Since February of last year I’ve completed a number of Neighborhood Profiles for some of Pittsburgh’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. These profiles were informed by my street by street walk of each respective neighborhood, resident interviews, publicly available data and analyses I’ve completed for this project and by projects I’ve completed at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.
As part of my resident interviews, I ask what residents like best and least about their respective neighborhoods. One of the most common refrains from the residents I spoke to was “Something has to be done about the gun violence.” As a result of these conversations, I decided to dedicate the past few months to writing the following essays on Urban Gun Violence in Pittsburgh; both to better understand just why our most disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer from comparatively high levels of gun violence and to see what the city is doing to address it.
These essays were informed by the Black residents I spoke to, prominent Black urban violence reduction practitioners, poverty, race and homicide/non-fatal shooting data (via the American Community Survey and Allegheny Analytics) and by national experts on neighborhood effects and urban gun violence.
These articles were published via Public Source. Please click on the links below to read them.
Urban Gun Violence Part 1 explores the community level antecedents of gun violence and shows that Pittsburgh’s Black communities are the primary victims of Urban Gun Violence. The essay makes clear that historic and current racism have led to these outcomes. The loss of life due to gun violence in our Black communities is astounding and tragic, and yet it does not receive the same public attention as other violence reduction efforts.
Urban Gun Violence Part 2 presents the most effective Urban Gun Violence reduction strategies. Several of these strategies require collaboration between law enforcement, community groups and social service agencies. However, the essay makes clear that aggressive policing and police violence against the Black community have eroded community trust in the police.
Black men stand at a frustrating crossroads because they are simultaneously the most likely to die from Urban Gun Violence and the most likely to be killed by the police. If Urban Gun Violence is to be effectively reduced, then the trust between the community and the police must be repaired, which will take considerable effort, policy changes and time. Black Lives Matter and this issue must be discussed with respect, data and urgency.
The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project 