The Civil Rights Issue of the 21st Century: EquityBased Regionalism

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The Civil Rights Issue of the 21st
CenturyEquity-Based Regionalism

• john a. powell
• Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
  Moritz College of Law
• Director, Kirwan Institute of Race and Ethnicity
• The Ohio State University
• http//www.kirwaninstitute.org/

Keynote Address, October 8th 2004 The Forum
Program of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of
Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
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Why Regionalism?

• Structural and spatial issues represent the most
  important impediments toward racial and social
  justice in the 21st century.
• If structured correctly, regionalism that is
  equity based can produce profound benefits in
  reducing inequity and promoting social justice.

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Todays Presentation

• The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
  Cities
• Suburban Exurban Sprawl/Urban Decline
• Racial Disparity, Segregation
• Economic Change
• Causes
• Structures/Institutions
• Spatial Racism (Fragmentation Sprawl)
• The Solution
• Regionalism?
• Equity-Based Regionalism
• Regionalism in a Cleveland Context
• Promoting an equity-based regional agenda in a
  undercapitalized city

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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Cleveland is not Alone

• The challenges faced by Cleveland are not
  entirely unique.
• Geography What Cleveland is facing is part of a
  larger phenomena impacting the rust belt and
  other Midwestern states.
• Population loss aging population, brain drain
  of the young and educated, central city
  population loss
• Every working age person in
• Cleveland supports 70 children and seniors
• Economic transition and job loss
• Regional fragmentation
• Tremendous segregation
• Sprawl and urban decline

The Core Rust Belt Region
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Cleveland in Comparative Context Comparison to
Regional Peers
Cleveland and Detroit lost central city
population in the 1990s. Some Midwestern cities
experienced population growth. Source Brookings
Institute, Living Cities Series
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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 outside of these major
  cities (areas in Red and Orange)

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

• 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 gained regional population
  share (due to annexation) while Cleveland and
  Cincinnati have lost population share.

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Cleveland in Comparative Context Comparison to
Regional Peers

• Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus have
  economically segregated schools. Cleveland had
  the highest concentration of economically
  disadvantaged students in the 2002-2003 school
  year of these three urban districts.
• Source Ohio Department of Education

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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Sprawl and Urban Decline in Cleveland

• Clevelands population declined by 37.3 between
  1970 and 2000.
• The Cleveland MSA lost 7.5 of its population
  during this time.
• Urban Sprawl
• The Cleveland-Akron-Lorain CMSA experienced
  population growth of less than 1 between 1982
  and 1997 but had an increase in urban land of
  37.
• Job Sprawl
• Clevelands employment has decentralized, with
  less than 15 of regional employment within 3
  miles of the Central Business District and 44 of
  employment more than ten miles from the CBD.

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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Urban Decline is not just a Cleveland
Issue

• Decline is spreading to older suburbs in the
  Cleveland region.
• Seven of Clevelands older suburban communities
  lost residents in the 1990s.
• Older suburban communities will soon face many of
  the problems associated with the central city.

The suburbs in red lost population in the 1990s.
Including East Cleveland, Brook Park, Lakewood,
Shaker Heights, Bedford, Euclid and Garfield
Heights
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Land Use Change in NE Ohio 1970-2000

• Although population growth has been almost
  stagnant, Northeast Ohio has added significant
  suburban and exurban land in the past three
  decades.

Source Exurban Change Project, Ohio State
University
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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Middle Class Population Loss

• Population losses are exasperated by the loss of
  the middle class from the central city (Including
  White and African American Middle Class
  Households).
• The City of Clevelands of middle income
  households (earning 35K to 52K) decreased by 9
  in the 1990s.
• Middle class population loss contributes to the
  growing and severe poverty and hardship in
  Cleveland.
• Cleveland was just declared to have the worst
  poverty of any major city in America (31) by the
  U.S. Census Bureau.
• Cleveland was found to have the 7th highest
  degree of urban hardship (based on unemployment,
  poverty, education and housing indicators) out of
  all major American cities.

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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Middle Class Population Loss and
Concentrated Poverty

• Areas in dark red represent the large
  concentration of poverty in the central city
  (areas with poverty rates of 30 or more).

Source Brookings Institute Living Census Data
Book
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Middle Class and Affluent Population Change

• Over 6,000 middle class White households moved
  out of Cleveland in the 1990s. The majority of
  African American middle class and affluent
  household growth occurred in the suburban portion
  of the region in the 1990s.

