Providing a Regional Context for Community Organizing

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Civil Rights, Sprawl and Regional Equity A
presentation for the Columbus Metropolitan Club
Forum June 9, 2004
john a. powell Williams Chair in Civil Rights
Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law Executive
Director, Kirwan Institute of Race and
Ethnicity The Ohio State University http//www.kir
waninstitute.org/
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Group Inequality/Disparities Matter

• Inequality matters
• Group inequalities matter more
• How are we to make sense of persistent racial
  inequalities and disparities?
• Only three possibilities
• Maybe only one

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The Unfinished Business of Northern Racial
Hierarchy

• There are different ways of creating and
  maintaining racial hierarchy
• Racial hierarchies often changing
• The civil rights movement was effective for the
  southern style
• We have not had a civil rights movement focus on
  northern style
• Regional equity is the civil rights movement for
  the north at this time and space

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The problem of equality is so tenacious
because, despite its virtues and attributes,
America is deeply racist and its democracy is
flawed both economically and socially justice
for Black people cannot be achieved without
radical changes in the structure of our society
exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the
whole structure of our society. It reveals
systemic rather than superficial flaws and
suggests that radical reconstruction of society
itself is the real issue to be faced Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Equity Requires looking at Structures and
Attitudes

• We have seen a move away from explicit legal
  racism and personal prejudice to a racial
  hierarchy that is enforced through
  institutional/structural means.
• Structures are not as refined and explicit (or
  perfect in blocking access) as de jure
  segregation
• They act as filters (creating cumulative
  barriers)
• de jure segregation ? de facto segregation
• South vs. North

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Racial Disparities and Inequity

• Although racial attitudes are improving steadily,
  racial disparities persist on every level.
• Income, poverty, employment, health, crime,
  incarceration, education, assets, housing.
• Inequity arises as disenfranchised groups are
  left out of the democratic process.
• Increasingly moving toward racial hierarchy
  without racist actor

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Spatial racism The Civil Rights Agenda for the
21st Century

• Overt racism is easily condemned, but the sin is
  often with us in more subtle formsof spatial
  racismSpatial racism refers to patterns of
  metropolitan development in which some affluent
  whites create racially and economically
  segregated suburbs or gentrified areas of cities,
  leaving the poor -- mainly African Americans,
  Hispanics and some newly arrived immigrants --
  isolated in deteriorating areas of the cities and
  older suburbs.
• Francis Cardinal George, OMI Archbishop of
  Chicago
• Spatial Racism and Inequity
• The government plays a central role in the
  arrangement of space and opportunities
• These arrangements are not neutral or natural
  or colorblind
• Social and racial inequities are geographically
  inscribed
• There is a polarization between the rich and the
  poor that is directly related to the areas in
  which they live
• Concentrated Poverty and Concentrated Wealth

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Historical Government Role

• If a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is
  necessary that properties shall continue to be
  occupied by the same social and racial classes.
  A change in social or racial occupancy generally
  contributes to instability and a decline in
  values.
• Excerpt from the 1947 FHA underwriting manual.

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Contemporary Government Role

• Spatial Racism is not natural or neutral,
  produces cumulative impacts for people of color
• Municipalities subsidize the relocation of
  businesses out of the city
• Transportation spending favors highways,
  metropolitan expansion and urban sprawl
• Court decisions prevent metropolitan school
  desegregation
• School funding is tied to property taxes
• LIHTC
• Zoning laws prevent affordable housing
  development in many suburbs
• Housing policies concentrate subsidized housing

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Sprawl and Fragmentation Magnify Racial Inequity

• Two factors are instrumental in magnifying racial
  inequity
• Sprawl
• The continual movement of opportunity from the
  central city to the urban periphery
• Fragmentation and localism
• Political fragmentation and localism exasperates
  the flow of resources to the urban periphery as
  communities compete over commercial investment
  and high income population (the favored quarter)
• Fragmentation allows communities to sort what
  people and business they wish to attract
  (strengthen economic and social isolation)

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Characteristics of Sprawl and Fragmentation

• Rapid growth (residential, commercial) in
  suburban/rural/exurban areas
• Primarily low density development, poorly
  integrated with public transit
• Significant local government fragmentation,
  landlocked central city
• Conflict among local units of government over
  commercial investment
• Central city disinvestment, high concentration of
  poverty, racial and economic segregation
• Central city schools with fewer resources,
  economically and racially segregated

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Effects of Sprawl
By pushing good jobs, stable housing, and
educational opportunities further into the
suburbs, sprawl creates segregated, impoverished
areas of the central city and inner-ring suburbs
that are locked off from access to meaningful
opportunities.
Source University of Boston Geography Dept.
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Fragmentation and Inequity

