Growing Together: Regional Equity And Opportunity For All

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Growing Together Regional Equity And Opportunity
For All

• Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Day
• October 30, 2006
• john powell
• Executive Director, The Kirwan Institute for the
  Study of Race and Ethnicity
• Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
  
• Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

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Todays Presentation

• Challenges facing the region
• What reduces regional competitiveness?
• How can we grow together?
• Regionalism and equity
• Strategies for regional cooperation

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What is the future of Rust Belt regions in the
21st Century ?

• Many rust belt regions are facing similar
  conditions to Northeast Ohio
• Little or no economic growth
• Urban disinvestment
• Sprawl without jobs
• These regions are experiencing dramatic economic
  change due to global economic restructuring
• Loss of manufacturing base
• Flight of creative class

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The state and the regions economic challenges

• Since 2000, Ohio has seen
• Population in poverty increase from 12 to 17
• Ohioans receiving food stamps rise 29
• Economic growth rate ranked 45th in the nation
• Unemployment rate is sixth highest in nation
• Significant job loss
• Ohio leads the nation in foreclosures and is
  second in personal bankruptcies

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Comparative regional economic health
Toledo, Cleveland and Dayton have the 17th, 18th,
and 19th lowest socio-economic health out of the
21 largest Midwestern regions.
Ranking calculated from a 8 indicator index
measuring various economic, population and
socio-economic conditions for the Dayton
metropolitan region.
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Job Growth or (-Loss) Northeast Ohio Metro Areas
2000 to 2005
Source State of Ohio, Labor Market Information
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What reduces competitiveness?

• Certain regional conditions reduce economic
  competitiveness in todays global economy
• Suburban sprawl
• Municipal fragmentation (wasted infrastructure
  and redundancy in government services)
• Racial and social inequities
• Educational disparities unprepared labor force
• Undercapitalized urban areas

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Measures of Ohios sprawl
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Sprawl without growth leads to disinvestment and
vacancy

• Ohio is developing rapidly without population
  growth
• This creates surplus housing and further
  exacerbates the vacancy problem
• In Ohios 6 largest regions, the average African
  American neighborhood has approximately 2x the
  amount of vacant housing than the average white
  neighborhood

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Fragmentation and racial inequality

• In the Midwestern region, Indianapolis and
  Columbus have relatively low levels of disparity
• Both regions have more regionalized structures
  (Indianapolis through consolidation, Columbus
  through proactive annexation)
• Research has found that fragmentation (and
  corresponding exclusionary policies) produces
  exclusion from opportunity for people of color,
  and greater inequity
• Conversely, less fragmented regions have more
  racial equity than their fragmented peers

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Economic impact of inequities

• Segregation drives education disparities,
  depressing the educational ability of many people
  in the region
• Segregation keeps much of the African American
  labor force isolated from economic opportunity,
  creating workforce shortages for employers
• Fragmentation creates redundancy in government
  services and creates inter-regional economic
  competition, when the region should be acting as
  one unit to draw people and jobs from around the
  world

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Education Place

• This map displays the distribution of school
  poverty with the the distribution of African
  American populations in Northeast Ohio

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School Poverty Academic Emergency

• School designations by poverty status in the
  2004-2005 school year for schools in Cuyahoga,
  Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery and Summit
  Counties.
• Findings based on analysis of Ohio Department of
  Education data for individual schools in the
  2004-2005 school year. Adapted from Economic
  Segregation Challenging Ohio Schools, produced
  by the Kirwan Institute (November 2005).

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Why regionalism?

• A region and all its residents share a linked
  fate
• To thrive, regions must be competitive in the
  global economy
• Regions cannot compete with wasteful and
  redundant services, and fragmented governments
• The spatial orientation of todays economy,
  housing market, infrastructure, and labor market
  is no longer local
• Local initiatives are not enough

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Regional cooperation and growth

• Regional efforts must be fair advocate for
  equitable investments in all people, in all
  communities
• Combat segregation, isolation, disconnection from
  opportunity
• Regionalism does not require regional government
  (municipal consolidation) but requires regional
  foresight and cooperation
• What is the opportunity cost of doing nothing?
  Continued sprawl, disinvestment, economic and
  educational disparities all of which make the
  region unattractive to knowledge workers and
  companies

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Regional cooperation policies and strategies for
growth and equity

• Examples of regional policies that advance equity
  and opportunity for all residents
• Regional school strategies to address segregation
  and concentrated school poverty
• Economic integration Wake Co., N.C.
• School vouchers -- Minneapolis
• Regional affordable housing strategies
• Put affordable housing in communities with good
  jobs, transportation, and services
• Regional transportation/mobility strategies
• Address spatial mismatch issues

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Regional cooperation policies and strategies for
growth and equity

• Examples of regional policies that advance equity
  and opportunity for all residents
• Improving labor force education and training
• Advancing minority entrepreneurship
• Curbing sprawl and reinvesting in existing
  neighborhoods
• Updating infrastructure and other civic resources
• Regional decision-making and tax-sharing

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Regional cooperation housing

• Where you live is more important than what you
  live in
• Housing, in particular its location, is the
  primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in
  our society
• Housing location determines the quality of
  schools children attend, the quality of public
  services, access to employment and
  transportation, health risks, access to health
  care and public safety
• For those living in high poverty neighborhoods
  these factors can significantly inhibit life
  outcomes

