeling a common bond between
themselves and the residents of Bailey, establish the
boundary to the west of themselves.

Of the peOple interviewed, there seems to be some
who were more concerned with the happenings within Bailey
while others showed less interest. As others have found
(Suttles, 1972 and Janowitz, 1952) the women and retired
persons appeared more apt to have definite ideas about the
neighborhood and its residents than others. Retired persons
have usually lived in the area for a long time and have
watched it change over the years. The retired persons the
researcher spoke with have lived in the neighborhood since
1945. They were concerned about what was happening in the
neighborhood. The conversion of owner occupied houses to
rental in the area below Ann Street was a major issue for

those retired persons residing there. One couple, showing

55

their feelings of frustration over the increase in rental
housing, appealed to the researcher as a sociologist to
explain why this was happening to their neighborhood.

Women appeared more concerned with the neighbor-
hood than men giving more specific answers to the questions.
Similarly, there seemed to be a difference between young
families and older families. Young couples with small
children whom were interviewed appeared more concerned
about the neighborhood than did couples with children
already grown or in adolescence. They gave more specific
examples of the problems the neighborhood faces than did
the older couples.

The Bailengommunity vs the
Wider Society Stage

 

Not everything that is said about the neighborhood
is positive though. As rental housing has expanded into
the Bailey area from the south people have become more
vocal over the undesirable effect they claim it has on the
neighborhood. Those persons interviewed made numerous
comments about these undesirable effects. As students/
renters move into an area the houses deteriorate, the yards
are not kept up. In the winter, the walks are not shoveled,
making it difficult to walk on the sidewalk. Rents are
high, the profitable buying and selling of rental property
has increased the assessed valuation of the property in the

area and, thus, raised property taxes. One woman claimed

56

that taxes in the Bailey area increased an average of 9
percent in three years as compared to an average of 2
percent in Glencarin over the same period. There is also
increased traffic, increased noise and an increase in the
number of large dogs running loose endangering the safety
of little kids and the elderly.

Not all of these problems can be blamed on the
renters. Landlords and realtors were generally blamed by
interviewees for letting a property deteriorate and not
providing a lawnmower or someone to cut the grass. They
were seen as being more interested in the return on their
investment than in maintaining the property they own. But
the renters came in for their share of the blame. Some
interviewees felt that students were only concerned with
themselves. They let their dogs run loose and many times,
when they moved, would abandon their pets. One older man
observed that they do not shovel the walks in the winter
even if the house is full of males. "They let their
stereos 'blare out' over the whole neighborhood and make a
great amount of noise coming home from the bars late at
night," another man exclaimed. Students were reported to
ride their bikes in such a fashion that it was dangerous
to even walk on the sidewalk. To those people interviewed
there was clearly a difference in life styles between the

students and the older residents.

57

Problems like these have led many people to move
away from the Bailey neighborhood. Most of the people the
researcher spoke with knew at least one family who had
moved because of the problems in the neighborhood. This,
of course, opens their houses to the threat of conversion
and a further worsening of the situation. In 1971 a group
of predominantly older residents organized to deal with
the housing problem. They called themselves the Bailey
Homeowners Association. Membership was drawn from those
who were concerned about the housing problem. These turned
out to be relatively older persons living in the southern
half of the neighborhood most threatened by the encroach-
ment of rental housing. The immediate issue they focused
upon concerned the overcrowded conditions in a certain
house in the neighborhood. The Association complained to
the city government and spoke at a hearing of the Zoning
Board of Appeals before the problem was satisfactorily
resolved.

One man told the researcher that the Bailey Home-
owners Association was also instrumental in developing the
present city housing code which attempts to deal with the
problem of housing in the city. But once the original
crisis was resolved the organization could not sustain
itself. Subsequently a number of former officers have

abandoned the neighborhood so that at the present time

58

it is difficult to find anyone who has more than just a
superficial knowledge about the Bailey Homeowners Associ-
ation.

In August, 1973, the city began work on the
extension of Ann Street as a necessary stage in the city's
"1980 Plan." In the Master Plan it was proposed to extend
Ann Street from its present deadend at Milford Street to
Hagadorn Road. This would allow the conversion of Ann and
Albert streets into one-way pairs providing an alternative
route to and from the downtown area.

The development of this alternative route was tied
to the redevelopment of the central business district and
the construction of a prOposed peripheral route to divert
traffic from the heavily used East Grand River Avenue. The
peripheral route which would parallel East Grand River was
to have been located along what is now Linden Street. The
area to the south of Linden and between Abbott Road and
Division Street would become the new business district.

Any houses existing within this area would be removed to be
replaced by business establishments. It was felt by those
behind the central business district plan that a redeveloped
downtown including proposed highrise hotel, Open malls,
parking ramps and reworked store fronts would help the
business district compete with the Meridian Mall being

planned for Okemos.

59

The three-dimensional model of the proposed central
business district can still be seen in the city planner's
office. The only developments after ten years though have
been the improvements of the alleys behind the stores facing
East Grand River Avenue, the legalization of liquor sales by
the glass within the city resulting in the proliferation
of bar-restaurants in the downtown area whose clientele
consist mostly of students, the construction of a department
store and parking ramp, each conceived before the Plan was
adopted and the proposal of a number of projects which have
never quite gotten past the planning stages.