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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Economic Transition

• The current recession combined with economic
  restructuring has resulted in significant
  economic change in Cleveland.
• Unemployment in the Cleveland region and Cuyahoga
  County has risen by 50 since 2000.
• Cuyahoga County lost 16,200 jobs between 2000 and
  2003.
• Manufacturing job losses are the greatest share
  of job loss in Cuyahoga County.
• Manufacturing employment in Cuyahoga County
  declined by 29 between 1996 and 2002 (resulting
  in a loss of more than 40,000 manufacturing
  jobs).

Source Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Racial Disparity Segregation

• Sprawl exasperates the racial (residential)
  segregation of Cleveland and other major
  Midwestern cities.
• 77 of African Americans in the Cleveland region
  would need to relocate to desegregate the region.
  
• The Cleveland region is the seventh most racially
  segregated region in the nation.
• Residential segregation is really a proxy for
  segregation from opportunity for Clevelands
  African American (and Hispanic) residents.

Source Lewis Mumford Center, Dissimilarity Index
for all Regions.
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African American Residential Segregation in
Cleveland

• The African American population is highly
  concentrated in Cleveland.
• Areas in dark red represent census tracts that
  are more than 30 African American.

Source Brookings Institute Living Census Data
Book
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Hispanic Residential Segregation in Cleveland

• The rapidly growing Hispanic population is also
  spatially concentrated.
• Areas in dark red represent census tracts that
  are more than 30 Hispanic.

Source Brookings Institute Living Census Data
Book
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Segregation From Employment Growth

• Between 1996 and 2002 marginal job growth
  occurred in Cuyahoga County and employment
  decreased substantially in the Manufacturing
  Sector.
• In contrast, job growth has been greatest (and
  manufacturing job losses the smallest) in some of
  the surrounding suburban counties.

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The Challenge for Cleveland and other Midwestern
Cities Racial Disparity Segregation

• Segregation from Opportunity
• Segregation for Clevelands minority residents
  fuels the substantial racial disparities (and
  racial/social inequity) found in the region.
• African Americans in the Cleveland region in
  2000
• Had 60 of the median income of Whites
• Had poverty rates 300 higher than Whites
• Had 250 higher unemployment
• Lived in neighborhoods with twice as much vacant
  abandoned housing
• Had homeownership rates that were 33 lower than
  Whites

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What Causes these Challenges? Structures and
Institutions

• Equity Requires looking at Structures
• 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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What Causes these Challenges? Spatial Racism

• 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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What Causes these Challenges? The Impact of
Government Policies

• 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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What Causes these Challenges? The Impact of
Government Policies

• Contemporary Government Role
• Spatial Racism is not natural or neutral it
  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
• Housing policies
• Zoning laws prevent affordable housing
  development in many suburbs
• Housing policies concentrate subsidized housing

The rules impacting these policies are often
set at the state level, without strong state
leadership addressing these policies can be
challenging.
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Viewing Cleveland Through a Structural and Racial
LensExample Tax Base Disparity

• Urban decline and disinvestment fuel inequity in
  public services.
• These disproportionately impact central city
  residents.
• This map shows the disparity in tax base per
  household in Cuyahoga County
• The City of Cleveland has one of the lowest per
  capita base rates in the County (areas in red).

Source Ohio Metropatterns produced by Myron
Orfield and Tom Luce at Ameregis
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Viewing Cleveland Through a Structural and Racial
LensExample Public Housing

• The Low Income Housing Tax Credit is the primary
  new low income housing construction program in
  the nation.
• The placement of many LIHTC projects in Cleveland
  has further concentrated poverty and increased
  segregation. (see map)
• In 2000, LIHTC neighborhoods in the Cleveland
  region had 23 poverty rate and were 50 African
  American.

Source Brookings Institute Siting Affordable
Housing March 2004 and the Department of Housing
and Urban Development
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Viewing Cleveland Through a Structural and Racial
LensExample Local K-12 Education

• 50 Years After Brown
• Educational Segregation
• Increases
• Racial Segregation
• Overwhelmingly minority schools in Cleveland
  increased from six in 1987 to 68 in 2001.
• Economic Segregation
• The school districts marked in red indicate the
  highest concentration of low income students in
  the County (poverty of more than 60).

Source 66 of Clevelands Minorities Attend
Racially Isolated Schools Plain Dealer. May 16,
2004
Source Ohio Metropatterns produced by Myron
Orfield and Tom Luce at Ameregis
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What Causes these Challenges?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 exasperate
  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)
• Allows communities to horde opportunity

Sprawl and Fragmentation in conjunction works to
block access to opportunity for the regions poor
and most people of color.
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What Causes these Challenges?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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What Causes these Challenges?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 control that matters for equity
• Zoning
• Planning
• Taxation
• Education
• Public Services
• Transportation

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 and Inequity

• Extensive political fragmentation exists in the
  Cleveland region.
• Cleveland has been land locked by suburban
  communities since 1930. Today Cleveland is one of
  the smallest (with an area of less than 80 square
  miles) major cities in the United States
• Almost 350 local government and special districts
  exist in the Cleveland region.
• This results in 15 units of government for every
  100,000 citizens in the region.

