[posted 4/19/00, re-posted 9-3-04]

Roger Sanjek, The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City. 465 pp. $35. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3451-3.

For well over ten years urban anthropologist Roger Sanjek and his team studied the Elmhurst-Corona district of Queens in New York City, perhaps the world's most diverse neighborhood--"an ethnic cross-section of the planet." In this book Sanjek traces the long-term history of the area, and especially the changes brought about by the new immigration policies of the Sixties and Seventies.

 No neighborhood in New York City exists in a vacuum, however. Therefore Sanjek looks carefully at "background" issues, especially the tensions between New York's "permanent government" of powerful business leaders and "neighborhood New York." Whether the mayor was Ed Koch with his "world city," or David Dinkins with his "gorgeous mosaic," or Rudy Giuliani with his "Police Strategy No. 5," the "permanent government" set the large-scale agenda and got most of the benefits. The result has been a decline in education, in trash pickup, in police protection, in zoning enforcement. City officials often tried to divide groups from each other, blaming trouble on the newcomers. But this usually backfired, because residents were aware of the whole range of facts; eventually it stimulated community cohesiveness as people united over "quality of life" issues.

In the last portions of the book, Sanjek traces how people have learned to live with each other--and why. Churches, schools, and hospitals, being rooted to their location, all have a stake in welcoming newcomers and encouraging good relations. Tenant associations discover the need for larger-scale civic organizations, often designating "wardens" who watch for trash and zoning violations. The decentralization of government in New York, furthermore, has given a certain amount of power to the people in this area, called Community District 4; its community board has succeeded in holding off new zoning provisions that would have helped speculators, and even in "downzoning" that encourages residential development.

How did community-based leadership develop? It began, not surprisingly, among the earlier white inhabitants--Irish, Italian, Jewish, WASP. The "entry" of other groups into civic life was often mediated by women, who make linkages while shopping or caring for children or taking them to the school bus. Steadily new groups have found their voice and taken part in civic life. It does not happen in the same way for all groups. African Americans are still concentrated in Lefrak City, while Hispanics and Asians are more "dispersed" in their residential patterns. Some immigrant groups think of themselves as being in the neighborhood only temporarily and send money back to the home country, while others are permanent residents from the start. In their different ways they learn to take part in the life of the community.

As a good anthropologist, Sanjek looks closely at community "rituals," and he finds three rather different kinds. Civic rituals, of course, showcase governmental officials, making sure that the range of racial and ethnic groups is at least represented. Rituals of inclusion emphasize participation by all these groups with their distinctive dress, songs, and dances (children, Sanjek points out, do this most spontaneously). And quality-of-life rituals are intended to demonstrate that diverse people share a common situation and have common goals; they focus on "content," making specific demands of office holders.

Sanjek is basically positive about what can happen when people interact with each other despite--perhaps even because of--their diversity. But this happens only when there are opportunities for civic activity, both "private" or "voluntary" and governmental in character. The lesson of the book is that we had better learn how to do this, because Elmhurst-Corona is a foretaste of what the U.S. will be in the future.

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