The latest of these projects was a proposed building
housing offices and apartments over a 24-hour restaurant
on the corner of Ann Street and M.A.C. Avenue. Two houses
were located on that corner at the time the Master Plan was
adopted. The landlord realizing the buildings would even-
tually be torn down did not attempt to maintain the prop-
erty and the houses deteriorated. The houses were demol-
ished in summer 1975 to make way for the building but the
project has folded. Now the lot stands empty excepting the
sign reading "For Sale, For Lease, Call ."

It was in this context in which the orientation of
the city appeared to be toward the realtor and business
interests that One day in late summer 1973 a few residents
Of Bailey while on a bike ride discovered the city street

crews pouring the curbing as a first step in extending Ann

60

Street. The residents were concerned about the impli-
cations of the street extension and called their friends in
the neighborhood to discuss what could be done. A meeting
held in the Bailey School was arranged in which between 30
and 50 people in the neighborhood discussed the problem.

It was decided they would attend the City Council meeting
the following night and confront the Council with their
concerns.

At the meeting they argued that with the extension
of Ann Street traffic would increase on the street as would
its speed, increasing noise and endangering the lives of
their children. They also argued that their prOperty values
might drop especially if Ann and Albert street were made
one-way pairs. Their feeling was that there were enough
streets to carry traffic into and out of the downtown area.
They could not see any benefit for themselves if Ann Street
was extended. They could see that it would help those
living outside of the Bailey neighborhood to get through
it and into the downtown area more quickly and easily but
they did not feel this was necessary at their expense.

They also felt that if Ann Street was extended it would
encourage more development of rental housing along the
extension and increase traffic still more. The Council
for its part appreciated the concerns of the Bailey resi-
dents and decided to stOp work on the street until the

Planning Commission could study the issues. The Planning

61

Commission recommended that Ann Street not be extended and
the City Council voted to drop the project. The project,
however, remained a part Of the 1980 Master Plan, it was
not until early 1975 that the Council finally removed it.

The crisis over the street extension was resolved
but the residents of Bailey who had attended the City
Council meeting did not feel they could relax. They did not
trust the City Council which they felt was realtor and
merchant oriented. But they realized they could not make
their voices heard unless they were organized. A steering
committee was formed from the residents who had first
expressed concern and had organized the original meeting in
the Bailey School. Out of their meetings came the structure
for the Bailey Community Association.

An organizational meeting was held in early 1974
of all residents of the Bailey neighborhood who were con-
cerned about the quality of life in the neighborhood and
who wanted to preserve it. At the meeting a constitution
and by-laws which the steering committee had drawn up were
presented and passed. The constitution provided for an
executive board which would manage the affairs of the
organization. It would have the power to "establish such
policies and procedures as would be required to effectuate
the purposes and Objectives of the Association" (Bailey
Community Association, 1974a). Concerning these purposes

and Objectives of the Association the constitution stated:

62

The purpose of this Association shall be to protect
and promote the best interests of the residents of the
area herein set forth: to preserve the residential
character of the area; to promote and encourage a
better community and civic spirit and to foster good
will and friendship among all the residents of said
area; to cooperate with state, county, and city offi-
cials and with other civic and public organizations
for the general welfare of the entire community of
East Lansing (Bailey Community Association, 1974a).

The By-laws provided for the payment of dues by
members permitting the Association to meet any necessary
expenses. They also provided for the maintenance of
several committees which would contribute to the obtainment
of the Association's goals. The standing committees and
their functions were:

(a) Awareness Committee--the duties of the committee
will be

(1) to maintain a current knowledge of issues before
the East Lansing council and its appointed
Commissions.

(2) to appoint Association members to attend public
meetings of the East Lansing Council and its
Commissions and to report information of
importance to the Executive Board.

5(3) to provide the BCA Newsletter editor with
information of importance to the membership and
the Bailey community.

(b) Communication Committee--the duties of the committee

will be

63

(l) to provide for the printing, packaging, and
distribution of the Newsletter.

(2) to handle telephoning assignments at the
request of the Executive Board.

(3) to plan and hold any public information pro-
grams for the membership and the community
at the request of the Executive Board.

(4) to conduct a yearly review of the Association's
communication's program and to report to the
Executive Board any feelings and recommendations
by January 31 Of each year.

(c) Priority Issue Committee--the duties of the com-
mittee will be

(1) to gather, receive, and study information
relating to issues, laws, ordinances, and
regulations which have an impact on the com-
munity.

(2) to report to the Executive Board the Committee's
findings and to recommend actions to be taken.

(3) the following committees will be maintained:
(a) Housing and Zoning Committee
(b) Parks and Recreation Committee
(c) Traffic Committee

(Bailey Community Association, 1974b).

64

As it turns out, the standing committees are rather
loosely organized. The Awareness Committee appoints members
to attend various meetings but so does the Executive Board
and the special sub-committees of the Priority Issues
Committee. The Communication Committee however does dis-
charge its duties, it prints and distributes the Newsletter
written by the Executive Board.