Source U.S. Census Bureau and the East West
Gateway Council
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What is the Answer to these Problems?Regionalism

• Why is the region important?
• The spatial orientation of todays economy,
  housing market, infrastructure, and labor market
  are no longer locally focused.
• Local initiatives are not enough
• Local conditions are under the influence of
  regional forces outside of local control.
• Regional structures and market conditions impact
  neighborhoods and require new approaches.
• Resources are allocated on a jurisdictional
  (local) level.
• Opportunities are allocated on a regional level.
• Traditional decision-making is on the local
  level.
• Rational (local) Decisions Unreasonable
  (regional, jurisdictional) Structures
  Unreasonable Results/Racial Hierarchies

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What is the Answer to these Problems?Regionalism

• Regionalism
• A structural approach that emphasizes the region
  as the primary geographic unit determining the
  distribution of opportunity and resources. The
  region is the best geographic entity to base some
  level of decision-making.
• Many regions are adopting a regional approach to
  problems but with varying focus.
• May be focused on economic efficiency, government
  efficiency, infrastructure management,
  environment management
• What about equity?
• These various elements may work in conflict or
  concert with equity.
• Regionalism creates a framework where equity can
  be addressed but does not guarantee equitable
  results without an equity focus.

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Regionalism Must be Focused on Equity

• Why must regionalism be equity-based?
• Regionalism is an agnostic approach which can
  produce equitable or inequitable outcomes
  depending on the focus.
• Some infrastructure-focused regionalism can
  further disenfranchise people of color, because
  it benefits suburban communities without
  modifying the residential/educational segregation
  in the region, harming the central city.
• Example Detroit attempts to regionalize water
  without an initiative to regionalize housing,
  education or transportation.
• Regionalism MUST EXPLICITLY have equity as the
  goal to improve inequality.
• Equity-based regionalism may compliment goals of
  efficiency, economic growth, and/or environmental
  issues, but it must be primarily focused on
  producing more equitable outcomes.

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Characteristics of Equity-Based Regionalism

• Equity-Based Regionalism
• Equity-based regionalism is an approach or
  framework to address contemporary inequity (a
  regionalism approach with the explicit goal of
  producing equity).
• Structural-Institutional focus
• Contains an explicit equity focus
• Opportunity based
• Equity based regionalism looks at the spatial
  arrangement of resources and opportunity.
• Equity based regionalism is focused on key
  opportunity structures.
• Example Housing is the primary opportunity
  structure, giving access to a whole host of other
  opportunity structures.

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Equity-Based Regionalism Policies Example -
Linking Housing to Opportunity

• The need to think in terms of opportunity
• Opportunity structures are the resources and
  services that contribute to stability,
  advancement and quality of life.
• 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

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Solution Equity-Based RegionalismExample -
Linking Housing to Opportunity

• Housing is Critical for Access to Opportunities

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Opportunity Based Housing as an Equity-Based
Regional Policy

• Opportunity based housing is more than just a
  Fair Share model of Affordable 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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Resistance to Regionalism

• Potential Resistance
• There may be significant resistance from
  communities of color to adopting a regional
  approach or policies. Why?
• Regionalism without an explicit racial equity
  component can cause communities of color and
  low-income communities to be further marginalized
  in its pursuit. For example
• Gentrification A relocation, rather than an
  elimination, of racialized concentrated poverty.
• Power Dilution Exclusion of people of color from
  planning and decision-making, dilution of
  political power and social fabric.
• This has happened in several regions
• Indianapolis and Louisville government
  consolidation with diluted power for African
  Americans, but did not address residential/educati
  onal segregation.

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Resistance to Regionalism

• Federated regionalism as solution
• Regional cooperation that is transformative does
  not necessarily require regional government.
• By giving minorities a greater voice in regional
  policy, federated regionalism addresses the
  current racialized and fragmented jurisdictional
  structure.
• Requires entities in a metro region to cooperate
  on some issues, while remaining autonomous on
  others.
• You do not need regional government (or power
  dilution) to create regional structures to
  address inequity.
• Minneapolis Minneapolis remains a highly
  fragmented region, but revenue sharing among
  local governments significantly reduces tax
  disparities. However, this is only part of the
  dilemma. Racial hierarchies are still in place.
• Acknowledges racial issues that underlie
  political polarization.
• Allows minorities to remain politically cohesive.