• In 1942, we had 24,500 municipalities and special
  districts in the U. S. By 2002, that number had
  more than doubled to 54,481
• Over 87,000 local units of government, school
  districts and special districts existed in 2002
  in the U.S.
• Regions are now governed by an average of 360
  local governments and special districts
• It is the control that matters for equity
• Zoning
• Planning
• Taxation
• Education
• Public Services

As many cities are moving quickly towards
becoming majority-minority areas, those same
cities are seeing their political decision making
capacities become less and less
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Fragmentation, Segregation,and the Tax Base

• People of color in segregated areas of the region
  tend to own homes with lower values.
• Municipalities rely on the tax base to provide
  essential services, often including public
  education, and the tax base is tied to home
  values.
• These municipalities struggle to provide for a
  higher need population.

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Fragmentation and Jobs

• A 2001 Brookings Institution study found a
  significant relationship between fragmentation
  and job decentralization in the 100 largest metro
  areas.
• Job decentralization harms access to employment
  for residents of the central city and inner-ring
  suburbs.

Job Sprawl in Metropolitan Kansas
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Transportation and Jobs

• Jobs have moved away from the labor pool in many
  metropolitan areas, making connecting job-seekers
  with jobs a challenge.
• 58 of all welfare participants in the nation
  live in central cities.
• 70 of all new jobs are in the suburbs.
• 40 of all suburban jobs cannot be reached by
  public transportation.

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Educational Inequity

• Urban sprawl and regional fragmentation have
  worked to re-segregate urban school districts
• Research by the Harvard Civil Rights Project has
  found school segregation on the increase since
  the 1980s
• Racial segregation in schools strongly
  corresponds to economic isolation in schools
• Resources available are tied to property values
• Segregated inner city schools have more limited
  resources

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Sprawl, Fragmentation and Racial Inequity in
Columbus

• Does racial inequity exist in Columbus?
• Is sprawl and fragmentation contributing to
  racial inequity in Columbus?
• Requires looking at growth, residential
  segregation, school segregation, housing
  policies.

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Racial Disparity in Columbus

• Racial disparity exists for Columbus across
  multiple indicators in 2000
• African American median household income was 66
  of White Income
• African American poverty and unemployment rates
  were double the rates for Whites
• African American homeownership rates were 72 and
  college education rates were 58 of White rates

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Regional Fragmentation in Columbus

• Regional fragmentation exists in Columbus but not
  to the degree of other major Ohio Metropolitan
  Areas

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Regional Fragmentation in Columbus

• The Columbus annexation policies of the second
  half of the last century have worked to capture a
  large amount of regional growth
• This policy has enabled the city to grow while
  all other major cities in Ohio have declined

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Growth Trends in New and Old Columbus

• When looking at the annexed land, two versions of
  Columbus appear
• Old pre-annexation Columbus
• New post-annexation Columbus
• Old Columbus is more segregated, poorer and
  suffering neighborhood decline

Source Community Resource Partners, What
Matters 2004
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Population Growth in Columbus

• Population is now growing most rapidly outside
  of the city of Columbus (Whites consisted of 90
  of suburban population growth in the 1990s)
• Conversely, central city communities are losing
  residents
• Population growth has now expanded beyond the
  reach of Columbuss annexation and impacts
  counties throughout the metro area

Source Map from Brookings Institutes, Living
Census Report
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Job Sprawl in Columbus

• Analysis by the Brookings Institute finds
  Columbus to be moderately centralized in respect
  to job sprawl, with more than 60 of jobs within
  ten miles of the CBD
• Recent trends in suburban job growth may
  counteract this centralization
• Recent service cuts in public transit could
  further isolate the core from suburban job markets

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Residential Segregation in Columbus

• The distribution of population by race in
  Columbus illustrates a significant concentration
  of the regions African American population
• Despite modest African American Migration to the
  suburbs in the 90s (11,000 African Americans)
  the majority of African American population
  growth occurred within the central city (31,000
  African Americans)

Source Map from Brookings Institutes, Living
Census Report
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Residential Segregation in Columbus

• The dissimilarity index (a measure of
  residential segregation) represents the
  proportion of the population that would have to
  relocate to integrate the regions residential
  areas, based on this analysis Columbus appears
  less segregated than many of its Midwestern peers

• Although Columbus is less segregated than its
  peer regions, it is still significantly
  segregated, generally a dissimilarity score
  greater than 60 indicates a high degree of
  segregation