The three sub-committees which make up the Priority
Issues Committee get at the very heart of the Association's
concerns. Traffic has already been discussed. The narrow
streets, the limiting of on-campus parking for students
forcing them to park on the Bailey neighborhood streets,
especially the ones nearest to campus, the lack of parking
spaces on rental property and the dislike of autos by resi-
dents of the neighborhood continue to make traffic a con-
cern long after the Ann Street crisis has passed.

The Parks and Recreation sub-committee was estab-
lished because it was felt that there were not enough
developed areas for the residents' children to play in.
There was only Alton Park and the Bailey school playground.
The sub-committee was to study the feasibility of locating
a park in the Bailey area.

Housing, of course, has been a problem for the
Bailey residents long before the Association was conceived.
But the problem had been intensifying for the last number

of years. The Bailey Homeowners Association tried to deal

65

with it but failed. The problem had grown to such pro-
portions that people were afraid for the survival of the
neighborhood. The reason for their concern was fairly
clear.

Rental housing in the form of rooming and boarding
houses appeared first in East Lansing near the campus, in
the delta area and behind the central business district.
Since then, these two areas have become almost exclusively
those of rental housing. Rental housing has also spread
to areas where the assessed valuation of the prOperty was
comparatively lower than in other areas. Thus, two areas
with Older homes, the Oakhill (refer to Figure l for loca-
tions of subdivisions named) area and the Fairview area were
gradually taken over. In the 19603 many houses in the
Avondon subdivision were converted to rental property
because the area also contained more cheaply made houses.
A comparison of the percent rental units in 1960 and 1970
for Tract 43 clearly indicate the conversion (Table 1).
Since 1970 rental housing has spread into the area east of
Hagadorn Road and south of Burcham Drive and has expanded
over the exclusive White Hills area into the area along
Lake Lansing Road, two other areas of cheaper housing.

The continual demand for rental housing has made
it economically advantageous to convert existing housing
to rental property and in some cases to clear existing

houses to build apartment buildings. Entrepreneurs have

66

bought houses which would enable them to maximize profits.
This has meant that investment has been made in areas with
comparatively low assessed value property. In concrete
terms this has meant that older and more cheaply constructed
houses have been converted to rental property either by
converting the structure to a rental unit or by building an
apartment building.

The Bailey neighborhood is surrounded by rental
housing, many of the residents feel that their area is
next. It is becoming harder and harder for young families
to buy a house in the neighborhood since speculation had
distorted the market so. With good reason then the
Association is concerned with the problem of housing. The
Housing and Zoning Committee members attend the appropriate
City Commission meetings to find out what the city govern-
ment is doing to alleviate housing problems and what vari-
ances are being considered. In Open hearings and in casual
discussions with Council members and Commissioners they
voice the position of the Association.

When the City Council and the Planning and Housing
Commissions were studying proposed changes to the zoning
and housing ordinances, the committee studied the proposed
changes and their possible effect on the Bailey neighbor-
hood and presented their findings to the Association's
Executive Board. The Executive Board then prepared a

Newsletter explaining the proposed changes and stating the

67

Board's position. They evaluated each proposal on the basis
Of the effect it would have on the quality of the neighbor-
hood. The Board began in part by stating:
Together they constitute some of the most significant
changes proposed for East Lansing housing in many
years. It is very important that we write or phone our
support to Council. The maximum number of roomers
permitted in R-2 (single-family) and R-3 (duplex)
houses may be lowered; landlords may be encouraged to
rent to tenants without cars; and housing appeal pro-
cedures might be tightened. City Council's proposed
changes to the housing and zoning codes represent a
big step forward for East Lansing . . . (Bailey Com-
munity Association, 1975).
The Newsletter was sent by the Communication Committee to
all residents within the Bailey Community Association
boundaries urging them to attend public hearings Of the
changes and to contact City Council members to express
their opinions.

The Association has done other things to make the
views of the Bailey residents known and to keep its member—
ship informed of happenings in the city. They have spon-
sored "Candidates' Night" a forum which provided interested
persons the opportunity to talk with candidates running for
the City Council about their problems and concerns. City
elections are nonpartisan but since the State Supreme Court
decision allowing college students to vote where they
attend school city elections have become very partisan.
Candidates, the media, and private individuals have

characterized the various candidates as either homeowner

candidates or student candidates increasing the animosity

68

between the two groups. One of the goals Of the Candidates'
Night, along with the more obvious goal of allowing the
neighborhood residents to quiz the candidates on the

issues, was to stimulate dialog among the groups. In
another project the Association and the Planning Commission
have been involved in a study of the Bailey area and its
particular housing and traffic problems with the hope of
recommending solutions to these problems.

The Bailey Community Association claims a much
larger territory than that Occupied by the Bailey neighbor-
hood (Figure l). The area is bounded on the north by
Saginaw Street, on the east by Hagadorn Road, on the south
by East Grand River Avenue and on the west by Abbott Road.
The boundaries were drawn in such a way to provide a sig-
nificantly large population base which the Association
could claim to represent. The Association also wanted to
avoid excluding any interested person from outside the
Bailey neighborhood. The four streets named are major
streets and seemed like logical choices.

