Finding a Lost Letter: Neighborhood Gentrification and Social Altruism in Manhattan’s West Side

• In Event: 099 - Regular Session. Bringing Sociology's 'Community Question' Back to the 21st Century City

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between neighborhood gentrification and social altruism using original data from an innovative lost-letter experiment conducted in 2014. A total of 1,596 letters were randomly dropped along the length of Amsterdam Avenue in ten neighborhoods in Manhattan’s West Side. We report three main findings. First, hyper-gentrifying and gentrified neighborhoods – the highest-SES areas – have the highest rates of letter return, while gentrifying and non-gentrified neighborhoods – the lower-SES areas – have the lowest. Second, perceived sender’s race matters. While return rates are upwards of 70 percent in hyper-gentrifying and gentrified neighborhoods when the sender’s name connotes a non-Hispanic white racial identity, they are below 40 percent when the sender’s name indicates non-Hispanic Asian ethnicity. Third, neighborhood ethnoracial composition is less important than neighborhood gentrification type in predicting letter return rates, with the exception of Hispanic senders in Hispanic neighborhoods.

Author

• Van C. Tran, Columbia University