Source Lewis Mumford Center (2000 Census)
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Concentrated Poverty in Columbus

• Poverty in Columbus is a spatial phenomenon,
  generally concentrated in the central city
• The placement of Low Income Housing Tax Credit
  Projects in high poverty areas further compounds
  this phenomenon

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Housing Opportunity in Columbus

• Exclusionary zoning exists in Central Ohio
• The 2001-2003 Fair Housing Plan for the region
  identified impediments to affordable housing
  production in 2000
• While Columbus allowed single family homes to
  exist on lots of 5,000 square feet, the
  surrounding suburban communities required 8,000
  to 11,000 square feet
• Square footage requirements for structures in
  suburban communities were approximately twice as
  large as the 740 square feet required in Columbus
• Zoning restrictions and site development
  restrictions prohibit affordable housing
  development in suburban areas
• Zoning which restricts multi-family use
• Large minimum lot sizes
• Large building set backs

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Educational Inequity in Columbus

• Annexation and the Win-Win Policy in Columbus
• Columbus annexation did not apply to the city
  school district
• The district is primarily constricted to the
  boundaries of Old-Columbus
• This policy blocks tax revenue for Columbus city
  schools and contributes to the racial and
  economic isolation of students

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Educational Inequity in Columbus

• Racial and economic segregation in schools
• Columbus school students are 61 African
  American, suburban schools in Franklin County
  ranged from 2 to 24 African American
• In the 2002-2003 school year, 65 of Columbus
  public school students were categorized as
  economically disadvantaged

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Does Columbus Exhibit Characteristics of Sprawl
and Fragmentation?

• Yes and No
• Yes
• Columbus is sprawling, spatially recent growth is
  moving beyond traditional suburbs into outlying
  counties
• Rapid suburban/exurban low density residential
  and commercial growth occurring
• Inner city disinvestment is occurring
• The central city is losing population and remains
  economically and racially segregated
• Significant school inequity exists in the region
• Columbus public schools remain more racially and
  economically segregated than the city as a whole
• No
• Columbus is not as fragmented as most regions due
  to annexation policies
• Could be changing Issues of competition emerging
  in respect economic development, can annexation
  keep up with growth?
• Some reinvestment is occurring in specific areas
  of the central city (this reinvestment is limited
  in comparison to suburban investment)

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Population Change in Ohio

• The spatial patterns of population change are
  similar throughout Ohios metropolitan areas
• The central cities of Columbus, Cincinnati and
  Cleveland (areas in purple) are losing population
• High growth is occurring throughout outside of
  these major cities (areas in Red and Orange)

Source The Ohio Department of Development
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Columbus in Comparative Context Comparison to
Regional Peers

• Positive Indicators
• Degree of government fragmentation
• Columbus contains far fewer local and special
  district governments (280) than Cincinnati (383)
  and Cleveland (345)
• Central city population share
• The City of Columbus contains 46 of regional
  population in 2002, this figure is double the
  share held by Cleveland (21) and Cincinnati (16)

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Columbus in Comparative Context Comparison to
Regional Peers

• Negative Indicators
• Recent growth trends
• New growth is focused outside of the city, the
  City of Columbus had 2.6 of regional
  (metropolitan wide) housing starts in 2002,
  comparable to Cleveland at 3 of regional housing
  starts
• School inequity
• Columbus public schools show a severe degree of
  racial segregation with a dissimilarity score of
  70, this is slightly lower than dissimilarity in
  both Cincinnati (82) and Cleveland (81) schools
• Central city disinvestment
• Although Columbus has gained population in recent
  decades (in contrast to both Cleveland and
  Cincinnati) spatial patterns of growth indicate
  disinvestment in core central city areas (similar
  to Cincinnati and Cleveland)
• Racial and Economic segregation (measured by
  dissimilarity poverty)
• Measure of segregation is lower than both
  Cincinnati and Cleveland but are still considered
  severe (above 60)
• Regional disparity in poverty (poverty in 2002
  for suburban Columbus was 41 of central city
  poverty rate) is worse than poverty disparity in
  Cleveland (47)

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Findings

• Racial inequity is prominent in Columbus, the
  degree of inequity is not as severe as other
  major cities in Ohio (Cincinnati, Cleveland)
• Sprawl is prevalent in Columbus and the regions
  employment base is decentralizing
• The citys older urban core old-Columbus is
  suffering from segregation, high poverty and
  population decline

Source City of Columbus, University of Wisconsin
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Findings

• Columbuss annexation policies have avoided many
  of the problems associated with fragmentation,
  but future growth has spread beyond the citys
  current boundaries
• This may require new strategies to avoid future
  issues related to fragmentation and sprawl
• The Win-Win policy has negatively impacted the
  Columbus public schools and fueled racial inequity

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How to Achieve Racial, Spatial, and Regional
Equity

• Equity requires us to restructure systems and
  institutions that result in racial disparities.
• Equity requires us to take the particular
  racialization of space into account when
  fashioning remedies.
• Equity requires us to link the creation of
  opportunities to regional solutions that
  explicitly take race into account.