But membership is not evenly distributed throughout
the Association area. In March 1975 the membership secre-
tary's list showed 310 members, of these 247 or 80 percent
lived in the area bounded by Burcham Drive on the north,
Gunson Street on the east, East Grand River Avenue on the
south and Division Street on the west. In other words

80 percent of the Bailey Community Association members

69

reside in the Bailey neighborhood. The percentage increases
to 83 percent if that part of Charles Street above Linden
Street is included within the Bailey neighborhood.

There has been a real attempt to get the residents
above Burcham Drive to join the organization but few have
decided to do so. Most of the population above Burcham do
not feel they share similar interests with those residents
to the south. Their area has no sidewalks, they are car
oriented and they do not want students living near them»
selves. In short, the residents above Burcham Drive feel
that they and their area are different from the people and
the area below Burcham and do not feel they had any prob-
lems which require an organization such as the Bailey
Community Association.

There has also been an attempt to persuade renters
to join since, the leaders argued, they would benefit from
the Association's existence along with the rest of the
residents in the area. But very few renters have ever
joined. Of those that have joined, many have been elected
to the Executive Board. At the time of Allen's study the
renters constituted 14.3 percent of the Executive Board but
only 5.2 percent of the membership (Allen, 1975:81). In a
random survey of the residents within the Association's
boundaries, Allen found that 80.8 percent of the homeowners
had heard about the Association while only 22.4 percent of

the renters had (Allen, 1975:70). Considering from where

70

its membership is drawn, who these members are, and the
issues which concern them, it can be argued that the Bailey
Community Association represents the interests mainly of
the Bailey community.

The Bailey Community Association's Effect
on the Community--The Fourth Stage

 

 

The Bailey Community Association has been in exis-
tence for two years now. In that time the leaders and
members have tried to deal with the problems that concerned
them and have tried to improve the quality of life in their
neighborhood. In the process the existence of the Associ-
ation has had an effect on the neighborhood, its residents,
and on those groups outside the neighborhood which have
dealings with it.

City officials, for example, keep in touch with
the Association's leaders to let them know what is being
planned and to Obtain the leaders' opinions. Sue Allen
(1975:51) writes of the Association:

Its credibility has been increasing and it is undoubt-
edly considered a force to be contended with in the
city politics. It is mentioned frequently in the
press, and recent Planning Commission minutes noted
that the Bailey Community Association informs its
members of proposed hearings. A City Council member
recently sent prospective purchasers Of a downtown
commercial property to an Executive Board meeting;
advising them to get Association clearance to avoid

future difficulties, City Council works through the
Association when neighborhood hearings are organized

71

The Association and its members can be partially credited
with the City Council's decision recently to spend $55,000
Of Community DeveIOpment Funds in or near the Bailey
neighborhood.

The effect of the association on the neighborhood
has been just as important as its effect on the political
atmosphere in the city. People feel they have support now.
Before the Association was formed peOple did not know if
they should move, make improvements in their houses, or do
nothing at all. The Association has relieved them of that
worry. Recently four houses, formerly rental property,
have been purchased by families. One couple planning to
move out of the neighborhood told their friends before
they listed the house with a realtor to give them an
opportunity to buy first. Of the persons the researcher
spoke with there was a general sense of hope for and pride
in the neighborhood. Although there are still problems to
deal with, people feel satisfactory solutions are possible.

The Association has become the organization to turn
to when problems do arise. If there is trouble with dogs,
or noise, or snow on the sidewalks or a drainage problem
people call the Association's leaders for help. This has
resulted in the establishment of a set of procedures to
follow in such cases. If it is a problem such as someone's
dog running loose, the complaining resident must try to

resolve the problem himself first. If this avenue of

72

approach turns out to be fruitless then an area leader or

a member of the Executive Board may help resolve the issue.
If the problem seems to occur Often as in the case of a
number of large dogs running loose the Executive Board may
establish a sub-committee to study the problem and try to
suggest possible solutions such as lobbying the city govern-
ment to either enforce the laws or pass new ones.

The Association has helped crystallize the Bailey
residents' sense of community. PeOple interviewed felt a
sense of pride in the fact that they could go to the City
Council now to present their concerns and that they would
be listened to. Although the retired persons interviewed
still expressed some concern, the Association has given
them renewed hOpe that they may stay in the houses they have
lived in for so long. They feel the Association has been
a good thing for the neighborhood, helping the people to
feel less alienated and less powerless. Over a thousand
people attended an "ice cream social" last summer sponsored
by the Association at the Orchard Street Pump House which
has been turned into a community center. It provided
residents an opportunity to "meet their neighbors and feel
good about the community," as one man put it. The effect
of the Bailey Community Association on the sense of com-
munity of an Older gentleman was touchingly clear when
reflecting on the event he said, "I hope there will be

more Of those."

73

I

The Orchard Street Pump House is the newest project
begun under the auspices of the Bailey Community Association.
The Pump House as its name indicates was originally used to
house the pumping facilities for one of the city's wells.
The structure was built in 1934 with WPA money which gives
the building historical significance. But there is some-
thing else about the building which gives it a unique
character, the building was designed architecturally to fit
in with the neighborhood. It is a one story structure of
brick construction with a front porch whose roof is sup-
ported by white pillars. The building is touched off by
wood framed windows and wood trim around the roof. With
the improvements in pumps and the movement of the water
storage facilities to Alton Street the building fell into
disuse.

