A "my first chapter book" style book exploring issues children face growing up in the gentrifying neighborhood, East Cesar Chavez in Austin Texas.

1. a PLAYGROUND CHANGES chapter book by Helaine Bach

2. 1
Lorenzo Chavez lives in a small house with his
mother father and his grandma and his older
brother, Miguel. Lorenzo loves his family very much.
He likes drawing and playing basketball with his
friends. Lorenzo is in second grade.
Every day, Lorenzo walks along the same street
to and from school and every day he sees the
neighborhood changing around him. A year ago,
when Lorenzo first started walking to school by
himself, there were lots of small stores on the street.
Sometimes his mom would ask him to pick up
something from the corner store on his way home.
Chapter One

3. 32
Now those shops have been replaced by big stores,
and his mom doesn’t let him go in alone.
There are also lots of interesting new places
on the street. Lorenzo is excited whenever he
sees something new that he can tell his family
about. There are art galleries and boutiques and
other stores with exiting displays in the windows.
Sometimes Lorenzo gets distracted and is a little late
coming home. That makes his mom worried.
Lorenzo’s favorite thing to see are new houses on
the street. Lorenzo loves drawing houses and he
looks for parts of the new ones that he likes. They
are so much bigger than the one he lives in with his
family. Sometimes Lorenzo wonders what happened
to the old houses. Maybe some day, all the houses
will be brand new.
Chapter Two
One day, Lorenzo sees a big moving truck parked in
front of one of the new houses that was built across
the street from his house. Lorenzo is very excited to
see that a boy his age was moving in. He can’t wait
to go introduce himself and invite the boy to play
basketball with him and his other friends from the
neighborhood. His mom tells him to wait, to let them
settle in to their new
home.
Lorenzo is very excited
the next morning when
he sees the boy leaving
his house at the same
time as him. There is a
woman standing in the
doorway and she kisses
the boy on the cheek and
ruffles his hair. Another

4. 54
woman walks with him out the door towards the car
parked in front of their house. She helps the boy into
the car and puts his backpack into the trunk of the
car. Lorenzo is disappointed he isn’t going to get to
meet the boy. He had hoped that he could walk with
him to school.
At lunch, Lorenzo sees his new neighbor, and invites
him to sit with him. They talk for the whole lunch
period. Caleb moved from San Fransisco with his
two moms. His mom Dana is an architect at a big
firm downtown and his mom Elyse stays at home
and takes care of Caleb.
Caleb invites Lorenzo to come over after school
and Lorenzo is so excited he goes to the office right
away to call home. His mom is at work all day, but his
Abuela picks up the phone and tells Lorenzo she will
let his mom know. She reminds him to be home by
dinner, she’s making her famous tamales.
Lorenzo’s grandma opened a restaurant with her
husband when they first moved into their house
almost fifty years ago. A few years ago, the
restaurant had to close. Lorenzo misses the delicious
food, but more than that, he misses spending time
with his dad. Instead of working in the kitchen
cooking up tamales and floutas, Lorenzo’s dad has
to find work at construction sites around town. He’s
almost never home for dinner anymore. He wants
to make sure and be home tonight, because his dad
promised he’d be there.

5. 76
After school, Caleb’s mom Elyse pulls up in her car
and Caleb and Lorenzo hop into the back with their
backpacks. Lorenzo introduces himself, but then
sits quietly as Caleb talks quickly for the rest of the
drive about his experiences his first day at school.
Lorenzo even chimes in when Caleb is telling his
mom about the basketball game they played after
lunch. Elyse doesn’t seem very happy that the school
doesn’t have a playground for recess, just a blacktop
and single basketball net, but she drops the subject
when the car pulls into their newly paved driveway.
Lorenzo realizes he’s going to get to see the inside of
one of the new houses he’s spent so long admiring.
When he walks in, he was surprised to see so many
books. There are shelves everywhere, full of books
in all different sizes and colors. There is also art on
the walls, huge canvases like Lorenzo had never seen
before. Most of the art on the walls of his house
Chapter Three
was religious art, small paintings of the Virgin Mary
and lots of ornate crucifixes. Elyse claps her hands
together and announces that the boys should go
upstairs to Caleb’s room to play and unpack some
more of his toys, she’d bring up some snacks in a
little while.
For an hour, Lorenzo and Caleb play and talk about
everything under the sun and snack on cheese sticks
and veggies. Caleb smiles when he hears the front
door close and he tells Lorenzo that his mom Dana
is home. Caleb told Lorenzo that his mom draws
houses just like Lorenzo. He is so excited to meet
someone that makes the new houses and buildings
he spends so much time looking at.
Lorenzo introduces himself to Caleb’s other mom,
shaking her hand nervously. Dana suggests that
Lorenzo take a look at some of her blue prints and
then she and Caleb can walk him back across the
street for dinner. Lorenzo can’t believe how beautiful
her workspace is, even if it isn’t fully unpacked from
moving boxes. Lorenzo doesn’t want to leave, so
Dana promises Lorenzo that he can come back soon,
She knows his family will be expecting him home soon.

