Mural by Mauricio Ramirez. Video of its creation can be found here
Cities are built from countless individual stories and interactions that add up to larger patterns—personal experiences that connect to broader systems, daily routines that create lasting structures. My understanding of neighborhoods comes from not just seeing these connections from twenty years of studying cities as a sociologist but also a lifetime of experiencing Chicago from the ground up. Growing up in my family's North Side diner taught me how communities actually work; my academic career gave me the tools to study these patterns systematically. Neighborhood Science emerges from this intersection—where careful research meets neighborhood knowledge, where data points have names and addresses, and where abstract concepts take concrete form in daily life.
What You'll Find Here
This is a space where rigorous research meets compelling storytelling. I write about how neighborhoods actually work, drawing from both statistical models and on-the-ground observations. You'll find pieces about:
How social networks shape everything from safety to opportunity
New approaches to understanding and preventing gun violence
The hidden patterns in neighborhood life
Profiles of people doing vital community work
What data reveals—and conceals—about urban life
Each piece aims to bridge different ways of knowing. When I analyze a dataset about violence prevention, I aim to bring in the voices of those doing the work to help explain the patterns. When I explore neighborhood change, I combine network analysis with the stories of people who've watched their blocks transform over decades.
Why Neighborhood Science?
The divide between academic research and neighborhood knowledge is artificial. The most powerful insights emerge when we connect different ways of understanding how communities work. Every spreadsheet contains thousands of small moments that unfold in barbershops, church basements, basketball courts, and corner stores—places where community isn't just a word but a daily practice.
I've spent my career studying social networks, gun violence, and urban sociology. But complex models and statistical analyses only matter when they help us understand human lives and community dynamics. Sometimes the most important patterns emerge not from regression analyses but from the knowledge held by the people who make neighborhoods work.
Post Types at Neighborhood Science
At Neighborhood Science, stories come in three distinctly Chicago flavors, each named for spaces where community and knowledge come together:
SIX CORNERS - Like the famous Chicago intersection where multiple streets converge cutting across the city’s famous Grid, these long-form pieces (1,500-2,500 words) bring together different perspectives. Here you'll find deep dives that combine academic insight with neighborhood-level knowledge, data analysis with neighborhood storytelling. These are the pieces that take time to explore where different ways of understanding meet.
DIBS - In Chicago winters, neighbors claim their shoveled parking spots by calling "dibs" with old chairs and boxes. These shorter pieces (800-1,200 words) stake out fresh observations about neighborhood life, urban research, and community change. Quick but thoughtful, these posts capture insights worth claiming.
THE FRUNCHROOM - Every Chicago bungalow and two-flat had a "front room"—pronounced "frunchroom"—where families lived life, welcomed guests, and shared stories. This space hosts voices from the community: practitioners, researchers, residents, and others who bring unique perspectives to understanding neighborhood life. Like the frunchroom itself, these guest posts (1,000-2,000 words) are where hospitality meets insight.
Together, these posts build a bridge between academic understanding and neighborhood knowledge, between data and daily life, between research and reality. Each offers a different view of how communities work, how neighborhoods change, and how we might better understand the places we call home.
What to Expect
I try to publish at least twice monthly, with some combination of (1) longer pieces that dive deep into research, policy, or narrative, and (2) shorter analyses of current issues or new findings.
While many pieces focus on Chicago, where I've spent nearly my whole life studying its neighborhoods, others will explore broader questions about cities, violence prevention, and community life. Throughout, I aim to maintain both scientific rigor and human understanding.
Think of this Substack as field notes from the frontlines of Neighborhood Science—where research meets reality, where statistics have stories, and where the science of neighborhood life reveals itself in both numbers and narratives.
About Me
I'm a sociologist who studies cities, particularly focusing on social networks and violence. My work explores how neighborhoods work—not just as data points on a map, but as living networks of relationships and interactions. I combine systematic research with ground-level understanding to study how communities form, how they change, and how they might be made safer and stronger.
Today, my work bridges multiple perspectives—the academic and the personal, the quantitative and the qualitative—to understand how neighborhoods really work. When I'm not writing here, you can find me conducting research with our team at CORNERS (The Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science), working with other policy related researchers at The Institute for Policy Research, and enjoying the city that has shaped both my life and my work.
Welcome to Neighborhood Science. I'm glad you're here.
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