In the spring of 1975, the City Manager prOposed
to the Council that the city tear down the building leaving
only a small section containing the pump standing. This
bothered at least one resident of Bailey who lamenting the
fact that Americans seemed prone to destroy their heritage
persuaded the City Council to give him until September 1975
to come up with alternative uses for the building. With a
number of other interested residents, calling themselves
the Pump House Gang, he formulated a proposal which was
presented to the Council. They proposed that the building

be used as a neighborhood center for the benefit of SCAP,

74

the School Community Activity Program and the residents
of the neighborhood. Their proposal read in part:

There already exists an agency in the city that
develops and supports neighborhood programs throughout
the city: the School Community Activity Program. Even
a brief glance at the records of SCAP in recent years
will reveal marked successes, of which the Recreation
staff and commission can be proud. As a way of building
on these successes and at the same time avoiding the
risks of growth, we are proposing the following experi-
ment: the development of the Pump House as a neighbor-
hood center in the Bailey community, a center which
would be administered partly by SCAP and partly by the
neighborhood itself. To the extent that the center is
used by SCAP, it would be organized under already
existing guidelines. The inclusion of the neighbor—
hood element is meant to insure both local involvement
and a significant degree of flexibility and informality.
It is extremely important that the neighbors feel that
they can use the center with the minimum of red tape
and involved planning. It is equally important that
the neighbors assume part of the responsibility for
the operation of the center. The anticipated outcomes
of this experiment are (1) an increased sense of
identity, cohesiveness, and pride in the neighborhood;
(2) an amplification, with a more carefully defined
neighborhood-volunteer element, of the School Community
Activity Program; and (3) an enhancement of the quality
of life in the neighborhood. It is prOposed that the
Pump House Center be established on a two-year experi-
mental basis, the first year Of its operation to be
devoted to a broadly ranging selection of activities
to determine which activities seem to attract the most
participation, and the second year to develop more
intensively those activities which proved most attrac-
tive during the first year (Mattson, 1975:1-2).

As possible activities they suggested for the
School Community Activity Program; craft classes, consumer
classes, and other enrichment classes such as group music
lessons, discussion groups, etc. For the neighborhood
activities they suggested: (a) a nature corner; (b) a
neighborhood improvement recognition corner; (C) a crafts

corner; (d) a photo display; (e) a bike repair and

75

maintenance corner; (f) a retired persons' corner; (9)
rotating displays (anything deemed of interest to the
neighborhood); (h) a reading room; and (i) drop-in hours
(Mattson, l975:4). Activities were also proposed for the
acre of land, appropriately called the Pump House Green,
on which the Pump House stood.

All of these activities are oriented toward the
goals of increasing a sense of identity, cohesiveness,
and pride in the neighborhood and enhancing the quality of
life of its residents. The Pump House, subsequently
approved by the City Council, like the Bailey Community
Association with which it is closely affiliated, help to
crystalize the residents' sense of community and underline

the common interests which they share.

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION AND REMARKS

The political-historical context within which East
Lansing has developed has left its stamp on the Bailey
neighborhood and has helped shape the residents' sense of
community. The dynamics involved in community formation
have been aptly described by Jerry Mattson (1975:l) in the
proposal for the Pump House Center:

In East Lansing, as in most cities, a neighborhood
is subjected to a variety of centrifugal forces; its
inhabitants usually leave it during the day to earn
their livelihood; it is not a political unit with a
treasury to enable it to see to its own development;
problems that arise in a neighborhood usually have to
be referred to a larger unit, like the city or the
state; activities that originate in a neighborhood, if
they are ambitious at all, have to be funded by an
outside source, which usually means the expansion of
that activity to accommodate a larger constituency.
All of these forces contribute to the disintegration
of a neighborhood, and result in the quite common
situation, both in large cities and small, of neighbors
of long standing who rarely interact, who may not even
know each other's names.

Yet, cities are still made up of neighborhoods;
people still think of their city large or small, as
consisting of separate neighborhoods. And a get-
together, a workday, a response to a crisis--and we
will all point to these examples with considerable
pride. This is an important source of identity for a
great many people, who, for a variety of reasons, are
not able to be active enough in the larger context,
the city, to achieve that sense of pride in place.

76

77

For some people, in other words, the neighborhood in
which they are active may well be the city as a whole;
but for the vast majority of people, their neighborhood
is a smaller, less tangibly defined entity. For these
peOple, the neighborhood is the more human scale of
activity, and programs organized on a neighborhood
basis will have a greater degree of vitality.

What this paper has attempted to do is suggest a
methodological approach to understanding the formation of
community. It was argued in Chapter I that community is
formed through the interactions of the residents with the
wider society. The community sentiments generated are
based on status differentiation, i.e., on feelings by the
residents that they share a common life style as opposed to
that of persons who live in the surrounding areas. It was
further argued that in attempting to understand community
formation communities could be seen as passing through
several stages. The stages were: (1) a pre-community stage
within which political and economic processes shape the
neighborhood; (2) a community formation stage within which
residents develOp a sense of community based on their
common life style; (3) a stage centering on the continuing
relationship between the community and the wider society,
and (4) a community organization stage within which the
organized actions of the residents work to enhance the
residents' sense of community.

