Faculty Spotlight: Lance Freeman

Lance Freeman, Penn IUR Fellow and one of the world’s leading scholars of urban housing and gentrification, was recently appointed Penn’s 29th Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor, a position established to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines. He is the James W. Effron University Professor, with joint appointments in the Department of City and Regional Planning in the Weitzman School and the Department of Sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences. Previously a professor in the Urban Planning Program at Columbia University, Freeman spent the 2020-21 academic year at Penn as the Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow. His books include A Haven and a Hell: The Ghetto in Black America (Columbia University Press, 2019) and There Goes the ‘Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up (Temple University Press, 2006). He is also the author of  many scholarly articles and book chapters about gentrification, housing policy, urban poverty, neighborhood change, and residential segregation.  

Can you tell us a bit about your background? How did you come to focus in particular on the role of neighborhood change?

I’m a native New Yorker. I grew up in Queens. I think it was that experience, growing up in the city and noticing the really stark differences across neighborhoods, both in terms of demographics, race, ethnicity, and also class, that got me interested in urbanism. I have an interest in architecture, as well. It was those interests that led me to study city planning as a profession. I got a master’s degree in City Planning, and then I worked for the New York City Housing Authority for a couple years before getting my Ph.D. In my experience working at the New York City Housing Authority, I became interested in housing, and how housing policy and planning affected neighborhoods.

It really was my experience growing up in New York, and being fascinated by the different characteristics of various neighborhoods and how starkly neighborhoods can change, that got me interested in the topic.

Your most recent book, A Haven and a Hell: The Ghetto in Black America, which speaks to the role of the Black ghetto as a refuge, as well as a source of marginalization. Can you talk a little bit about those seemingly opposite views of the history of the Black ghetto?

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the way that Black neighborhoods—I’ll just use the term “ghettos”—have been marginalized. I think the murders of George Floyd and others in the past few years rekindled attention to that topic in a way that perhaps had not been done since the Kerner Commission Report, more than 50 years ago, now. That’s one vantage point of these neighborhoods. My interest in neighborhoods, too, has been how the people themselves experience them. How do they feel about them? I wanted to research the ghetto from that vantage point.

If you look at the role that these neighborhoods have played in Black life historically, I think it has played both roles—it has both been a place of marginalization, but it’s also people’s home. It’s a place of community. And, in particular, in the earlier part of the 20th century, it was viewed as a step up. A way to advance the race, and escape from the Jim Crow South.

Thank you. And can you talk a little bit about the most salient planning and policy recommendations in your book that come out of that history?

I talk about the need to provide opportunities for people who want to remain in these communities, to give them the opportunity to thrive there. In many ways, for many people, it seems that option has been increasingly closed off. At the same time, some people do want to leave those spaces. So, I think you need a mix—you need policies that both help people to stay and thrive, and then also to move away. For people who want to stay, gentrification is a concern in many cities— including Philadelphia. The way that the neighborhoods may be “improved” is a way that doesn't benefit the people who have been living there for a long period of time. So, I’m thinking about ways to improve the conditions of neighborhoods in ways that also benefit the people that live there. That would include not just improving the physical conditions, but also providing services and investing in the people: better education, job training, policing that’s done in a less oppressive way. These can help the people who want to remain flourish.

As PIK Professor, you’re focused especially on interdisciplinary research and teaching, which has always been a hallmark of your work. Over your academic career, what opportunities and challenges have you run into in doing research that spans disciplines?

That’s a great question. I think the opportunity is to reach a broader audience—beyond just planners. I’ve done a lot of work collaborating with people in public health. Planning and public health had really close ties back in the 19th century, the early 20th century—there’s started to be a reintegration of that recently. So, there’s an opportunity for reaching another, separate audience of people who are interested in public health. It’s a way of affecting change but through a different channel. Sociology or demography—again, another opportunity to speak to a different audience.

And also, sometimes, I do research of the type that might not be so readily appreciated by planners. Some of my work, particularly in residential segregation, is almost more like demography. And the planning implications or policy implications aren’t always that direct or explicit. So, it’s an opportunity to do research that I’m interested in, without necessary being concerned about the immediate planning applications..

On that interdisciplinary note—what kind of opportunities do you see for working with Penn IUR?

I think there will be opportunities to work with other urbanists—again, a way of reaching a broader audience, using it as a channel to speak to other people. That’s one of the things I’m excited about. I knew a couple of people, like [Penn IUR Co-Directors] Genie Birch  and Susan Wachter, before I came to Penn—and I was excited about the opportunity to work with them. And, Penn has the planning Ph.D. program. I think it could be an attractive way to draw potential Ph.D. students to the program.

Just in general, I think having these types of institutions is an outlet for publicizing your work. Last year, I wrote a short piece related to Covid and cities. And I’ve done some blogging in the past for Brookings, for example, and also for Planetizen. Blogging, I think, is a good way to reach a broader, professional audience, or a lay audience that’s interested in urban issues. And I think IUR could be a good vehicle for that.

And what are you working on now?

Right now, I’m doing work in New York City on what could be considered a racial equity report for the New York City Planning Department. The idea is that major planning initiatives would explicitly take into consideration how developments or initiatives would impact racial equity. I participated in a pilot last summer and, based on that experience, I’m writing about the potential for this type of planning practice more broadly, and how it could be something that other cities might adopt. And I’m comparing it to some of the initiatives that other cities have adopted in recent years.