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What is a 21st-century neighborhood?

As described in the text, Sampson refers to 21st-century neighborhoods as "works in progress." (pg. 419, Sampson) From the best to the worst neighborhoods they are all evolving and constantly changing. A change in a neighborhood is not characterized by positive changes these changes can be negative. The point is that change is inevitable in neighborhoods.

How tied is it to the past?Why?

In this case of the 21st-century neighborhood, the progress or lack of progress can be traced back to the origins of the neighborhood to see how it has evolved and what kind of changes took place. History and demo-graphical changes are what shape and have the power to transform neighborhoods. For instance, Sampson gives us the example of Cabrini, a neighborhood in which change happened and in a tragic way a high-rise project in the late twentieth century became a slum infamous for the presence of gangs, violence, etc. These concrete buildings could not have predicted the future of it's inhabitants being drug dealers and low income families. Let alone it's destruction and removal. Back in the 1920s the neighborhood was reffered to as "little Hell" because of Italian mobster like influence of violence and destruction. In present day nothing much seems to have changed. One of the street corners is known as "death corner" where drug dealers still loom today looking for wayward people to make their next deal. And why? Well Sampson explains in his text that "Change has come," however, "the slum [is] still churning at some fundamental level.

What will a 22nd-century neighborhood look like?

I believe that neighborhoods keep up with the times but the inside of them remains the same as far as how those neighborhoods are characterized. No matter what century they will always return to the same old same old. In the 22nd-century neighborhood I expect the same old transitions and wayward people will likely be looking for trouble and mischief will always loom around the corner. There will always be bad people, bad times, and bad neighborhoods. The people may change but the crime might not...

Is community dying, thriving, or just bumbling along, about the same now as always?

This question is subject to the specific community one is referring to. Communities differ greatly, so the idea that community is dying is relevant to a place such as Cabrini in Chicago. However, within the same city you take a place such as, Hyde Park, and have a thriving community. It all depends on the residents and how they are affecting their community and taking action.

Futures of the neighborhoods Sampson has been studying: what do you think those futures are?

I would like to think positively and say that because of people like Sampson and the type of exposure some of these issues have had through studies there could be a cause for change. However, because it is the duty of the people inside of the neighborhoods and the developers of the communities it is all subject to who resides in these communities and what kind of housing is available. Also, the surrounding environment I think has an impact on the type of people you draw into those neighborhoods. Such as the case with the changing Cabrini-Green neighborhood that advertises the new up and coming dining and shopping, shows promise of a new type of social structure that may grow. And it could be the start of a different type of neighborhood with different residents. That is one example of a neighborhood that is seeing change in a positive way. However, you think of those people that used to live in the slums of old Cabrini and where they may have gone... another neighborhood could be transformed because these people had to find places to live. Starting a new Cabrini with the same types of problems. I don't know if evolving and washing out old residents is the right way to go about positively "changing" a community.
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Research: 
Pekmezi, D., B. Marquez, and J. Marcus-Blank. "Health Promotion in Latinos." American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 4.2 (2010): 151-65. SAGE Journals. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
This article as study that promoted healthy physical activity and diets amongst the Latino community and how it has affected them. The type of response received allows us to know from the study that Latino communities are interested in changing and living a healthy lifestyle. Overall, they are receptive to the changes in diet and the importance of daily exercise regiment to keep themselves from diseases that plague Latino's at large such as diabetes.