The Bailey community was used to illustrate how

one would use this approach in the field situation. Social

processes were examined in terms of the four stages of

77

   
   
   
   
    
   
 
  
   
   

- in
For some people, in other words, the neighborhoogholfl
which they are active may well be the City as}
but for the vast majority of people, their ne;grhb°’w
is a smaller, less tangibly defined entity. 13
people, the neighborhood is the more human 80:
activity, and programs organized on a.neighb0
basis will have a greater degree Of VitalitY-
. a
What this paper has attempted to do 18 SW‘
. ‘oI -
methodological approach to understanding the fox-Eu .
~ to
conununity. It was argued in Chapter I that M"
. git.
formed through the interactions of the resident‘
’
wider society. The community sentiments 9w“. —. saw
~ I
based on status differentiation, i.e., on W
- ‘
residents that they share a common life “I“
that of persons who live in the surroundil! “' in terms
further argued that in attempting to M A

formation communities could be seen as!” ' variety 0f

several stages. The stages were: (11‘ + area with pre-

1'

neighborhood; (2) a community W K and the university

within which political and W {1e location in

residents develop a sense of (1", ents felt the life style

comI - ' style; (3) a “a,” nd valued it over that
re'- between the ' hey differentiated themselves
I ommunity o -n the higher income areas and
./actions iving in the areas surrounding
1' sen?
I Ch external social forces, such as

lar traffic, the increased demand for

 

e actions taken by the city

 

78

community formation. The first stage, concerning the
historical development Of the neighborhood, examined not
only how the neighborhood and the city developed physically,
but social processes, the development of subdivisions and
the individual decisions by builders and developers, the
growth of the university and the increased demand for
housing, the migration of the pOpulation which affected this
development, and the resulting demographic characteristics
of different areas of the city. In the second stage we saw
how the Bailey community has emerged through its relation-
ship with the wider society, i.e., how residents differ-
entiated themselves from residents in other areas in terms
of the social statuses associated with these areas. Resi-
dents preferred the Bailey neighborhood for a variety of
reasons. Firstly, it was a moderate income area with pre-
dominantly family oriented residents. The location in
relationship to the bus lines, stores, and the university
was convenient. Secondly, the residents felt the life style
in their neighborhood was unique and valued it over that
of persons living elsewhere. They differentiated themselves
from other residents living in the higher income areas and
from the student/renters living in the areas surrounding
their neighborhood.

The way in which external social forces, such as
the increased vehicular traffic, the increased demand for

rental housing, and the actions taken by the city

79

government and the business and realtor interests, have
threatened to change the character of the neighborhood and
the way the Bailey residents have responded to such threats
were examined in the third stage. Two organizations were
formed to combat the threats to the neighborhood character.
The first organization, the Bailey Homeowners Association,
disappeared after the immediate crisis had passed, but the
second, the Bailey Community Association, is still active.
This organization has attempted to keep its members informed
of the actions of the City Council and the City Commissions
and has tried to represent the community's interests to
these governing bodies.

In the fourth stage, we examined how the presence
of the Association has helped to crystalize the residents'
sense of community. When residents encounter a problem
such as barking dogs or deteriorating buildings, they call
the Association's leaders for assistance. PeOple the
researcher interviewed never spoke of the problems of the
neighborhood without also telling how the Association has
helped to alleviate them. The Pump House project to provide
a center for community activities has been recently funded.
In the future it may like the Bailey Community Association
increase the residents' sense of community and the pride
they feel for their neighborhood.

This approach to community formation proves its

worth in the case of the Bailey community. Each stage of

80

community formation can be illustrated. Other communities
one may choose to study have developed in their own unique
context. Thus each stage of these communities' formation
may vary in the details from that of the Bailey community.
The pre-community stage varies according to the political
and economic decisions made at the time of develOpment and
according to the social history of the area since its
development. As time passes, structures deteriorate,
prOperty values depreciate, populations change their com-
positions, governmental policies change, areas are rede-
veloped, each affects future residents and their ability to
develop a sense of community. At the community formation
stage, the degree to which residents feel they share a
common life style differs from one community to another.
Residents may feel a "limited liability" toward their
community, acknowledging only a common residency; they may
have a very strong sense of community, feeling they have
many things in common with their neighbors; or they may
range somewhere in-between.

The degree to which residents feel they may share a
common life style will be affected by their relationship
to the wider society. In this third stage, the relation-
ship Of the residents to the wider society may vary from
one in which "the neighborhood is left undefended and open
to invasion by almost any sort of resident" (Suttles, 1972:

239) to one much like that of the Bailey residents or to

81

one in which the residents have achieved "community closure."
Their relationship will depend on the status ranking of the
residents and their position within the power structure of
the wider society. Residents of some communities organize
to defend their neighborhood or to promote community Spirit
while others are too demoralized or lack interest to do
either. Thus, in the fourth stage, the degree to which
residents' sense of community may be enhanced through their
organizing efforts will vary with their situation vis-a-vis
the wider society.