6. 98
When Lorenzo gets home, he washes his hands
and helps his abuela finish setting the table before
sitting with the the rest of his family to eat. They
hold hands and say grace before Lorenzo tells his
family about his new friend. His mom is happy that
he made a friend, but Lorenzo can tell that she is
worried about something.
Suddenly, Lorenzo’s brother Miguel gets up and
yells that it’s people like Caleb’s family’s fault that
his friends keep moving away and that their family
doesn’t have the restaurant anymore. Lorenzo hadn’t
thought about that before. He’s quiet for the rest
of the meal as he pushes food around his plate and
thinks about their cousins that had to move to a new
house last year. He wonders if his brother is right.
That night, Lorenzo can’t sleep and he goes to the
kitchen for a glass of water. He stops when he
hears his mom on the phone at the kitchen table,
Chapter Four
and listens from behind the doorway. She is talking
with their cousins, the ones that had to move away.
Lorenzo overhears some of the conversation. He
knows it has been hard for them and that they live
in an even smaller house than before, even though
his aunt just had anther baby. According to his Tia
Camilla, his cousin isn’t
doing well in his new
school and keeps picking
fights. She thinks he’s
acting up because he misses
his old school. Lorenzo’s mom
notices him at the door and tells her
sister that she has to hang up the phone.
Lorenzo’s mom tells him to come and sit at the
table for a minute after he gets his glass of water.
Lorenzo’s mom tells him that she’s glad he got to
meet Caleb and his family. She says it sounds like
Dana has a very cool job and she’s glad he got to
learn about something he likes doing. She says he
doesn’t have to stop hanging out with Caleb, but to
remember that even though he and his family are
good people, and they might bring good things to the
neighborhood, the choice they made to come here

7. 1110
means other families that have lived here for a long
time might have to leave.
Caleb is still thinking about Lorenzo’s outburst at
dinner. He asks if he’s in trouble for being friends
with Caleb. She reassures him that he hasn’t done
anything wrong, it’s just stressful for his brother to
see everything changing so quickly and Miguel didn’t
mean to take it out on Lorenzo. She also tells him
that it’s not anyone’s fault that their cousins had to
move away, it’s just how things work out sometimes.
She explains that when a neighborhood gets nicer,
sometimes it’s hard for the people who already lived
there to stay there, because it’s expensive. It’s no one
person or family’s fault, it’s part of a bigger problem
that no one really has an answer to.
The next day at school, Lorenzo is nervous about
seeing his new friend. He had fun playing with Caleb
and his moms are really nice, but he can’t shake
the feeling that there’s something wrong with their
family being here, in his neighborhood. He feels
guilty, because he knows that sharing is the right
thing to do, but it’s hard to share when it’s a whole
place, his neighborhood.
At lunch, Caleb walks up to Lorenzo, with a big smile
on his face and an even bigger book in his hands. He
hands Lorenzo the book, saying it’s one of his mom’s
architecture textbooks. Lorenzo is so excited, he
almost forgets that he was upset. He doesn't forget
though; instead, he remembers what his mom said
about not getting swept up with all the nice things
that are happening. He remembers his place in the
bigger picture and that there are a lot of sides to
every story.
Chapter Five