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Housing and Opportunity

• Housing is Critical in Determining Access to
  Opportunity

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The Cumulative Impacts of Racial and Opportunity
Segregation
Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities
Impacts on Health
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime arrest
Transportation limitations and other inequitable
public services
Job segregation
Neighborhood Segregation
Racial stigma, other psychological impacts
Impacts on community power and individual assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at
http//faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
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Regional cooperation the link between housing
and education

• The racial makeup of neighborhoods is the most
  important determinant of the racial composition
  of schools
• Low-performing urban schools drive sprawl1
• housing discrimination school segregation
• School segregation has been steadily increasing
  in the 90s2
• Half of all African American students attend a
  central city district
• Only 1 in 6 white students does

Source 1. Determinants of Residential Location
Choice How Important Are Local Public Goods in
Attracting Homeowners to Central City Locations?
Isaac Bayoh, Elena G. Irwin, Timothy Haab 2.
David Rusk. Trends in School Segregation in
Divided we Fail Coming Together through Public
School Choice. The Report of the Century
Foundation Task Force on the Common School. 2002.

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The link between economic racial segregation

• Strong correlation nearly all schools with a
  majority of students of color are high poverty
• The average White student attends a school with
  student poverty ranging from 23-30
• For the average African American student, school
  poverty ranges from 61-78

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Benefits of Economic Integration

• Increased student expectations
• Access to social capital
• Positive impact on cognitive development for ALL
• Improved academic achievement
• Schools better able to attract and retain
  teachers
• Lower drop out rates
• Higher career aspirations
• Students more likely to attend college
• Fewer incidents with police
• Students less likely to become teenage parents

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Achieving Economic Integration

• District magnet/charter schools
• Create high-quality magnet schools with academic,
  economic thresholds
• Wake County Raleigh, NC
• No more than 40 low income
• No more than 25 performing below grade level on
  state reading test
• Results
• Black students 40 to 80 grade level on
  standardized tests
• Hispanic students 79 to 91.

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Achieving Economic Integration

• Suburban schools designated vouchers/choice plan
• Provide academic support, transportation
• Connect to regional housing policies
• Minneapolis Choice is Yours
• Urban students are given priority placement in
  suburban or magnet schools of their choice
• Participants outperformed their peers, with
  scores in reading and mathematics that were
  respectively 23 and 25 percentile points higher

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Further strategies for promoting equity and
regional growth

• Specific strategies for undercapitalized cities
• Looking for the turning point
• Supporting key community assets and anchor
  institutions
• Support an economically diverse community
• Support revitalization not gentrification
• Think and act both regionally and locally
• Coalition building

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Specific Strategies for Undercapitalized Cities

• Strongly encourage reinvestment
• Stimulate private sector (subsidies, market
  analysis)
• Make area more competitive for investment
• Incentives for infill development
• Process underutilized land for redevelopment
• Land bank programs
• Housing programs targeted for increasing home
  ownership
• 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

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Looking for the Turning Point

• The Turning Point
• Instead of focusing on the tipping point, we need
  to better define what neighborhoods require to
  reach the turning point
• What convergence of positive actions will
  accelerate the neighborhoods revitalization?
• Pushing development beyond the turning point
  threshold requires an intervention strategy to
  positively transform the neighborhoods physical,
  social, economic, and political environment

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Supporting Key Community Assets and Anchor
Institutions

• Support and strengthen neighborhood anchor
  institutions
• Anchor institutions are significant community or
  regional institutions that serve a specific
  community or regional need and become magnets for
  other opportunities
• Areas near these institutions become dense
  clusters of opportunity conversely, losing these
  institutions can destabilize multiple opportunity
  structures

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Think and act both regionally and locally

• Building a community of opportunity requires
  community leaders and advocates
• It also requires both regional and local action
• Many of the spatial and institutional trends
  robbing communities of opportunity require
  regional solutions
• Think about what initiatives will open access to
  regional opportunities and bring opportunity back
  to inner city communities

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Coalition Building

• To pursue regional solutions, it is critical that
  racially diverse, regional coalitions are formed
• Regional solutions have been most successful
  stable when coalitions comprised of multiple
  entities are formed
• Oregon (Coalition for a Livable Future-60
  businesses and organizations)
• Chicago (MAC, Metropolis 2020)
• Consider groups such as community based
  organizations, social justice groups, local
  governments, the business community, CDCs,
  philanthropic institutions and large urban
  institutions (e.g. Universities)

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Think about the Macro-Region

• Globalization is reshaping conditions throughout
  the rust belts traditional urban areas
• Reshaping society and the economy
• There is no organized national response to this
  transition
• Rust belt regions need to start thinking about
  working together to create a national response to
  this macro-regional problem
• Start talking to other regions, lobbying the
  federal government
• How do we make rust belt regions economically
  healthy, globally competitive, sustainable and
  more equitable?

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Linked fatestransformative change

• Our fates are linked, yet our fates have been
  socially constructed as disconnected (especially
  through the categories of class, race, gender,
  etc.)
• We need socially constructed bridges to
  transform our society
• Conceive of an individual as connected
  toinstead of isolated fromthy neighbor
• Be advocates for Communities of Opportunity as
  transformative change
• Transformative An intervention that works to
  permanently transform structural arrangements
  which produce inequity and disparity

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