This case study does not mark the end of research
but only one step in the develOpment of a general theory
of community. A number of possible next steps follow from
this one. At each stage of community formation contrastive
studies could be utilized to clarify the dynamics involved
and the relationship of various groups such as governments,
realtors, developers, and other business interests to the
community as a status group and the type of community
formed. The crucial question in these studies concerns the
relationship of the communities' status and power positions

to the degree of communal feelings the residents possess.

APPENDIX A

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY AND DATA

APPENDIX A

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY AND DATA

There are four major types of data which need
further explanation. These are: (1) interviews with resi-
dents of the Bailey neighborhood; (2) maps of East Lansing;
(3) knowledge gained by the researcher through over 9 years
of living in the city, and (4) Census Tract data. I will
explain where I obtained each type of data and make any

comments that need to be made.

Interviews

 

Two types of interviews were conducted with residents
of the Bailey community. The first type was conducted to
obtain information from specific persons who had knowledge
about the Bailey Community Association. The interviewees
were present or past leaders of the Association. Each of
the six leaders I spoke with was asked to explain how the
Association came into being. They each explained their own
version of the Ann Street extension crisis. One leader was
asked how the Association was organized while three others
were quizzed on the effects of the Association on the

Bailey community. Each person was very willing to talk and

82

83

help me in any way possible. The present president and
the former secretary Offered to let me see any documents
about the Association such as Newsletters, notes on the
Executive Board meetings, etc. which they had in their
possession. I also attended two Executive Board meetings
to familiarize myself with its operation and to verify the
information I had been given by the leaders I had inter-
viewed.

The second type of interview was conducted with
residents of the neighborhood using the interview schedule
at the end of this appendix. In all 11 interviews were
conducted with 14 residents in the person's home either in
the afternoon or in the evening. Three of these inter-
views were conducted with couples, each contributing to
answering the questions.

The snowball technique was used to obtain interviews.
I began with the names of some of the leaders of the
Association and with the names of a few acquaintances of a
member of my Master's committee. With each person I inter-
viewed I asked for the names of other individuals in the
neighborhood who I might talk'with also. Each person would
give me several names of next door neighbors, friends, or
individuals they felt I should speak with either because
the Opinions would differ from their own or because they
would express Opinions which would be helpful to my endeavors.

From the list of names given me, I would select those persons

84

I wanted to interview. The criteria for selecting these
individuals were a combination of (1) the age group I
thought the potential interviewee to be in and the inter-
viewee's sex since I wanted to balance the interviews
among males and females within three age groups, under 40,
40 to 60, and over 60; (2) the part of the neighborhood
the potential interviewee lived in since I wanted to inter—
view people living in all parts of the neighborhood; and
(3) whether the potential interviewee was at home or not.
The first two criteria were used to obtain some
semblance of a representative sample of the adult popula-
tion and the part of the neighborhood in which they lived.
The importance of the two criteria follow from the theory
I have presented. A person's sense of community is
developed in a particular social-historical context, there-
fore, the person's age, sex, and geographic location will
be reflected in his opinions. That is to say, the opinions
of persons concerning their neighborhood, what they like
about it and what they do not like varies with respect to
their geographic location in the neighborhood, their close-
ness to areas which differ from there own and with respect
to their age and family stage and sex, the extent to which
they are involved with the happenings in the neighborhood
and the extent to which they are affected by the changes in

the neighborhood.

85

As it turns out only a few questions yielded useful
information. The most useful were (1) what do you like
about the Bailey neighborhood; (2) does this neighborhood
have any problems; and (3) do you belong to the Bailey
Community Association, why or why not. In answering the
first question, peOple usually contrasted their neighbor-
hood and what they liked about it with other neighborhoods
in East Lansing. The second question tapped peoples' con-
cerns about their neighborhood and led them into the third
question. The answers to the third question shed light on
the effect the Association had had on the person's sense
on community. The question about the neighborhood boundaries
did help to clarify where people felt their neighborhood
boundaries were and how they varied from person to person.
Also the specificity with which people answered the ques-
tions varied with respect to age and sex with males 40 to
60 being least specific and under 40 females and persons of
both sexes over 60 being most specific. The other questions
asked yielded similar information obtained with the three
questions referred to above or were unanswerable due to
lack of knowledge by the interviewee. As it was the ans-
wers to the questions by the interviewees yielded little
new knowledge after the tenth or eleventh interview hence

the termination of the interviewing after the eleventh.

Maps

Zoning maps were obtained from the City Planning
Department. They have a large amount of information on
the city and its development and are very willing to help
if one knows what one is looking for. As can be seen from
the zoning maps (Figures 2 through 5) the types of zoning
districts have changed over the years. Scott Radway, the
present head of the Planning Department explained that land
use planning had started out at a very simple level but that
over the years planning became more sOphisticated. This
soPhistication is reflected in the increasing number of
zones to differentiate between land uses. At the present
time there are two single family zones differing only in
the size of the lots required, a duplex zone, a multiple
density zone, two business zones, an agricultural zone, a
community or public zone, a university zone, and a number
of zones for various kinds of planned housing developments.
But for our purposes we are interested in the combined
single family zones, the combined business zones, the duplex
zone and the multiple density zone. Thus Figures 2 through
5 have been labeled accordingly.