8. 1312
Lorenzo has a hard time telling Caleb all this, but
he knows it’s important to talk to him now; their
friendship shouldn't be based on secret feelings. He
knows that if he bottles up how he’s feeling now, he
might explode later, just like his brother Miguel did
the night before and he definitely doesn't want that.
Lorenzo takes a deep breath and with all the
courage in his seven year old heart, he asks Caleb
why his family moved here, to his neighborhood. At
first, Caleb isn’t sure what to say. He tells Lorenzo
that his mom got a new job and that’s why they had
to leave San Fransisco. Lorenzo presses further.
He wants to know why they’re in this neighborhood
in Austin, when they could be anywhere in the city.
Caleb tells him that he heard his moms talking
about how cheap it was to buy a house in the
neighborhood and that eventually they could even
buy the lot next door and build more onto the house.
Lorenzo is worried by Caleb’s answer. That’s part of
what his mom told him the problem was: new people
moving in and taking the homes of people who lived
there before. Lorenzo wonders if Caleb knows this.
He decides to tell Caleb about his cousins and how
they had to move away. It’s hard for Lorenzo to talk
about his cousins and afterwards, Caleb gives him a
big hug, right in the middle of the cafeteria. Lorenzo
is a little embarrassed, but his embarrassment goes
away when Caleb starts talking.
Caleb tells Lorenzo that he would never do anything
to hurt his family and he hopes Lorenzo knows
that. He really didn’t know anything about what it
meant for his family to move here. Caleb isn’t sure
how much influence he’ll have, being seven, but
he promises to talk with his moms and make sure
they know what it means for them to be new in this
neighborhood.

9. 14
On the way home from school that day, Lorenzo
does a lot of thinking. He knows that the bigger
problem hasn’t been solved and that he can’t
expect everything to be okay because of a single
conversation, but he also knows that he took an
important step by talking to Caleb about what was
bothering him. Lorenzo can go to Caleb for help
when he sees things in the neighborhood that aren’t
right, and he also knows that it’s thanks to people
like Caleb’s moms that some things are getting
better in the neighborhood.
Who could have known that a changing
neighborhood has this many ups and downs?
The End
Reader's
Guide

10. Gentrification changes the neighborhood and family
contexts in which children are socialized—for better and
worse—yet little is known about its consequences for
youth. This review, drawn from research in urban planning,
sociology, and psychology, maps out mechanisms by which
gentrification may impact children. We discuss indicators
of gentrification and link neighborhood factors, including
institutionalresourcesandcollectivesocialization,tofamily
processes more proximally related to child development.
Finally, we discuss implications for intervention and public
policy recommendations that are intended to tip the
scales toward better outcomes for low income youth in
gentrifying areas.
Dear Reader,
I hope you have enjoyed stepping into the world of Lorenzo and
Caleb. I also hope you understand that the problems in their
world exist out in your world too, and in mine. I wrote this story
because I saw something troubling with the way a neighborhood
around me is changing. I don’t claim to be an expert on the
subject of gentrification. That is why I’ve borrowed most of
what you read here from an article written by people who are
experts. The abstract from Gentrification and Urban Children’s
Well-Being: Tipping the Scales from Problems to Promise can be
found below. The author of this article, Diana Formoso, Rachel N.
Weber, and Marc S. Atkins, have devoted their lives to researching
and defining productive strategies for change in communities
like Lorenzo and Caleb’s. I did my best to write a story that
adresses many of the problems defined by these researchers,
but just like no one experience encompasses all of the realities
of gentrification, no one narrative can tell the whole story. The
information in the following pages is meant to clarify questions
you may have after reading this story, and also guide you in
further exploration of the complicated issue of gentrification.
-Helaine Bach

11. Risks of Concentrated
Disadvantage
Methods of Disadvantage
Deconcentration
2 Poor households relocate
to wealthier areas
3 Wealthier households
relocate to poorer areas
1 Poor households
become less poor
behavioral disorder sub standard housing
child maltreatment
drug use
violence
crime
Defining Gentrification
Characteristics of Change
The dynamic process of change
from one neighborhood state to
another.
Before change, the condition of the neighborhhod is
worse than surrounding areas.
Households of high socio-economic staus than existing
residents move into the area, resulting in pressure to
be a “better neighborhood.”
Pre-change residents are involuntarily displaced.

