"across the street and down the next two blocks"

This is only my fifth blog entry and I have often referenced some development concerning African Americans in cities and how it reminds me of another. Though not entirely, Neil Levi’s thoughts about memory as it relates to comparisons especially those concerning the Holocaust resonate. He writes, “If you know stories about other nations, the story of one will inevitably remind you of the story of another. Stories of national singularity rarely sound as singular as those who tell would wish.” I want to now emphasize my own awareness of how  context and other issues are very important to how we understand that which seems “similar.” That said, I return again to the idea of how African American bodies in the United States have appeared beside non-African American bodies, and do so by focusing on residential arrangements in cities via two literary works:

“…I can remember the houses went White, White, White, Japanese, White, White. Across the street and down the next two blocks were about the same except there was more Japanese, two Chinese and a Philippines house on the corner by the woods. Down Crowley was where all the Negro houses started.”  – Lynda Barry, The Good Times are Killing Me

 “The house had been let go a bit. A white neighbor, Maureen Iris Vistin, who lived on the corner across the street, had come over several times to clean Mary’s room or bring her something hot to eat, or just fruit, juice, or soup. Mr. Lee at the grocery store gave her credit when she needed it. He knew he would be paid.” – J. California Cooper, Some People, Some Other Place

Which details permit us to possibly identify where these communities are located and when? Are the narrators telling a similar story? If so or not, why?