Segregation within Integration: Exploring Micro-Level Segregation in Seattle’s Integrated Tracts Using Spatial and Qualitative Analysis

Ryan Gabriel, University of Washington
Timothy Thomas, University of Washington

In this paper we conduct an analysis of racial residential segregation within diverse neighborhoods in Seattle using the 2010 US Census and a novel dataset of businesses, local services, and photographs. We explicate how residential segregation might manifest in diverse neighborhoods based on an area's topography, built environment, economic structure, and racial history. Thus, what might appear as a diverse neighborhood at the tract-level could hide racial residential segregation that is associated with a spatial stratification of resources. We utilize a multi-method approach by combining quantitative spatial analysis, visual sociology, along with demographic and historical methodology to create an in-depth study of the stratification associated with the residential segregation at the block-level within select racially diverse tracts in Seattle. We find that substantive micro-segregation exists in the diverse tracts we analyze. This research has implications for the studies of residential segregation and the modifiable areal unit problem.