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Cleveland has had many successes in combating
  sprawl and fragmentation and promoting equity
• Land Bank
• Downtown Revitalization
• Business Leaders Promoting A Regional Approach
• Revenue Sharing
• Transportation

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Land Bank
• Along with Atlanta, Cleveland has one of the best
  land bank programs in the nation. This is key to
  promoting infill development.
• Downtown Revitalization
• In the 1990s Cleveland was one of the most
  successful cities in the Midwest in attracting
  reinvestment back into its downtown.

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Greater Cleveland Partnership Business Leaders
  Promoting a Regional Approach
• The private sector can have a significant role in
  regionalism initiatives.
• A regional business leadership initiative can not
  only promote job growth in the region but also
  address issues related to equity.
• Chicago Spurred by labor shortages, the business
  leaders in the Chicago region have worked to
  expand the supply of workforce housing. Many
  businesses in the region have signed agreements
  to consider the location of either workforce
  housing or public transit before relocating or
  expanding facilities.

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Revenue Sharing
• No tax base sharing occurs in relation to
  property taxes but a revenue sharing structure
  exists in respect to the earnings tax. (Taxes
  paid by employees from other jurisdictions who
  pay taxes in the municipality they work).
• But for this policy to continue to be successful
  it depends on employment staying concentrated
  within the City of Cleveland.
• In addition, recent downtown infrastructure
  (stadiums etc.) is supplied by both the suburban
  communities and the City of Cleveland.
• Providing another significant revenue sharing
  structure for the region.

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Transportation Policy
• The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
  involves regional cooperation (within Cuyahoga
  County).
• Recent proposed transit investments (the Euclid
  Corridor) could expand access for the 32 of
  African American households who do not have
  automobile access.
• This could also help bring needed reinvestment
  back into the central city.

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Regionalism in a Cleveland Context An
equity-based regional agenda in a
undercapitalized city

• Cleveland (like many Midwestern and Northeastern
  Cities) is an undercapitalized city with
  significant urban decline and limited new
  investment.
• Other large undercapitalized cities include
  Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Philadelphia,
  Baltimore, Newark.
• As an undercapitalized city Cleveland requires an
  unique approach to promoting regional equity.
• Strategies that may work in hot market cities
  such as Seattle, Austin or San Francisco may not
  work in Cleveland.need for a more strategic
  approach.

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Regionalism in a Cleveland ContextCharacteristic
s of Weak Market Cities

• Characteristics
• Population decline or stagnation
• Home value depreciation or stagnation
• High poverty, disrupted social networks and
  concentrated poverty
• Vacant land and declining tax base
• Employment de-concentration and limited new
  commercial/residential investment
• Single gentrified neighborhood may exist, but
  majority of neighborhoods are in decline

Please Reference Building a New Framework for
Community Development in Weak Market Cities,
prepared by Community Development Partnership
Network (April 2003)
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Regionalism in a Cleveland ContextThreats for
Undercapitalized Cities

• Threats
• Continued disinvestment and decline
• Continued isolation of central city from
  opportunity and investment
• Existing tools for community development (place-
  based affordable housing projects) may be
  accelerating central city decline

Please Reference Building a New Framework for
Community Development in Weak Market Cities,
prepared by Community Development Partnership
Network (April 2003)
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Regionalism in a Cleveland Context Strategies
for an undercapitalized city.

• Strategies
• Strongly encourage reinvestment
• Stimulate private sector (subsidies, market
  analysis)
• Strengthen existing market
• Make area more competitive for investment
• Incentives for infill development
• Need for assembly of underutilized land for
  redevelopment
• Land bank programs
• Already underway with the successful Cleveland
  land bank program
• Housing programs targeted for increasing home
  ownership
• Programs to eliminate barriers to homeownership

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Regionalism in a Cleveland Context Strategies
for an undercapitalized city.

• Strategies (Continued)
• Target neighborhood planning and use of funds for
  redevelopment activities
• Promote access to suburban opportunity structures
  for impoverished residents
• Opportunity based regional affordable housing
  strategies
• Need to avoid over-concentration of subsidized
  housing
• Regional inclusionary zoning policies
• Build regional coalitions
• Encourage regional strategies for sharing
  resources, regional planning
• Build coalitions with community based
  organizations, local governments, business
  community, CDCs, philanthropic institutions and
  large urban institutions (Universities)

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Regionalism in a Cleveland Context Strategies
for an undercapitalized city.

• In short initiatives must
• Explicitly target promoting equity.
• Be more strategic and transformative.
• Promote infill development to counteract sprawl.
• Facilitate economic change.
• Work to overcome the barriers produced by
  fragmentation and segregation.
• Work to improve access to the regions
  opportunity structures for the disenfranchised.
• Grow the middle class in the central city.

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