The plat boundaries (subdivisions shown in Figure 1)
were obtained from the City Engineering Department. They
have records on all land which had been platted in East
Lansing including who owned the land and when it was

platted. These are original c0pies of the county clerk's

87

records. I have also run across a number of other maps of
East Lansing. The Michigan State University Library has a
few maps of Ingham County for 1874 and 1895. The location
of farms, the names of the owners and even the location of
the farm houses can be obtained from the maps.

There are also a number of maps of East Lansing
available in the Michigan State University Library as part
of theses and dissertations done to fulfill degree require-
ments. This is where Charles Ipcar's maps were obtained.
At one time, I do not know if it is still done today, the
College of Engineering required a senior project. Some
students selected projects which concerned certain engi-
neering problems in the city of East Lansing such as the
surveying of a proposed addition to the city, an assessment
of its fire protection capabilities as reflected in the
ready supply of water, the redesign of the city's sewer
system, the investigation of the city water supply and the
analysis of the stresses on the city's water tower. Many
of these theses contain maps of the city at the time the
theses were written variously showing streets, lot lines,
sewer lines and waterlines. The maps and the theses are
useful for gaining a sense of how the city developed phys-
ically and indirectly of the social processes which were

evolving.

88

Personal Knowledge of the Researcher

Much of my sense of the Bailey community and
neighborhood, the community's problems and the social-
historical context in which the community exists has been
gained from my experiences as a resident of the city and
as an active participant in the social-historical processes.
Participation has included reading about issues and events
in the local newspapers, attending City Council meetings
where issues were discussed by various residents of the
city, and being a member of the Housing Commission from
September 1974 to June 1975 during which time I gained first
hand knowledge of the opinions of the city's residents.
Being a renter, I am well aware of the problems associated
with rental housing and have tried to understand the pro-
cesses behind the rental housing situation and the people

involved for my own sake.

Census Tract Data

A word of caution is needed concerning the Census
data. Tract boundaries are set by the United States
government to delineate areas which are similar in regards
to a set of criteria which the Census Bureau finds signifi-
cantly informative for its needs. These boundaries need
not coincide with the boundaries of a community and in the
case of the Bailey community they do not. In this case the

community crosses over the boundaries (Figure l) but most

89

of the community lies within one particular Tract. One can
assume that data for tract 39.02 characterizes the Bailey
community also.

There is one other word of caution. By 1970,

Tract 39 had been split into two Tracts, 39.01 and 39.02,
as Figure 1 indicates, due to the development of White
Hills, a rather exclusive subdivision. This makes it rather
more difficult to trace the develOpments and changes in the
measured characteristics of a Tract, consequently the
tables include the statistics for both Tracts 39.01 and
39.02 separately and as a weighed average. Tracts 44,
44.01, and 44.02 have been excluded from the tables because
the large amount of university married housing in the
Tracts distorts the statistics. Tracts 42 and 44.03 have
also been excluded from the tables because these Tracts

are on campus.

Block data is only available for 1970. The blocks
included in the tables in the "Bailey blocks" are only
those blocks in Tract 39.02 which are below Burcham Drive.
Neither Tract data nor Block data is being used in this
case to give an accurate description of the Bailey neigh-
borhood and community but to point to the development of
the city and how in its development residents and the

Tracts they reside in exhibit different characteristics.

(1)
(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

90

How long have you lived in this house? years
Where was the last place you lived before you moved

here?

 

Why did you move?

Why did you choose this neighborhood (area) of East

Lansing to move to?

Do you have much to do with people in this neighbor-

hood? In what way? Yes No

Generally speaking, how do you feel about living in

this neighborhood?

 

What do you like about it?

What don't you like about it?

 

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

91

What do you think are the special characteristics of

the neighborhood as a community?

OT--Has the sense of community changed while you have

been living here? How? Yes No

NC--What was your image of the community before you

moved here?

After living here for a while, do you find this true?

Why not? Yes No

How would you compare this area with others in East

Lansing?

Does this neighborhood have any problems?

Yes NO

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

(18)

(19)

92

Is there any means to deal with these

What are they? Yes No

Do you belong to the Bailey Community

Why or why not? Yes No

What do you see as the purpose of the

Association?

Do you know what the Bailey Community

been involved in?

What is your opinion concerning these

Association has been involved in?

problems?

Association?

Bailey Community

Association has

things the

Do you think it should be involved in other things

besides these? What other things? Yes No

(20).

(21)

(22)
(23)

(24)

(25)

93

Do you think renters should belong to the Bailey
Community Association? Why or why not?

Yes No

What do you think about residents near McDonald

Middle School wanting to join the BCA?

Does this area have a name?

 

Do other areas of East Lansing have names?
(1) (5)
(2) (6)
(3) (7)
(4) (8)

 

 

 

 

Could you draw on this map what you picture the
boundaries of your neighborhood to be?

Yes No

 

 

Could you draw on this map what you consider the
boundaries of other neighborhoods to be?

Yes NO

 

 

Do you know anybody else I could contact to learn more about

residents' feelings about Bailey?

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

 

 

 

 

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