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Equity Demands that We Think in Terms of
Opportunity

• Opportunity structures are the resources and
  services that contribute to stability and
  advancement.
• Fair access to opportunity structures is limited
  by segregation, concentration of poverty,
  fragmentation, and sprawl in our regions for
  low-income households and families of color.
• Because opportunity structures exist as a web a
  multi-faceted, equity-centered approach is needed.

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Housing is Key for Access to Opportunity
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Opportunity-Based Housing

• Affordable housing must be deliberately and
  intelligently connected to high performing
  school, sustaining employment, necessary
  transportation infrastructure, childcare, and
  institutions that facilitate civic and political
  activity.
• Housing is a component of a larger set of
  interrelated structures that are both affected by
  housing and have impacts for the attainment of
  safe, stable housing.

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Why is the Region Important?

• The spatial orientation of todays economy,
  housing market, infrastructure, labor market are
  no longer locally focused
• Fragmentation, localism, sprawl have negative
  impacts, regionalism is a tool to prevent these
  problems
• It is imperative that communities be at the table
  for a regional approach to redress neighborhood
  concerns.
• Regional approach does not automatically solve
  problems but does create a framework where a
  solution is possible
• Regionalism can include traditional forms of
  regional government or planning but are not
  limited to this model
• Intergovernmental agreements can be a powerful
  tool to address regional problems (but these must
  include an equity component)

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Why Should the Business Community Support
Regional Initiatives?

• For the private sector, fragmentation and sprawl
  produce short-term winners and long-term losers
• Sprawl may benefit certain development interests
  in the short term, but inefficient growth
  patterns will eventually drive up cost of
  development (due to infrastructure) in the long
  term
• Businesses may benefit from tax breaks to
  relocate as local communities fight over
  investment, but this strategy does nothing to
  promote the long term economic vitality (and
  competitiveness) of the region
• The business community can support regional
  solutions for equity
• In Chicago the business community has united to
  address affordable housing (workforce housing)
  problems in the regions suburbs

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Regionalism Potential Outcomes

• Tax-Base Sharing Plans (Twin Cities)
• A form of fiscal regionalism
• Tax revenue sharing to avoid local conflict over
  expanded tax base
• Program covers 2.5 million people, seven counties
  and 2,000 local jurisdictions
• Appropriates approximately 40 of local
  commercial and industrial revenues back to a
  pool to be shared

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Regionalism Potential Outcomes

• Fair Share Housing Laws (Montgomery County)
• Inclusionary zoning policies in suburban
  Montgomery County, Maryland
• These provisions have produced over 11,000
  affordable units since inception

Affordable Housing Built in Montgomery County,
Maryland
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• The Charlotte school district is one of the least
  segregated districts in the nation, with student
  performance much higher than other segregated
  major school districts

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Regionalism Potential Outcomes

• Anti-Sprawl Initiatives (Portland)

• Oregons land use policies have promoted
  regional equity by redirecting private sector
  investment back into the central city and older
  suburbs.
• The use of Portlands urban growth boundary has
  been most successful example in the state of
  balancing regional growth by compacting areas for
  development.

Urban Growth Boundary in the Pacific Northwest
Source University of Washington
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Other Growth Management Strategies

• Other growth management strategies can benefit
  regional equity
• Infrastructure related growth management
• State law in Maryland limits infrastructure
  subsidies for new suburban development
• Impact fees allow for developments to pay more
  for their infrastructure costs, limiting the
  burden imposed on existing residents

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Other Initiatives to Promote Equity

• Inclusionary Zoning
• Inclusionary zoning recently enacted in the
  Chicago region and in California
• Fix it First Transportation Policy
• The state of Michigan has reprioritized
  transportation spending to refocus support into
  existing infrastructure, expansion projects have
  been put on hold as repairs to existing roads are
  prioritized first
• Reprioritizing public housing support
• Several states (Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota)
  are attempting to modify the Low Income Housing
  Tax Credit Program to build more affordable
  housing in areas of opportunity

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• To access a copy of this presentation or learn
  more about these issues please visit or web site
  at http//www.kirwaninstitute.org