12. In Migration of
Affluent Neighbors
Collective Socialization
Neighborhood characteristics
impact children indirectly, often
concerning behavior problems.
Role Models
Mentorship is one of the ways results in positive attitudes
towards school and less likely involvement in high risk activities.
Affluent neighbors could potentially serve as positive role
models, but most research shows that the best mentorships
occur in ethnically matched relationships. Most affluent
neighbors are white and most children already living in a
gentrifying neighborhood are not.
Child Monitoring/Regulation
Informal social control is the the expectation that neighbors
will intervene on behalf of children’s well being and regulate
adolescent peer groups. Intergenerational closure, or the
connections between kids and their friends parents or between
groups of kids’ parents results in more monitoring. These
relationships only exist when neighbors have relationships,
making them less likely in gentriying neighborhoods. However,
the formal monitoring systems like a neighborhood watch
associationaremorelikelytooccuringentrifyingneighborhoods.
Institutional Resources
If neighborhood resources are
improved, low-income residents
benefit.
Power to Influence Change
Barriers to change before in migration of affluent neighbors
include the political marginalization of the people living in the
neighbohood as well as a lack of revenue. It is common to see
change happen in neighborhoods after the in migration of
affluent neighbors because they are more likely to complain.
Their complaints are also given higher priority becasue they
contribute more to the tax base.
Income Mixing in Schools
Advantages
Disadvantages
▶▶higher quality teachers
▶▶greater parental involvement
▶▶unique educational programming
▶▶deconcentration of educational risk
▶▶competition for limited slots
▶▶transportation of children longer distances
▶▶lack of support for neighborhood schools
No Guaranteed Advantages
Even if more influential people move into disadvantaged
neighborhoods, they might not have kids, meaning they
wouldn’t proiritize institutional resources. If they do have kids,
they might chose to take their children to institutions elsewhere
that already have better resources and are safer. Additionally,
there may be limited slots in high quality programs and they will
most likely go to the children of higher income residents.

13. Displacement of
Low-Income Residents
When more affluent neighbors
move in, they raise the property
value of the neighborhood, forcing
families that have lived in a home
for generations to move away.
Disruption of Social Networks
Even though it may not be obvious to outsider, protective
processes are in place in seemingly “bad neighborhoods.”
There is a sense of community that happens when everyone
in your neighborood is just like you. This fosters feelings of
support, belonging, and involvement. As the neighborhood
becomes more diverse, children lose this sense of community.
Additionally, high quality role models may be forced out, and
incoming neighbors will not necessarily fill their role.
Stress of High Mobility
Transistions are always stressful for children. Transitions like
the ones caused by moving to a new neighborhood or school
can result in a loss of familiarity, change in social networks and
a decrease in parent-child relationship quality.
Resources
Resources to help families stay in their homes include rent
control, legal counsel, regulatory reforms, and home ownership
assistance.
Strategies for Community
Engagement
Both affluent and low income
neighbors must share a voice in
shaping neighborhood goals.
The Problem: concentrated disadvantage
institutional resourcesThe Solution:
The Question: why don’t disadvantaged neighborhoods
deserve opportunity without affluent
neighbors moving in?
Advantages of Mixed Income Advocacy
Affluent
Low-Income
▶▶political clout
▶▶financial resources
▶▶information about opportunities
▶▶historical context
▶▶understanding of necessary improvements
▶▶rich cultural heritage

14. Guiding Questions
1 Have you ever seen something new show up in
your neighborhood? How did it make you feel?
2 Lorenzo's family used to run a resaurant. Even
though the restaurant is no longer in business,
the memory is a big part of their daily life. Is
there a family memory that influences how
your family interacts?
3 Have you ever met a grown up who does the
job that you want to do when you grow up?
How do you think it made Lorenzo knew he
liked drawing houses, but he hadn't heard of
architechture until he met Dana. How do you
think that made him feel?
4 Lorenzo was very upset when he realized how
much new neighbors like Caleb's family affect
his neighborhood. He talked to his mom about
it and she didn't really have any answers. How
do you apporach problems without answers?
5 Caleb tries his best to make Lorenzo feel
better after he hears how worried he is about
the nieghborhood. When have you tried to
reassure a friend? Where you able to do it?