neighborhoods

Why do some St. Louis neighborhoods rebound while others languish? That’s the question that will be at the forefront of a talk presented by Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration at Washington University in St. Louis, and Todd Swanstrom, PhD, the E. Desmond Lee Endowed
 Professor in Community Collaboration and Public Policy at the University of Missouri St. Louis. That lecture, “Neighborhood Change in the St. Louis Region Since 1970: What Explains Neighborhood Success” takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Lee Auditorium of the Missouri History Museum.

Research has shown that youth violence is a major cause of injury and death among Latinos. However, there is little understanding of violent behaviors of youths within various Latino ethnic subgroups such as Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Mexicans. Lorena Estrada-Martínez, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, recently examined how family dynamics and neighborhood racial/ethnic composition and socioeconomic status (SES) impact youth violence among Latino subgroups. “Higher levels of youth independence can reduce the risk of violence in primarily Latino neighborhoods,” Estrada-Martinez says. 

Social inequalities in schools and neighborhoods will be addressed by leading national scholars as well as prominent local scholars, experts and activists during a daylong conference Feb. 27 at Washington University. WUSTL’s Program in Social Thought & Analysis (STA) in Arts & Sciences is sponsoring the conference, titled “Inequalities in Schools & Neighborhoods: St. Louis and Beyond.”